So you've made the decision to build a new home rather than buy an existing home. So what's next? If you are truly building a custom home, you need to gather all of your ideas together. You have probably been admiring other homes and dreaming about your ideal home for years. However, now that it's time to get your ideas on paper, it's hard to remember everything. If you haven't already started a file, do it now. Start collecting magazine photos, newspaper articles, print ads, online resources, and other clippings and notes of things you might want to include in your new home. If you're in the kitchen and think to yourself that it would be nice to have a place to store your Tupperware, make a note of it and put it in your file.
This is also a good time to start talking to friends and relatives about their houses. What do they like? What do they wish they had in their homes? Visit Open Houses in the area. Go to home improvement centers like Lowe's and Home Depot. You can get a good idea of room sizes by walking through model homes and paying close attention to dimensions and layouts. Take a trip to a new home show. The Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati will be hosting their annual Homearama home show in September in Mason, Ohio. Whether or not the Homearama homes are in your price range, you can still gather lots of great ideas about the newest innovations in homebuilding.
The beginning stages of your new home design should include three categories---Needs, Wants, and Wishes. If you group your ideas in such a way, it will be easier to work within your budget once you begin to meet with your builder and/or architect.
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