Constructing a family home is part of the quintessential American dream for most people. It inspires a great deal of pride, as well as practicality — you get to have pretty much anything you want, where you want it.

Like most dreams, however, bringing them to fruition requires a lot of work and dedication. According to Tiger Industrial (www.tigerindustrialrentals.com), not surprisingly, the first and biggest step is the pre-planning stage, during which you take a general accounting of what it will cost you and what to expect.

Planning to Succeed

Because building a home is a long-term project with many intersecting interests, planning is more important here than most other endeavors. If you can manage it, a significant portion of your budget should go into selecting prime materials and structures — things that, if they break down later, are more costly to repair. For example, there should be no compromises in the material and sturdiness of the base structure.

After this, ponder the rooms and other elements of the interior. For example, do you expect your family to remain the same size, and can you manage unexpected growth with the current design? According to Tiger Industrial, a company that delivers the finest rental products, oftentimes, families build an extra room or two and use them as game rooms, weight rooms, or others; then, if there is an addition to the family later on, a room can be easily converted into a bedroom.

Because of potential issues like the above, it’s usually best to have a second plan, no matter how much you have invested in the first.  No matter what budget you have for the established costs, add a margin and have a contingency plan to account for cost overruns.

Placement Details

After assessing the property on which you plan to build your home, it’s time to make both practical and aesthetic decisions deciding on where the rooms will be. One side might face the sun in the afternoon, and you think it’s best to have a bedroom there, but if it also faces the street, then you’ll be subjecting someone to a lot of noise throughout the day. The kitchen or garage would be a better choice in that location.

Another concern is the proper placement of your intended home comfort system and piping. You want to fluidly merge your home with preexisting structures, such as making sure bathrooms are in the vicinity of the piping, so as to reduce the need to lengthen or add to the underground network.

Builder Reputation and Construction Costs

For best practices when it comes to organization, it is recommended that you divide the entire process into seven separate stages: interior construction (which costs the most), framing, foundations, system amendments, site work, finishing steps, and miscellaneous.

According to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the builder will on average receive 9.3 percent of the total construction costs you pour into the family home. As such, it’s in your best interest to check and re-check references, examples of his work, client satisfaction, and propensity for cost overruns.

At the very least, the builder you go with should be as organized as you — and have experienced far exceeding your own. Construction costs have risen a good deal from 2011 to the present day, and correcting any major mistakes mid-way will only add heaps to the original figures.