Designing Luxury Homes

The larger the budget is for your custom home, the more options you have in its design. Designing a luxury home involves making many important decisions, and with the benefit of a custom home builder, you can be sure that you are making the right ones. There are many ways that a builder of luxury homes in Austin can help you design the home of your dreams.

First Steps

Before consulting a builder of luxury homes in Austin, you should think about the style of home you are interested in as well as the features you want your home to have. There are many different styles of homes to choose from, so you will want to narrow your choices. Consult architecture books, search online, and drive around your area to see which styles of homes really catch your eye. You should also think about things you consider must haves for your home, such as a room for a gym or a home theatre, or a porch or deck. Your family’s needs and interests are as important as your tastes when it comes to designing your home.

Initial Consultation

Once you have chosen a builder, you are ready for an initial consultation. Many custom builders offer architectural consultation in addition to home building. You can describe the features you want for your home, as well as the styles you are interested in. Because builders of luxury homes in Austin have considerable knowledge as well as experience, a builder can help you put your dream plans into action. For example, your builder can tell you which of your ideas won’t work, and he can make suggestions for what will. He will also have knowledge of factors you may not have even considered that he can help you decide. He can also show you a portfolio of previous homes he has built to help generate more ideas.

Finishing Touches

In addition to the style and layout of your home, you will need to make many other decisions. Your builder of luxury homes in Austin can make suggestions for flooring, counter tops, bathrooms, and fixtures after listening to what you want. You will also need to consider paint colors, as well as any extras, such as recessed lighting, solar lighting, or anything else you might want to add to your home’s design. By having your home custom built, you can have the style and features you want, without getting anything you’re not interested in.

Choosing Luxurious Countertops For Custom Homes In Austin

Custom build countertops allow you to choose any style you desire to create a beautiful new look for your kitchen. There are many different types of countertops to choose from, such as those made from marble. Marble countertops are one of the most popular choices for custom homes in Austin. They are luxurious, waterproof, and heat resistant. Marble countertops come in many colors and designs to complement the look of any kitchen. Marble countertops are expensive, but they add an invaluable effect for your kitchen.

Granite And Engineered Stone Countertops

Another beautiful look for kitchen countertops in custom homes in Austin is granite. Granite looks elegant, and it is low maintenance. Although granite countertops are expensive, they can significantly add to the resale value of your home. Granite countertops are available in hundreds of beautiful colors, and will instantly add a classy look to your kitchen. Engineered stone countertops provide the look of granite, but they are more scratch resistant, and much less expensive. Since they aren’t porous like natural granite countertops, they are more resistant to staining as well. Engineered stone countertops are available in hundreds of colors, and are popular for use in custom homes in Austin.

Ceramic Tile And Laminate Countertops

Economical choices for countertops in custom homes in Austin include ceramic tile and laminate countertops. Ceramic tile countertops look expensive, but they aren’t. They are easy to clean, and quite durable as well. Ceramic tile countertops come in a vast array of colors and patterns. Laminate countertops are also economical, durable, and easy to clean due to their smooth surface. Laminate countertops are made to resemble stone, granite, and wood due to a photograph that is laminated onto the countertop. With laminate countertops, you can achieve the luxurious look of granite, marble, or stone without the expensive price.

Wood And Stainless Steel Countertops

Although both are popular choices for countertops in custom homes in Austin, wood and stainless steel provide very different looks. Wood countertops provide a warm, cozy atmosphere. Most wood countertops are made from woods such as oak or maple. Wood countertops are easy to clean, and they can be refinished when needed to for continued resistance against water and staining. Stainless steel countertops give a very modern and professional look to your kitchen. Stainless steel countertops are heat resistant, easy to clean, and very long lasting. Stainless steel countertops are pricey, but their durability makes them a great investment for your home.

Luxury Homes In Austin Let You Make All The Decisions

When you decide you are ready to build your dream home, you have a lot of important decisions to make, including where to build, what floor plan to use, and what outdoor extras you want to include. Whether you design your home or have a builder design one for you with your input, luxury homes in Austin allow you to make all of the decisions so that your home is truly the one of your dreams.

Why Have A Builder Design Your Home?

Unless you are an experienced architect, it is a good idea to have a builder custom design your home to your specifications. A builder of luxury homes in Austin has the knowledge of many architectural details that you may overlook, as well as knowledge of features that you may not be aware of. You can communicate your desires to the builder, and the builder can incorporate all of your wants and needs into a workable plan for your home’s design.

Location

Choosing the best location for your home is an important decision. In addition to researching areas you are interested in for proximity to shopping and schools, as well as other factors that will affect your decision, talk to your builder. He can tell you where the most valuable properties for luxury homes in Austin are located, which is an important factor to consider. Not only do you want your dream home to be in a nice location, you also want to know that it is in an area with a high resale value should you decide to move.

Floor Plan

The floor plan is, of course, a very important factor to consider when building luxury homes in Austin. You can choose the number and sizes of bedrooms and bathrooms in addition to any specialty rooms, such as an office or home theater room. You can also choose the sizes of your living room and kitchen, and decide the layout of the rooms. You will need to decide how many floors your home will have, and if you will have a basement. You will also communicate to your builder all of the flooring, countertops, plumbing, and appliances that you want in your home. All of these decisions will be used by your builder when designing your home. He can also offer suggestions if you have proposed something that will affect the livability or even the resale value of your home.

Outdoor Features

Other aspects in designing your home that will require many decisions are the outdoor features you want. For example, many luxury homes in Austin feature circular driveways, court yards with fountains, or in-ground pools to add a unique and luxurious look. You will decide if you want to add outdoor living space by building a deck or porch, or if you want a patio, shed, or garage. With the help of a builder, you can make all of the important decisions is customizing your dream home.

Tips On Choosing Roof Shingles For Your New Home

If you are house building in Austin, you have to take into consideration everything that will go into the project and that includes the right roof shingles. Keep in mind that a leaky roof could devastate your new home no matter how good it looks and that makes the selection of the shingles of extreme importance. There are factors which will determine which type of shingles you will use. The climate of the city of Austin is the first one and the local conditions and norms for building. There are styles and trends but since this is your dream home, you should go with what you like.

Know All Your Options

Sometime ago, it used to be that the roof shingle material would limit you to very few options but that is no longer the case. There have been advances in technology which can give you a much wider variety and with that comes a variety of shapes, colors, finishes, quantities, looks and of course durability when house building in Austin. Some of the options you will have include tiles, crushed rock, tar, thick felt, cedar and others. It all depends on what you like and what you envision when you see your new home.

Trends

Composition roof shingles are the more popular option at the moment. They are about two and a half feet long and can be made of many different substances. Tile shingles are always a popular choice as well and with the hot climate in the city of Austin, it can make for a very good addition to your home. While cedar shingles are available for when you when you take on a project of house building in Austin, there is always a fire risk factor that you should take into consideration before you make that choice.

What You Will Not Need

When you take into consideration the type of weather that you will find in the city of Austin, there are some materials that you will want to avoid. Cedar, of course is the first one as mentioned earlier due to the fact that wildfires can spread to some areas. Metal shingles can look good on a house but they are not really made for house building in Austin. The reason is that metal shingles are much better in areas that see a lot of snow so that the snow can slip off the roof easily.

Build On Your Lot

Ron McGuire Custom Homes is Austin’s top shelf luxury home builder. Whether you just have a plot of land and a dream or just a dream, McGuire Custom Homes will build you the dream house you’ve always wanted. We work hard to make the design and building process fun, easy, and stress free.

As luxury home builders with more than 50 years of experience, we’ve learned that a plot of land can be a lot like a person. It will have it’s own personality, its own strengths and its own weaknesses. It isn’t enough to simply plop the home of your dreams on any piece of land, there are considerations to be made before you ever break ground. Knowing what the land will tolerate in it’s current condition, knowing how to engineer the land so that your house will be strong and stable for years to come is a rich part of our heritage.

McGuire custom homes insist that your home’s construction process is executed correctly, all the time. Because of this, Ron McGuire himself will show up to your building site daily to ensure that the crews working on your house are doing their jobs correctly so that when the first foot of concrete is laid onto our Earth, it’s going to stay there and stay firm for many decades to come.

For more than 50 years, families have trusted the McGuire family to build them the perfect home on their land. Contact us today and schedule a free initial design consultation with one of our architects and find out more about what makes us special.

Building Efficient Homes

You spend a lot of money to develop the perfect luxury home, and now you have to spend money to keep the utilities on. Where’s the fun in that?

At Ron McGuire Custom Homes we don’t want to build homes that chug down train loads of coal, swig gallons of natural gas, and nibble on nuclear rods for a snack. We believe that a major aspect of the luxury custom home business isn’t about killing forests so that people can relax. We believe that part of the luxury lifestyle means energy efficient custom homes. Therefore, building energy efficient custom home design is a hallmark of our designs.

From the inside out, we know the exteriors, insulation, windows, doors, flooring, ceiling, and roofing materials that don’t just look great and provide for a comfortable living space, but will also perform well in a variety of weather conditions - keeping your utilities low, and your custom home more environmentally friendly. When you meet with our architect for the first time, we’ll not only help you visualize your dreams, but we’ll help you find energy efficient ways to make those dreams come true and be sustainable for the long term, and we’ll do it on your own lot.

To learn more about Ron McGuire and his energy efficient custom homes, call us and we’ll setup an appointment to meet you.