Unfortunately and fortunately, we’ve been reading a lot of financial books and now a major goal we have is to pay off our new house as soon as possible once it’s built. That’s exciting, I love goals! Especially goals I get to share with my fiancé! However, it means I got the reality check that we’re not putting everything we want into our dream house at build time.
The good thing about this is that it means we get more design projects in the future! I love the idea of our house slowly evolving over the years as we grow into it. Each room or design detail will remind us of a certain time in our lives when we were doing x, y, z and finishing that project at the same time. It also gives us the time and opportunity to decide what we’d like to try to DIY. You only get to live once, and building something or learning a new skill is an experience to be had! Of course, there are some things we’d definitely hire a professional for, but you get the point.
Another good thing about choosing some budget friendlier options to begin with instead of what you really want is while there’s a risk that you’ll have wasted your money if you just tear it out later, you may find that some things are just fine as they are! That laminate countertop you put in the laundry room might be just fine because no one goes in there anyway. Or that acrylic tub surround you used in the other bathroom might be just fine because kids don’t care about tile and your guests never shower at your house anyway! Down the road, you may be glad that you didn’t splurge because of the pressure of wanting your new construction home to look like all the ones you see on Instagram. It’s all up to you, your lifestyle, what you can afford, and what you personally like!
With all that said, let’s jump right into it!
(BTW in case you’re wondering, we still have not heard from the builder, and that’s ok! Just assume going forward that I will let my readers know when we’re actively working with the builder. Until then, we’ll be planning and saving as much as possible!)
marble fireplace surround
This one hurts a bit! But the last thing I want to do is spend money on a meh version of a marble fireplace when I could’ve gotten the one of my dreams had I just waited a few extra years to save up for it.
As far as what kind of fireplace we’ll end up with, I don’t know! But once we determine the type (gas, wood, or electric), I would be willing to have the mantel/surround finished in something super budget friendly for the time being. I’m sure the builder would be able to suggest something that would look good for now but also not need a lot of demo in the future when we upgrade.
mudroom storage
Above is a pretty common layout for mudroom storage, but I made some tweaks to have two rows of coat hooks (for both taller and shorter height items or people) and shoe storage that accommodates the more common low shoe height (versus boots). I prefer entry/mudroom storage layouts that are open like this versus cubbies, mainly because which cubby does a guest use? What happens if you have 4 cubbies but 5 kids? I think it’d be simpler (and less expensive) to just do something more open.
However, anything involving carpentry is expensive! In the meantime, I’d be just as happy with some simple coat hooks. It’s also very possible that we’d decide that coat hooks are just fine for our family and mudroom storage with cabinets and shoe shelves just aren’t something we need. We shall see!
a nice closet system
If I haven’t already blogged about it, we’re hoping to have a closet/workout room connected to our primary bedroom or bathroom. One of the designers I follow actually did this in her own house she built, although the closet in the fitness room is just her husband’s:
We don’t really use our closet that much because a lot of our clothes are in our dresser and with working full time remote, we don’t typically need to dress nice. I would love to build an IKEA Pax closet into our fitness room later on because the price is very doable and the system is very customizable. I also think it’d be a great idea to do mirrored doors because if this closet is in our fitness room, the extra mirrors would be great for checking your form while working out.
Above is an example of what you can do with the PAX closet system if you weren’t already familiar with it. There are so many options!
fully finished laundry room
Our laundry room is currently a washer and dryer in our bathroom with one long stretch of wire rack shelving above for detergent, cleaning products, etc. While I would love to have a nice sink, counters to fold on, and some more hidden storage, I would totally be willing to wait for that!
custom bathroom vanities
Bathroom vanities are another area where I’ve grown to be more open with having something more budget friendly. I’m not sure how much of the budget they will take up, but if it makes sense to either buy prefab vanities or do a cabinet design we like with a budget friendly countertop like laminate, I’d be willing to wait to do that for now. On the bright side, something like a prefab vanity could later be donated to Habitat for Humanity or some other organization!
Above is an example of a prefab vanity that looks really nice! What we choose will all come down to whether it makes more sense to do prefab, nice cabinetry + budget countertop, or even just go with what we want!
a basement kitchenette
We’d want to make sure we got the hookups right at build time, but a basement kitchenette is one area where I’d rather wait and have it done how we want versus try to squeeze it into the budget and pick things we don’t really like. This is different than the bathrooms where you kind of need a sink/vanity.. we don’t need a kitchenette, so it’s on the chopping block for sure.
so many cool details!!
I love these marble baseboards! However, details like this would definitely be a later on fun project that would be at the bottom of our priority list. Same goes for pretty much any other fun details that just make our home ours!
I plan on coming out with a post that includes things we definitely want to get right at build time. Stay tuned for that!
Thanks for reading!
Davien
fluted wood & marble 
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