If you absolutely love where you live, there’s no reason you can’t turn your current abode into your forever home with some custom remodeling. Perhaps you love your tight-knit community that’s full of friendly people and great businesses. And maybe your neighbors are also your best friends, or at least kind and honest people.
If you can picture living in your present location for many years to come, let’s make sure your home is ready to make that happen. With expert planning and custom remodeling, it’s possible to make your house the perfect place to live now AND in the future.
What Will Your Forever Home Need to Make It Ideal For Years to Come?
Before taking a deep dive into any remodeling project, it’s a good idea to look closely at how your home currently functions and how it could be better. Then, think about how you plan to use your home in the years to come …
- Will you be starting a family?
- If so, how many children do you plan to have?
- Do you have enough bedrooms and bathrooms?
- Is there a need for a work-from-home office space?
- Do you anticipate caring for aging parents in your home?
- Does your idea of a forever home include aging in place yourself?
- Does your family enjoy outdoor living and entertaining?
By answering these questions and more, you’ll have a better idea of where your home needs help in order for it to truly become a forever home. Then, you can prioritize which of the custom remodeling ideas below should be done and when.
7 Custom Remodeling Ideas You Can Incorporate Into Your Forever Home Now
1. Utilize an Open Floor Plan
There are many advantages to creating spaces with an open concept design. An open floor plan for your main living area, for example, can be ideal for everyday family life and for entertaining. You can prepare a meal in the kitchen while seeing or talking to others in the living room. And when entertaining groups larger than your family, people are able to move freely from place to place without feeling claustrophobic.
In terms of creating a forever home, open spaces can be important for several reasons. When your children are young, it’s easy to keep an eye on them playing or doing homework while you’re preparing a meal. But as time goes by, the same open space can make mobility easier for family members who need to use a walker or wheelchair. If your home doesn’t already feature an open floor plan, custom remodeling can make it possible.
2. Combine Smaller Rooms With Custom Remodeling
Perhaps your home already has the right amount of overall space in terms of square footage. But if it’s not arranged properly, it might not feel like you have enough space for what your family wants and needs.
Maybe while your children were younger, it was helpful to have two small bedrooms for your son and daughter. With them out of the house, however, it may be more useful to combine the two small rooms into one to create a larger, more appealing bedroom for overnight guests. Or, maybe there’s an unused utility closet in the hallway whose space could be combined with the adjacent bedroom’s closet to create one larger walk-in closet that’s more user-friendly.
3. Custom Remodeling Can Connect Indoor and Outdoor Living Spaces
As your family grows to include more children or even grandchildren, one of the custom remodeling ideas you might consider is connecting your living or dining area to your outdoor living space. This can be accomplished with sliding glass doors or large windows that physically separate the two spaces but visually make them feel like one. Doing this can create the illusion of more space but also help to improve traffic flow between the two areas.
4. Build an Addition
Regardless of how much you love your home, there are times when the square footage you have simply won’t meet your needs. That’s when creating additional space may be beneficial and necessary. This could be as simple as a room addition on the back side of your home. Or, it could be more extensive and include many rooms or multiple stories.
Additions are commonly considered for in-law suites, garages, guest spaces, and work-from-home offices. Whatever your needs may be, work with a professional custom remodeling company to ensure that the addition fits with your home’s overall design. The last thing you want is an addition that actually looks like one and doesn’t blend with the original structure.
5. Add Outdoor Living Space
Depending on where you live, creating an outdoor kitchen, patio, or California room could be the perfect way for you to maximize your space and make your forever home more enjoyable. Here in Orange County, CA, for example, many outdoor living spaces can be used all year long and may be a relaxing place to eat, play or entertain.
Custom remodeling ideas for outdoor living spaces are extensive and include things like:
- Firepits
- Open patios
- Outdoor entertainment spaces
- Enclosed or open dining areas
- Pools and spas
- Pergolas and gazebos
- Outdoor kitchens
6. Custom Remodeling Can Incorporate Universal Design
Universal design techniques are often thought of as ways to make everyday living easier for older people who may have mobility challenges. While it can make aging in place easier in your forever home, universal design is meant to make things easier for everyone at every age.
If a bathroom remodel is needed to upgrade your forever home, consider installing a curbless shower, a built-in shower bench, and universal fixtures. Similarly, if a kitchen renovation is on your priority list, universal design elements such as D-shaped drawer pulls and slide-out shelves could be part of your custom remodeling efforts.
7. Give the Exterior of Your Home a Facelift With Custom Remodeling
If everything on the inside of your home is exactly how you want and need it, take a closer look at the outside. Do you actually enjoy coming home or do you cringe every time you pull in the driveway? Is there anything that makes your house stand out (in a good way) or does it blend with all the others in your neighborhood?
Whether it’s a new paint job, updated siding, or an attractive landscape, it could be time to give your home’s exterior a makeover. Boosting your home’s curb appeal could make it more enjoyable now but it’s also a home renovation that pays off if you do need to sell sometime down the road.
Custom Remodeling Experts In Orange County, CA
At Sea Pointe Design & Remodel, we’ve been meeting the home remodeling needs of Orange County residents for almost 40 years. We’ve completed kitchen remodels in Newport Beach, Mission Viejo, San Clemente, Laguna Niguel, and more, plus bathroom renovations in Irvine, Placentia, North Tustin, Ladera Ranch, and beyond. But no matter where we remodel in Orange County, we’re thrilled to help homeowners create personalized spaces that are both beautiful and functional.
To get a closer look at our custom remodeling projects, browse through our online portfolio of completed projects. Or, for remodeling advice or tips from the pros, be sure to register for one of our upcoming remodeling webinars.
Then, when you’re ready to start planning your own remodeling project, simply give us a call at (949) 861-3400 or fill out the form below to schedule your complimentary design consultation.