New custom home construction in Vernon has been iconized through modern homes, some with a farmhouse spin on them. However, the main style trend we see for these homes’ exteriors is the use of monochromatic palettes. Quite the opposite of being monotone, these colour schemes actually add so much timeless drama and elegance to these homes. Not to mention they allow you creativity year after year with your outdoor decorations and landscaping. No worries about clashing colours here!

Natural Materials

There’s something about the authentic and homey feel of natural material in a custom home. Whether that be stone or wood, each can truly elevate your home. Don’t shy away from introducing any of these to the exterior or interior. We love the look of modified timber frame structures that accent a modern home’s exterior. It truly warms the look up. 

Mudrooms and Laundry Spaces

Convenience. Our clients chose custom homes because they know the importance of building for your lifestyle. Larger mud rooms and dedicated laundry spaces are making a huge comeback. Mudrooms fitted with storage and wide entryways are integral to the home design. We are also seeing people move their laundry rooms to stay on the floor where they do the most laundry. 

Gothic architecture is expected to be making a subtle appearance next year. Arches are back. This classic design style dates as far back as the roman empire. Arches are a beautiful way to jazz up your rooms or exterior while still achieving a timeless look! Fun fact: Arches are historically some of the most structurally stable components of the support systems of a building. Many of the ancient ruins that are still standing today are doing so because of their use of this structural element!

Efficiency

The agenda to stay sustainable is not going away! We are thrilled to see our clients ask about building materials that will make their custom homes healthier and more efficient to live in. Options like spray foam insulation, high-performance windows, and smart floor layouts will also decrease the amount spent on your bills. There is truly no losing here. 

Relaxation Havens

Everyone needs that space in their home where they can truly unwind. For us that has translated into beautiful ensuite washrooms that have a spa-like atmosphere to them. Accent lights and plenty of space make the spaces the perfect place to wash the day away and focus on yourself.

When hosting people, you’ll want to be sure that when you’re cooking in the kitchen, you’re not too separated from your guests. An easy hack to this dilemma is to open your space. Open-concept main floor plans allow for your kitchen and living space to work well off each other. People and the chef are close to the food without it feeling crowded or distracting.

Rec Rooms and Basements

Another element custom home builders look at is utilizing bonus rooms or basements in the floor plan. Basements and Rec rooms provide additional entertainment areas. In these rooms, there is also the opportunity to incorporate unique features like wet bars, game rooms, and in-home theatres. Planning to have one of these rooms, really takes the stress of ensuring your guests will have a good time. Not to mention they are spaces your family can use all year long!

Bathroom Placement and Amenities

For any event whether it’s at home or at a venue, it’s always frustrating when people can’t readily find the washroom. New custom home construction should include a floorplan which is logical. This means placing bathrooms near the entrance of the home and near the focal living spaces. This is where guests intuitively go to look for washrooms. 

Powder rooms are great to have on your main floor for guests who are just staying for events. However, if you plan on having frequent guests who stay overnight, consider building multiple full washrooms. This will guarantee  that people have the amenities they need and you can keep your private ensuite for yourself. 

For spring and summer, there’s no doubt you and your guests want to be together but still enjoy the outdoors. That’s why it is so important, especially here in the lovely Okanagan, to build open outdoor spaces. A favourite of our clients is building extended wrap-around decks. With these spaces, you incorporate outdoor kitchens, BBQs, and firepits to create your outdoor paradise. 

Control. 

This is probably the most crucial difference between these home construction types. With spec homes being already constructed, there is generally no control over the types of material used, the floor plan, or any of the special requirements you need to meet your lifestyle needs. With a custom home, you’ll have complete control of all the details from start to finish. 

Features.

We briefly touched on the loss of control you have over the features of your home with a spec home. What people don’t realize with spec homes is that often specific features will have costs hidden in the home. With a custom home, you can control the price by deciding on the list of priority features you want. This could include things like raised ceilings in master bedrooms, the cost of certain materials incorporated into the build – light fixtures, etc. 

From the exterior of a home, it’s hard to tell the difference between a spec home or a custom home with new home construction. At the end of the day, your home and happiness are what matters. We just hope that this blog helps you understand the benefits of building a custom home if you have the time to wait for your forever home. 

If you’ve read this article and decided that a new custom home is the right option for you, we hope you’ll build with us. As Vernon builders, we care about making your house a home. We can be contacted here. 

Other topics you may enjoy:

• Homes of the Future: High-Performance Structures
• Canadian Built: Quality Custom Homes & Commercial Developments
• Curb Appeal: Custom Home Exterior Trends

Quality

As we previously mentioned, high-performance homes are held to the standards of high-performance labels. What this means is third-party assurance that your home is greenlighted for quality and performance.

How does that happen? These performance labels will be involved from the conceptualization of your custom home, right down to the final inspections and walkthroughs. Each of the organizations behind the labels will send out a professional inspector to check particular elements like your HVAC systems, furnace, and insulated walls and windows. When they have done their final inspection, you can be sure your home is high-performance.

Climate Resiliency

Another important factor to building a custom home that bears energy efficiency in mind is its impact -or rather lack of- on the environment. High-performance homes reduce your family’s energy consumption while in some cases also incorporating renewable energy technology. As a Vernon builder, we are seeing a growing appetite for technology and energy that is environmentally conscious. 

High-performing homes in Vernon are making a huge entrance and with the benefits outlined above, we understand why. Soon these energy-efficient homes will be the norm, so why wait? Build your home of the future today with us!

As a custom home builder, we work with you and our partners to ensure quality and efficiency from planning all the way to the final walkthroughs. We want to hear your ideas so contact us today!

You may also find these blogs interesting:

• Canadian Built: Quality Custom Homes & Commercial Developments
• The Benefits of Spray Foam Insulation
• The Endless Possibilities of Building in the Okanagan

Building with Canadian suppliers, manufacturers, and builders have a number of benefits we are happy to share with you. We love partnering with Canadian suppliers because we know that we are investing back into the Canadian economy. The construction industry in Canada employs over 1.4 million people and generates about $141 billion for the economy annually. This is roughly 7.5% of Canada’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Some of the benefits we see from building Canadian are:

Generating Jobs. 70% of the industry is made up of small and medium-sized firms. Canada is home to a diverse pool of talented people who connect communities by building reliable and efficient infrastructure. 

Economic Growth. Investments in our Canadian construction industry lead to further growth of the sector. This means further growth in employment, research and development, and infrastructure.

Innovation. Canadian-owned firms are driven by interests in promoting and driving innovation to provide Canadians with safer, more efficient, and long-lasting construction. 

Benefits to clients. With our Canadian partners, we can ensure timelines by dodging some of the international supply chain hold-ups that can sometimes drag projects out longer than anticipated. 

We love partnering with firms that play a part in contributing to our community. This goes for custom homes or commercial projects.  Some of the amazing people we work with are featured below.

Angled garages are a beautiful architectural feature of your home. Builds

Built Together to Stand the Test of Time. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Westform Metal has specialized in roll forming metal roofing and siding since the mid-1970s. They supply cladding products for agricultural, industrial, and residential structures throughout BC, Alberta, and Saskatchewan.

Westform Metal works on some of our custom homes to deliver robust, steel roofing and siding. They are known for their quality and durable materials, saving our clients money in the long run. Additionally, with steel being the world’s most recycled material, working with Westform Metal means we can create homes for our clients they can feel proud of.

Founded in 1979, Acutruss is a supplier of NUDURA Insulated Concrete Forms which is proudly Canadian and founded in Kelowna, British Columbia. They are also a supplier of PINKWOOD joists which are manufactured in Calgary, Alberta. Along with their engineering services, Acutruss is an invaluable partner to us in building reliable truss structures.

Their products are energy-efficient and eco-friendly. Their concrete forms are used to make high-performing walls that create an air-tight seal and prevent energy loss. Their philosophy is to provide builders like us with innovative solutions that address concerns around energy efficiency and environmental friendliness.

Angled garages are a beautiful architectural feature of your home. Builds incorporating these garages achieve an elegant and unique look to your home! On top of this, they are also incredibly practical and functional solutions to making the most of your home’s square footage. They are also often larger than the standard garage which means extra storage space for you and your family to enjoy!

The days of a pair of rocking chairs on your patio are gone. Today custom homes are being paired with open spaces, built to accommodate a variety of activities. We’re seeing a rise of extended patios which transition into your indoor living space. Additionally, people are opting to add outdoor kitchens paired with a plethora of outdoor seating to their backyard living spaces. This gives the feel of having an extra room to accommodate guests and your family in those warm summer months!

Your entryway is the first impression that guests receive when they visit your home, and why not make the most of it! Entryways give your home a presence and this can be done by using creative landscaping, through colour, focal lighting, or thoughtful pathways. Statement entryways will draw people into your home and give you an opportunity to welcome your personality into the space.

Texture! People love incorporating new textures into their custom homes but don’t want to worry about updating their home after the trends dies. The good news with stonework is that nothing is as timeless as the austerity and the natural essence of the material. Stonework can be incorporated into your home’s siding or even in your front patio space. Cobblestone pathways can create an elegant feature for your home!

Well if it’s not stone you’re in love with, it’s wood! Wood can make incredible accents to your custom home, especially if you love the modern farmhouse style. Timber framed archways can be added almost anywhere on your home’s exterior to amplify its look. However, some people are even incorporating wood into the segments of their home’s siding or into their garage door paneling. This creates a modern take on the traditional building material!

We hope this blog has left you inspired if you are planning your own custom home. Crafting a home that matches your style inside and out can be a tricky task, but that’s why we love to share all the trends and tips we have gained from years in the industry.

If you are looking for a Vernon home builder or general contractor we’d love to chat about your project! Contact us today!

Want to read more about building custom homes? Check out these blogs:

• Choosing the Right Lot For Your Custom Home
• The Benefits of Spray Foam Insulation
• A Glance at 2022 Custom Home Trends
• 5 Myths About Building a Custom Home

Shape Of The Lot

The shape and geography of the lot has a dramatic influence on the design of your home. For instance, what if your lot is sloped? This has some serious impacts on the design and construction process for your home. Depending on the grade of the slope you may be able to flatten it out but if the grade of the slope is too steep or environmental factors make flattening the ground no longer a possibility, you may have to consider changing the design of the home to fit this slope. A big design change that this could impact would be basement size and whether you could have a walkout basement. 

Considerations must be made if the lot is oddly shaped, this may cause design adjustments if the lot was not taken into account when it was designed. Optimal placement within this lot choice may cause a complete redesign of the features like the front door in relation to the walkway, or the garage in relation to how the lot connects to the road. The layout and size of the home may change if there are desired lot features such as a front or backyard or even for privacy reasons. The shape and size can also determine the future of the home, consider if you may want a pool or a large deck in the backyard. You must consider these choices about your lot before construction begins because it may make it impossible to do in the future.

Your lot may also have access to breathtaking views, of which the Okanagan has many to behold. It would be in your best interest to take advantage of these views whenever possible, but it would be a shame if your design didn’t take this into account and your laundry room was the one to have the best views. It is common in many cases that the design of the home should conform to the lot to ensure that it is facing the right direction. It is important that there is optimal placement for windows, decks, and leisure areas to ensure that the home can take in the most of the views as possible.

You may have picked out the best location for your home, it is close to friends and family and school, and to top it off you got it for a great price! But something you may not have considered is the quality of ground on which you are building your home. It is of utmost importance that you know what soil type you have, different soil types such as clay and granular which dramatically affect how the home will be built. Different soil types especially in conjunction with the geography of the property could lead to serious problems such as difficulty with drainage or erosion.  It is also important that you do background research on the property. If the property had been filled in at some point then it is absolutely crucial that you have the soil tested by professionals to ensure that the ground is secured. Improperly filled land can cause serious damage to your property and home. In some cases it is okay to build on land that has been filled in, so long as it was “clean fill” and compacted properly. But this is a costly risk and must be taken into consideration when choosing the right lot. You will also have to contend with natural barriers such as trees that can change the layout of the lot significantly, in some cases you may not even be allowed to fully remove the trees which means that it must be taken into consideration when designing the home. But do not fret with the right design and creativity, even the most difficult lots can be turned into a perfect foundation for your new custom home.

The purpose of zoning is to control density, noise, and congestion in a neighbourhood. Some may not want a massive apartment complex or farm built next to their new custom-built home. Safety is also a concern. A good example would be setbacks, which keep houses separated, in the event a fire were to occur it would prevent the fire from jumping from one house to another. Violating zoning rules is not something we would recommend, even with a valid building permit it is possible that errors can occur especially if the design of the custom home doesn’t take the lot into consideration. Be careful because if you build your home too close to the lot line or violate height restrictions, you can be forced to modify and in some serious cases, dismantle the construction project if a solution is not possible with what is already done. At a minimum, you can face big legal bills and enormous headaches. That is why we highly recommend before finalizing any design for your new custom home that you take into great consideration the lot you choose and the zoning laws that come with it and how they will inevitably affect the final designs.

If the adage is true that ‘time is money’, then it must be frustrating to think about your home taking longer than expected with extensive never-ending delays. Planning your life around your new home is crucial and not knowing when the project will finish can make it difficult to budget the project financially and plan an appropriate schedule. Thankfully this is a myth that many home builders worry about. Your project will finish on time if your construction company has properly planned out the project and has in place the right strategies to ensure that the home is ready at each stage of construction from start to finish. When choosing your home construction company consider their building process and how strong their communication is with you. This will always be the best way to prevent errors and delays in the construction of your custom home and ensure that it is finished on schedule. 

Costs More To Build Than To Buy