It’s an early, quiet morning. Imagine you’re on your back patio having a moment of serenity while the rest of the world is still hitting the snooze button. The sound of birds chirping and the smell of freshly cut lumber and stain linger around you; a sense of newness permeates the air. It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for after all the time you spent planning and discussing. It’s the start of a new day, your first in a new custom home.
Describing scenes like these are what we strive for as custom home builders.
Arriving at these moments though takes time, energy, a commitment to managing your budget, and finding a builder you can rely on.
Unlike the time lapse illusion of a home improvement show, speeding viewers from BEFORE to AFTER, building a custom home takes a keen focus and dedication to bring your vision to life.
It starts with a floor plan that reflects everything you as a potential homeowner wish for: ample space, personalized style, adequate storage, and attainable charm. Supported by a process that invites your creativity into a truly collaborative space where you are free to explore your design aspirations without compromise.
As with any project, sometimes the unexpected or the unpredictable will attempt to interfere. We hear frequently from our customers that these curve-ball moments bolstered their decision in choosing to build custom and made their first steps inside their new home that much more rewarding. They also tell us the ways they maintained focus in a process with a lot of moving pieces and parts. Here are a few of them.
Communicate Often and Openly
Keep asking questions. After all, you’re not expected to be an expert if something doesn’t make sense, ask a question. Floor plans themselves can feel complicated. Your building partner will work with you to explain details in human terms that articulate the impact to time and budget. At Schumacher Homes our New Home Specialists and Construction Managers know one of the biggest contributors to customer satisfaction is being accessible for questions and timely with responses. Any reputable builder recognizes the financial and emotional commitment to building your dream home, having an open line of communication should come standard. It’s your home.
Know What You Want
A familiar theme to staying focused is starting the process with clear expectations of your desired outcome. A builder or designer can certainly help find ways to illustrate your ideas and express them in creating a floor plan and choosing a style. However, some customers come to their first home builder meeting with so many ideas, they need assistance paring things down to a single concept.
Whether your head’s overflowing with ideas or you’re struggling on what type of floor plan style is right for you, start by clearly establishing a list of must have’s and nice to have’s just like buying an existing home. The beauty of building your own home is the amount of control you have on what stays on this list and what doesn’t.
Be Decisive, Be Flexible
There is no shortage of decisions to be made when you build a home from scratch. Having a clear vision and knowing what you want gives you a rock-solid point of view and propels you through the ultra-marathon decision-making experience you’re about to undertake. From paint colors to building materials, flooring options, to fixtures and appliances, you get to have a say in all of it.
In such a comprehensive process where many decisions are dependent on one another, you’ll also need to exercise some flexibility. Balancing a strong perspective while knowing when and where to compromise from unexpected setbacks (weather delays, supply chain hiccups, material disruptions) can be the difference financially while maintaining your expectation of quality.
Trust The Process
Of all the decisions you’ll make in building a custom home, deciding to build is probably the biggest, with selecting a builder almost as important. We hear from some customers that we weren’t their first choice. But after having a bad experience with another builder or receiving a recommendation from someone close to them to “go check out Schumacher” they couldn’t be more pleased with the outcome.
When you build with Schumacher you are working with a builder dedicated to creating something that is uniquely yours and a process that is enjoyable, simple, and hassle-free as possible.
Let Schumacher Homes help you keep things in frame. We believe in making a custom home attainable for all.
About Schumacher Homes
Schumacher Homes, based in Canton, Ohio, is America’s largest custom homebuilder, with operations in 23 locations in 11 states across the country. The National Housing Quality award winning company has built over 20,000 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.