We are excited to share ten important things about building your own custom home with Minnock Real Estate. While most of these tips are centered around customizing and building your custom dream home, they can also be applied if you are building a semi-custom home or remodeling your existing home. So grab a cup of coffee and get comfy!
1. The Building Process. There are a lot of things you need to consider before you take on building a house. The first one being the massive time commitment that building is. If you are building a custom home in Pittsburgh it is easily – at least – a part time job (some weeks full time!). It will be a time consuming project, but it will be worth it in the end. The early stages of designing the home aren’t quite as busy, but once the house is framed and construction is moving, it can get a little hectic. If you are in a situation where you are already overwhelmed with work and kids and life commitments, it might not be the best time to build. You’ll want to spend a lot of time at the house making sure things are getting done correctly so factor that into your decision. Which leads me to my next warning. Building is hard on your finances. Money flies when you are building so there is financial stress. If you are like most people you’ve worked incredibly hard and saved money for years to be able to build a home. It can also be stressful, especially if you’re designing with a partner, when you don’t agree. We are not telling you these things to scare you. We just think knowing what you are getting into and possibly talking to your partner about how you will deal with these issues when they come up is a good thing! Building a custom home in the Pittsburgh area comes with a lot of moving parts and that’s why we wanted to create this list.
2. Choosing the right team. We really can’t stress this enough. Especially, if you have no previous experience building. This is the single most important decision you will make because you will be working so closely with your builder/architect throughout the process and your overall building experience is largely determined by your relationship with them. Do your homework before you make your decision. Interview and meet with lots of builders and ask for referrals. It’s also smart to ask for names and numbers of the last three people they worked for to get an accurate view of how people felt about their building experience with that builder. Look for clues that tell you what they will be like to work with. Make sure they can understand your vision for the house and would work hard to make that happen. Take your time making the decision about who to hire and do your homework! We here at Minnock Custom Homes pride ourselves in designing the best custom homes in Pittsburgh, so we’d love to talk with you on starting the process.
3. A designer may be able to help. Whether you are remodeling your existing home or building a custom home like we provide don’t rule out hiring a designer. Why spend money on a designer when you could do it yourself? While you may have known the look, style and feel you are going for, there are so many decisions you will have to make on a daily basis. Designers speak the language of building. (There is a building language that will be so foreign to you!) Your builder can help with a lot of decisions, but he isn’t looking at things from a design perspective. He’s thinking about logistics, not how a decision will affect the style of your home. A lot of designers charge hourly so if you’re worried about the expense you can just use them when needed. Plus if you hire the right designer, he/she can actually end up saving you money because they know how to cut costs to help you get the look you want, keep your project moving, our advice is if you’re going to spend the money to build or remodel, do it right and hire a designer. Minnock Custom homes in Pittsburgh provide both the design and the building services.
4. Plan your cabinet and furniture layout during the design phase. Whether you buy existing plans or create your own, it’s important to think about how the furniture layout will work. Where will your couch and chairs go? Beds? Is there really enough room to fit the furniture you want? Think about how you will live in the space. Decide how your cabinets will be laid out before framing is started so you won’t have to end up moving walls. This is also where hiring a designer is so smart! A designer will go over those things with you from the beginning so you can adjust your floor plan accordingly.
5. No such thing as too much planning. Try to have as many details in place as possible before you start building. Once things start moving it is a whirlwind of decisions being thrown at you daily. Time is money when you are building a house and it is extremely stressful to have to slow things down because you just can’t decide what tile you want in the guests’ bathroom. Pick out as much as you can before you start! While working on our plans also start planning how you want each space to come together early on. Learned how to be decisive quickly because you just don’t have time not to be when you are building a house.
6. Try not to worry too much. It’s important to remember that things always look worse before they get better. This is an obvious statement, but a lot of times you will be so worried about how something looks and if you would have just waited a few weeks you will save yourself a lot of stress because everything looks better when it’s completed. Try to not panic and assume the worst during the process and wait until you see the “after.” A lot of things have a way of working out just fine. If you see the after and still hate it, then you can panic. 😉
7. Mistakes will happen. While some things do work out, just know that there are going to be a lot of mistakes made. There just are! There is no way to build a perfect house with everything going smoothly during the building process. Building a house involves a lot of people and a lot of changing and moving parts. Know that you aren’t going to get everything exactly how you want it. Some things will be a miss and you’ll have to just move on. That being said, other things will unexpectedly turn out a lot better than planned! Remember to keep it all in perspective. Once you are removed from the building process, living in the house and moving on with life, it’s all just a drop in the bucket.
8. Communicate everything and don’t assume anything. While there is no way to avoid mistakes, you can minimize them by being specific and making it very clear what your expectations are. SO many mistakes happen simply because of miscommunication. The more specific you can be describing how you want something to look (show or even draw a picture if needed) the smoother things would go. Don’t assume. Explain it and show a picture and go over it again and then make sure you are at the new house often to catch mistakes early on so they can be fixed without too much time or money wasted. Good communication is key when building or remodeling!
9. Be kind to everyone involved in your building process. Framers, cement crew, drywall installers, electricians, painters, carpenters, etc. You get to know them so make them feel welcomed and appreciated. You will work with these people closely and the better your relationship with them is, the smoother the building process will go. Like we’ve said before, building can be stressful and it’s important to keep your cool and remember that the people working on your house are doing their best too. Minnock is proud to feature the best team of builders, designers and engineers in the Pittsburgh area.
10. Know when to listen and when to trust yourself. There will be so many things during your building process that you don’t know and understand and that’s when it’s time to listen to the people you trust. Your architect, contractor and (if you’ve hired one) your designer. That being said,its important to know when to trust your gut. That little voice inside of you who knows what you really want but might be afraid to say it because you’re intimidated, unsure or so overwhelmed with everything going on around you. There will be times people will have an opinion about something and it just won’t feel right to you. Remember that at the end of the day it is YOU who will be waking up in this house each day. YOU who will actually live with all of the decisions made. If your gut is telling you to go this way instead of that.. trust it!
Our last bit of advice in this already too long post is to try to enjoy the process as much as possible! While there will be mistakes made and stressful days, there will also be days of complete joy and excitement while you are building your house. It is an amazing thing to see your vision come to life right in front of your eyes. Remember how fortunate you are to have the opportunity to create this custom dream home for you and your family and enjoy the little things during the process that make you happy.