During this phase, you will determine your location, timing, and budget for your new home, as well as your specific checklist as to what you want your new home to be like. Your checklist should be as specific as possible. Here are some of the basic information that it should provide:
- Size of home
- Number of bedroom and baths
- Exterior style (examples: stucco, brick, wood, roofing material, etc.)
This can often be one of the longest phases as this is where most of your decision making will happen. At this time, you will be interviewing for your core team that could include:
- Architect/designer
- Lender
- Builder/general contractor
- Roofing materials
- Kitchen amenities
- Bathroom amenities
- Cabinet layouts
- Window and door selection
- Appliance selection (this is important to ensure correct measurements)
- Flooring
This phase is often very fun for homeowners as they start envisioning their new home, but it can also be overwhelming. But that is why you have your core team to help guide you through this process and offer suggestions to help narrow down your ideas.
At the end of this phase, contracts are in place and the actual house construction can begin.
Site Work
This involves the preparation of the lot for your new home. The site needs to be cleared of plants, stone, etc. so that the house can rest on a level location.
Foundation
There are many options when it comes to building the foundation: slab, pier and beam, basement, etc. Bottom line, this is not an area to try to save money. A house is only as good as the foundation it rests on.
Framing
This phase is where the basic structure of the house will begin to take shape. You can see where the walls will be, the dimensions of the rooms, even where the closets are. The framing process can take anywhere from a week to a few months depending on the size and design features of the house.
Rough-Ins
The rough-in phase can often seem like the most uneventful phase. But rest-assured, there is a lot going on. Individual trades, such as plumbing, heating, electrical, lighting, cable, etc, are completing their individual tasks. Your general contractor is working with each of them and coordinating schedules so that this phase runs as efficiently and quickly as possible.
Interior Finishes
Now is when the house comes to life and can start to feel like a home. Some of the tasks of this phase include:
- Finish walls
- Hang cabinets
- Install appliances and fixtures
- Paint
- Put down flooring
Again, your general contractor will coordinate with all of the trades to ensure that they do not get in each others way and that this phase runs like a well-oiled machine.
Exterior Finishes
While work is happening on the inside, there is also a lot happening on the outside such as driveways, walkways, gutters, tile, etc.
Landscaping
Patios, pools, trees, plants, etc all make up the landscaping phase of your new home. Be sure to set aside enough budget for this phase, as a beautiful house surrounded by a dirt lot may not be the vision that you had in mind.
Completion
The punch-out list. With every big project, there will be items that were missed or need to be fixed before you move in. You should not be alarmed by this. Consider this your house's dress rehearsal.
Every good builder/general contractor will want to do a walk-through with you to help identify these items to create a punch-out list so that he can coordinate with his team to address each issue. Often it takes your set of fresh eyes to identify these items. Examples of punch-out list items could include:
- Paint touch-up
- Fixing a squeaky floor
- Replacing a broken tile
- Re-caulking a baseboard
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