What Would Your Dream Home Look Like?
A home is a lot more than just a place you live — it’s an extension of your personality, the canvas upon which your own unique lifestyle comes to life, so of course it is normal to dream about what your ideal house would look like if you were able to custom design it.
What you may not know is how easy it can be to make this dream a reality. Empty-nesters looking to move away from the hustle and bustle of the city might find it easier than they think to find a company that can build a custom home in a community for active adults at an affordable price.
If this is something you want to learn more about, here are three things to take into account when planning your own dream home:
1. Location
Most aspects of your lifestyle come directly or indirectly from the area you live in, so figuring out how you want to live always starts with deciding where you want to settle down. If you have spent most of your career working at a gruelling pace in a busy, crowded city, you may be looking for ways to avoid the noise and traffic while still getting to enjoy fine food and drink at excellent restaurants.
In that case, a place in wine country might be ideal. The Niagara Peninsula is famous for its stunning natural beauty, and with so many award-winning vineyards near at hand, you’ll have no trouble finding a shaded patio where you can spend a weekend afternoon relaxing with a glass of pinot noir.
2. Floorplan
One of the downsides of buying an older home is that the floor plan seems to be slightly off. Designed for life in a different era, older homes present a lot of corners and sections that make a building feel cramped today. Newer homes feel more spacious thanks to their open floor plans and a layout that emphasize a light and airy feeling. The addition of sunrooms and elements of indoor-outdoor living can also open a space up.
3. Style and Materials
Perhaps the most enjoyable part of designing your home is getting to choose the design features and materials that will make your place truly your own. Do you want to go for hip sixties modernism? Twenty-first century minimalism? Classic colonial elegance and style?
Most custom home builders will give you plenty of choice when it comes to things like crown molding, cabinets, cupboards, wooden floors, and stone countertops. The options can be overwhelming at times. Prioritize the things that are most important to you, and be practical — spending a bunch of money on a feature you’ll barely see or use isn’t usually worth it.
If you’re ready to move on to pastures green and new, don’t settle for the established options: if you do your research, that dream house in wine country could be yours sooner than you might imagine.
