With mortgage rates at all-time lows, it’s a great time to start building a custom home.

Unlike with pre-built or standard design homes, you call all the shots. This is an opportunity to live your dreams and get everything you want in a house.

With all that responsibilities in mind, though, it’s easy to miss features and steps. A building a custom home checklist is the perfect way to stay on top of your build. Take a look at these three must-have tips.

1. Do Your Construction and Design Research

The first step for any good project is doing your research. Not only should you plan out what kind of features you want in your house, but you should plan what your steps are for each of them. These are items for your checklist.

Consider, for example, that you want a waterproof deck in your new home.

If you’re building it all yourself, research magazines and blogs for design ideas. Then, make a list of all of the building materials you need, and so on.

If you’re not, go on sites like Angie’s List and HomeAdvisor for tips on the best contractors and designers in the area. Having all your ideas at the ready helps them do their jobs.

Repeat this for every aspect of your home. Many prospective homeowners plan a to-do list for each room. Having these most basic items on your checklist ensures you get off to a good start.

2. The Finishing Touches on Your Home

A lot of building a custom home tips focus on long lists of features for each room of the house. While it’s important to know how many people you want your kitchen to seat, it’s also important to know what color you want your curtains to be.

Even your deck’s ceiling can be polished by installing an under deck ceiling. Building a gutter and trough system beneath your top-level deck can look messy and may even cause leaking accidents. With an under deck ceiling, you’re installing a water channel inside your ceiling and forming a watertight seal. This gives you a warm and dry outdoor living space without sacrificing a clean, finished look.

Design choices like that might seem like something you can leave until the end of the job. You could, but doing so is often a mistake. Planning aesthetic elements at the outset guarantees that your home’s features work together with its appearance.

3. Don’t Forget an Inspection

No home build is complete without an inspection. Whether or not it’s required in your area, getting an inspection is important for a lot of reasons.

From a safety and legal point of view, it’s important that your home is up to code. In a practical light, if you’re not building everything yourself—and chances are, you aren’t—it’s a good way to ensure that you’re getting your money’s worth from your hired builders.

You can hold builders responsible for code violations, but only if you know the issues are there. That’s exactly what home inspectors are for.

The cost of custom built homes goes up when mistakes and code violations happen. Do your research to hire trustworthy contractors before you start, but have this safety net at the ready just in case. 

If you are building everything yourself, it’s still a good idea to have a professional inspector come and look over your work.

Building a Custom Home Checklist With Fresh Tips

Now that you know these three tips for building a custom home checklist, you’re ready to make a move towards your dream house. As you continue your build, check back here for more great ideas and tips for home construction and design.

In fact, why not decide your next move now? Take a look at another article and get building!