…this process is going to take much longer than you want it to. Much longer than you think it should. You’ll want to say, “sure, whatever, that’s fine” several times but I highly recommend fighting this urge. Custom house builds are egregiously detail-oriented projects, and decisions you make with your prospective builders can greatly alter the final bid/budget.

In the Design stage of your custom house build, you account for everything the builder will need in order to put together the estimate for the project cost, though you do get to make adjustments to the some of the specifics later in the process.

I had a pretty long list of wants for my house. I wanted bedrooms big enough to avoid the “Bay Area shuffle”, wherein the bedrooms are only big enough for a queen sized bed and two side tables; with any other furniture, you have to scoot along a one-lane path around the edges of the bed to “cross” the room. I wanted a space for my gym equipment, one that I could lock Muffin out of so I don’t get stepped on or licked into madness while stretching. I wanted my dream kitchen and pantry. I wanted outdoor space.

Undertaking a custom home was something I knew would be incredibly difficult. As someone whose entire professional career is about anticipating the worst case scenario, I knew the sheer volume of decision-making would be intimidating. Setting aside the fact that I barely knew how to MAINTAIN a house, designing one from scratch seemed like a pretty steep learning curve.