Should You Add Features Now or Later in Your New Home?

Buying a new home can be both exciting and intimidating. There are a lot of decisions to make and a lot to consider when you determine your budget. Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods focuses on helping you decide where to use your buying power most effectively and keep you in budget along the way.

Walking into the Ideal Design Studio is a serious kid-in-a-candy store situation. It’s easy to want every upgrade. We know that’s not a reality. Inevitably, conversations move to: “Should we do this now…or can it wait?”

The reality is this: if you have a budget (as most of us do), some options might be worth waiting until after you live in your new home for a while before deciding to make changes. We'll help you understand what might be best to add now vs. waiting until later.

Three Questions to Ask Before Deciding to Add Options Now or Later to Your New Home

Question 1: Will adding this later damage finished surfaces of my new home?

Once your new home is complete, many surfaces are sealed and finished with care. Adding features later can mean cutting into drywall, removing trim, disturbing flooring, or patching and repainting.

If an option requires undoing finished work, it’s often a better idea (and less stressful) to custom build a home with this feature. Examples often best done during your new home building process include:

• Additional electrical outlets or lighting that require opening walls
• Adding additional cabinets

These upgrades are possible later, but they’re often less expensive to add at the beginning rather than waiting until the home is complete.

Question 2: Will it require structural changes to my new home?

Some features affect more than appearances. Structural changes can involve framing, foundation elements, rooflines, or major mechanical and electrical routing. Those types of modifications are far more complicated after construction is complete. If a change will impact the structure of the home, it’s usually best to address it up front. Examples that are typically best included when you buy or build a new home:

• Covered patios or patio extensions, which may require additional foundation work or roof framing
  • It's also much more affordable to add concrete to your back patio during construction than after the home is complete
• Enlarged or relocated doors or larger windows

These are all features that might seem like fun “someday projects,” but once the home is built, changing them is far more invasive and expensive than most homeowners expect.

Question 3: Will this change to my new home disrupt my life?

Even when something can be added later, it’s worth asking what that actually looks like in real life. Will you need to:

• Live with dust, noise, or limited access to rooms?
• If you decide to wait a year, are you going to have to move the furniture out?

Sometimes the real cost of an upgrade isn’t the price, it’s the disruption to your life. Examples of an upgrade that will disrupt your life after construction:

• Flooring. While it may seem like something you can change later, flooring often means removing (and inevitably damaging) baseboards, moving appliances and furniture…basically moving in and out of your house twice. 

The good news, however, is that there are some options you might decide to tackle after you’ve built your new Ideal home since they won't disrupt your home significantly and are similar in price to adding this feature up front.

Six upgrades that might be possible and affordable later

Storm Shelter

Storm shelter considerations include:

• Below-ground shelters aren’t accessible for everyone, especially those with mobility concerns or with larger pets
• Larger families may need more space than a standard shelter provides
• Some homeowners prefer an above-ground safe room or a different placement
  

Adding a storm shelter to your new home in Oklahoma is a great option but it is also possible to add a storm shelter after move-in with very minimal disruption and for a similar cost.

Sprinkler System

Adding a sprinkler systems is another upgrade you can add later without significant disruption and for a similar price as an upfront installation.

Additional Landscaping

You may want to add additional landscaping such as larger flower beds or more plans. When custom-building an new home with Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods, you can choose a larger landscaping package. But you can also choose to add this later if you wish to take more time to plan out your dream garden, see how water moves across the yard, and how you use your outdoor space. 

Accent Paint

Accent walls and custom color choices are easy to change later with minimal impact on your home's functionality.

Garage Storage

Who doesn’t love the idea of built-in organization in the garage? This is one of the easiest upgrades to add after you’ve moved in. Because garage storage lives outside your main living space, it’s a flexible upgrade that’s easy to tackle while you’re already settled…without turning your home into a construction zone.

At Ideal Homes & Neighborhoods, our goal is to help you build a home that works for your life, your budget, and your future without pressure, shortcuts, or regret. 

Find out more about custom building one of our 38 floor plans in Oklahoma City and Stillwater!