When you’re getting ready to build your custom home, the amount of details can be a bit overwhelming. We get it — it’s hard to remember a bunch of things when you don’t even know what it is you have to remember in the first place!
At the same time, having a clear understanding of what you’re looking for is key to giving you a dream house that enhances your life and feels like a true home.
So, we’ve devised this little checklist with suggestions. In our decades-long experience at Reality Homes designing and building custom houses, these are the details customers seem to really appreciate in their new home.
Let’s check them out:
Open floor plan tailored to your tastes — especially the dining area and surrounding
A more open floor plan simply makes your home more livable and facilitates better interaction. (How many closed off houses have you been in where the family communicates by yelling at each other from different rooms? It’s… not pleasant.)
This is especially true in the dining room, living room, and kitchen plus surrounding areas. There’s a reason the closed-off dining rooms from the 60s and 70s are more-or-less relegated to the past. Most people now seem to agree that a more open dining area is much more pleasant compared to more isolated, less open dining rooms. A more open dining space is especially well-suited to hosting guests or family gatherings.
Not that this is a brand new phenomenon, but we’re increasingly seeing these open dining areas more integrated with the kitchen and living rooms instead of being distinct rooms. In turn, these spaces are more integrated with the rest of the home, giving the inhabitants more pleasant day-to-day lives.
Extra storage space
When planning out your custom home, consider how and where all your belongings will fit into the equation, as well as where you can put future items. Feeling overrun with stuff is stressful and generally unpleasant, so it’s important to know you have the space for your toys, tools, and other things to be organized and not in the way.
This can mean walk-in closets, cleverly integrated pantry spaces, attic storage, and more. If you want to get especially inspired regarding creative storage solutions, take a look at how tiny homes, houseboats, and liveaboards use all their space efficiently to get extra storage — obviously you’ll have a lot more room than those types of housing options, but it’s a good starting point for storage inspiration you may have not considered.
Decked out master suite
Think about how you’ll use your master bedroom beyond just sleeping — a comfortable suite allows you more relaxation and privacy. Making it more spacious gives you even more possibilities. To amp up the luxury touches, consider options like an en-suite bathroom — maybe with an oversized tub for relaxing? — walk-in closet, or sitting area.
Which brings us to…
Luxury bathroom
If a personalized, spacious master suite gives you extra relaxation, then a luxury en-suite bathroom is a special level up.
There are more features for modern tubs than ever before, giving you an almost spa-like retreat in your own home. Other options include a walk-in shower, higher-end finishes with lots of counter space and storage, and a double vanity.
Personalized built-ins
This can really be anything your creativity can come up with! For many, particularly when building smaller homes, this is a chance to make use of your existing structures to add space-efficient storage, but that’s not all. Good examples in this category include bookshelves, entertainment centers, or custom cabinetry.
Flexible space
Similar to the open space surrounding modern kitchens, dining areas, and living rooms, many find that having more flexible rooms in the house are useful for adapting your home to you and your family’s needs as they change. For example, many have multipurpose bonus rooms that can turn into a home office, play room, or guest room when you have friends or family visiting.
Spacious (and conveniently laid out) laundry room
This can be one of those things that’s easy to overlook — and then once it’s all done you realize if you change a couple things it would work a lot better. A laundry room that’s well-designed and whose placement within the house is well-thought out can have a big impact on ease-of-use. Through extension, that means it has an equally big impact on the ease of your day-to-day life.
Along with how it’s constructed and where you place it within your house — for example, how easy is accessing it from the bedrooms or outside? — consider including some counter space, storage, and shelves depending on your needs.
Mudroom or mud bench
For some homes, a mudroom and outside-accessible laundry room are rolled into one, but you might find that a separate mudroom is preferable for your lifestyle. Here, you can incorporate built-in seating for removing dirty clothes and boots, as well as hooks and storage.
Outdoor living space
Whether patios, decks, fire pits, or even outdoor kitchens, livable outdoor spaces can really improve your social quality of life and more at home. These outdoor spaces give you an everyday place to relax, read, and generally enjoy fresh air. Even more, they open up a world of possibility for entertaining friends and family — and what is home for if not sharing it with the people you love?
High-utility garage
Whether for your car, storage, or as a workspace or shop, a well-thought out garage can improve your quality of life just like a well-thought out indoor living space. Depending on the climate, a garage that can hold your car can be especially helpful for protecting it from the elements and helping it perform better, longer.
Otherwise, a good garage can offer a place for hobbies and storage. Keep this in mind when designing it — will you benefit from workbenches or a space to have a workshop setup? Recreational equipment? Drawers and other utility storage for these activities? Have an idea of how you’ll use your garage so you can build it accordingly.
Smart features
You’ll also find, when building a home now versus in decades past, that there’s a lot of “smart home” technology options for different parts of your house. Not every feature is right for everybody, but we recommend considering the different options available to you — think critically while being open-minded about which features could enhance your quality of life in your new home.
For example, innovative options like automated lighting control, thermostats, and more can enhance not just your convenience, but energy efficiency and appliance usability elsewhere.
Under-cabinet lighting
While under-cabinet lighting might sound at first like a frivolous luxury, it can actually be really helpful from a functionality standpoint — not to mention provide a lovely ambience to your kitchens. When preparing and cooking meals, proper lighting can make a big difference, and under-cabinet lighting can help enhance that. We recommend looking into the different options available to you, as well as tips for optimal placement depending on your priorities.
Quality HVAC
Air quality is much higher on most people’s list of priorities now than pre-Covid, and a good HVAC system can help a lot here. Of course, not only does this help with air circulation for health, but it also improves heating and cooling and the energy efficiency thereof. In other words, a good HVAC system means a more comfortable home, for less.
In the end, this is all just to help you figure out how to make your new home as perfect for your needs as possible. This means a house that not just suits your lifestyle, but whose construction and flow improves your day-to-day quality of life. Consider all the qualities your home could have that would do just that, and don’t skimp on this beginning part of the home-building process — the first step to building your dream home is having a clear idea of what just makes your dream home, your dream home. And of course, if you feel you need help in that area, we at Reality Homes are always happy to provide a consultation. Give us a call!
