The first part of purchasing your custom-built dream home is figuring out what that home looks like. There are lots of ways to start seeing your dream home take shape. You might start completely from scratch and hire an architect to design your home. You could browse through house plan books or web sites and find your dream home there. Another option is to start with a builder’s model home and make adjustments to suit your needs. Over the next few days, I’m going to cover the different avenues that are available and hopefully give a little insight into each one.
Hiring an architect is one way to be certain that you get exactly what you want in your new house. You’ll be able to start completely from scratch and specify every detail in the house. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Be careful what you wish for, though. The design process takes more work than you think.
We hired an architect for our home. And we’re glad that we did. However, don’t think that you’ll have a couple of meetings and then the architect will do all the work. You have to be prepared to do your share, too. Often the architect will give you a draft and then you’ll take it home and start examining it. It amazed me how long my husband and I could debate about the placement of one door. Don’t be discouraged if there are lots of revisions needed before you get to your dream home. Each time you make an adjustment, you’ll have narrowed down one more aspect of your house to match your vision.
When you first meet with your architect, be ready to spend a little time with him. Here are a few things you may want to do at your first appointment.
1. Bring pictures of things you like with you. We took pictures of houses that we liked from around our neighborhood and model homes that we visited.
2. Talk about things that you hate. This could be just as important as the things you like. I’ve always hated ultra-modern looking things, so I made certain that we told him that, too.
3. Talk about how you live in your home now and what changes are coming up the road. In my case, my husband and I want to start a family in the next year or so. So, although a small house suits us now, we wanted our dream home to have a couple of extra rooms to grow into.
4. Be honest about who you are. This is not the meeting where you want to start imagining that your lifestyle is different than it really is. My husband and I watch a lot of television. I know, in some circles, that isn’t always easy to admit. But if that’s how you and your family spend your evenings, don’t try to pretend that you do something else. Go ahead and plan a spot for that TV.
Dreaming about your custom-built home is a lot of fun. Seeing it come to life is even more fun
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1 comment:
your blog is very nice and I really like the title.
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