Building a home is about concessions.
I think I've said this before, but I'll say it again. You can never have the perfect house plan. It seems like no matter what you do, even if you have the budget to build whatever you want... there will be something you wished you could do differently. The problem that most of us face is that we have to work within a budget, so creating the perfect home plan becomes even more difficult.
The other day I was talking with a client about the home plan I'm designing for him. It has been particularly difficult to design their home within their budget while incorporating their design ideas into the plan. While we discussed the process of picking and choosing what is most important to them he quoted a Home Builder friend of mine he had spoken to. “Building a home is about concessions.”
What does he mean by that? Well, it's just really difficult to get everything you want in one home. You might design the perfect master suite only to find that to get it you had to change the rear of the home in such a way that your covered patio is just not the same. Or, you really want a set of brick stairs coming up the front steps. Unfortunatley you live in the Rocky Mountians and the freeze-thaw cycles of winter will cause the bricks to break off; so you have to decide if you want to replace bricks every year, or go with some stamped concrete instead. Some of the concessions you make may be a result of your budget restraints, some may be because your spouse wants something else, some may be because it just isn't appropriate where you live. If you can learn how to make concessions, things will be a lot less stressful during the construction process.
Note: Making concessions isn't the same as settling for something you don't want. You're still paying your contractor or the sub-contractors to do a job. But it is important to understand that sometimes there is a reason behind why they recommend certain things. If you're not sure what the reasoning is, ask them.
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