Seven Things to Include and Avoid when Building or Renovating Your Home

When you’re building a new home, or renovating an existing one, you’ll have two lists; things you definitely want and need in your new home, and things you absolutely want to avoid at all costs as you navigate the home creation journey.

Things you absolutely need to Avoid:

• Hiring a Bad Contractor — Someone who overcharges you, does poor quality work, disappears for long periods of time, or even leaves the job unfinished.
• Wrong materials — in today’s technologically driven world, materials are highly specialized. Just because you buy a high quality product does not necessarily mean it is the right one for your unique situation. Materials are rated for different uses, climates, and warranty periods. You absolutely want to use the right ones for your specific project.
• Buyer’s Remorse — going through all the time, effort, and cost only to move in after the dust settles and realize “Oh, we should have done this, or that, or this other thing instead.”

Things you really need and Want:

• Enough space for your family. Whether you are upsizing or downsizing, having the right amount of room is critical to the happiness and success of a harmonious home. This means having the right amount of rooms and bedrooms for all the people and activities you do, but also size appropriate rooms for those people and activities. A bedroom that is too small is constricting, overflowing with clothes and other personal items. Conversely, cavernous rooms that echo (even when full of all your furniture and decorations) can feel vacant and lonely.
• Quality materials with a low or no maintenance schedule. Your time is valuable. Sure there is some pride in working on fixing and improving things around the house, but spending time with family, friends, and hobbies is usually more fun! Let’s make sure that any “handyman” time you spend is on something fun and enjoyable, not routine maintenance — especially on a new home! You should be good to go for years without having to spend weekends and summers painting, patching, and repairing.
• A home that actually “fits”. Just like we choose various attire based on our activity, like loose soft, comfy pajamas for sleeping, tight, form fitting supportive clothing for athletic wear, and smart, formal wear for business occasions, we also want to have each room of the home “custom” fit and shaped…