Shop ‘Til You Drop: Finding Treasures For Your Custom Home Can Be Exhausting

By Bob Hoebeke
President, Hoebeke Builders

Some would say we’re too old for a treasure hunt. They’ve never had the fun of building or remodeling their home.

Decorative goodies don’t just leap off the shelves and into your home’s decorative scheme, you have to go find them.  While shopping for all of the really neat items required to complete your building project can be lots of fun, it should be noted the process is a “marathon,” not a “sprint.” Better pace yourself!

So we don’t flame out early in the overall building process, let’s breakdown necessary selections so they are more manageable:

Shell Product Selections

These generally happen towards the beginning of construction, and arguably could be totally completed while the team (architect, builder, interior designer, and landscape architect) is still assembled at the design table. The following decisions/selections require input from the owner, architect, builder, and interior designer: exterior doors, windows, interior doors, cut/cast stone, and roofing.

Although the ideal pattern, color, and function of these materials should at least be discussed at the design table, surprises can be minimized by scheduling a field trip or two so products can be seen, felt, and operated. 

Interior Product Selections

These generally require more time for consideration. These items are the “intimate,” colorful, interior products we have interaction with on almost a daily basis. Usually, this is all owner and interior designer and includes the following: plumbing fixtures, flooring, tile, door and cabinet hardware, appliances, cabinets, trim (with prior input from the architect), paint colors, ornamental ironwork, countertops, and glass/mirrors.

In this category, surprises can be dramatically minimized if you take your builder along – way too much information is interchanged should he/she miss the party!

Maximize Your Buying Experience

Most interior designers have selection schedule forms with which they are most comfortable. It’s fine to use their system provided all information is exchanged with the team. At the beginning of the job, the builder should provide timelines required for all Shell, and Interior selections. 

WOW, that’s a lot of selections! So, let’s take a few minutes to discuss minimizing flame-out. Selection shopping is like drinking out of a firehose, so pace yourself with these five tips to maximize your buying experience:

Focus ONLY on the particular selection (hardware, countertops, paint colors etc.) you’re choosing. You’ll be facing a universe of possibilities. Forget the million other decisions you need to make, look only at the particular item in front of you. Yes, they all interact, but with your interior designer at your side, it will all go together.

Rely on what’s comfortable. Colors/finishes you like; textures with which you’re familiar; shapes that please your eye. Try to narrow the universe down to a final choice between two to three items.

Timeliness is understanding certain things may need to be selected before others can be (appliances before cabinets so you get the right sizes etc.), make as many selections as early in the process as possible. No one likes pressure, and putting off selections probably means you’ll be pressured to make decisions so the schedule stays on track. Usually, those decisions will be regretted. With plenty of time, you’ll make good decisions! Like the multiple-choice tests back in school, when you have time leftover, DON’T RE-VISIT YOUR  SELECTIONS – usually, your first choice is correct.

“Multipliers” can kill a budget! Just like the kid in the candy store, for just a little bit more, you can have this one piece. But you need 85 cabinet knobs, and a little bit more, times 85 is a lot. So, hardwood flooring is nice, but resist the temptation to add a room of hardwood, because $10.95psf x 400sf will bust a budget. 

Don’t hold up the process. Though you’re the owner and you can hold up whatever you want, you’ve expected your professional building team to paint between the lines, and they expect nothing less from you. The building process needs selections, and when the information is not available, your builder has no choice but to send the crews home. It’s really expensive in both time and money to bring them back, and it upsets the rhythm of the job.

Manage Liability

Section 95.003 – of the Texas Civil Practice and Remedy Act comes complete with a very subtle hook: if the owner provides materials, goods, equipment, or services while the builder is on-site, the owner’s assets are just as exposed as the builder’s. If you provide ANYTHING, Texas will be looking at the owner as if they were a builder, should the house burn down, or someone fall off the roof. DON’T EXPOSE YOUR ASSETS – that’s why you hired a builder. Most probably there is a similar provision in other states should you be reading this in Maine or someplace.

Don’t Crash And Burn

With even the most efficient system for making selections and decisions, most homeowner’s crash and burn just before the finish line. They can’t help it! The giant jigsaw puzzle of ideas, possibilities, hopes and dreams, coupled with the enormity of the task necessary to make it nice for family and friends, makes the whole process overwhelming.

About the time the painter moves out, the age-old phenomenon known in the trades as “buyer’s remorse,” sets in.  The owner has worked so hard; spent so much money; faced so much joy as well as a few disappointments; anticipated the move-in for so long; and about the time the plumber with pipe dope on his fingers messes up their freshly painted walls, THEY LOSE IT! And who wouldn’t?

But there’s an antidote. Friends and family dropping by to oooooh and ahhh over the work already completed, becomes the balm necessary to make everything better! You have made good decisions; what a wonderful idea to have included so and so; can’t you just picture the family in your outdoor living space?!! 

Next time we’ll finish the series with the gross, unheralded, nasty, unforgiving part of the job known as “The Last 2 Percent — the difference between good and great!”

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From, developing a “Lifestyle Inventory,” to building and monitoring your Project Team, Hoebeke Builders Consulting Services has all the tools necessary to dramatically increase your project’s efficiency, while decreasing your project’s cost! www.hoebekebuilders.com