Designing Your Dream Home with a Home Design Build

Designing and building your home is an exciting and fulfilling venture, however, if it is not done properly it can be unnecessarily stressful and costly. A successful home design build – transferred from your dream into a reality – is one that is well-planned and thought-through. Building a home from scratch is by no means a simple job, and will take much collaboration with other professionals as well as time and money. However, the benefits of a highly personalized and comfortable home cannot be measured, and are life-long.

The Home Design Process

1. Find Your Architect

   It is ideal to choose your architect before you decide on a lot for your home. The reason for this is that the architect will be able to determine how suitable the land is for building, how accessible it is by road and what utilities are available. They will also be able to make you aware of city rules and regulations that may restrict what type of building can be constructed on the land. The architect will then be able to make the best decisions for your house that will take full advantage of factors such as views, sunlight, shade and trees.

2. Work Out Your Budget

   It is vital that you give your architect an idea of how much you are able and willing to spend on your home design build. This will determine to your architect the parameters of the prospective house.

3. Begin the Design Process

   Collecting images of rooms and homes you like and dislike will help give your architect a good sense of what it is you are wanting. You will also need to outline key details about your dream home, such as the number of storeys it will have, the number of rooms you will need, etc. It is important to also consider whether you have specific needs, for example, if you are in retirement you will not want to climb up three flights of stairs to get to your bedroom.

4. Get Bids from Builders

   Once the architect has drawn up the blueprints for your home, you need to approach at least three building companies to get quotes and select the best option for you. It is a good idea to ask for recommendations from your architect, real estate professionals or from friends who have used building companies recently.

5. Get References

   Once your choice has been narrowed down to one or two building companies, ask them for references or talk to previous clients. Ensure that the contract is detailed and covers every aspect of the building process.

Tips for Building a Custom Home

• Know what you want before anything else. Having a sense of the kind of house you want – for example, the number of rooms – is important, although some of those details may change along the way.
• Put time into the planning. Once the actual building process begins, making changes can become expensive, whereas if you spend time beforehand on the plan you are less likely to change your mind.

Make sure you get everything down in writing. The contract should be as specific and detailed as possible, including the prices of everything from the building materials to the cost of the bath, so that nothing is left open to interpretation.