6 Great Tips for Designing a Home

Designing your very own custom home is such an exciting process. You get to sit down and consider every little feature you could think of inside and outside of that house and you get to make decisions to cater to what you need and want in your new home. Designing a home can be stressful because there are so many decisions to make but if you have a good builder working with you and you do your research, then you should be able to get through the planning process in one piece. Before you know it you will be moved into your new home, enjoying all of the choices that you made that went into the building process.

Start With A Plan

There are a lot of builders who will build you a home based off of fresh blueprints that either you provide or you have them create. This can slow down the process a lot as creating new plans can take a whole lot of time. Your best bet is to sit down with a builder who has some different blueprint plans to choose from. You can pick the design you like the most and then you can design from there. A lot of plans are changeable and you can expand walls, move doors and switch a lot of features when designing a home.

Consider The Floor Plan

Before you get into any of the other details inside of your home the first thing you will want to take a closer look at when designing a home is the floor plan. The floor plan of a home is very important because this is really what creates the flow inside of your home. There are so many different options you can come up with and really the floor plan should be designed around your needs. Some people desire a laundry room on the first floor, especially if they are older and are not capable of taking laundry up and down stairs. Other people like their laundry room to be upstairs near the bedrooms. Many people prefer a ranch, one story floor plan because it removes the need to walk up and down stairs. Also, you can arrange bedrooms how you would like. If you have children you may want the master bedroom separate from the other bedrooms where the children will be residing so you get more privacy. Really, the options are endless when you are designing a home and you want to arrange the floor plan in a way that suits you and you family. You may want to extend the entryway of your home to include a mudroom for coats and shoes or you may want a large foyer so that can be your main entry point.

Electrical Outlets And Switches

This might not be something you would normally think about but when you are designing a home you will want to think about where you want the electrical outlets and switches placed. If you move into an existing home you a lot of times have to arrange furniture and other items based on where outlets and switches already exist. When you are designing a home you can sometimes think about your arrangements ahead of time and base your electrical outlet and switch locations off of that. This will remove your need for having to run extension cords throughout a room in order to plug something in and you won’t be covering up switches with furniture.

Width Of The Hallways

Most builders will have a standard hallway width that they design at. You may want to extend the hallways though so they are a bit wider. Just a couple of inches really can make quite the difference. Consider the look of the hallways and also consider functionality. It is going to be a lot easier to move furniture or other large items around in the house if your hallways are nice and wide. You do not have to widen everything. If you have a main hallway towards the front foyer of your home you may want to just widen that one so you can create a nice photo wall or entry point in your home.

Plumbing

When designing a home you will want to look into the inner components of the home as well as the visual aspect of things. You can talk to your builder about plumbing but you may need to sit down with the actual plumber doing the installation. You will want to find out what type of pipe they are installing. Copper pipe lasts a lot longer than plastic PVC pipe and it is also safer. Often when you are designing a home you can choose what pipes you want installed. The price is different for each type so expect some financial consideration when planning this part. Other plumbing aspects to consider are the size of your hot water tank, the efficiency of your plumbing and placement of drains, sinks, etc. You will also get to choose the fixtures and sinks in the home.

Outside

Don’t forget about the things that go into constructing the outside of your home when designing a home. You will want to think about where you want exterior water spickets to go, how many outdoor outlets do you need installed, what color siding and shutters you want, what style of windows do you want to choose and what style and type of roof. Roofing material can be a big cost depending on the material, you can use the roofing calculator to estimate prices. These are all things that help protect your home from harsh weather conditions so make sure you pick high quality materials.

Designing a home is such a fun experience. It is a lot of work but when it is all said and done you will be sitting back and relaxing in a home that you helped design. Everything will be located exactly where you want it and everything will look exactly how you wanted it to. Always find a builder that is pleasant and easy to deal with and the process will be a breeze.

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