Building a new home can be an exhilarating experience. If you’ve never done it before, it can be challenging—especially if you don’t know about some of the potential pitfalls. Don’t worry! Here’s a look at the 4 biggest home building mistakes you can easily avoid.
1. Setting an Unrealistic Budget
Setting an unrealistic budget for the construction of your new home is a big mistake. If you set your budget too high, you can put undue stress on yourself. Having a beautiful home that you can’t afford to decorate isn’t a satisfying experience. Having payments that keep you from enjoying other things in life isn’t much fun.
On the other hand, if you set an unrealistically low budget, you probably won’t end up with the home you really want. Cutting corners or doing without features that are really important to you just to meet the budget doesn’t make sense. If you’re not happy with your home, you’ll probably end up making changes to it down the road—and it will actually cost you more to do it later.
One other budget mistake is to make your budget too rigid. Chances are very good that you’ll want to make some changes or additions to the plan that will make your home even more enjoyable. If you don’t have any “wiggle room” in your budget, you won’t be able to make those changes. Keep in mind: Your budget is a tool—not the end goal. Here’s a helpful article that goes into more detail about how to arrive at a realistic budget.
2. Choosing a Floor Plan That Doesn’t Fit Your Lifestyle
It’s really important that your new home is designed and built to match your lifestyle and your personality. Sure, you want your home to look great, but you also want it to be comfortable and convenient for the way you live. Aesthetics are important, but it’s a mistake to focus exclusively on appearances at the expense of functionality. Here’s a helpful post that talks about identifying your “custom home personality” before you start to build.
One of the most important places for focusing on your lifestyle is the design of your kitchen. Families spend so much time in the kitchen area that you want to be sure this space is well planned. That requires thinking about more than just the color or design of the cabinets and the countertops. You’ll want to carefully think through how you use your kitchen and design the space for maximum enjoyment and convenience. People who love gourmet cooking will have different needs than people who lean more toward casual entertaining. Here’s a helpful article that looks at 6 things to consider when designing your Poconos kitchen. You can find more in-depth information, when you download our free Design the Perfect Kitchen eBook.
3. Overlooking Your Storage Needs
Another big (and common) mistake is failing to plan for storage needs. Many homeowners understandably focus on how their furniture and appliances will fit into their new home. But we all own a lot of “stuff” that doesn’t get used every day. That “stuff” has to go somewhere. By planning ahead and building in adequate storage, you’ll be able to keep your new home uncluttered. And one of the benefits of designing that space up front is that it’s much cheaper to do it in the beginning than it is to come back in and try to create that kind of space. Here are some great ideas for creating extra storage in your home.
4. Selecting the Wrong Builder
Perhaps the biggest mistake people make is choosing the wrong builder. You can have the perfect location and an outstanding design, but unless you have the right builder you can be in for a bumpy ride. You will spend a lot of time with your builder both before and during the construction process. You’ll want to select a builder that listens to you and understands what you want. And you’ll also want to choses a builder with the experience and expertise to create the kind of home you’re after.
Take your time and talk to a few builders before making your choice. What should you talk about? Here’s an article that covers some of the most important questions to ask a prospective builder before you make your choice.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
