How Do Family Stages Affect A Home Build?
When you’re ready to build your dream home, it’s important to consider a few things in order to prepare for not only your current family stage, but what is inevitable in your future.
The best home for you at any stage of life depends on the needs of your family in that moment. If you are a recent college graduate who has moved out on your own for the first time, it’s unlikely that you would want a four-bedroom suburban house all to yourself. Or, if you’re a senior, it’s unlikely that you would look for a loft with three sets of stairs to climb before making it to your bedroom each night.
The family life cycle typically consists of several stages of development that family members will go through during their lifetime. If you’re ready to build your dream home, it’s important to consider a few things in order to prepare for not only your current family stage, but what is inevitable in your future.
Open Floorplans Versus Closed Concept
In recent years, open floorplans have become increasingly popular, mostly due to the fact that fewer walls in a space allow the room to feel larger. Still, when planning your custom home build, be sure to think carefully about whether an open or closed floorplan will be more beneficial to your family – both right now and in the future. Would it be helpful to keep an eye on your young children in the living room while you’re preparing meals in the kitchen? Or would you prefer to keep noise levels reduced to an individual living space as opposed to the entire floor?
Storage Space for Life Changes
You can never underestimate the importance of extra storage! While you may not have a full family just yet – if you’re planning to expand in the future, having extra closets or even a garage will be very important to storing extra toys, clothing, and furniture to accommodate for your family’s growth over the years. You can never have too much storage space in your home, so optimize low traffic areas and see if you can add innovative options for safekeeping.
Safety First on Every Floor
Safety is a crucial consideration for every family, no matter their size. If you are expecting or have children, childproofing your home can be done in an aesthetically pleasing way. Selected rounded corners on your countertops as opposed to sharp edges. See if your home builder can incorporate gates, railings and other safety features that tie into the overall design of your home, as opposed to cheap fixes. And if you have an outside area that could be hazardous for younger or older individuals, be sure to but the proper fencing and railings up to avoid accidents.
Versatile Bedrooms for Future Growth
If you are looking to grow your family in the future, a top consideration will be the number of bedrooms you design in your custom home. Will you want to convert one of these potential bedrooms into an office space or guest room before or after you expand the family? Or do you need to add an in-law suite to accommodate parents as they get older? While you may not be able to predict every need you will have, you can work with your homebuilder to design versatile spaces that can easily be used in different ways during different life stages.
Understand Your Must-Haves for the Next Ten Years
While something like a mudroom or extra closet might not seem important right now, it might be in the future. It’s important to go into the homebuilding process with the mindset that you are building your dream home for the foreseeable future – so what might come up in the next ten or so years that you need to plan ahead to accommodate? With that mindset shift, you and your homebuilding team can work together to ensure that you end up with a space that will grow with you and your family over time, and bring about lifelong, priceless memories.
You can rely on a platform like Atmos Home Concierge to give you resources that can help you to plan for the future, no matter what that might look like for you and your family. Our team of seasoned experts have seen it all – and can easily offer key advice on ways you can build your home to fit your needs both now and in the future.
Find out how Atmos can help you plan your new home for both today and for the future. Get started today!
