Self-Build: 5 Things You Need To Know Before Building Your Own Home
It’s a dream of many families to build their own perfect home from the ground up. But without prior experience, it’s easy to enter the process with the naivety of a newborn. And that’s where things can go wrong.
While anyone building their dream home deserves a pat on the back, there are some things to bear in mind before venturing any further into the world of self-builds. Here are 5 must-know things before you break ground on your new home to get you on your way.
1. Know What You’re Getting Into
When starting off in the world of self-builds, you might want to dive headfirst into proceedings. But without knowing what you’re getting into first, you’ll quickly get into problems.
You can find almost anything online. Use it to your advantage and research every aspect of your build before starting anything else. Think about materials, construction companies, architects, and even the process of acquiring land if need be. You might find you need to hire a land development consultant. Or that some construction companies don’t work with the materials you’re interested in.
Knowing what you’re getting into before starting sets you up for success.
2. Design With Your Future In Mind
If you’re single or in a newlywed couple, a future with kids and animals might be way off yet. Or it may be that those things aren’t on your radar at all. Yet, designing a home without those possibilities in mind will mean you have to rejig the layout in the future. And self-builds are expensive enough as it is without having to change them down the line.
Consider what you want in the next 5 to 10 years. Maybe it’s a place to work from home. Or you want to bring up a brood of children. Making space for those options now will stand you in good stead. Even if you change your mind down the line.
3. Put Storage Solutions In Your Design
A significant failing of first-time home builders is focussing on aesthetics without thinking about how the house actually works. Get ahead of this by incorporating storage solutions into your design before starting the build.
There’s no such thing as too much storage. And putting them into your design first allows you to come up with some pretty nifty solutions that would be difficult to add in later down the line.
4. Invest In Quality Fixtures And Fittings
While there may be some things you’d rather spend your money on – like beautiful throws and exciting lighting – invest in your fixtures and fittings first. Sure, you can save a quick buck by going for budget options. But you’ll end up having to replace them. And that can eat into money you’re not likely to have post-build.
Invest in quality know so you don’t have to replace it in the future. It’s important to remember that these things will also add more value to your property than any amount of throw cushions can. No matter how nice they are. And it’s easier to find cheap but quality accents than it is to find fixtures and fittings.
5.You’ll End Up Spending Your Own Money
Even if everything goes according to plan, you’ll most likely spend a bit of your own cash. You might have been lucky enough to lock down a loan or can take advantage of government options. But there will always be something you need that the money doesn’t cover. And you’ll have to dig deep into your own pockets to fund it.
From the start, having this in mind means you can squirrel away a bit of extra cash for these areas. Then, if you run out of money entirely, you can get the house to a point where you can move in while things are still being finished. But it’s advisable to avoid this at all costs. It becomes easy to let things fall by the wayside when you’re in the house and just want the work done.
Building your own home is usually a one-time deal. So you want to get it right.
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