Building a custom home is a dream that most homeowners have at some point in their lives. But very few actually get to create a home that they help design and construct.
It’s not uncommon for people to buy and live in a few regular homes in their lifetime. But building your dream home will likely happen only once. It means few of those who set out on the design process of building a custom home realize how many different aspects and tasks are part of the whole process.
The Basic Steps of Building a Custom Home
From deciding on the energy efficiency of your building materials to choosing the wood grain on the staircase, there are far too many individual considerations in building a custom home to list here.
But by starting with an understanding of the main stages, you’ll be better prepared to handle all the details.
- Before You Get into the Design Stages – Before you begin, you need to set a budget and timeframe for the project. Perhaps most importantly, you’ll need to find the right property. The location, surroundings, amenities, and outdoor space around your home are just as important as the living spaces.
- Design the Home – You’ve probably been ‘designing’ your home in your head for a long time. Just in case not, it begins by deciding on the basic size and type of home you want. Here are a few other considerations.
- – What type of floor plan do you want, including numbers of rooms, floors and structural/special features, like fireplaces?
- – What aspects of your lifestyle can the home cater to?
- – What are your design and style preferences?
- Find the Right People – You’ll need a team of at least two. First, you must find a good residential architect to design the house and you need a reliable contractor or project manager to construct it. But you may want more members of the team, including the following.
- – Landscape architect and landscaper
- – Interior designer and interior decorator
- – Project manager – this could be you, but be prepared to look after details like insurance, building permits, payments, and building inspections.
If you liked this post, check out our recent article on modern architecture.