For many of the people we work with at Schumacher Homes, building a custom home is one of the most exciting projects they’ve ever been a part of. It’s also one that requires a great deal of planning and careful attention to detail. That’s even after working with your New Home Consultant (NHC) to customize the house plan, and securing financing through a preferred lender.
In fact, one of the most detailed parts of the process typically happens soon before you officially break ground: the Selections meeting.
At this meeting, you’ll work with your Sales Coordinator to make the final design selections for the interior and exterior of your custom home. That includes flooring, countertops, fixtures, trim, and more.
For some, this is the most exciting part of the process. For others, it can feel overwhelming. Don’t worry. No matter your situation, these tips from our experts will help you prepare for your Selections meeting so you’ll design the home of your dreams while staying in budget.
Customizing one of our house plans with your NHC does more than transform it into your home. Along with the fun of moving walls, expanding your entertainment space, and adding rooms (or taking one away to create a two-story great room), customizing your plan also generates an itemized price quote.
It’s important to study this price quote when preparing for your Selections meeting. It sets expectations and narrows your focus by helping you understand what level of design options are within your budget. In essence, your itemized price quote becomes a checklist.
A lot of times, homeowners enter our design studio and it’s like a candy store (and we don’t blame them), but their budget can quickly go out the window. Knowing what levels of cabinets and countertops they’ve already accounted for in their price quote is always helpful and can avoid getting overwhelmed with too many choices.
One of the decisions that take new homeowners the most time to make? Surprisingly, according to our Sales Coordinators, it’s choosing paint colors. But there’s an easy way to make this the fastest part of your Selections meeting.
At Schumacher Homes, we exclusively use Sherwin-Williams paint on all of our custom builds. So prepare for your Selections meeting by visiting our model homes to see the trending colors that we have curated.
You don’t have to know the exact colors you want, either. “Once you have color scheme ideas, we can help with narrowing down your final hue selection and recommend finish types for each room,” Jacki from our Pittsburgh design studio said.
Schumacher Homes also offers a specially curated collection of paint colors we’ve designed with Sherwin-Williams specifically for each one of our home styles. These are available at all of our design studios for quick, easy reference.
Besides our model homes that provide lots of inspiration, home magazines, Pinterest, Instagram … all of these resources and more are great ways to see the latest design trends and find inspiration for your style of home. Our experts recommend bringing ALL the images you’ve saved that show what look you want to achieve in your new home, no matter if it’s Modern Farmhouse, French Country, Coastal, or anything between.
These pictures are a tremendous help because they create a visual point of reference for you and your Sales Coordinator. They’ll help refine your choices as you pick out lighting fixtures, cabinet colors, tile, and more.
In fact, we encourage customers to save from the Schumacher Homes online gallery and our Pinterest account for additional inspiration and design ideas. These resources bring each one of our model homes from across the country directly to your screen.
Another tip from our pros: Bring in photos or swatches of the furniture and fabrics that you’ll use in your new home. “It allows homeowners to visualize finished rooms and decide if choices like paint color, flooring, and so forth will coordinate once they’re moved in.”
Whether it’s just you or multiple generations who’ll live in your new home, our pros can tell you that the more people you include in the Selections meeting, the more opinions you’ll have to juggle. Bringing children and extra family members can oftentimes make the Selections meeting more challenging, leaving homeowners confused or overwhelmed.
This meeting should be fun and exciting for the new homeowners! Does that mean you shouldn’t account for family and friends’ opinions? Of course not. But instead of bringing them to the Selections meeting, gather their input beforehand.
For instance, bring them to the home improvement store when you’re getting backsplash ideas. Or take them along to look at home exteriors and paint colors. Invite them to your Pinterest boards to share ideas, bring them to tour some of our model homes, or ask them to join a casual visit to the design studio.
Even though your Selections meeting is scheduled for a particular day and time, it doesn’t mean you can’t come in and browse design options ahead of time.
“I have had multiple homeowners come in and look before the meeting and it really helps them familiarize themselves with our product offerings,” Karra from our Bowling Green, Ohio design studio said. Our model homes are a great source of inspiration, too, and are open seven days a week to visit.
To learn more about our unique process at Schumacher Homes, check out what makes us different from other custom homebuilders. Likewise, you’re welcome to stop by a design studio in any of the markets where we build.
Schumacher Homes, based in Canton, Ohio, is America’s largest custom homebuilder, with operations in 32 markets in 14 states across the country. The National Housing Quality award winning company has built over 19,000 homes, customized to fit each family’s lifestyle, since its founding by Paul Schumacher in 1992. Schumacher Homes takes each customer’s inspiration and gives it a home. Each Schumacher Homes location includes a one-stop shopping design studio and model homes displaying the latest in architectural and product trends. Stop in today, be inspired and receive your no obligation price quote.