Avoid Construction Chaos – What to know when planning to build your home
If you’ve never had to deal with the tragic quirks of a poorly planned house, you are one lucky woman. I’m guessing, though, that you’ve had at least one home with issues that make you wonder on a regular basis about the sanity of the person who came up with the house plans. And oh, lady, you’d better believe that I’ve seen some weird stuff over the years.
Let’s start with the remodel where the architect was so focused on making sure there were enough windows to balance the outside of the house he made it impossible to have a mirror in the master bathroom. Sure, the big window over the sink had a great view, but the homeowner could forget about putting on her makeup or fixing her hair. (Although, I guess that’s one way to keep your husband’s whiskers out of your sink.)
Or what about the builder who decided that he’d install a soaking tub with straight up-and-down sides? I’m here to tell you that is in no way, shape, or form relaxing. The woman who owned that house lived without relaxing bubble baths for 19 years before she decided to remodel. That’s long enough to have a baby, raise that baby, deal with the teenage years, and send her off to college with nowhere to sit and soak and deal with those stresses.
And then there’s the home we bought earlier this year. It has this in the corner of the master bedroom:
This odd, oversized bump-out actually does serve a purpose—it allows plenty of ceiling space over the stairs to the basement (something my rather tall husband appreciates). The problem is that it serves absolutely no purpose in the bedroom. Sure it’s got electrical outlets, a phone jack, and a cable outlet on top, but there’s no way to position the bed so you could use it as a pseudo-entertainment center. (Oh, and even if you could, it would still be weird.) Other than collecting dust, the only thing this oddity gets used for is to hold the throw pillows from the bed while we’re sleeping.
What do all of these have in common? They could have been prevented. Yep, all it would have taken is for someone like me to step in early in the planning process and point them out. If you’re getting ready to build a new home and want to avoid issues like these, let’s chat. Your new home can go off without a single “what the heck were they thinking?” plan error and you could be free from annoyances like these for years to come!
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