A huge part of the custom home building process is making a multitude of decisions relative to all of the finishes of the house. Nobody (but your general contractor) fusses much about what kind of lumber to use or how trusses should be designed, or how much rebar you’ll need, but once the skeleton is done – in fact, while the skeleton is being built, there are tons of decisions that need to be made on your new custom home. This article will help prep you for some of the decisions on the horizon.
Denver Home Builders Are Unique
Of course, people are moving to Denver to build new homes because of the beautiful landscape we all enjoy. This is a great area to build a new home in the city, suburbs, or country. And, people building custom homes care a lot about the view!
So, let’s start our decision-making discussion with the outside of the home. While building your new home, owners have to pick window 
frame color, type, shape, grid design if any, and in some cases, glass type. Brick or stone is a “weighty” decision (sorry for the pun) for most owners. Stucco? Siding? Steel? A little of each?
Blended or used selectively these construction materials can make a huge statement of style. Of course, colors for all of these items must be chosen. How do they work in the neighborhood? How do they blend with the landscape or scenery? And…here’s the kicker…most of these design and materials decisions have to be made pretty early in the design and construction process.
You’ll need time to research your choices and your general contractor (turnkey approach) will need time to order the materials so they arrive, not too early but definitely not too late. If you’re using the HomeWrights Owner-Builder Program, you ARE the general contractor and your decision-making process will need to even a little more precise.
Inside your new custom home, you’ll have to pick plumbing fixtures and faucets WHILE the house is being framed. Sooner is better in this case. Sink size, number and placement, tub size, shower configuration, etc., drive the framing of interior walls. Moving a shower or tub after it’s been framed in is possible but will cost you dearly in time and money.
Some of the new, popular composite sinks, although wonderful in many ways, have been known to show up cracked during shipping now and then. And if it arrives on installation day but it’s damaged, schedules quickly get out of whack. This is an area where you can save yourself time and money if you’re willing to go find and purchase these materials on your own.
Have a discussion with your chosen general contractor about the pros and cons of buying your own materials or letting your contractor provide an “allowance” for your fixtures and faucets. If your general contractor provides you with the budget for the “allowance” make sure you understand the rules of the pricing game. What happens when you go over the allowance and what happens when you stay under the allowance?
Custom home builders have decisions to make on doors, cabinets, trim type and many configurations, in a timely fashion in order for framing, plumbing and electrical work to progress. Does the door swing right or left? Is it ADA (handicap accessible) compliant? Do we want the very popular barn doors or traditional? Hollow core or solid?
The speed of your decision making is just as important as the thoughtfulness of your decision making. You don’t want to rush but you also don’t want to hold up a fast-moving productive crew.
Appliances must be chosen prior to kitchen design in many cases, so that everything fits correctly. A good cabinet builder is going to give 
you recommendations for standard sizes and when you vary from those sizes, make sure you communicate quickly and clearly with your cabinet maker so there are no last-minute surprises. Remember that surprises usually cost you money.
We like choices, and our clients do too. The HomeWrights Owner-Builder system of home building is different than traditional general contractor methods because we offer our clients an infinite number of resources to choose from for their appliances, fixtures, design and finishes. We try to make that as easy as possible by connecting our clients to our “preferred suppliers” so our clients get contractor rates most of the time.
With our Owner-Builder Program our clients have a lot of flexibility in their decision-making process which allows them to get very creative with where they find and buy the best bargains.
Making custom home building decisions can be challenging but we encourage our clients to see it as part of a joyful, creative process. The decision-making game is what makes every custom home truly custom. HomeWrights Custom Homes’ clients end up with such unique, one-of-a-kind homes that reflect the decisions they’ve made and the creative spirit that goes into them.
Top 10 Denver Home Builders’ List
Search the Internet for the top 10 Denver Home Builders’ List and you’ll find plenty of general contractors to build your custom home. But is your name on that top ten list? At HomeWrights Custom Homes we like to pose a few challenging questions…
- “Is there a custom home builder out there that will care about your new custom home as much as you?”
- “Is there a custom home builder in the Denver area that’s as passionate and committed to the quality of your home as you are?”
- “Is there a residential home builder anywhere that will pay attention to the detail like you will?”
Likely not! So, think about your decision-making skills, your project-management skills, and your people skills before you decide to build your own custom home. If you use the HomeWrights Owner-Builder Program, you’ll need all of those skills to a great degree.
If you want a turnkey custom home built by HomeWrights Custom homes or any other Denver custom home builder, you’ll certainly need some of those skills. There are many benefits to building a custom home and there’s a lot of work that goes with it. Do your homework, make a clear decision, commit to a plan and build the new home of your dreams!
Here’s the most important point to take away from this “short list” of custom home builder decisions. You will have to make these and many other decisions whether you build yourself, or a builder does it for you. Building a custom home in the Denver area or anywhere for that matter, is going to be hard work no matter which approach you take.
But the financial rewards, the satisfaction, the pride, and the joy of having exactly what you want in your new custom home are quite substantial.
If you’ve found this article at all overwhelming or intimidating, don’t worry, HomeWrights provides its clients a number of great decision-making and project management tools to help you create the home of your dreams! We guide you through every step of the custom home building process.
Related Article – How Much Profit Should a Contractor Make?
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