6 New Home Custom Upgrades Worth Adding To Your Budget
Building a new home is no small undertaking, especially if you are a first-time homeowner. When it comes to custom upgrades for your home, some are well worth adding to your budget. Often, new construction doesn’t include custom upgrades and can cause wallet shock when you find out.
However, before you start making plans for a new home or a major renovation, consider your options. While keeping within your budget is your goal, you may want to add custom upgrades to increase your home’s value.
Why Custom Upgrades Can Make All The Difference
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Pairing up with the right builder can take months of strenuous hunting, and settling on a location that meets your interests requires careful planning. Custom homeowners must also comb through local building codes to rule out zoning restrictions or neighborhood ordinances.
More so, once ticking off your regulation check-list and receiving your unique layout plan like this, the real fun begins. That’s when it’s essential to decide which custom upgrades you want and those you don’t. Also, planning out our budget is equally as important. Of course, you’ll need to do that before you start deciding which custom upgrades you want.
When we first bought our home, we couldn’t believe this list of upgrades not included in the base price. When we took a look at the custom upgrade list of options, shock took over. We didn’t include these options in our budget, but we decided to make room to include them.
Furthermore, we chose to look down the road when it was time to sell our home. We knew these custom upgrades would increase the value of our resale and turn into a smart investment. Plus, looking back, we thoroughly enjoy every custom upgrade we decided on adding.
Below, you’ll discover some options to think about when purchasing your new home or remodeling your existing one.
1 – Custom Upgrades For The Kitchen
Let’s face it. We all want a chic, upgraded kitchen—you know, the ones you see in magazines and on television. But we know better when reality sets in and snaps us back into reality. That doesn’t mean you can’t budget for at least some of them.
For example, a kitchen island always makes sense both esthetically and investment-wise. Adding an island makes perfect sense since we all spend most of our time in the kitchen. And down the road, when and if you decide to sell, it’s one of the first places potential buyers will look.
If your budget doesn’t allow for one, consider adding granite countertops and upgrade the appliances. Better yet, skip the granite and go for quartz countertops. You can also think about upgrading the kitchen cabinets and if your budget doesn’t permit, fancy them up with some high-end cabinet hardware instead.
Remember, you don’t need to spend a fortune on upgrades. You can also add decorative lighting under your kitchen cabinets or add upgraded lighting fixtures too. Either way, you’ll discover your kitchen upgrades can work within your budget, and you can have a beautiful kitchen after all.
2 – Wood Flooring
Some may say to skip wood flooring and go with laminate when considering custom upgrades for your home, but we disagree. Yes, laminate flooring is trendy and much more affordable, but genuine wood flooring makes much better sense. Natural wood flooring has a beautiful natural finish; visually, you can tell the difference between the two.
When considering custom upgrades, wood flooring is always worth considering. When we first bought our home, we chose wood floors throughout except for our three bedrooms. That turned out to be a mistake. We thought rugging the bedrooms would be more comfortable and add warmth and coziness. It turns out we were wrong because every few years, they require replacing.
Now, we decided to pull up all the rugs and add wood flooring to all three bedrooms. You can always add beautiful area rugs if you want to add warmth and coziness to your bedroom. The flooring in your home makes a bold impression, especially for resale. If you can, add wood flooring to your budget. You won’t regret doing so.
3 – Upgrade Your Lighting Fixtures
You might already know that you always get the basics when you buy a new home. And that includes the light fixtures. Sadly, your home’s lighting is one of the most critical features and makes a massive impression for resale. But let’s forget about the resale value right now. Instead, decorating your home with upscale lighting is one of the features you’ll enjoy most.
Since we live in a townhouse, our home connects on both sides to another house. That means light can only enter from the front and back windows. We added custom lighting to our home to ensure we made the most of our situation. When adding custom upgrades, always consider upping your lighting game.
If possible, much of the lighting for your home should come from natural sources. Many folks add extra windows to their home or replace them with bay windows. Bay windows bring in much natural light and transform the exterior of your home as well. For example, in the last house we owned, we added a bay window to give us more light and update the exterior. You can see examples like this bay window roof replacement as they offer many options for you to consider.
When possible, scrutinize every room and consider where you can increase the amount of light. We also added decorative track lighting in our office since it only has one window. This decision turned out to be a grand idea. Now, the room fills with light, and since it features a dimmer switch, ambiance is always an option.
4 – Upgrading Your Garage
Let’s face it. Our garages are an extension of our home, and if you don’t have one, you might want to consider adding one. One of the main criteria for choosing our custom upgrades was adding heavy-duty steel cabinets to our garage space. More so, these cabinets house everything from tools, paint, small kitchen appliances, and a pantry.
Additionally, these cabinets transformed our garage into an extension of our home, and we still had enough room to house our SUV. Remember, you’ll want to add things like a bike rack, gardening supplies storage, as well as a hook wrack for mops, shovel, etc. as well. These steel cabinets come in various sizes and shapes to house almost anything in your garage.
When it comes to upgrading your new or existing home, add garage upgrades to your budget. After all, you want your garage as neat and organized as the rest of your home. Plus, it’s so much easier to find everything and ensure your things remain protected and in good shape.
5 – Decorative Crown MoUlding – Custom Upgrades Worth Considering
When deciding upon custom upgrades for your home, consider adding decorative crown molding to key areas of your living space. Crown molding sets every room apart and adds a touch of flair and decorative elements. Additionally, you can choose from various styles and use paint to accent them even further.
When building our home, we chose to add crown molding to delegated areas, including the living room, master bedroom, and foyer area. Of course, you can add them to any room, including the bathroom, for some extra pizzazz. Crown molding is also perfect for renovations to your existing home.
Crown molding can be used for many decorating ideas besides running it across the ceilings. For example, centering it on walls creates decorative rectangular or square shapes. Either way, crown molding adds unique decorative elements to your home, which is worth the additional expense.
6 – New Home Builders Paint
If you are a new home buyer designing your home from the foundation up, ensure you don’t settle for your builder’s paint. If you choose to do so, you will end up repainting the entire house again. Sadly, we experienced the same issue. We hired a professional paint company to repaint the whole house, costing us thousands in expenses.
Instead, purchase your upgraded paint and custom colors along with instructions for your builder and bypass the whitewashed paint. This lesson ended up costing unnecessary expenses and headaches. If you are planning a renovation, always choose top-quality paint. After all, you want your paint to last for years to come and enjoy your chosen colors.
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