This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of CORT. All opinions are 100% mine.
Even in our dating years, Kevin and I daydreamed about building our own custom home one day. This past year, our dream became a beautiful reality. We are extremely thankful that we had an amazing builder and such a great process. We have heard so many horror stories about building your own home, so we did lots of homework and really thought about our decision a lot before beginning. By no means was our building process stress-free, but I wanted to share my 4 top tips to know before building a custom home from our perspective.
Trash Your Timeline
Listen, building a home is a marathon, not a sprint. Begin with that expectation, and don’t set any others. Rain happens. Delays happen. Life happens. Trashing your timeline and letting things go with the flow will free you from a lot of heartbreak and frustration. I know this can be easier said than done, but it will really help you. I’m not saying to accept weeks of no progress, but I am saying to relax during rain delays and things that are out of your control. You want an amazing finished product, not a rushed one.
Use CORT Furniture Rental
Moving was hard enough, but moving twice is brutal. Skip the second move and opt to put everything in storage. CORT is more than a furniture rental company, as they provide services and solutions for life transitions. I can also say on this side of things, you might even want to skip “storage” all together and opt for ditching the old furniture, using CORT in the “transition”, and then buying furniture to fit your new space later. We have found that a lot of our old furniture doesn’t fit our new space and it would have saved us a lot of money to just ditch it and use CORT. CORT has so many amazing pieces to furnish your “in between” home, they even have houseware!! This seriously would have saved me so much time boxing stuff for one house and some for storage. I so wish I would have known this before starting our build.
Shop Around
You can shop around and should shop around. I can’t tell you how much money we saved by doing so. If I found knobs at one store, I always went online and searched for a better deal. We also used Holiday weekend sales to our advantage for lighting purchases and appliance purchases. Every little bit helps and adds up in your home. Everything can be price shopped! You will be so surprised how much money you will save!
Family First
Like I mentioned, building a home can be stressful. I highly suggest eliminating stress where possible, like with CORT Furniture Rental. Remember the goal and that you and your spouse are a team. You are both working toward the same goal and you want a “home” that blends both of you and is perfect for your family. When things get too stressful, or you can’t seem to agree – take a break, go have dinner alone, have a fun date night – dream again. Remember why you started and compromise with each other.
Take Good Notes
Take notes on everything – follow your timeline and know what will be needed from you next. If Lighting is coming up next, already have everything picked out and on order. If sinks are needed – ask a few weeks before so you can start looking. Plan, plan, plan and plan some more. Keeping good notes helped us so much! You can even visit the CORT blog to check out all their helpful tips on planning and temporary living during renovation.
Overall, we loved the building process and would do it again! We hope that we will be in our current house for a really long time, but would totally build again in the future! It is so incredibly fun and rewarding to see all of your hard work and dreams come to life. Oh, and one last tip: Don’t skip corners. If you really want something, do it now! If you want extra lights, have them installed. Want an outlet moved? Move it now! These things will bother you in the future if you don’t do it now. Take the time, take the extra money and get it right!
