Planning Your Dream Home: A Step-by-Step Guide
The dream is easy, bringing it to life takes a wee bit more effort. Building a custom home from the ground up can feel complicated. However, when you approach the process with a step-by-step strategy, you’ll find the pieces fall into place rather easily, making your journey to your dream home exciting, not overwhelming.
Goal Setting
The first step to building a house is knowing what you want from it. Define why you want to build your own house. Will it be a place for your growing family to live, laugh, and play? Or is it a peaceful retirement or vacation home you’re looking for? Doing so will help define parts of your design, like the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, for example, or whether you need a large open plan kitchen and living space for a growing family.
It’s a great idea to involve your partner, children, or any other relatives who will be living in your new home to get their input so you can get everyone on the same page. It’s important to emphasize that compromises will have to be made. Make a list of “must haves’ and “nice to haves”. Agree on an upper limit on your budget.
Find Your Dream Team
Finding the right team to build your custom home can make the difference between a dream house and a nightmare. You can either hire a designer and builder separately or find a company like AXM Contracting that uses the design-build approach. In the first case, it means you’ll have to coordinate between the designer and builder which can lead to issues in communication, misalignment in budgets, schedules, and more.
The design-build approach means there is a single coordinator for both teams which results in better communication and an aligned vision throughout.
Your Plot Of Land
The piece of land you choose to build on influences the design of your home and the budget needed to build on your lot. This is even more important in mountainous areas like the ones we have in the Columbia Valley. The slope and gradient of the land, the direction it faces, and the approach road all matter when it comes to excavation, foundation, and the layout of your house.
A careful survey of the plot will highlight any challenges early so they can be overcome in the design phase itself.
If you’re torn between Panorama, Edgewater, Fairmont or other areas in the Columbia Valley or simply want advice on what to look for when purchasing a piece of land, read our blog here.
Permits And Regulations
Every new home requires permits and must comply with regional building codes, so do extensions and laneway homes. These codes and permits vary depending on where you are. They are also apt to change periodically to ensure that every new building is built with certain safety standards in mind. Since these codes can be quite tricky to navigate, choosing a design-build firm who knows the requirements in the region inside-out is the best way to make sure you’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s.
Design And Build
Design and construction tend to go a lot more smoothly when they’re handled together. When the same team is involved from the first sketches through to the final build, ideas can be shaped with real-life considerations in mind. This helps avoid back-and-forth, last-minute changes, and unnecessary stress. Choose your architectural style and floor plan, along with other aspects of your home design. You’ll have a realistic timeline set now as well. Weather permitting, expect your build to take at least eight months.
An enjoyable part of this process is choosing the materials and finishes with the design team and builder. You’ll have a clear budget laid out during this time and you may have to take a call on which “nice to haves” you want to include as we talked about earlier.
Once construction starts, be ready to have frequent conversations with your construction coordinator as they keep you updated on any setbacks and progress.
A Final Walkthrough
Even a brand-new custom home can come with issues that need fixing. At AXM Contracting, we do a series of walkthroughs with you both before and after you’ve moved in so we can fix things until your dream home is a reality.
The journey to your dream home in Invermere, Radium, Edgewater, or elsewhere in the Columbia Valley begins with a quick call to your friendly custom home builders at AXM Contracting.
Get in touch today!