There are certain rooms you’ll find in every home in Minnesota. Nobody builds a home without a kitchen, a bathroom or two, a family room, and some bedrooms. You’ll find those rooms highlighted in all home floor plans. And as important as those rooms are, there are other—often overlooked—features in your home that deliver a lot of value and comfort. Too many family home plans overlook the features that make a home more comfortable and convenient. Let’s take a look at some custom home features your family will love.
Practical Mudrooms
A mudroom may not be the first thing you think of when building a new home, but once you have one, you’ll wonder how you lived without it. Anybody who has lived in the Twin Cities area for any amount of time knows that we get more than our fair share of rain and snow. Keeping the mess associated with those forces of nature out of your home is a challenge. That’s where a practical mudroom shines like a beacon.
A well-designed mudroom provides a place to take off muddy boots and shoes and to hang wet coats and jackets instead of draping them over the furniture in the kitchen or the family room. Installing stone or tile flooring makes it easy to clean up, too.
A mudroom, however, offers more than just protection against mud. If designed properly, it’s also a great staging area for kids as they head off for school in the morning. Backpacks and school projects can be stored there the night before so that there’s less frantic scrambling to pull things together in the morning. It’s also a good place to store sports gear in between practices. Building in some storage space (such as cubbies for the kids) makes keeping things organized a lot easier. And it’s also a great space for unloading groceries from the car. All of those things make life in your new home less stressful and more enjoyable.
How big should your mudroom be? That depends on how you want to use it. If you want to include extra storage space for bulk foods or cleaning supplies, you may want to make it a little larger and include some built-in cabinets. If you just want to use the space for storing boots, shoes, and coats, you can go with a smaller space.
Dedicated Laundry Rooms
Laundry may not be your favorite job, but a dedicated laundry room—that’s designed as a laundry room—can make it a much easier and convenient task. When you’re building a custom home, you don’t have to relegate doing laundry to some dark, dank corner of the basement, or some overcrowded closet-like space. You can build it in where it’s convenient for you. And you can design it to accommodate all the things you do.
You can include a big laundry sink (even one big enough to wash a good-sized dog). You can build in adequate space for folding or hanging clothes. You can even build in an ironing board that comes out of the wall when you need it. Choose flooring that’s easy to maintain and stands up to some water and an occasional bleach spill. By the way, some homeowners like the idea of combining the laundry room with the mudroom. With a custom home, it’s your choice.
A Real Home Office
Increasing numbers of American workers work from home at least part of the time. The Minneapolis area is no exception. Building a custom home provides you with the option of creating a real home office (instead of a converted bedroom) that’s designed to be a convenient and comfortable workspace. You can choose the location (quiet and removed from interruptions). You can make it as large or small as you want. You can configure it so that it matches your work needs and install lighting that is ideal for work.
You Can Never Have Too Much Storage Space
Next time you're in the car, take note of how many private storage units there are in the greater Minneapolis area. They're everywhere! Obviously, a lot of people in the area don’t have enough storage space in their homes. But rather than pay a monthly fee to store your stuff in an inconvenient location, you can plan ahead and include extra storage in your new home.
A great builder can help you find creative spaces to build in extra storage. That allows you to take advantage of unused space (under stairs, between studs, etc.) without having to increase the footprint of your home.
Start with a Great Plan
If you want to make changes to add these (or other) features to your home, you need to start with a great floor plan. We’d encourage you to look at some of our two-story floor plans as a basis for adding the features you want. Some of them already include spaces designated for the purposes listed above. And, of course, you can modify these plans to better meet your needs. Or, if you have a specific question you’d like to talk to someone about, please contact us and let us know what your interest is and we’ll be delighted to get back to you.
The real beauty of building a custom home is that you can add the features that your family will love—features that will make your whole family more comfortable and at home for years to come.
