THE GAST HOME PROCESS OF DECISION making
Building a home requires thousands of decisions to be made. Some people put the number at 3,100, but it’s actually much more when you include all the details like cabinet handle selection, paint colors, etc.. We understand how overwhelming this is, and it is why we have developed a streamlined process, but it starts with and is guided by your highest aspirations in life.
Your home is a physical manifestation of your life. Therefore the first step in designing your home should be to clarify your life’s values, priorities and goals. Clarifying a vision for your ideal life is necessary to guide all the important decisions you will make throughout this process, and assure that all your home’s details support your larger life goals. You need to setup the home that supports the exact life you want. We know that sounds grandiose and overwhelming, but it’s the truth. The good news is using our process is an opportunity to build a home that aligns with your higher life goals. You get to write and tell the story of your life.
By letting an informed system guide the process, it allows you to remain focused on your larger goals and not get overwhelmed by all the decisions. Below are just some of the categories included in this Process of Decision Making.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to Contact Us thru our contact form, send us an e-mail, or give us a call.
Building a home begins with property selection and site decisions. Once you have chosen the lot, the placement and orientation of the house requires many decisions incorporating things such as the path of the sun, views, wind patterns, and slop. Designing floor plans requires hundreds of decisions, including square footage targets, configuration of rooms, and door and window placements.
Structural Engineering decisions will be made about the foundation type (slab, crawlspace, basement, raised up), structural system (steel, engineered lumber, stick frame), and column and beam sizes. Electrical decisions include service panel size, interior and exterior zones, outlet placements for every room, smart home wiring decisions. Plumbing decisions include water tank type (tank, tankless, hybrid), pipe material, fixture placement, drain location elevations. HVAC decisions include furnace or heat pump type, ducting layout and placement of ducts and returns, zoning configuration, and thermostat type and locations.
In order to make your home look the best from the outside, hundreds of decisions need to be made including siding material, roofing material, window frame material, exterior colors, and any landscape selections.
Interior finishes alone often account for over a thousand decisions. Do you use stone for the floors and if so what stone and what size tile? If you choose wood plank flooring, what type of hardwood, and what plank width, color and finish? Cabinetry requires layout decisions, sizing, species, finish, face style, handle type, soft-close mechanisms. Countertops require material selection, edge profile, thickness and overhang decisions. Door and trim styles will need to be selected, as well as the hardware. Lighting requires a lot of thought to set the right mood and also provide task lighting where you need it. Light fixtures, lumens, temperature all need to be decided. Everything you see inside a home requires selection, and great care should be given to these decisions because they carry a lot of weight in determining the ambiance of your home.
We have spent countless hours evaluating different appliance brands and models so that you don’t have to. But decisions will still need to be made. Do you want built-in vs freestanding? What size, style and material do you prefer? But even with the big appliance selection out of the way, do you want a smart home platform? Audio system? Security system?
For energy efficiency and sustainability, discussions will include solar panels, insulation upgrades, window efficiency, radiant heat floors, battery backup, etc..
All of the above does not include the Construction Process and Coordination, where questions always come up and decisions need to be made.
It is easy to see why so many people that build new homes get overwhelmed by the process. That is why we have spent so much thought and time working on a process and building system that streamlines and guides.