If you didn't build your home custom to suit all of your needs from the beginning, you are probably living in a home that was designed for a general user. This kind of home is called a spec home. This applies to the person who built a home from scratch but followed plans to keep it focused on how a typical family would use it, without any major customization. If this is you, you might be experiencing some difficulty as your family grows and changes. The average modern family will have many needs to consider as the years turn into decades. This means remodeling the once functional home to meet current day and future needs becomes the task at hand.
Buying for Style
If you originally bought your home based on the style or aesthetic appeal, the functionality of your home becomes harder to bear as your life develops. In cases like this, your real problem that needs solving is functionality alone. You may not need someone to help you pull together a more updated style or feel to your home, but more for how your kitchen marries with your living room. If you bought your home when you had young kids and now they all have a driver's license, there may be some functionality lost over the years. Buying for style can be a good problem, because you still love the feel and design of your home. You may only need advice on which walls to knock down or how to better layout your kitchen since you've started cooking more.
Customizing for Function Now
As you begin thinking about a new home design, think about how you are currently using your space, what works for you and what doesn't. Walk around your home and make notes. Make it a point to make notes over a period of 2 or 3 weeks. As you are doing laundry or making dinner or lounging on the patio. Think about the daily functions you would like to see improved and the areas you are not really utilizing that much. From your list, what are your top priorities? Once you get further down the path of remodeling, you may have to give up making one space perfect to have another space operate efficiently or more productively. Knowing what will improve your daily quality of life is a great start to a new home design.
Customizing for Future Function
Don't forget to think 10 or 20 years into the future. If you intend for this home to be the last place you live, consider what your life will look like when the kids are gone and you are retired. How will you use your home then? Will you create a home design that fits your lifestyle now and will need minor improvements in the later years or will you create a home design for all the years to come? Another obvious consideration is if you will want to sell your home in less than ten years. If so, you may want to think about the next person who will live here. Will the functionality improvements be pleasing to the typical person moving in next?
Functionality Features
Here are a list of features you may want to add to your list of ways you will use your home when considering a new home design:
- You may want to add or switch the laundry to the upstairs or near the bedrooms for less work carrying loads of clothes and towels up and down the stairs in the coming years.
- You may have bought a home with only one sink in a bathroom that needs two. Add a sink for the second user to have more personal space.
- If your current home design doesn't include a tub, this is a great addition to any home. Tubs can be used for bathing pets or young children along with a place to relax and unwind.
- One of the greatest assets in a new home design can be how you approach your kitchen layout. Thinking about who is cooking and how food is prepped can be the difference between a frustrating cooking experience and a wonderful experience.
In Summary
You are probably living with a home design that doesn't fit your particular stage of life or needs as time progresses along. A new home design can most definitely improve functionality and it will give you an increased quality of life as a result. Make notes about how your home is working and not working for you. Think about your new home design as a way to improve function now and in the future.
There is much more to a new home design and remodeling a home than functionality. Since we are an expert in the field of home design, we put together this ebook to help you in starting your home remodel journey.
