For many people, building a custom home in the Poconos is a dream come true. After all, the views are spectacular andthere’s an abundance of things to do (Download our free Guide to Area Activities for ideas on fun family activities, great regional dining options and interesting attractions in the Poconos).

If you’ve been considering building a custom home in the Poconos, you probably have a lot of questions—particularly if this is the first time you’ve been through the custom homebuilding process.

There are a lot of details to think about when you’re building a new home. And when that home is a custom home, you have even more choices.

There is a certain appeal to building a custom home. It’s exciting to look at images of homes online or on television and fantasize about what it would be like to build a home designed to your specifications.

If you look at television or magazine ads, there seems to be a lot of discussion about planning for retirement these days. Most of the talk, however, is (understandably) focused on the financial side of the consideration. There is, however, more to the picture when you look down the road to retirement. If you’re starting to think about retirement, one of the big questions you’ll be faced with is where you should live.

All jokes about in-laws and outlaws aside, there really is something called an in-law apartment (or sometimes a mother-in-law apartment) and it just might be something you should consider for your new home in the Poconos.An in-law apartment is essentially a self-contained living space within a home that’s occupied by a family.

The Poconos Mountains are a favorite vacation destination for a lot of families in the New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania area. It’s not surprising that a significant number of people own vacation homes in the area.  Aside from the beauty of the region, there are so many activities to choose from (Take a look at our free A Guide to Area Activites download to see what I mean).

There’s a good chance that you’ve had a less-than-satisfying shopping experience at one of the “big box” home improvement stores that are so prevalent today.

Building a custom home in the Poconos is a bit different than buying an existing home or even having a standard tract home built. When purchasing homes like those, what you see is what you get. You can always repaint the interior of an existing home. And you may have some very limited options for finishes in a new home. But you’re really not involved in the process of designing and building the home.

When you’re considering building a custom home in the Poconos, one of the big design/layout questions you’ll face is where to put the bedrooms.  Does it make sense to put them on the first level or on the second floor?