When building a home, it would be so nice if we just all had unlimited budgets! Strategizing where to splurge and where to save is one of the hardest balances to find while building! It’s important to set a budget and keep to it! I have several tips and suggestions in relative to how we strategized this in our own home! Keep in mind all of our situations are different and there are tons of different ways to do this! This is just from our situation and hopefully help give you a place to start!
Floorplan: it’s important to make sure you don’t over build or under build! When you over build your square footage if you end up using a lot of your budget that trust me, you will want later on for finishes and upgrades! This is one of the easiest ways to get pretty big chunks of money back! If you under build, you won’t be as comfortable in your home and your day-to-day living could really be impacted by this. Just remember when you were in the stage that you have a lot of costs left to come! Don’t max out your budget on square footage!
Choose what is worth finishing now and what is worth finishing later: it’s important to have a finished move-in ready home but that doesn’t mean that you haven’t saved several projects for yourself later when your budget allows for it! Here are a couple examples:
We installed only necessary lighting in places where we had to and would be really hard to do so later (taller rooms). We were able to maximize our budget that way and were able to really get the lighting that we really loved! We have already since added a couple of lights since we moved in that we had saved! Make sure to price match and compare stores with each other. You’re often able to get those stores to be pretty competitive with getting your business!
Closets and pantries are also great spaces to upgrade later! Just make sure you get the layout right and just proceed with standard at the time of build and those are really fun projects to save! It’s very trendy and stays to go all out in these areas but in reality they are frivolous and rarely seen by your guests
When it comes to splurges, it sure can be tempting! Remember that you can’t have everything that your heart probably desires! Be flexible, he reasonable, and stay grounded during the process! There are things that can be done later and you will have to prioritize. if you are building a $500,000 home, You can’t expect your house to look like a multi million dollar Instagram perfect home. At the end of the day, you are extremely blessed to be in this position and you have to be reasonable!
I have made a list of some things we splurged on in our home (this is not an absolute have to list- these are ideas!)
-Countertops. Make sure to get a durable product but also one that you love. It really sets the tone for your kitchen and one of the main things you can see. It was important to me for durability! We do too much in there for me to worry!
-Ceiling height. We raised our vaulted ceilings in all three guestrooms. It makes the room feel bigger and it really wasn’t as expensive as you would think.
-Two dishwashers. I know that seems frivolous and it probably is but with a growing family with two boys it’s been awesome! I love to be able to load up my kitchen and then have a party and I have an extra dishwasher to load up after!
-Windows. This can be extremely expensive! We splurged as much as our budget could allow for windows. This also sets the tone because it such a base of your home. Really inexpensive windows can cheapen The base of your home and really expensive windows can make your home very elevated. Find a good balance in this category.
-Make sure your room sizes are appropriate. My husband and I both have separate closets and they are pretty big. This is something that you use multiple times a day and I also use my closet for a lot of other storage.
-We put in a lot of extra concrete for our driveway on the side of our house. It’s been a great place and a very safe place for our kids to play.
-Electrical outlets in cabinets in your bathroom. A great place to hide your electric toothbrushes and all the electric devices these days and you don’t have to have a plethora of them charging on your counter!
-Front door hardware. It’s the first thing that people see in touch when they come in to your home.
-Cabinet hardware. You can have relatively inexpensive cabinets and put really beautiful hardware on and it elevates them a lot! My kitchen ones are from restoration hardware but my bathroom ones are pretty inexpensive. The key here is to just make sure they look really nice not necessarily that they cost a lot. Sometimes they will and sometimes they won’t.
-8 foot doors. This really makes your home look different! Bigger doors are part of the base of your home and can set a nice tone.
Here is where we saved!
-Flooring. We did evoke VCC instead of hardwood. Ended up being a huge blessing in disguise because it’s an amazing product and super durable!
-Floorplan. It’s very important to get your floorplan just right and no more or no less than you need. Square footage is a very easy way to get money back they can go towards your splurges!
-Lighting placement. Only put decorative lights where you absolutely need them and put flush mount LEDs that you can change out later.
-Bathroom glass. We saved thousands of dollars by going with the standard framed glass. Frameless glass is something that you can change out easily yourself later.
-Bathroom countertops. We did a very inexpensive cultured marble. I don’t really love the product but it’s a bathroom and we saved a lot.
-Tile. I have an expensive I for tile but it can add up quickly in your big spaces. I had a specific tile that I really wanted in our guest bathroom but it ended up doing a smaller area just a pan of the shower. That way I still got my dream tile but didn’t have to pay for it in the entire room.
-Laundry room and pantry finish outs. These are two places that a fancy room is very trendy right now. I save these for later projects.
-Wood treatments on the walls. If you are handy it is way cheaper to do these yourself later! plumbing can also be upgraded later.
-We omitted the outdoor fireplace and kitchen. This was a tough one to do but it saved us thousands of dollars that we were able to use towards making our porch bigger. That is a project we have saved for later!
-We did basic landscaping and also a future project. Some people don’t put in landscaping for a while.
I hope this has helped! Make sure to follow me on instagram as I give building advice and tips in my normal everyday content! I also share the best home decor deals and finds!
XO Stephanie