The Emotional Journey of Building a Home

Building a home should be one of the most exciting things you ever do. For most people, it starts out that way, but things can sour quickly as the project progresses.

The emotional journey usually looks something like this: you start at a peak as you imagine your dream home. You have a clear vision, maybe even a piece of land, and enough optimism to power through to a finished product.

But then you get hit with plan revisions, contractor bids that are way higher than you expected, town approvals, construction delays, and change orders for all the surprises that come along with new construction. By the time you get the keys, your initial excitement has long since burned out.

We’ve heard this story so many times. That’s why we built our entire design process around avoiding these pitfalls. Everything we do at HUTS focuses on predicting those unexpected costs and land issues as early as possible.

Here’s what we do differently:

• We use our Standards, which we’ve built and altered thousands of times, to get accurate predictions for per-square-foot costs.
• We use realistic groundwork costs based on recent, local projects.
• We help you choose land based on what you want to build and what we know is required in your area. We prioritize your deal-breakers to make sure your dream home is possible.
• We avoid overbuilding. We right-size your home based on current and future needs to help keep costs down.
• We source contractors early. We give them in-depth land, permitting, and design specs so that they don’t have to bid higher to account for unknowns.
• GCs add 15% to 25% to your total. We remove as much as possible from their work to avoid higher pricing. We can help you source materials or opt for panelized walls to cut down on labor costs and added fees.

None of this eliminates the complexity of home construction, but it predicts it and plans for it in month one. What that means for you is fewer surprises, fewer delays, and fewer dips along the already rocky journey of building your dream home.

The emotional high you get at the beginning of the process shouldn’t be the best you feel about your home. With the experience we have and the preparation we do, it rarely is.