If you’re planning your dream house build, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of things to do. There’s a lot to remember, and you’re almost always bound to miss something. But in amongst all of the decisions about building materials, drawing floor plans and picking out furniture, there are some decisions you can make that will significantly impact your finished property.
Budget Beyond Construction
When you first meet with a builder and an architect, you will have had a conversation about the budget. Your design will be almost entirely dictated by your finances, and the cost of the building work is by far the biggest factor in that. But the thing most people forget is that there are other aspects to building a home that you need to account for. Seemingly minor things that need to be bought can add up quickly, so it’s important to include them in your budget. A few things to remember include:
- Landscaping
- Finance and insurance costs
- Professional and local authority fees
- Site surveys
- Access from the highway
- Service connections
The cost of a lot of these things can be fairly easily predicted, so make sure they are included in your financial plans.
Reduce Noise
Noise travelling and soundscape is often overlooked in house plans, but it’s something you will have to live with for the rest of your time in the house, so it’s something you should think about! Unwanted noise is a common problem, especially when you consider all of the gadgets we use for modern living. By building your own house you get to design something that is robust and well-sealed as far as noise is concerned. If you’re going for an open-plan feel, make sure you include a room that’s isolated from the main areas of activity so that you have a quiet place to retreat to.
Don’t Forget Storage
Storage is always a concern when you’re buying a home, and it’s easy to underestimate just how much stuff we accumulate during our lives. There’s a reason most garages, spare rooms and loft spaces are full of gym equipment, unwanted Christmas presents, bikes and other odds and ends! But when you’re building your own you get to design your storage solutions from scratch. That means you can build in storage in all of those awkward spaces you can’t use for anything else, really making the most of every inch of your home. But you need to start doing this at the beginning of the design process so that you can
Windows And Heat Transfer
Big windows and large expanses of glazing are all the rage at the moment, allowing as much natural light as possible into your home. It creates a modern aesthetic that a lot of people love. But you need to take into account how the warmth of your home will be affected by having so much glass. Generally a glazing unit’s effect on thermal comfort will depend on where it’s placed in relation to the sun. Put your windows in the right place and you can increase the warmth of your home without making it unpleasantly hot. Position them badly, and you’ll get too cold or too hot in all the worst ways.
Future-Proofing
If you’re planning to live in your self build home for decades to come, the layout needs to have built-in flexibility so it can evolve with you and your family. Make sure you have planned in extensions and power points in the right places, giving you full connectivity around the property.
Plan for increases in the size of your family, whether that’s more children, young adults boomeranging back home after college or older relatives moving in. Consider getting planning approval for an extension to be constructed at a later date; you could put in foundations and capped-off drainage connections ready to be used. It might be a good idea to future-proof in case family members and friends become infirm or disabled. Discrete features can make a big difference, such as keeping doors wider than standard and allowing space for a wheelchair to manoeuvre in a downstairs bathroom. You could even factor in space for a lift to be added at a later date.
At DNA Brickwork and Builders we are always happy to help at any stage of the building process, but we love getting involved right from the start. We work with a range of experts to design and build our clients dream homes, and we would love to bring yours to life. To find out more, just get in touch with the team today.
