Designing and building your new home is almost never an absolutely low-cost process, but it can be made more affordable. There are several ways to do this ranging from DIY design options to being your own general contractor.
Each of the following tips has been used in the past by countless other new homeowners to trim their own costs wherever possible. For budgeting your design without also sacrificing on quality, here are the essentials:
Design your own home, or download a stock plan
One of the major initial design costs of building your own home is hiring an architect that comes up with a custom, possibly complicated blueprint for you. This professional will then also want to be hired to build it. All of this will cost additional money. Therefore you can forego that by simply designing your own home concept, or buying a stock plan that fits your tastes.
The companies selling these stock plans even offer minor custom modifications to blueprints for a small fee. Because you’re aiming to save, try to stick to a home design that’s simple, easy to construct and makes maximally efficient use of available space.
Stick to small footprints
Budgeting on your home design also means hoping to save money on building and maintenance costs. You can take care of both of these needs by keeping your house as simple and compact as comfortably possible. An internal design that avoids too many edges, rooms, walls and corners will usually be far more affordable to build.
By choosing simplified internal layouts and compactness right from the beginning, you’ll forestall numerous pointless expenses down the road.
Be your own builder
Being your own builder and general contractor doesn’t mean having to literally build your entire house yourself from the ground up. Most people don’t quite have the professional expertise for that. Instead, by being your own builder and contractor, you give yourself the role of project organizer, work coordinator and general contractor charged with buying all materials. By doing this, you can avoid the hefty commissions and hourly wages that a hired general contractor or builder charge.
Taking on this level of home design responsibility isn’t for everyone though. Your biggest tasks will involve scheduling construction phases, coordinating material deliveries and buying many of the materials yourself. On all of these things, you will save money by cutting out a builder’s middleman fee.
Stick to standard sizes and fixings
Home design rapidly becomes more pricey of you increase the number of fancy, complex and custom fixings or decorative touches that you want. You can avoid a large part of this nebulous expense source by simply going for standard sixes for all windows, doors or household fixtures. Even if your home design is completely customized, standardized windows and doors are a particularly useful and easy way for you to save money.
For decorative touches on stairs, ceilings, lighting and so forth, you should also avoid custom workmanship. Instead, select aesthetic but commercially produced options. There will be many fine looking but affordable options out there. Or, simply avoid needless decoration in the first place. You can partly do this by laying your house out so that it avoids too many custom decoration and design elements.
Rev up the comparison shopping
Whether you’re buying your own materials or not, acting as your own builder or hiring a professional to build for you, roll up your sleeves and comparison shop. Do this with a careful eye for deals and price differences. For example, maybe you decide to hire a builder instead of being your own. Well, it’s often possible to find experts with great reputations at much lower rates than their competitors in some situations.
For materials and fixtures, don’t be shy about hunting around for bargain warehouse options on basic interior/exterior design or building materials. You might also want to hit up marketplaces, online pages such as Craigslist and eBay. Another option are used parts sales for some surprisingly lovely and functional items.
A final word
If you’re still doubtful about taking on too much DIY for savings on your home design, professional builders can be found with deep experience and reasonable prices. They can work wonders at guiding you through your own new home creation process. Contact the experts at Grand Homes for an assessment of your own needs.