If you are planning on living in the house, to help create a home you feel comfortable in:
- Spend a lot of time pulling out photographs of homes or rooms from design magazines that appeal to you and provide them to your architect.
- List favorite Hotels/Guest Houses/Vacation spots and provide them to your architect.
- Be true to your personality and hobbies:
- Do you enjoy cooking? Plan for a big kitchen. Inventory what you have to ensure it will fit in your new cabinets. Install proper shelving so bowls, platters, pots do not sit piled on top of each other.
- Do you love baths? Install a bathtub.
- Do you like entertaining? Need a large Dining Room/Bar/BBQ.
- Do you have a dog/ sports equipment that need outside spigots for wash down?
- Do you love to swim? Make your pool longer.
- For outdoor areas, take into consideration wind, rain and sun issues.
- How much maintenance are you willing to devote or pay for (wood, gardens, pool etc.)
- Do you need to put the television/home theatre in a sound proof area of the house or smack in the middle?
- Security: System? Bars? Dogs? Lighting?
- You cannot overestimate how much curtains cost.
- You cannot overestimate how much landscaping costs.
- Budget for some new décor, no matter how much furniture you already own.
- Consider traffic paths in/out of every room.
- Speaker wiring - decide early.
- How much storage? You need more than you think.
- Dimmers – As many as you can afford. They’re economical, ecological and sexy!
- Here again, CHEAP IS EXPENSIVE.