How to Have the Best Custom Home Building Experience
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TIPS FROM THE PROFESSIONALS: HOW TO HAVE THE BEST CUSTOM HOME BUILDING EXPERIENCE Building a custom home is complicated, exciting and can be a little bit intimidating. This guide will help you understand the custom home building process and explain the planning and preparation strategies that will help you define objectives and organize your thoughts so that you can communicate clearly with your builder and design team. Knowing what to expect and selecting an excellent team of tried and true professionals to lead you through the journey of building a custom home will set you up for a truly enjoyable experience.
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Understanding the Process
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INITIAL PRESENTATION
At the Luxury Home Idea Center, get to know one another, discuss your project and review the Jenkins Custom Homes Design-Build program
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DESIGN PROPOSAL
The conceptual floor plan and rendering will give you a clear idea of what your home will look like and how it will capitalize on views
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FEASIBILITY STUDY
The Jenkins Team will create a 600+ line item cost estimate (guaranteed to be within +/- 5%), to ensure the project is feasible for your chosen budget
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FINALIZE THE PLANS
Full scale design is broken down into three phases. During this time, plans will be created, revised and finalized
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BREAK GROUND
At this point, you already know how your home will look and what will be in it. Now, watch your construction team make it a reality
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BUILDING THE HOME
Miscommunication and guesswork are avoided with proven systems and processes
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MOVE IN
Once the trades have gone home and you have moved into your new home, we will still be your builder for the next 2 years
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TIP #1 ESTABLISH GOALS Creating a new home for yourself is all about setting goals and taking the steps to achieve those goals. You’ll want to establish the answers to a whole host of questions so that you can set these goals. Your list of goals should include practical and emotional goals. Each is important, and each needs to be recognized so that the end result will reflect a totality. You should rank your goals in order of importance. This will help your architect and builder focus on what’s important to you, so they can spend your money in the right places. When the team is focused on your goals, the odds of you being happy at the end is so much higher.
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TIP #2 ORGANIZE YOUR INSPIRATION Creating a new home is a journey of discovering who you are, what you want, how you want to live and where you want to be. It’s a chance for you to define your relationship to the world, to your family and to yourself. Creating a home is so much more than building four bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms. As with any journey, you’ll want to do some research and plan your trip. Collect photos before you begin design. Creating a Board on Pinterest or an Idea Book on Houzz is a great way to share your inspiration. Follow us on Pinterest at pinterest.com/newhousebuilder and Houzz at houzz.com/pro/jenkinscustomhomes.
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TIP #3 FIND SOME LAND Maybe you want to live on the lake with panoramic views of the Texas Hill Country, perhaps you want to be able to walk out onto the golf course in the evenings, or you might prefer a private estate where you can relax and unwind. Whatever suits you, find a spot you can claim as your own and build what will be a home. Our team will be happy to provide you with a lot analysis once you narrow it down to a few favorites.
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TIP #4 ASSEMBLE YOUR TEAM Before you begin design, assemble a team of tried and true professionals. We recommend that you hire a full service DesignBuild firm. This is the best way to ensure the design and construction cost align with your goals for the project. These people will act as guide, therapist, advocate and counselor throughout the journey that creating your home is. And, as with all good professionals, the right guide can ensure that the journey is all the more enjoyable. Successful construction management requires good planning and communication. Builders must orchestrate a thousand moving parts every day. The team of professionals you select should have sophisticated management systems that can handle all these moving parts.
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TIP #5 BE DECISIVE Early on, make all of the decisions you have to, select all of your finishes and to the extent possible, don’t change your mind. Trust the advice of the experts, and then trust in your own decisions. Yes, you’ll be enticed by that new thing that comes along. Just remember that once construction starts, it’ll cost you time, money and perhaps a trip or two to a therapist if you change your mind.
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TIP #6 COMMUNICATE WELL When the entire team is engaged in regular communication, confusion, mistakes, and re-work is minimized. “Communication, even when conflict is involved, is the lifeblood of a (project).� -Dave Ramsey. Ask for a detailed schedule of your project. Like communication, knowing when to expect things to be done will help alleviate stress and conquer fear of the unknown.
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TIP #7 ACCEPT THE INEVITABLE You’ve made the plans, gotten the permits and secured the money; now the only thing left to do is build your house. You’ve accounted for everything, so it should all come together as smooth as silk. Easy, right? Oddly enough, stuff happens. That’s a given. How you and your team react to these hiccups will be important. The best advice is to stay calm, keep your sense of humor and work with your team to address the issue. This is where having the right team in place can pay dividends.
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TIP #8 ENJOY THE EXPERIENCE The fun projects always yield the best results. A team that can work together and share ideas without criticizing one another will go a long way. The more collaborative it is, the better the outcome will be. You’ve worked hard and spent more than a few dollars to create your new home, so enjoy it to the max. Once your home is complete, discover how this place gives shape to your life and allows you to become the person you want to be. In the end you’ll be amazed that your new house is so much more than the sum of just its four bedrooms, living room and so on. It’s the place you get to call home and make uniquely yours.
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