8 Planning and Designing Steps in your Journey

8 Planning and Designing Steps in your Journey with Pacific Homes

Planning and Designing a dream home is a journey of discovering who you are, what you want, how you want to live, and where you want to be. Creating a home is more than building “2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms.” As with any journey you depart on, you’ll want to do some research and plan your trip. You’ll want to have a sense of what your desired result is and how much it’ll cost. Building a home is no doubt something that you are not expected to do alone. By having a seasoned and experienced guide it can make the process seamless, more enjoyable, and overall a much better journey.

Did you know that Pacific Homes clients design, engineer, and get their homes built in a climate-controlled environment before anything arrives onsite? All this planning can be done from a distance. This is possible with prefab construction. From the very early planning stages of the home building journey to the walls and trusses being raised onsite, most stages are completed from a distance. It doesn’t matter where you are. This is one of the many advantages to prefab panelized construction.

We take several calls and emails from customers wanting to build a custom home. Some of our clients know exactly what they want, while others may not know where to start.  We have come up with some advice for our clients looking at planning and designing their dream home, and how that can be done in today’s current virtual situation that we are in. We have provided some resources that can be used to ensure a successful home planning strategy in today’s environment.

 

1. Set some Goals & Get Inspired

Creating a new home is about setting goals and taking active steps to achieve those goals.

Questions to ask yourself:

• What do you want to achieve?
  • Where do you want to build?
  • What can you afford?
  • Can it really be achieved on time and on a budget?

Next, jump online and look at home plans as well as register and download our Inspirational Home Plan eBook. You are not limited to home designs on our Pacific Homes website. *Please note that 95% of the homes we supply are fully custom homes.  Do you already have a plan you like? Send it our way and discuss with a Build Specialist.

2. Financing & Understanding Your Budget:

Before you start your building project, talk with your bank or lender to ensure that you have an accurate idea of the budget you are working with. Make sure to budget for landscaping, furniture, and appliances. It is important to think about your answers to the following questions.  Expect us to ask, where are you planning to build? What is your budget for your upcoming build? What style of home are you looking to build?  Our Build Specialists are experts in the field, highly experienced and professional. They want to ensure that you start on the right path.

 

3. Initial Consultation for Planning & Designing:

Be sure to make a needs and wants list for your project. Our Build Specialist can be a great resource for you by helping you design your home once you understand what is important to you. Do you want a Traditional, Craftsman or Contemporary house? What areas of the home are most important to you? What size of home are you looking to build? Rancher or Multilevel? Is there any exceptional element of the landscape close to your house that you want to highlight?  Our experience and knowledge on home design, building materials, and the building process can ensure you get what you want and help you stay on budget. 

4. Follow Up Consultation: Developing Architectural Plans & Site Plan:

So, what happens after the first consultation and follow up call? This really depends on where things are at in the process. Do you have a lot/land?  Depending on where you are in the process, our Build Specialists will work with you to start designing architectural drawings, if you don’t already have plans. This can be done virtually. We can discuss the design concept, site plan that considers everything from the lay of the land to existing vegetation and the microclimate.  Solar gain areas controlled by overhangs and/or vegetation to help reduce energy consumption. Working in collaboration with you and your needs, our team understands what it takes to design and build energy-efficient homes.

5. Design & 3D Modeling:

We can also set up a virtual meeting for you with a member of our design team. This will illustrate our process of taking 2D architectural plans and converting them into our 3D modelling software. The designers will be able to share their screen with you, so it gives you a clear idea of the prefab process and what your home layout will be in 3D dimensions.

6. Finding the Right Contractor:

We have a strong and trusted builder network throughout Western U.S. and Canada that we can get you in touch with. If you already have a trusted contractor, not a problem, we are easy to work with.

 7. Finalizing Architectural Plans:

Once the architectural plan is finalized, your project goes into engineering. Your home is engineered in-house by our design team before it is sent to a 3^rd party to be stamped and sealed, which is usually a 3-4-week process.

8. Engineering & Production:

Once we have stamped engineering, the project is ready to head into production. All building components are cut precisely with the use of our computerized saws and built exactly to the specifications. During this time your General Contractor is busy organizing permits, clearing land, getting the foundation in and perimeter drains completed before the building package arrives onsite.

Planning and designing your dream home is fun and exciting and can be done without stepping foot outside your door with today’s technology. Pacific Homes makes the home building process easy with our proven system.  In the end, you’ll be amazed that your new house is so much more than the sum of just its three bedrooms, living room, and so on. It’s the place you get to call home and make uniquely yours.

Tour our extensive line of inspirational floor plans, offering a variety of styles and designs for you to use as a starting point in your home building journey.

VIEW INSPIRATIONAL HOME PLANS

Plus, head to Pacific Homes YouTube channel

 

 

Start Planning and Designing Your Next Build.