Building Tip #9 -Where are your windows facing?

When your building a home the framing stage is an important stage to see where your windows are positioned. You can see if your window is right in front of the a tree trunk or somewhere with an unattractive view. In the framing stage you can see where you windows are and can still change them. You can work with your builder to move the window a few feet.
Check out the our video explain this in person.

To see our website and check out our floor plans click here.

Building Tip #8 -Electrical outlets

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 Often times new construction buildings place electrical outlets per the electrical code, and not necessarily where you will need them. If you want a TV in your bedroom, make sure there is a cable or internet connection in the right place. If you want lamps on either side of your bed, make sure you don’t have to run an extension cord to place them there. When you build you get to decide where you want and a need your outlets. You can place them in you mudroom cubbies, or on the side of your kitchen island, or put two in your bathroom, the possibilities are endless and can be exactly what you want. Be sure to talk to your builder on what they are willing to do.

Here at Echelon Homes we provide outlets every 8 feet in every room for your convenience so you are never far from a place to plug in as well as working with you to satisfy every need you may have. We also put in raised oulets for a flat screen TV. So you will never have to worry about any electrical cords showing from your flat screen TV, and we provide reinforced framing for a flat screen TV. So you will never have to worry about your wall holding flat screen TV, this is all for you free of upgrade charges. Learn more about we do as a standard HERE. 

We love to here where you would want outlets or where you wish you had outlets, leave us a comment or message us anytime. 

Building Tip #7- Location, Location, Location

Just like when buying location matter when building. When building find out what lots are available to you, through your builder and ones that are one the market and check with your builder to make sure they will build on any lot you buy in the area.
When looking a lot there are a couple things to consider:

• Is there an HOA? If so what are the costs and the benefits?
• What is the community like? -Talk to the neighbors, and people in the area
• What is the traffic like? Rush Hour? -The drive may not take long when you see it on a Saturday, but could double or triple doing the week.
•  How far is it from your place of work? Grocery store? Pharmacy/Hospital? 
• Research the city and county -they may have different ordinances and laws that may affect you.
• And anything else you find important in your life

If you would like help finding the right location and a lot in the area you can give us a call anytime at 801-882-2622 or visit our website at buildingahomeinutah.com

Building Tip #6- Plan the Floor Plan

As with buying a home when you build a home you are paying for every square foot, the difference is you get to control and make decisions on every square foot. The saying goes 'If you fail to plan you plan to fail.' This holds true when building a house deciding on a floor plan in a crucial step in the building process and it can be a tricky one.

When you look at a floor plan consider what you need and want in terms of square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms, entrances, garage space, and layout. A lot of builders don't allow you to change the floor plan or even use an outside plan, being aware of this needs to be a high priority when choosing your builder because the floor plan becomes your house and you deserve to be 100% happy with it.

At Echelon Homes we fully believe you deserve to have the perfect floor plan that is why we work with you to redesign any floor plan of your choosing to make it exactly what you want. We move walls, rooms, and anything else you want changed at no extra cost to you. If you want to find out more click HERE.

Just Remember when you are in the building process make sure you understand and are happy with every square foot of you future home. Then ask your builder to really help you visualize what the floor plan will be like when its built so everyone is one the same page. Right now at Echelon Homes we are working on creating 3D floor plans (example pictures shown) for all our plans so that all our clients can better visualize the home we can build them to find out more about us call us at 801-882-2622 or at http://buildingahomeinutah.com/

Building Tips #5 -Ask Questions

It's important when building a home to ask your builder any and all questions you can think of. They are building your home and you deserve to know everything you want about them and how they are building your home. To help you out we have posted a bunch of questions that you can ask yourself and your builder.

• What is a good design for our needs?


• What is a building code? Does it effect us? How does it work? What doesn't it do?


• Who is responsible, overall, for my building project?


• What are good sizes and proportions for rooms? What style do I want?


• What am I really getting from the builder?


• What problems do I have in my current house that I don't want to repeat?


• Where can I find answers and help? How do I make my desires known?


• What does that line on the drawing mean?


• What is a dispute; a lien?


• What are specifications? Does the builder write and provide them?


• What if my builder does something in a way I don't like? Is the house going to be complete; will something be left out?


• When will the house be finished?


• What is a contract? How do I play a part in it? What does it say?


• What is "an extra"?


• Is that a good material, I've never heard of it?


• Can I change things?


• Who picks the color of the paint, wall coverings, etc.?


• Is landscaping included? Sod? Seed? mud and rocks? Slopes? Are landscape features guaranteed?


• What if I disagree with the builder? Can I stop the work?


• Am I allowed on the job site? Can I inspect the work as it goes up? Can I bring someone with me?


• I really want this ________________in the house -- how do I get exactly that?


• I can buy the light fixtures from my brother-- but who will hang them? What do I do?


• Should I close on the mortgage and pay the builder in full? I have several items that I don't like - must I still close?


• Why do we have to make all these trips to pick things out?

We can and will answer all of these questions for you and any you can think of, you can give us a call at 801-882-2622 or check out our website at http://buildingahomeinutah.com

Building Tip #4- Don't forget the family members on four legs!

When building a home if you have pets taking advantage of this time is something you might really enjoy now and in the long run and be happy that you did. Below are pictures and descriptions of things people have had built into their homes to accommodate their furry friends.
When doing this in your home be creative have fun with it we love our pets for a reason and you know them best, I hop you enjoy the options I have found below.

A built in Litter Box

• Having a special cabinet or wall section in you kitchen, laundry room, or bathroom be added with a built in litter box can put it out of site from guests and even away from little hands, while still making it just as easy for you to clean it up.

Built in Food Bowls

• Having a specific place for your pets to eat added to your home can make a random food bowl on the floor a part of your kitchen or laundry room while also giving you a place to put the food and treats. 

They even added a facet to making filling up the water bowl even easier.

Built in Dog Bath

• These can be easily added to your garage, laundry room, or mudroom. This would provide you an easier way to clean your muddy pet. This can also be used by anyone in the family including muddy kids. With its multiple uses this one is a hard one to look past.

Lastly a Build in Dog or Cat Crate or Bed

• Adding this to your home can provide you furry friend with their own special space to go, while making it look completely apart of your home.

As a final note I have plans for when I build what I am going to do for my dogs. I have two giant english mastiffs, don't ask me how I ended up with two of the heaviest dogs in the world. No ordinary dog house will do for these dogs as our female at 5 months currently is as long as a loveseat laying down and 80lbs to give you an idea of their size. My husband planned on building them an epic dog house of 32 sq ft since we prefer to keep our dogs outside during the day. Instead when we build we are going to have a 3 car deep garage and at the very back we plan to have a separate room with a door to the back yard that has a doggies dog big enough for them on it. In that room we will put beds and food bowls for them to enjoy -we really love our dogs. That way they can have a their own room that is connected to the house so they can stay warm and cool, while still being able to enjoy and play outside. 

Do one of these things or even something you have thought up on your own is something that can completely fit you and your pets, not everyone will need a room at the back of their garage for their dogs, but I do and I am excited to have that for my dogs. 

Thanks for reading we hope you enjoyed. Is there anything you would be interested in doing leave us a comment let us know what you love or what you think? Or check us out at buildingahomeinutah.com

Building Tip #3- Avoid Changes

This is a simple on today, but is important to keep in mind while building. A lot goes into building and designing a home countless choices will be made by you from your blueprint to the molding you want. These many choices are best made before you even start building because the builder needs to know what materials supplies and plans they need to make to build your dream home.  Once all the decisions are made and building does begin this is where changes sometimes invariably happen. Making changes once the building process has begun can be a huge no-no that can cause you and your builder more time and frustration to make the change and it will usually end up costing more money.

 So today's tip is when building a home and making your decisions and think about them so you know your making the right one and then very important -stick them!  Don't let a brand new trend suddenly make you want to change your kitchen cabinets, stand by your decisions you choose them for a reason. I guarantee you your home will be beautiful and you will love it, especially when you build with us at Echeon Homes who specialize in affordable and custom homes. Find out more about us at buildingahomeinutah.com- Sorry for the little bit of the cheesy ad there we just truly want you to be the smartest you can be while building a home and we have help many homebuyers do so.

Building Tip #1 -Run an Extra Gas Line

Run an extra gas line

 If you have a gas line up it either for a 
fireplace or stove have us or whoever you are building with run an extra line. You can do this to either your patio for a future grill or in the basement so you have the option of putting in a fireplace there. Doing this while you are building can cost a couple hundred dollars depending, but if you try to do it after the fact the price will jump to the thousands. Take it from the Life is Yellow blog on their and their neighbors experience.
 "If you have one gas line already in place for your living room fireplace or stove, run another line on the opposite side of the house so you can upgrade to a gas stove (would do that again in a heartbeat – LOVE my gas stove!). In our neighbors’ case, they ran an extra line for the basement level of their home. At the time of purchase, they didn’t want to pull the trigger to put a second fireplace in downstairs (they run a few thousand) but if they ever want to down the road, they (or future buyers) have the option, ready to go." - See more: Here
Or check out our website at http://buildingahomeinutah.com

Building Tip #2 - Pre-Wiring

Pre-wire for everything you can think of! Even the stuff you don’t thing you need. When your building a home you can take full advantage of having no walls.  When you pre-wire during construction you can choose where things go and you don't have to fish wire through walls and floors which can cost twice as much to do versus doing it while the walls are open and exposed.  Even if you may not be able to or what to put it in after you finish building having the option by prewiring can save you money, time, and hassle if and when you do want to put it in and prewiring for anything and everything will always add value to your home.

You may also think you would much rather ride the wireless wagon, but unforunately wireless technology in not up tp par, it just isn't as robust or reliable as a hard wired connection. Most wireless systems only work in and for a small space and plaster walls, stone interior facades or other common residential obstructions  can cause the wireless to not work properly if they work at all.  

 So to help you in figuring out what to prewire we have come up with a couple places and ideas that you can pre-wire during construction to save you time, money, and hassle in the long run.

• Things to Prewire for

• Speakers for the inside and outside
• Motion Sensors
• Security Cameras
• Surround sound inside and outside
• A theater room
• A generator
• securitySystem 
•  Door Phones
• Intercoms
• Driveway Vehicle Detection
•  Communicating thermostats
•  Motorized window treatments
•  Entry systems
•  Irrigation systems. 
• And the Obvious ones
• Cable
• Internet
• Phone Lines
• Also to prewiring any or all of these you should also decide on two locations for centralized controls, like one in the living room or kitchen and the other in the master bedroom.
• We offer many standard features that help out and include some prewiring to find out more click here.

• Usually Forgotten Places
• The Garage
• The garage most homes is a central nerve cneter of the home, as the many entry point into the home, you can take advantage of this fact by having a chain of events be trigger when you arrive home through your garage. For example when you garage door opens the kitchen or mudrooms lights could turn on or the thermostat could adjust or in a reverse affect that system could also alert you when the garage door has been left open
• Hallways and Closets
• Although you may not think of these places when you think of prewiring, but they can acutally hold a key to helping you save energy.  By prewiring for halway sensors and leyrt installing them when someone exits the hallway the sensor could send a signal to the security or lighting system to turn off the light, the same can be done in larger closets that have lights.

• We actually include lights in all the larger closets including the pantry, to find out more about our standard features click here.
• The Front Door
• Although it isn't the garage or mudroom the front door is the next common entrance into a home. Prewiring for a security pad next to the front door is a good idea for common sense and convience.
• Patios and Deckstear it up to bury wiring 
• Once you have you new lawn and garden done the last thing you would want to do is, so prewiring on and near you decks and patios in very important. You want to prewire anywhere you might want to hear music. Also it is smart to prewire for junction boxes around your backyard. Junction boxes throughout your back yard can be very useful in many ways. We have 4 in our back yard and each has been used multiple times for tools, speakers, lights, etc. 

When you plan on building be sure to look into prewiring and talk to your builder about what they do or do not include standard and remember to be smart and logical when building a house and get advise on things you don't understand. This is it for Building tip #2!