I’ve received some reader emails about what to spend their money on when building a new house. Most of us stretch financially to get into our homes in the first place and we don’t have a lot left over for upgrades. We saved for four years to buy our townhome and when we went to the design center to choose finishes and upgrades we realized we didn’t have a lot left over for all the “extras”. I had really been looking forward to choosing fun options for our new house but when we showed up I realized the options in our budget weren’t the options I had been dreaming of.
SAVE // I, like many many others, really love white kitchens. I set my heart on something like this:
image via House Beautiful
However when we went to choose our cabinets I learned white cabinets would be an extra $3,000… gulp. Not in the budget. So we went with brown instead. They were a $0 upgrade.
I chose a modern shaker style that I really like. Because I couldn’t have the color I wanted I decided to choose the shape and style I wanted. We can always paint later. I also wanted a beautiful marble countertop but had to settle for white laminate instead. That was another $0 upgrade.
We also decided to opt out on a backsplash and did it ourselves a couple of years later.
SPLURGE // We decided to go with hardwood (fake hardwood) floors on our main floor instead of the standard tile. I’m really glad we did this because re-flooring would have been a major pain later on. I am not going to lie though, the dark hardwood shows everything!
SAVE // We had our whole house painted white. We saved a lot by doing one tone instead of two. I figured I’d rather paint walls than ceilings, baseboards and doors. We later decided on a paint color for the walls but painting our entire house by ourselves was torture. I wish we had paid to just have it done but it saved us a lot of money. I also didn’t want to just pick a color at the design center and cross my fingers that it worked out. I wanted to live in my house for a few months and really make the right decision on paint.
image by Jessica Kettle Photography
SPLURGE // This may seem utterly ridiculous but we upgraded all our doors for $200. At first my husband thought I was crazy that I was so insistent on it but I’m so glad we did it. I love the modern look of the three panels and for some reason it makes my whole home feel more custom. It fits the style of my home so well. Changing your doors is not really something you are going to want to do later so I’m glad I made this decision upfront.
left image by Britta Anne Photography and right image by Jessica Kettle Photography
SAVE // We decided against having our windows framed out and just did it a few years later ourselves. The above pictures are of the same window in Jett’s room. Before we had our windows framed out I disguised our lack of framing with high and wide curtains.
SPLURGE // The best decision we made was to vault our upstairs ceilings. This upgrade was a significant amount but so worth it in my opinion. The vault makes our teeny tiny rooms feel so much bigger. A ceiling vault is something you wouldn’t be able to just add on later so it was a good investment upfront.
SPLURGE // Anything behind the walls is always good to do upfront. We wired our downstairs basement for surround sound because it’s something we’d never be able to do afterwards.
Overall just prioritize what things are most important to you. You will make mistakes but it will help you make better decisions when you go to build your next house!
What are the best or worst decisions you all have made in building your homes?
With the amount of rain we have had this spring, I am so thankful we went for the sump pumps in the basement. We did save by leaving our basement unfinished when we doubled our house with an addition. We had planned to redo it ourselves but our contractor needed work badly in the recession and gave us an amazing deal on finishing it out for us about a year later. So worth it!
I really wish we had finished our basement when we built our house and just added it to our mortgage payment. It was so hard to save up the money to do it later down the road!
Upgrading doors is a huge idea. Not exactly a "small" detail, but it really does update the look of every living area in your house and create a seamless presentation. Good call! Nice blog :o)
did you ever do a post on how you framed the windows? we just moved into a 6 year old home and the windows are not framed out and it just looks so unfinished to me. i'd love to do them at some point.
Well….. we had them hired out…. 🙂 So no I don't. My husband and I are not "handy" whatsoever. We saved some of our tax return money to do them. Sorry I'm not more help!
Great post! We made some of the same choices when building in 2009… stained cabinets vs painted, one wall color, etc. One of the best things we did was to order taller upper cabinets (used for 9 or 10 ft wall heights) in our regular 8 ft kitchen, which gave us cabinets all the way to the ceiling. Another thing we did that had huge payoff was to change the blueprints to make part of the porch into a mud room. It's a tiny little footprint, but so useful! We took a credit on all the flooring (except for the bathrooms which we tiled) and used the $ to purchase 3/4" prefinished hardwood for the rest of the house. Because my husband installed it himself, it didn't cost any extra.
We took the standard lighting and hardware and I'm glad we did as I think I would have been overwhelmed with all those little decisions. However, if/when we do this again, I will take credits on all that and use the $ to purchase items with more character at consignment and antique shops or even Home Depot or Lowes. We learn as we go!
I really wish we had done higher cabinets! That is one big regret I have.
Awesome post! We'll be ready to buy after we get back from Europe, but we'd buy an older house. This got me thinking about what our renovation priorities should be, and what we should do ourselves vs. hire out. It must be hard to make so many decisions in such a short period of time when you build a new house! And I wonder why white kitchens are so much more expensive…
I say hire out as much as you can. You and me see all the little things and details so I'm way judgmental and critical of any work we did ourselves. I wish we had just saved our money and had a professional do some of things we tried to tackle on our own.
I LOVE this! Only wish I could have read it two years ago before we built our first home 🙂 We ended up upgrading to white cabinets in the kitchen – but the quote to do so was a fraction of what you mentioned – it's crazy how it varies from one builder to the next! Our collection of tips is here: http://www.lifeinyellow.com/2013/03/building-a-home-what-wed-do-differently-and-what-we-wouldnt/
TFS!
What a great post! It's funny how much you learn after building just one house. I'll do a lot of things differently with our next house.
Ah, I love to talk house building! We took the money that the builder allotted for bathroom mirrors and put it toward one large framed mirror in the master bathroom. Then I went out and found unique mirrors on eBay, at BB&B, and even Lowes for the other bathrooms- for a fraction of what it would have cost for a plain mirror slab from the mirror subcontractor!
We were lucky to be buying right after the housing market crash-the builder let us do over $20,000 worth of upgrades if we paid the price listed. Of course we were also selling our old house right after the market crash and that was not fun. We upgraded the lighting in our last two houses. Builders never allot enough money for lighting-we did not go crazy with it, but we did want something that did not look like it belonged in an college apt. complex!
We upgraded the master closet shelving from the white standard to a dark wood – that was a little pricey but worth it. And the big thing – we took the carpet out of the hallways and extended the hardwood. We learned that lesson in our old home -carpeted hallways get nasty and worn out fast.
We also opted out of the builder basic wood fence for the backyard. We have a small lot and I felt like a wooden privacy fence would feel like living in a wooden box. The black aluminum fence cost twice as much but: No Upkeep! Re-staining a fence is no joke. Found that out the hard way too.
A backyard sidewalk was definitely a must, so we would have a path way to the driveway. That is not as expensive as you would think, either.
I could go on all day! 😀
Wow! You guys made some really smart decisions! We haven't built a fence yet but re-painting every year sounds like a nightmare so we will definitely have to consider aluminum!
Love this post..i actually used the first pic to build our kitchen a few yrs ago. Miss it!
Madebygirl.blogspot.com
MadeByGirl.com
I know! Your kitchen was so dreamy. I bet it was hard to leave 🙁
good things to think about! your home is so bright and fresh. i love it.
question: where did you get your dining room rug? i need a new one! how does it clean up? i need it to go right under my table (where lots of food drops from my 4 and 2 year olds). thanks!
It's an outdoor rug and one of the best things I've ever purchased for my home. It hides everything and cleans up like a dream! you can read more about it here. http://6thstreetdesignschool.blogspot.com/2010/05/new-kitchen-rug.html
cool, thanks! i have been using an ikea sisal rug that i painted but the edges are getting soooooo dirty. i'll have to look into more outdoor rugs.
These tips are so great! We've thought of building our next home, but I am always intimidated thinking about how many choices we'd have to make! This would be a wonderful place to start. Thanks so much!
~Abby =)
This post reminded me of all the decisions that went into our renovation. We too decided to re-paint all of our walls ourselves and boy was it A LOT of work! Not sure I'd do it again but I do like the idea of living in a space before finalizing on paint colors. I am with you on the vaulted ceilings – they make your bedrooms looks so open and big.
I totally agree. SO MUCH WORK! everyone says painting is a cheap and easy way to change up a space but it's not so easy for us. It's pretty much torture but always worth it in the end 🙂
Wow! Awesome tips! my husband and I don't own yet but we do have a vaulted ceiling in our living room, it makes the place look so much bigger! being a small condo. By the way I love the white kitchen too : ) thanks for sharing!
(Hey everyone I actually created a website with cool stuff that can help you in your everyday life! if anyone wants to check it out you can go to arodriguez4.searchthisnow.info )
We've renoed our first house top to bottom and now are thinking about building. We got rid of all of our w2w carpet and had bamboo installed, so it was necessary to replace the baseboards, and I'm so glad we spent a little more to install taller ones with a colonial design. It added a ton of character over the short builder ranch style ones we replaced. These, and crown moldings, really frame out and finish a room. http://Www.thelifeihaveimagined.blogspot.com/p/we-reno.html
We have taller baseboards too and I love it! I feel like it finishes and frames my rooms so well!
I'd still love to frame out our windows too.
And I have been obsessed with the first kitchen photo for a while now. Those pendant lights are a dream!
Fantastic advice. I would also look at air conditioning. We have a home that should have had two zones. Looking back, it would have been far less expensive to do it back in the day. Now we live with a downstairs that gets too chilly and an upstairs that is too warm. 🙂
Can you tell me what kind of hardwood floors you used in your kitchen (species, stain and retailer where you got them)? We are moving into a new house next month and will be tearing out the existing flooring to update them with new hardwood floors. I'm really excited but have been agonizing over what type of hardwood floors to get and the type of look I really want. I'm leaning towards a medium brownish color with some variation of lighter tones as well but have been having trouble finding exactly what I want. Help! 😉
Hi Kirsten! We are building and the home is already mostly chose but I get to choose paint. I am seriously considering white for the whole house but my husband thinks that's crazy. What do you think??? You loved it?! I think it would be a great clean palette to start with. Otherwise I'm tempted to pick a medium grey for the whole house.
Hi Kirsten! We are building and the home is already mostly chose but I get to choose paint. I am seriously considering white for the whole house but my husband thinks that's crazy. What do you think??? You loved it?! I think it would be a great clean palette to start with. Otherwise I'm tempted to pick a medium grey for the whole house.
White gets to grubby though with dirty smudges around might switches, close to doors.
We have white everywhere and now looks dirty.
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Budget, budget. It is always an influential factor in construction. There will always be a time when you'll compromise or settle for less. So it's extremely helpful to learn tips on how to work out the whole process without sacrificing your aesthetic standards and financial capability. Yolande@Co-Construct
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I love these ideas for the kitchen! We're drawing up plans for what we want designed in our house for our builders. I'm going to let him know about this kitchen! Thanks so much, my builders going to love it too!
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That's true that you have to aware of how much it really costs to build your own home. My mom and I have planned and re-planned our dream homes since I was little. Finishes and fixtures can really change the price as well. Why are white cabinets so much more? At least the brown ones look just fine in this picture. http://www.mvmch.com/home-features.html
That really is a beautiful white kitchen design. My kitchen is a warm brown and yellow, but I want it to have more light in it now. Luckily my husband and I are redesigning our whole living area, kitchen and all, so I can mimic some of these styles. I think the best way for me to emulate a clean white kitchen is to allow the most natural light into the room.
http://www.arochadesignbuild.com/
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