When it comes to buying a home, it’s important to first look at whether designing a custom home is a better choice for you than purchasing an existing home. Custom home designs often cost the same as purchasing a standard home or home design. If it is more, the cost difference for design plans is rarely over $1000. This seems a small price to pay when there are so many benefits of designing, building, and owning a custom home. Here are four things you can ONLY get when you design a custom home.
Customized Everything!
Since we’re talking customized home plans, we may as well start with the most obvious benefit. A custom home means you get to design your home just the way you want it. And this includes much more than just the layout!
Choosing the number and size of rooms can help match your house to your current lifestyle. Love to entertain? Design an open floor plan to maximize party potential. In-laws come to visit a lot? Design an attached apartment to give them a space all their own that doesn’t encroach on yours.
Not only can you design for now, but you can think ahead to the future. A custom home design is a long-term investment. Choosing your floor plan and design elements now can help when times change, and you may need to adjust your lifestyle. For example, you might choose to keep everything to just one story to avoid dangerous stairways which become difficult to climb as we age.
Having total control over your custom home design also means having control over things like energy efficiency or planning for smart-home integrations. You can also match the entire house—from the overall exterior style to each individual drawer pull—to your specific design aesthetic. There are no limits when you choose to design your own custom home.
The Right Location
Sure, it’s possible to find the exact house you are dreaming of without having to design and build your own. But what are the chances that perfect house will also be in the perfect location? Only with custom home design can you choose the exact right location, wherever that may be.
Custom homes can be beneficial when your property or location doesn’t fit a standard configuration. For example, a narrow or odd-shaped lot could benefit from a custom home plan to maximize available space. In some cases, it may even be necessary to build a custom home on your desired location. Mountainous regions with uneven terrain can make standard home designs difficult to adapt. The same goes for regions that experience weather or temperature extremes. With a custom home design, you can create the home of your dreams in the most beautiful or convenient location for you.
Choice of Materials
A standard, cookie-cutter home is often constructed with standard materials. With a custom-built home, you can choose any materials you desire. Choosing your own materials can help increase the efficiency, durability, and sustainability of your home. Pick from long-lasting ICFs or go natural with Earthbag homes.
Even if you want a traditional wood-framed home, being able to choose higher-quality materials can increase the longevity of your home. It’s also a benefit that you get to choose your add-ons during the design process. Designing seismic resistance into a building is easier and less expensive than retrofitting seismic upgrades on an existing home.
Pride of Ownership
Perhaps the least considered—but possibly most important—benefit you receive only by designing a custom home is the pride of ownership that follows. No matter how much you love the house you purchased, nothing can compare to being able to explain to visitors how you lovingly chose and designed every aspect of the home they are ooing and aweing over.
There are many benefits to owning a custom home, but being able to choose the design, location, and materials, and the pride of ownership that comes with it, are four benefits you can only get with a custom home. Call PSE Consulting Engineers, Inc. today to discuss starting your custom home plan! Our structural engineering team is standing by to turn your dream home into a reality.