5 Things to Check Off Your List Before Starting Construction That Seem Like No Brainers...

Find Out Where Your Utilities Are

When I bought my property I knew, per the listing, that I had power and water available. Great, right? Wrong. Being a new property owner and never having built before, I didn't think to look into what that actually entailed. I was told I had access to a community well system and I would just have to pay a hookup fee. I did not know that the water was not at my property and had to be run from the neighbors property up to mine which was about an acre away. $10,000 later, a neighbors torn up lawn and a bunch of downed trees, the water had been brought up to my property line. That was not an expense I was expecting to pay because I assumed the water was already at my property. If I had checked on this in the beginning, that would have been an expense I would have included in my loan and it wouldn't have been as big of an issue. I also had access to power, but did not have a power box or meter. So that also had to be installed and added up in cost very quickly. So when you buy property, check on your utilities so you can get a more accurate estimate on total costs than I did. It will save you a lot of time, money and headaches if you do.

Get All The Details On Your Heating System

I learned a lot about about pellet stoves, installation and heating during the build and after. I knew I wanted a pellet stove. I had gone back and forth between a wood stove and a pellet stove and I had done the research on the pros and cons for both. For me, living by myself and not wanting to deal with cutting and splitting wood, a pellet stove was the better choice. I had told my builder that is what I wanted to do, but hadn't decided on the stove specifically or where to install it, etc. My contractor also didn't write the pellet stove directly into the loan but said it could be taken out of other line items. I'd highly recommend getting it written into the loan. Through the course of the build, the stove location moved a couple times and my builder and I decided to get everything else done so I could get moved in and we would install the pellet stove after. What we thought would have worked for the location and install, ultimately didn't. We had multiple expenses, the water being one of them, that used up my contingency very quickly so by the end, there were no more funds for the pellet stove or the install. I had electric heat as my backup and ended up using that for the first winter I was in my house. I was paying well over $300 a month in electricity because of this. I knew I needed to get that pellet stove in. I ended up paying for a very expensive install after the house was finished instead of what would have been a very easy install back in the beginning of the build. I paid out of pocket for the stove and the install because it wasn't specified in the loan and because of other unexpected expenses and using up the contingency during the build. I also learned that stove places do not like to install stoves they don't sell. I had bought one outright but no one would install it because they weren't certified to work on that type of stove. So find out who you want to install it and get the stove directly from them. After install, my electric bill was cut down by 2/3rds in the first month. If my stove was picked out, consulted on by the heating company and installed in the beginning, it would have been done and paid for - I might have had to re-evaluate on some other expenses, but that pellet stove was a must have.

Check Your Sun Patterns

This is actually something my 90 year old grandmother had recommended to me. She built her own place about 30 years prior but I wrote it off and didn't really take it into consideration. I just decided how I wanted my house positioned and that was that. As I wrote about in my first blog post, the position of my house had to change, but it worked out for the better. I get the morning sun in the living room and kitchen and the afternoon sun in the bedrooms.

Since I did not do windows/skylights on the roof, this morning and afternoon sun on the front and back of the Aframe is crucial. If my place had been positioned like I originally had wanted, I wouldn't have gotten the beautiful sun shining into my large windows at any part of the day. It would have just been beating down on the roof. I am so happy I happened to luck out on this, but if you can take this into consideration before, do! Sit at your property during different times of the day and see where the sun comes up, where it hits throughout the day, and try to get some of that shining into your big beautiful windows. You won't regret that. It's one of my favorite features of my house.

Decide on Your Exterior Paint Colors and Test Them

Your siding, your trim, soffit, deck stain, decide on all of it. I know this seems like it can be something that can wait, but you will be pulling out your hair and possibly make some rash decisions when you leave this to last minute. A friend of mine is currently building and is messaging me constantly, stressing about paint colors. The other thing that seems like a no brainer but I HIGHLY recommend is to test out your paint colors on your siding beforehand. I got a couple different colors that I THOUGHT were exactly what I wanted and when I painted them on, they were not what I wanted at all. Too bright, too light, too grey, etc. So test out those colors, and test them next to one another. Especially if you're doing different colors for soffit, trim, siding, etc.

Get Your Favorite De-Stress Activities All Lined Up

I lived thousands of miles away while I was building and I still got stressed out. Especially towards the end when you want it to be done and you want to move out of the place you're in, or when something goes wrong, or something needs changed, or you have to spend thousands of extra dollars on something you weren't expecting.... it can be a lot. Take some time to de-stress and remember that it will all be worth it in the end. I promise.