Four Steps in Planning and Building Your Dream Custom Home

Conceptualizing and building the custom home of your dreams that meets your needs and is completed on time and on budget requires a close partnership between you and your general contractor. From approving the home’s architectural design and budget to selecting interior finishes, you as the homeowner have the ultimate say in what the end product looks and feels like. Close communication with your project manager throughout the process is key to avoiding unexpected costs and unmet expectations while maximizing your satisfaction.

Bourré Construction Group adheres to a four step process in planning and building custom homes for our customers. This process has proven reliable and successful over the past decade and ensures that our customers end up with a home that meets all of their expectations.

Step one in the process includes the Consultation and Planning phase. During this important up front step, we will begin to outline all of our customer’s requirements and begin to conceptualize how their new home will look and feel. Does the customer want an ultra modern high tech home with all the latest energy efficiency and security innovations or do they want a more traditional yet functional living space with fewer bells and whistles? Are there any unique design accommodations (ex. wheelchair accessibility, grip rails in the bathrooms, no stairs, etc.) that need to be made for residents of the home with any special needs? These are the kinds of questions we discuss up front with our customers to ensure they are factored into the ultimate home design and budget.

An integral part of this stage is identifying a property for construction. Will property need to be purchased that easily accommodates the proposed home’s specific design and size specs or will we be designing a home around any limitations of an existing property? Designing a home is more than just walls and windows. Each of our homes is created in context to maximize the beauty and function of both the home itself and the property as a whole. From the onset of a project, we will involve our design and engineering partners in the process of creating a truly bespoke home for our customer. Understanding our customers and how they wish to interact with their home will impact every decision we make moving forward.

Step two is the Design phase. From dream to drawing, our customer’s new home begins to take shape in the form of initial layouts and elevation sketches. Next, we can begin the honing process that ensures the final design is exactly what our customer imagined. Once a final design is approved by our customer, we commence engineering the design to ensure that the home is built to last.

Step three is the Budget phase. Here is where we have the all important open discussion with the customer regarding their budget goals. This includes securing pricing from our group of subcontractors that we work with on a regular basis and who have a proven track record of doing high quality work. Once those bids are received, we then assemble a full construction budget for our customer to approve. We will offer varying types of contracts to meet our customer’s needs. We also will discuss the change order process and what can affect the budget as we move forward together.

Step four is the Construction phase where all the planning now begins to take shape when the vertical construction begins. Our project management team takes the reins with scheduling, communication, and quality control. Our customers will be involved at every step of the way during this home stretch.

On-going meetings will be scheduled to discuss progress and handle any issues that may arise. Monthly full project updates with projections for progress moving forward and final delivery will be held.  

How long will it take for your custom home to be built and delivered? That depends on many factors to include the size and complexity of the home, availability of materials and labor, and county construction permit approvals. A conceptual construction schedule will be created as part of step four and discussed with the customer. Rest assured that Bourré Construction Group will manage the entire process and deliver to our customer a custom home of incomparable beauty and quality that will be an asset for many years to come.