Owning a home of your own is something we all dream of. Creating an abode that reflects your personality can be truly satisfying. Having a home which reflects your dream and unique personality can come only when you build a custom home. A ready to move house will be generic, having characteristics that you might not identify or relate with. It would be the imagination of the builder/ developer . But when you build a custom house, you can create something that’s particularly you. From the floor plan to the overall layout to the exterior designs, you can customize everything.
However, it is not a cakewalk to customize the entire house. It requires thoughtful preparation, meticulous planning and a proper understanding of how houses need to be built and a lot more. From finding the right location, purchasing the land that has no dues/disputes, finances, legalities, insurance, etc. there is a plethora of things that need to be taken care of before you can move towards fulfilling your dream. In this article, we will provide you with the custom home design checklist and custom home building guide. These will help you design your dream home.
Understand the Custom Home Building Process Thoroughly
The first step towards your dream house is creating a custom home design checklist, which should include every step and details about what you need to do to get the process started and conclude. Here’s how you can go about it:
- Select the right location – the land topography, natural features, the right slopes, registered covenants, accessibility etc.
- Build a team – the right team of people who would help you get through this process, including designer, engineers and contractor, etc.
- Finance – detail out your finance, available funds and future monthly mortgage.
- Check zoning regulations, permitted built areas and if it aligns with your needs.
- Neighborhood’s attributes – Check for schools, hospitals and accessibility to other important facilities.
The best way to stay ahead of the curve when planning a custom house is to detail out your custom home design checklist as much as possible. This list should be a reflection of your vision, style, preferences, budgetary details, etc. Once your checklist is thorough, you can move forward.
Download: 17-Point Custom Home Design Checklist
Create the Floor Plan
After getting the nitty-gritty done, you can start with charting out the floor plan, selecting the kind of aesthetics you would want in your home, creating the right look and feel inside that will reflect your personality and, finally, ensuring that all of this is done in the right way.
The floor plan must include:
The overall size and layout of the entire house, with individual elements designed to perfection. These may include:
- Bedrooms – number of bedrooms you desire including guest rooms.
- Kitchen – Think of the overall kitchen layout, how you will place the appliances and whether it will be island or breakfast nook or both.
- Bathrooms – Again, decide on the number of bathrooms you need for daily convenience (the number of full and half bathrooms).
- Balcony – Which part of your home will have balconies (whether you want a bedroom balcony for reading a book with a cup of coffee or one in the living room to host a barbeque or party).
- Open spaces – A great house design is not just about living spaces, but also about right number of open spaces and where they feature in the layout.
- Flex spaces – Incorporating a flexible space in your home not only provides a refreshing change of pace, but it also adapts to your evolving needs over time, ensuring your living environment remains versatile and future-ready.
Sort Out Interiors and Aesthetics
You must also consider how and where the sunlight will enter the house, wind direction, creating enough flow of air, etc. Storage space is also something you must consider.
The aesthetic elements may cover the interiors, color scheme, what kind of flooring you would like, ceiling design, lights and other decorative items, baseboards, built-in elements, if there can be a fireplace, and other custom elements.
- Color – Choose a palette that reflects your personality and the kind of mood you wish to create in your home.
- Flooring – Whether it will be hardwood or carpet, flooring is again a very important aspect for creating a comfortable and aesthetic living space.
- The lights – Lights are not just essential for their obvious function (to provide enough light at night) but they also set the right mood. From yellow dim mood lamps to bright LEDs, there are options aplenty.
Check Construction Details
Once all the details are on paper, you can get down to constructing the house. This is the business end of the entire process and you must take absolute care when the construction phase is on.
A few things you must pay special attention to can include framing and structure (the absolute basic-building blocks of any building), footing and slab pouring, electrical layouts, plumbing, fire rating, and HVACs. Do ensure that you regularly check on these elements. Be very vigilant as these aspects will decide how good your house is built.
The other minute details that you can take care of once the skeleton of the house is ready include, drywall, flooring, cabinets and other storing spaces, paints, trims, switches, circuits, appliance spaces, kitchen design, special fittings, etc.
If you really want to amp up the things, you can also opt for landscaping and exterior designing. You can either hire a landscape architect or simply do it yourself. This may include your garden, driveway, pool, designated space of patio, and other exterior amenities.
Final Checks Before Moving In
Your custom home design is complete, you have done all the hard work, paid enough attention to all the finer details and ensured that everything is in place. Now is the time to move in. Of course, before you can settle down in your newly built home, you will need to do a thorough clean-up of all corners, final fix up all the utilities, check on the insurance and other legalities, inspect every room, test the fixtures, and raise and address concerns, if any.
All these things may take some time and effort, but it is all worth it. Building a custom home from scratch, a house that is absolutely you from start to finish, is not everyone is able to achieve. If you have been able to get to this point, you are the lucky one. Enjoy the process, cherish the memories you would create while building this house and imagine a lifetime of peace and satisfaction living in this house will give you.