Whether you are thinking about building your first home, or your fifth, creating the custom home design you want can be a difficult process. Working with an experienced architect will help you think about what you want and need in a floor plan, choose materials to fit your lifestyle, and create a finished house plan that will fulfill your dreams, no matter how small or large. Think about these areas when you take your ideas to your architect:

Lot - Take a look at your lot from every angle to find the best views and the private areas you want to designate for areas of your home where you might not want others to be able to see into. Can you take advantage of passive heating with a southern exposure? Will anything be built around you in the future that might affect your views? Are there eco features you can implement on your lot to lower your energy costs such as geothermal heating, solar panels, or building part of your home in the earth? Are there ways to minimize the disturbance of the earth while building?

Floor Plan - You probably know off the top of your head how many bedrooms and bathrooms you want, but start thinking about how you use space so your floor plan can function well. Do you want bedrooms in one area with laundry centrally located, or you do you want the master bedroom to be away from the other bedrooms? Do you want an island or do you work better in a kitchen with everything in one line? Write down everything you’ve hated about previous homes and everything you’ve loved. Think about the small things like placement of outlets that are often frustrating, or light switches. If you have small children, how will they use space differently as they age? Think about storage and where clutter usually collects, and design areas that deal with these issues.

Materials - Choosing wood vs carpet, granite vs concrete, and vinyl siding vs stone, will of course have to do with personal choice and budget considerations. Thinking about new products that are sustainable and environmentally friendly from paint and caulk, to the large items like flooring, can have a big impact on the air quality in your home. Planning to use new building systems like SIPs can also impact your energy bills, so it can pay off to discuss these options with your architect.

Details - The best part about designing a custom home is that you get to start from scratch, so you can include the little details that make a house a home to you. Built in bookshelves, cubbies to show off your glass vase collection, a tile back-splash made from the antique tiles you picked up in Mexico, a double shower, these details mark the home as yours.

Writing down all of your ideas, adding photos from magazines that show what you want, and taking photos of your lot to pinpoint views can help your architect define your home design to capture your feelings more accurately.

Photo by Gin Grl

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