From our project manager to our foreman, our well developed team of professionals works hard to make dreams a reality when building custom homes. Nothing requires more attention that when you’re building a custom home from the ground up. Our Team focuses on the details, the schedule, the quality, while you make the decisions as to what you want your home to look and feel like. Some of the first conversations we have are about what kind of features our clients are looking for in a home. That includes everything from fixtures to the envelope of the home. Whether you can see it in the final product, or its hidden behind paint, it matters. We collected a few of our top features that we feel are important to consider when building a custom home.
Outlet Drawers for Electronics
These days the amount of chords, charger blocks and devices that we have is overwhelming. Nevermind is it overwhelming to our minds, but to our homes. If we are spending the time and money to create these beautiful spaces, we don’t want chords and electronics laying around everywhere. Why not create a drawer that is a charging station, as well as a safe place to get them out of site, and out of mind. You could even have multiple, one for phones, and one for larger items. We would even recommend putting a lock on one so that days when the whole family just needs a break from screens, you can use that security feature to ensure no little hands are being sneaky.
Smart Thermostats
A smart thermostat is definitely becoming a standard choice when renovating or building a custom home. There is 3 things that a smart thermostat does that makes it so valuable to a homeowner. First, one part of it plugs directly into the HVAC system. Second, you have the in home device. Most important are the features that make this ‘Smart’ device, smart. The app allows the homeowner the ability to control the temperature of your home from anywhere. It also ables you to monitor your energy consumption weekly, so that you can become smarter about how you program your thermostat. Once you see its a little above normal, you can change it directly from your app, from anywhere in the world. The goal is for this device and app to make lessening your carbon footprint better attainable during our day to day lives.
Shower Benches and Custom Niches
A custom shower for your custom home? These two shower additions are highly underrated but very handy when this part of your home is being used daily, sometimes multiple times a day.
Shower bench:
- makes shaving legs way easier
- is very handy for visiting family or yourself down the road
- is great to put some of your shower accessories on while you use them
Custom niche:
- is way easier to keep clean than something you’ve added
-
can be made to fit what it is going to be used for
- ex. some people use shampoos that come in large bottles, you can build your shower niche to fit them
- leaves more space in the room, because its not being taken up by shelves
Triple Pane Argon Filled Windows
Air insulates less effectively than gas fills. Using the non-toxic Argon air inside a paned window has many benefits for your home:
- enhances soundproofing (who knew!?)
- reduces the possibility of windows fogging up
- minimizes heat exchange thru the window
-
improves U-Value, the measure of a windows thermal performance
- similar to the R-Value of wall insulation
- only costs about $30-40 per window, but benefits you for a a lifetime
LED Accent Lighting
A custom home is often built to be eye catching dynamic. There is nothing more important than lighting to show off your beautiful new home. When you’re choosing your lighting you might notice the LED bulbs are four times the price but did you know they last 25 times longer than the traditional incandescent light bulbs? They also don’t give off as much heat, and take way less energy to use. The lighting effect you will get from LED lighting also is pretty nice on the eyes, and perfect for applying makeup. As you can see here in the ensuite at our Brand project, they chose to have LED strip lighting installed around there mirror, as well as under the floating vanity. A lot of clients choose to put the vanity lighting underneath on a sensor so when you stroll in the bathroom in the middle of the night, you may not even have to turn on the light. Save energy, and also your eyes from the bright lights.
Playhouse Under the Stairs
A tiny playhouse for your children or grandkids!? This is the epitome of a custom home. Team Hasler is in the midst of building our first playhouse under the stairs for some clients. We can’t wait to see their grandkids enjoying it. We will be sharing that once the house is complete but for now, here are a few we found online that are pretty sweet.
Smart Technology
Smart technology allows you to control, monitor and secure activity even when you’re not at home. The biggest benefit to homeowners who are choosing to install Smart appliances and devices is that you can monitor the energy consumption of them. As you monitor your daily and weekly consumption, you can then adjust them directly from your apps. This also means that if you leave the house and forget to turn the heat down, you can simply fix that from your phone.
When we were in Vegas at the International Builders Show, we got to see some of the new Smart fridges. They can do a lot. There are cameras inside of the fridge that would be very handy for when you’re at the grocery store and forgot to check the contents of the fridge. A smart fridge would allow you to open an app and look at the contents of your fridge via the interior camera. You can even go a step beyond this and track the freshness of your groceries. Once the item is scanned, the fridge will keep track of it so you can check on its expiry/purchase date from your phone. Pretty handy!
Another great feature is that these smart appliances and devices are designed to turn off if a problem is detected. For example, when the water starts to boil over while on the stove, it will shut off the element instead of continuing to boil while water overflows and makes a mess. Also, they are able to report internal malfunctions via the app. We feel that there is still lots of work to go into improving these Smart appliances and devices, but so far, the ones that we have been installing are proving to be user friendly, saving homeowners from excess damage, and beneficial to the carbon footprint of our clients.
Hot Water Hose Bib for Washing Cars
What is a hose bibb? Your hose bibb is the faucet located on the exterior of your home. Installing a hose bibb in your with the option of giving hot or cold water is something you will thank yourself for down the road. Whether its filling the kiddie pool or washing the car, sometimes the little luxury of warm water is very worth the little bit of extra money it takes to install it. We also recommend investing in a freezeless anti-rupture sillcock if you live in Vancouver or similar conditions. The weather here seems to be getting colder and colder during the winter so best to be prepared!
Exterior Door Thermal Efficiency
Traditionally people choose a wooden door for their front entrance. As companies have been learning more and more about what is best to create a strong exterior envelope for homes, we have found that a wooden door might not be the best choice. Instead, fibreglass entry doors are the way to go. In addition to insulating the home better, fibreglass doors also last longe, resist warping and cracking.
Invest in Your Building Envelope Design
The walls of a home are past the days of wooden frames and basic insulation. With the current building code changing almost weekly, our goal as company is to be ahead of it always. That is why we build high performance homes, and don’t really allow for wiggle room. When we recommend products, its because we have chosen them for their quality, not because they are the cheapest. For example, the Nudura insulated concrete forms is our current choice for building the foundation. You can see it being used here at our Evergreen project. This home will be have a Net Zero rating when it’s complete. ICF are necessary when building a Net Zero home. But they are also a great idea for anyone building a home in general.
