Whether you’re building the custom home of your dreams for your family or constructing a downsized home to spend the rest of your life in, your house should be a perfect, unique space for your interests, tastes, and lifestyle.
Why trust anyone but you to design it?
No one can envision how you’ll live in your home and design features to suit your needs better than you. There are so many subtleties in home design, why risk losing out on being lost in translation?
Luckily, with the help of our team of building experts and your Barden Independent Dealer, you can be equipped and empowered to be hands-on with designing your own home.
We’ve spoken to many homeowners who were heavily involved in designing their own custom home, and acting as their own architect and advocate throughout the process.
3 Reasons to Take Charge of Your Custom Home Design
In our experience, we’ve found there are 3 reasons why a future homeowner should take the lead in designing their new custom home:
- You get more out of your investment
- It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
- Architects and builders often have different goals
More For Your Money
According to the American Institute of Architects, the money you spend on an architect should get you 5 services:
- Preliminary design & programming
- Design development
- Construction documents
- Budget analysis and bid supervision
- Site inspections and review
However, it’s not uncommon for architects to only complete the first 2 services at a “discounted rate,” and leave the rest to be handled by the homeowner and builder. While the homeowner pays the architect less, they end up spending more in the long run to have the remainder of the design services handled by someone else.
When a homeowner partners with a Barden Independent Dealer and the Barden Building team, all of the design services are handled in collaboration with the homeowner -- ensuring all the homeowner’s requirements are met, and all design details are accounted for.
We go into more detail about finances, budgets, and architects in our How Much of Your Home Building Budget Goes to an Architect blog -- if you’re interested in learning more about this topic.
You Only Build Once
The building experience should be an enjoyable one, not a stressful one.
You don’t want the design experience to feel like a tug-of-war conveying your ideas with someone who does not know you or cares enough to understand. And you certainly don’t want to “compromise” only to start a remodeling project later to get what you wanted.
When working with the drafting team at Barden, their only role in the design process is to make sure your vision for your dream home comes to life on paper. You dictate the features you want in your home to suit your lifestyle, and can fully express your vision. The team will help keep you on track with what complies with local building codes.
Resource: Start your project off right. Check out our Custom Home Building Guide:
Goal Alignment Between Teams
When your design team is working with your engineering, manufacturing, and building team -- you’re able to ensure that everyone is on the same page and working toward the same goal.
When everyone is on the same page, things run more smoothly. Plus, with you at the helm as the homeowner, the page that everyone is on matches your wishes exactly.
Be aware: Typically, a third-party architect is out of the picture once they’ve delivered the plans. If there are issues with feasibility between design and build, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to ensure the architect helps solve the problem.
A Custom Home Building Success Story
At Barden Building Products, we see the importance of these 3 elements play out project after project.
One of the most poignant examples of this in action happened in 2019.
We were approached by a customer in New York’s Finger Lakes region with a full set of plans ready to build. When we priced the home out, the cost was extremely over their budget. We then found out that the customer had already put over $17,000 and a few years into architect fees for the plans.
Even after years of expert consultation, the Barden team still made changes to their plans and changed the specs on almost every material for the entire building. It was back on budget and ready to build in 2 months’ time.
This is an EXTREME situation, but versions of this same situation walk through the door here constantly!
Ready to Get Started Designing Your Custom Home?
Fill out this form on our website and we can get the ball rolling on your project.
We’ll put you in touch with one of our local Independent Dealers who can work closely with you and our team to ensure design and build success.
Your dream home comes from YOU. Let’s get designing!
Get in Touch with the Barden Team and Start Designing!
Simply fill out this form on our website and we can get the ball rolling on your project.
We’ll put you in touch with one of our local, Independent Dealers who can work closely with you and our team to ensure design and build success.
Your dream home comes from YOU. Let’s get designing!
In the meantime, here's our handy Custom Home Building Checklist to get you ready to work on creating your dream home:
