When It Comes to Designing Your Own Custom Home, Trust Your Gut

We started our home-building journey in the spring of 2018 after finding the perfect lot for sale in a neighborhood we’ve been stalking for years. The neighborhood is a custom home neighborhood, meaning that you can design a one-of-a-kind home, instead of only being able to choose from the builder’s set models. There are pros and cons to each option, but we decided the custom route was perfect for what we wanted. So, we set off to design the custom forever home of our dreams.

We had already lived in several different homes, so we had a pretty good idea of what features worked well for us and what didn’t. That knowledge served us very well when diving into designing a home from scratch. We tried to nail down exactly what we needed in a house that functioned well for our family. Our must-have list included four bedrooms all on the same floor, an office, eat-in area in the kitchen, mudroom and a fireplace.

Then we made our “nice-to-have” list, which included an upstairs laundry room, a finished basement, and a fireplace in the master bedroom. Space in any home is a precious commodity, no matter how big it is, so trying to make sure you are only including rooms and features that will actually be used is critical.

With that thought in mind, we knew we wanted a great room that opened right up to the kitchen. The space needed to give us plenty of room for our family to hang out for movie nights, but also tons of open space to entertain friends and family, which we love to do. We knew we wanted huge vaulted ceilings, but also wanted it to feel cozy and homey for our family on a daily basis.

The perfect solution was to design the room centered around a huge fireplace as the focal point. After mulling over the various options, we found the perfect gas fireplace in the TRUE 42-inch gas fireplace with the greige herringbone brick interior panel. I love that it can be customized to complement our home’s design and décor. It’s beautiful and gives us the cozy warmth we were looking for.

When we started designing our home, our children were three years old and nine months old, which played a large role in how we designed the house and functionality. We knew we needed to take certain safety precautions (I absolutely did not want an open stairwell from the top floor to the basement, aka a death trap for small kiddos), but we also had to think ahead. They weren’t going to be little forever, so we tried to think about how we’d grow into the space and what their future needs might be.

After taking the time to think about the kids as teenagers, we decided to finish the basement to include an open rec room area. We imagine them hanging out with friends down there or having sleepovers, so it made sense to add another gas fireplace in the basement.

Staying cozy in the basement during Colorado winters ensures the space will be usable all year around, for many years to come. With the SlimLine 7X, it truly doesn’t feel like a cold, dark space, but just an extension of our family room.

Your builder is your best friend in this process. They are the expert with a wealth of knowledge and experience. While I will always maintain that you need to trust your gut, you are also wise to listen to their suggestions. Learn from the mistakes they’ve made in the past, so you don’t make them in your own house. A great builder will help guide you through the process and build the best house for your budget, while also listening to your ideas to help bring them to life.

Depending on your own background, some of the decisions can be very overwhelming, which is when you lean on the builder’s expertise. Our builder made the initial suggestions to us regarding windows he loves within our overall budget, taking the guesswork out of it for us. He did the same when it came to fireplaces.

Since he knew our floorplan and the overall architectural design of the house so well, he was able to guide us directly to the perfect choices. He knew the space would be tight in the office and it wasn’t a huge focal point, so he suggested the SlimLine 5. He was right. It’s a beautiful fireplace with a small footprint that provides the perfect amount of heat at a reasonable price point for this secondary room.

My biggest takeaway from this process is to design a home YOU love – not what you think anyone else wants. This is your space. You want to feel at home.