Building your own home can be an intensely rewarding and fulfilling experience if the end result matches your fantasies. Nothing quite compares to the satisfying experience of seeing your vision for your dream home come to life at the hands of experienced architects and builders. However, things don’t always go as planned, which is why it’s important to be aware of some of the mistakes that trip up people time and time again when it comes to building their dream homes. Below are five errors to look out for.
1. Relying on unreliable sources
When you tell people that you’re building your own home, many will overwhelm you with all their advice and experiences. This comes from a good place, but the views of your family and friends are often subjective and won’t necessarily apply to you. You’ll find plenty of free advice on the internet too, in the form of bloggers. Generally, you should take any advice you read or hear from other people with a grain of salt, unless you can verify their knowledge of this subject is authentic and that they have no ulterior motives that could influence their advice. This is why it’s typically best to speak with a home development specialist, such as a person from Coral Homes.
2. Going in without a plan
No matter how clear the ideas in your head are, it’s crucial that you have a detailed architectural plan of your new home before the construction begins. Without this, there is too much room for error and a high risk that the final result will not match your vision, which will result in dissatisfaction, extra costs, or both. There are many sources available from which you can buy fantastic house plans, or you can hire an architect to work with you on turning your vision into a professional sketch.
3. Being your own general contractor
It’s easy to persuade yourself that a general contractor is unnecessary, however, this is not the case at all. Hiring a general contractor, while an extra cost, will likely save you other costs and time. For example, builders, plumbers, and electricians tend to charge less for projects that involve a general contractor, and it’s also probable that they’ll be more reliable and efficient under the trained management of this person.
4. Failing to research
For everyone involved in creating your dream home, you need to do some reference checking. The worst case scenario is that you’ll discover a worker has a negative track record and have to find someone to replace them. Best case: you hear only positive things and can sleep easy knowing you’ve got quality people working on your house.
5. Having a closed mind
Your initial ideas shouldn’t always be the ones you go with. Even if you have a clear vision of your dream home, keep your mind open and seek inspiration for even better ideas. Home magazines, blogs, and sites like Pinterest are full of creative ideas from other people who have experience in home building, a strong imagination, or both… you never know what amazing concepts you’ll discover if you let yourself be inspired by the dreams of other people.
If you avoid the common mistakes and follow the advice above, you’ll increase your chances of your building experience being a successful one and ending up with the home you’ve been dreaming about!
