When you imagine your dream home, you're probably not considering placement of electrical outlets and plumbing stacks.
You may not even be thinking of how many bedrooms it will have beyond a magnificent master haven. Is it wheelchair accessible? Is your spectacular view through tripleglaze low-e argon windows?
When it comes time to buy or build a new home, there are a lot of decisions to make.
Manitoba home builders are used to taking care of big dreams, along with the small details, and they can offer some valuable advice: Take your time, get it right, and build a home you'll be happy in for years to come.
"The most important phase of building your home is the planning phase," says Irwin Homes owner Andrew Koop. "My advice to people is don't rush it."
Along with location, you have to consider lot size and shape. If you want a triple-car garage, you'll need a large lot, probably outside of the city. Do you want the morning sun to shine into your bedroom, or do you want it in your open-concept kitchen? You might want an extra master or a granny suite for an elderly parent. If you have toddlers, you may want their bedrooms to be close to the master. But as a father of three, Koop cautions that kids grow up fast.
"People always plan their house for today, for what their life looks like now," he says. "You've got to think big picture and longer term than right now. But most people think right now and I think that's a huge mistake."
When they built their own home 10 years ago, Koop and his wife Krista chose to have a main-floor master bedroom, with second-level bedrooms for their now-grown kids. Rather than have a soaring ceiling in the great room, they created usable space upstairs that they've since transformed into a fabulous home office.
"We love the place, we love the design... it works for us perfectly. So far, we wouldn't change a thing."
Maric Homes vice-president of operations Tanya Maric advises long-term thinking when you're setting budget priorities, as well.
"The first thing they should be investing their money in is the size and the structure of the home," she says. "You can always add a deck later on, but you can't add to your foundation."
If you have to make a tradeoff between flooring or countertops and a large bedroom, choose the bedroom. If you're concerned you don't have enough light, spend a little extra on larger windows.
"Those sorts of things are harder to change after the fact than the interior finishes," she says. Maric encourages clients to gain some knowledge of construction practices, and she says websites like Houzz and Pinterest can be helpful in making design choices, but there's a caveat. Nano doors that open up an entire wall on a home in southern California won't cut it in Manitoba's climate. Other features and practices posted on the Internet are not transferable or practical, so if you have questions, talk to your builder, not Siri.
Everyone wants a beautiful home, but it has to be functional too, built to accommodate the way you live every day.
If you're looking for innovative ideas, the Fall Parade of Homes provides a great opportunity to check out more than 130 homes from almost 40 participating builders. In some neighbourhoods, you can park your car and tour a dozen homes within walking distance.
"Find out first if that's the home style you like and if there are other ones to compare to it and then you go from there," suggests Randall Homes' Jason Jaquet.
Ask sales agents about specs and clarify which show home features are standard and which are options that will add to the cost of a particular model, he says.
"It's always best to compare when you narrow it down to a few builders and sit down and see what you're actually getting."
And even if you've settled on a specific location, don't limit your research to a single community.
Ken Braun, Qualico manager of single-family housing, notes that show-home models can be transplanted to other neighbourhoods.
Braun also suggests letting sales agents do some of the legwork for you. If you want a 1,000-square-foot bungalow, or a two-storey luxury home with all the bells and whistles, ask an agent to point you in the right direction. You can also take advantage of builders' in-house services or networks of suppliers, lenders and interior designers to walk you through the entire process.
"They may be overwhelmed with trying to figure out where to start. So just come over to the show homes and someone will help them."
