You’ve made the big decision to buy a new home — congratulations! And you may have even made your next biggest decisions — where and which floor plan. Again, kudos to you! But your decision-making duties aren’t quite done yet.
If buying new from the ground up, you’ll likely be taking a trip to your builder’s design center. There, you’ll choose your flooring, countertop material, shower tile, paint and other décor features. You can also talk to your builder about other features that will make life easy in your new home. Some to consider:
Kitchen
Little changes add up in a big way in the kitchen, leading to better storage and functionality:
- Consider putting outlets underneath your cabinets rather than on the wall. This will preserve the beauty of your backsplash.
- Add a motion sensor to your pantry that will automatically turn on a light when the door opens — and turn it off when the door is closed.
- Instead of deep kitchen cabinets where it’s difficult to get to items stored in the very back, switch to deep drawers that you can pull out and see everything stored.
- Have a paper towel holder built in.
- Design one kitchen drawer exclusively for knives. This will help keep knives sharp and reduce the chance of accidentally cutting yourself when quickly grabbing for a blade.
- Have two built-in soap pumps — one for hand soap and one for dishwashing soap.
- Install a pull-out garbage bin.
Owner’s Suite
The owner’s suite is your haven. It’s where you start fresh each morning and where you’ll rest your head at the end of a busy day. Why shouldn’t it be as convenient as possible?
- Have a light switch at the head of the bed so you can turn out the light once you’re in bed. No more stumbling around in the dark.
- Think about having a master switch in the bedroom that controls your outdoor lights.
- Add USB plugs to your wall outlets near your bed for easy phone charging.
- Install outlets in one or more drawers in your bathroom — perfect for blow dryers and curling irons!
- Have an outlet near the toilet for a night light.
- Warm up quickly after your shower with heated towel racks.
Outdoors
- Say goodbye to propane canisters and have a gas line installed for an outdoor grill.
- Add a 220V plug to the garage for tools and an electric car.
- Place outlets under the eaves for holiday lights, with a switch inside to turn them on and off.
Miscellaneous
- Recess your outlets in places where you may have furniture up against a wall.
- Add a light switch to the attic in a nearby hallway.
- If you have dogs, consider building a dog-wash station in the mud room or laundry room.
Your Sunterra builder likely has even more small additions that can make living easy. Talk to them today about building the perfect home for you in the perfect community!
