Summer Series #1-Walking Through the Steps of a New Home Build

Where to Start?
After recently wrapping up a large New Build project, we thought it would be interesting for readers to see a step-by-step process of how to plan your own new home build project! Over the summer we will be featuring articles discussing the steps of completing this daunting task. Starting any remodeling project is intimidating on its own, but the process of starting a new home build is even more overwhelming because of all the intricacies and moving parts. It’s exciting to look forward to building your own dream home that has everything you need and could imagine it to be, but there are many moving components that need to be discussed before breaking ground even begins.

The Design
To start, the first step is to fully understand the parameters of your project, and your needs versus your wants. This is the phase where you should be thinking about the big picture components that will be governing this project, such as:

• Budget
• Size
• Actual Needs
• Selections
• Permits

It is important for you to fully understand your budget when in the starting stages of the planning process, because when you are creating the comprehensive design layout plan for your dream home, you must make sure your budget aligns with your overall wish list . Once you have your budget in mind, it is vital to then think about the overall size you want your house to be and the key aspects that you need for your house and how that can fit into your budget selected:

• Do you envision an open-concept kitchen, or are you more drawn to separate spaces?
• How many bedrooms or bathrooms will you need?
• Are there certain house features that you know are must-haves for your home? Such as
  an elevator, walk in closets, or a home gym space.

While thinking about the overall size of your house, and if the features you need to have can fit within it, it is vital to remember that you should not exceed your budget for your wants, and instead you must focus more so on building a home that focuses on your overall essential daily needs. Everyone would probably agree that it would be amazing to have everything on their dream wish list checked off, but those extra purchases truly add up in the end. There is always time to make future updates to fulfill your wants for your house that you logistically can’t afford right now such as adding:

• Exterior Living Space: An outdoor shower, a pool addition, heated driveway, a screened
  in porch or a patio area
• Specialty Rooms: Home theater, home gym, finished basement or attic, a dog washing
  station
• Splurge Items: Generators and elevators

Even though some of these things may be considered needs to you, it’s important to think about long range planning if you choose to not fully splurge on all these upgrades of what you may want to do in the future and can plan for them. During the building process, you can always complete the structural qualities of potential future renovations so that the space is prepared to have and complete the updates further down the line. For example, if you know you are going to
want to have a finished basement or install a generator, you can prep for the future by making sure there is electrical and plumbing access in the basement, or have an electrical panel set up for future generator power so you won’t have to worry about the step of major rewiring later on. Other possibilities for future renovations could include designing your bathrooms with awareness of leaving space for installing future handicap aids or ramps, completing the engineering for an elevator shaft left undeveloped, as well as prepping electrical and plumbing connections to a garage in case of a full-time space conversion.
Now that we have covered the 1st steps of the design process which includes the basics of budgeting, determining overall house size, and understanding actual design needs vs wants, the following step is discussing the process of selections and permits in the next summer series article! If you are thinking about starting a new build or remodeling project, consider including Baine Contracting, Inc. as one of your contractor choices to think about.

By Shannon Johnstone at Baine Contracting, Inc.