When building a new home (not custom) what do you choose to upgrade on? Part 1

How do you pick and choose which upgrades to do when you build and which upgrades to deal with later?

And stay within budget?

The choices we made were based on the fact that I like to (obviously if you have ever read this blog before or seen posts from my old house) build and make things and decorate. Check out the Our Home tab and use links from that if you are curious. So, that was what drove our decision making on a lot of the upgrades we chose, or passed on. Basically, if it would be a total pain to redo and involved ripping out of things, it was being done during building. If it involved construction and we would never do it later, it was chosen as an upgrade. However, if it was cosmetic we would do it ourselves. If it was a ridiculous amount of money (like cabinets in the laundry room for $500 base?) we would do it ourselves. The downfall of not building with a custom home builder, if I didn't like any of their options, even the full upgrades, we chose the basic so I can chuck it out and get our own. (For example their selection of hardware was horrible - not at all to my liking for kitchens - so I chose the ones that came with our upgraded cabinets, but I won't let them install them because I don't want to have holes I need to change when I find some I like).

Our builder is building in several communities in our general area. For our community we had 7 floorplans to choose from. We went with 2 stories because that is what I wanted and I wanted all bedrooms on the upper floor. That narrowed down what floorplans we could pick from.

Here is a photo of the model home (our floor plan and elevation, not color). It had over $100,000 in upgrades. How ridiculous is that? Of course I loved them all.....but could not have them all....



Our house will have the garage on the right side, will not have trees planted in front of the house, will have a different side roof elevation due to a corner lot, and will not have strange spotlights in the fascia. Oh - it will be RED!!!!

Here is a list of my other must haves when looking for houses:
* 2 stories
* master bedroom on 2nd floor
* COVERED patio in the back
* dining room AND eat in kitchen
* guest room space
* craft / sewing room space
* NOT open concept - I like my spaces

Once we chose our floor plan we got to choose the upgrades to the floor plan - not to be confused with the upgrades you do at the design center...

We were amazed at how long this process took and all the options that are available. And that every choice involved a cash register making "cha - ching" sounds in my head!


What we decided to upgrade in structure and why:

* LARGER COVERED PATIO in back yard - we loved our large screen room in our old house and knew we would want a large patio in a new house. This upgrade is not at big as the screened patio, but it is close. We knew we would never rip a small patio roof off and add a new larger one, so the time to do that was now. We did not pay to have it screened in, as that was a rip off. Instead we will have it done ourselves (that is not something that I can DIY) by a professional.

* ADDED WINDOWS in the side of the house to the front room and the master bedroom. I love natural light and we have the windows open a lot in the cooler weather. You can't get cross breezes if you don't have any windows and I get S.A.D. (totally self diagnosed) if I don't get enough light.



* Got BIGGER BASEBOARD in entire house. This is a no brainer to me. Sure I could rip out baseboard molding and put in new larger molding myself. But for the ENTIRE house. No way!

* BIGGER DOOR MOLDING. Again, total no brainer... the same reason as for the baseboard. If you pay attention, the model homes all have the bigger molding on baseboards and door frames. Don't forget to ask about the door frames! Here is a picture of the thicker door frames.



* RAISED THE CEILING HEIGHT from 8 feet to 9 feet on the second floor. To me this makes a dramatic difference in every room upstairs and we would never be able to alter that in the future.

* All interior doors (except metal one from garage) increased to SEVEN FOOT DOORS. It was one cost and included one set of french doors (also upgrade), one set of french pantry doors, and one other door. However, we only chose to do this on the first floor saving at least $500 by not doing it upstairs.

* WHOLE HOUSE WATER SORTENER added - very reasonable compared with adding after the fact and after living for 10 years without one I had to have it.

* Moving A/C Pads from the back of the house to the side of the house. We are outdoor people, I don't want to see my AC unit in my backyard. Why did I even have to pay for that?

* ADDED A SECOND SINK in the second bath upstairs which will be for both boys. It will also be for guests when we have them.

* ADDED SOME OUTLETS, specifically a GFI one in the garage so now I will have TWO for all my power tools! You think I kid?

* ADDED A WALL between dining and living room - this was a charge due to construction costs - but remember I like my spaces and don't like large open concept houses.

* ADDED WATER HOOK UP up for a laundry sink. I talked Mr. Thrifty out of paying several hundred for the laundry sink, when I know for a fact I can get the sink, AND counter, AND cabinets custom fit by me, for that price (or maybe even less).

* ADDED FRENCH DOORS to an upstairs bedroom that will be my craft room and it opens up to the upstairs loft.

* We are on a corner lot so the builder puts WINDOWS WITH GRIDS (like the front windows in the picture of the model) on the side of the house facing the road. So the front and one side will have windows with grids. We decided to pay to upgrade all the other windows in the house with grids.


I think that is all. I'm sure I forgot some things though......

What we decided on in the design center is next! That was a fun but frustrating trip.

See you next time!!!!

Update: Click here to read Part 2