The opportunity to build your own home, designed exactly to your specifications and wishes is a huge ambition and one that many people could only dream of. There are so many challenges that can prevent it from becoming a reality. For starters, while you might be able to find an appropriate plot of land for sale in your budget, and you might be able to draw up all of your plans, actually bringing it all to fruition is a whole different story. If you get it wrong – and many would-be home builders do get it wrong – you could end up with an expensive and unsaleable nightmare on your hands rather than your dream home.
Here, we look at some of the mistakes that you need to avoid in order to make sure your new home is a dream and not a nightmare. Read on to find out more.
Don’t forget to check out potential contractors
It is important that you do your research with construction companies and contractors before you start the design and building process. It is indeed unfortunate, but there are a lot of cowboys out there who are going to charge you too much, do a lousy job, or just generally cause problems. The chances of this happening can never be completely eliminated but by doing your homework, reviewing references and reviews, or even better, having personal recommendations from friends and family members who have constructed their own homes in the past, you can reduce the odds and get quality companies such as Mr flow plumbing services to do the work.
Not thinking about the finer details
Once you are designing your dream house, it is easy to get carried away thinking about how many rooms you will have, what kind of tiles you are going to use to make the bathroom look great, and how you are going to plan your home to maximize your family’s enjoyment of the property. But you should not let that stuff overwhelm you to the extent that you neglect the little things like planning where to place power sockets – something that seems so trivial but can have a big effect on your everyday life.
Not making the best use of space
One of the best things about designing a home of your own is that you will have full control over your home layout. A lot of people don’t know how to use this power, unfortunately, and they end up using the room they have very wastefully.
If you want your home to be suitable for the needs of your family, you need to think about everything you do at home, from exercise to washing, and, in particular, you need to think about storage space. You will be able to build a home by doing this, where each room is as efficient as possible, and there is no need for it to get cramped because every room has concealed storage space. One of the most important places to have storage is the kitchen-think about where you are going to store plates and cutlery and appliances. Every room has the potential to have storage – make sure you include it.
Not taking future plans into account
The mistake of not preparing for their futures is often made by many people who build their own houses. At the moment they may be single or a married couple and build a house in accordance with their present needs. However, a few years down the line, they discover that they don’t have enough space or that their home is just not ideal for family life when they plan to have kids, or maybe they don’t take their eventual old age into account and build a home that will be hard to manage with an older body, and they have to make the heart-breaking decision to sell their dream home. Make sure that you think about the future when planning your house and adapt your plans as necessary.
Consider the lighting
Very few people want to live in gloomy and dark houses, but that’s exactly what could happen if you don’t think about lighting when you are building a new house.
At the very least, windows in every room of your home should be included in your plans, no matter how large or tiny, and those windows should be as big as possible. To ensure that you don’t have to live in darkness, doors should have glass to allow as much natural light in as possible, and every room should have plenty of light fittings and sockets to plug in table lamps, etc.
Adding rooms that won’t add value
It might sound awesome to build a cinema room, games room, or library, and it will certainly impress your visitors, but if you are unlikely to use those rooms very much, it is a waste of space, and more importantly, a waste of money. It can also affect the future saleability of your home, especially if you have compromised on more useful space for it. Sit down and think about the sort of rooms that will add value to your life and your home while you are in the planning process. Perhaps an additional bathroom would do better for you than a library or, if you always have visitors, a spare bedroom would be more useful than a games room. Even if it is not as interesting as some other choices, figure out what will get the most use and do that.
Not putting the rooms in the right places
If you are building a home of your own, you’re probably doing it to achieve the house of your dreams, a house you will always feel happy in. If you do not give any thought to the location of your bedroom, you will not accomplish that goal.
In an ideal world, your bedroom should be located in a position as far away as possible from any nearby roads, so that when you try to relax, you will not be bothered by traffic noise. You can also aim to place it at the far end of the house, away from the bathroom and other bedrooms, so that the noise of your family members or visitors won’t bother you. It would be nice to place it in an area where there is also a lovely view, although not quite as significant.