Designing a home takes time, and a new home construction costs money. With Covid-19, you may be uncertain about starting a construction project—and that’s understandable. But while you’re at home and have time on your hands, you may want to get started on your building design plans anyway. It doesn’t cost you anything, not until construction begins. And, as creating the right design plans takes a lot of time, when you’re done, you may be ready to start the build anyway. Let’s discuss why and how you can start building your home while you’re in quarantine, or while you have more time on your hands.
Why Create Your Design Now?
Once things calm down from Covid-19, there will be a rush to start on the construction projects, including the custom homes, that people delayed. If you’re not ready when your builder starts work, you may need to wait much longer than anticipated to start your build. You can put yourself at the top of the list by creating your building design plans now and being shovel-ready when your builder is.
Besides, it’s great to reflect on what you need from your custom home while you have time and are stuck in your own space. The problems you have with your space, and the feature you most need should be clearer to you now than they are normally. And, if you happen to be off work or working from home, you may have significantly more time to dedicate to your home planning process, which can only help you get a better, more personalized and beautiful home.
Once you have your building design plans, you can sit on them for as long as you want. If your financial situation is a bit unsure, you can wait until it recovers. If you’re worried about local emergency orders getting in the way of construction, you can wait until the Covid-19 response is over to start building. The important thing is to have your design so that you can start once you’re ready.
So, if you’re ready to begin creating your home’s building design plans, how do you do it?
Start with a Walk-Through
Being stuck in your current space may be a bit frustrating, especially if you have large problems with your current home, such asits layout or the size of its key rooms. In a way, this frustration is very useful, because you’ll remember to make note of these features to correct them in your custom home.
We suggest that you start your design journey by walking through your current home. You should make note of three distinct things:
What features you need that you don’t have: Sometimes, you know exactly what your home is missing. You’re in the master bath and it doesn’t have a his and hers sink, but you want your custom home to have this. So, you can simply list this as a must-have feature and go from there.
What frustrates you about your current home: Sometimes, you know you have a problem with your current home, but you don’t know a solution, or which specific solution, would work for you. For example, you like to entertain outside, but you don’t like how cut-off you feel from the party when you’re cooking for it in the kitchen. Should your kitchen be closer to the back door? Or, should you invest in an outdoor kitchen? Not to worry, that’s where expert designers come in. For now, make note of your problem, and any potential solutions you see. But, expect your designer to bring unique solutions to many of your problems to the table.
What works in your current home:This is an important step that many people forget. It’s easy to take for granted the things about your current home that work for you. But, you need to make note of them to be sure that your custom home will have them too. Designers should be great at capturing all of your wants for your home, so if you miss some, that’s okay. But, it can be very helpful for the design process to make note of the most important working features.
Walk through your whole home and note all three things for each room.Or, as you perform your daily routine, make notes when you notice something that’s inconvenient or not quite right.
Consider Additional Rooms
Of course, you may also need to add spaces that you don’t have in this home. Some of our most requested spaces include:
Home office
Home gym
Indoor pool
Dedicated laundry room
Media room/theatre
Outdoor kitchen
Bathrooms that connect to specific spaces
Sunroom, porch, balcony
Garage
Cellar
Walk-in pantry
Head Online for Inspiration
It’s easy to get swept up in all of the beautiful home pictures online. How do you keep a focus on your ideal home when you see such remarkable examples of spaces? When you find an image you love, try to focus on what it is that you like about it. The style, layout, or specific features? Also try to think of things you don’t like in the image. This can help your design discover your personal style and what matters most to you.
Prioritize Your Design Wants and Needs
Now you’ll notice that you have a massive list of features, spaces and finishes that you love. It would be great to have the budget to equally prioritize all of these things, but most people don’t. Therefore, it’s important to think about which are needs, and which are wants, and in which order. Have a collection of spaces, features and finishes that are absolutes, and list other things that you’ll add if you have the budget.
Contact Your Builder
When you work with Fernandez Designs & Builders, you don’t need to invest a lot in the process until we start the build. So, it’s wise to reach out to us for your design process and get our expert help. Once we have your designs ready, we can wait to build until you’re ready.