One of the best things you can do when you design a custom home is to really consider the difference between what you want and what you truly need. This can actually be much more difficult than it sounds because the people in your family may view these wants and needs very differently. For instance, one family member may think it’s essential to have a formal living room for entertaining guests, while someone else may prefer entertaining in the basement and even consider a formal living room wasted space.
However, having these discussions is essential to the process of designing the perfect home for your family. In fact, at Sekas Homes, we encourage our homeowners to have these discussions as soon as possible—that way, all of the important decisions about how you want to design a custom home are set before the majority of the actual planning begins. That’s why we have a needs vs. wants design plan to help you make this discussion not only productive and helpful, but fun, too.
Our Needs vs. Wants Design Plan
When you design a custom home, there are a lot of things you need to consider. One of the most important of them is what, exactly, is going to go in your home. Do you need a double oven? How about a custom-built bar in the basement? What can’t you live without in your new custom home and what would simply be a nice benefit? Our top designers at Sekas Homes can help you figure out what your wants and needs are.
- The first step in this process is to have you and any other decision makers in your family (such as your spouse) sit down and write down a list of all your wants, needs, dreams, and visions for your custom home in no particular order. Each of you should make a separate list without consulting the other.
- After you’ve exhausted all of the ideas you can think of for your custom home, rank each item by its number of importance, starting with number one and working your way downward. You shouldn’t stress over whether number four should come before number five or vice versa—the most important part of this activity is making sure number four and number 43 do not get swapped.
- Finally, the most important part of the needs vs. wants design plan is for you and your family members to compare your ranked lists. Find the pieces that are high on both of your lists and continue to combine into one master list—this is what you will use to design a custom home that is just right for both of you. If you run into any problems or questions when combining your needs/wants lists, our experienced designers can help you select the items that are going to be more beneficial to the design and flow of your home.
This master list of your combined needs and wants will help you save a lot of time and energy, and when you meet with your design team from Sekas Homes, it will help us more accurately estimate the cost for your custom home and alter the design to meet your budget.
To learn more about how to design a custom home and create a needs vs. wants plan, contact the experts at Sekas Homes. We can help you create your dream custom home in Northern Virginia—call us today!
