Purchasing

March 1, 2016

Top 4 Things to Consider When Designing Windows for Your Home

Architect, Custom Home, Decorations, New Home Owners, Purchasing Design, Mt. Sterling Homes, northern Utah homebuilders, Planning

Designing a custom home is a unique experience. You have the ability to design exactly what you want out of the building you’re going to call home for maybe the rest of your life. So, since you want your house to be everything you’ve ever dreamed of, we are here to help you with some simple tools that will guide you to choose the perfect windows for your lifestyle.

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1.From the Outside Looking in

Remember that windows allow people to see all that is going on within your new custom home. So, when you are deciding what you want for windows, try and match it to what you want others to be able to see. If you like your privacy, large windows might not be for you, but for someone else the nice natural light might take priority over privacy.

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Windows will Affect Utilities

Especially here in Utah, having large amount of windows may cause your heating bill in the winter and A/C bill in the summer to increase. There are ways to help reduce this, like getting double pained and insulated windows. If you like the really open look, then don’t be surprised the first time you open up your gas and electricity bill. We can help you to take steps to increase the insulations of the windows in your home, which will help your reduce that increased cost for those floor to ceiling windows in your front room.

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Widows can help design

Choosing the right windows can help your home have a memorable appeal. Be sure to take into account what the whole picture looks like. Remember the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

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More Windows, More Light

Now, we realize that this can go against what we said in number 2, but it is true. If you have more windows you will have more natural light streaming into your home. This can help you with using electricity on lighting during the day time. So it can really be a double edged sword. Make sure to just do some simple research and number crunching to see what the overall outcome will be on your wallet.

We at Mt Sterling Custom Homes hope that this helped you to think about some different things when designing your custom home. Windows are great and will be a huge part of your home, so take the time to make the right choice for you!

February 15, 2016

Planning for Future Savings

Custom Home, New Home Owners, Purchasing Budgeting, Building, Cache Valley, Homes Northern Utah, Housing industry, Mt. Sterling Custom Homes

The beautiful thing about building your own custom home is you’re able to make decisions that will help impact your future savings. Making a few smart choices when designing and building a home will lead to tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars saved in a lifetime. Here at Mt Sterling Custom Homes, we are dedicated to helping you make those decisions that will be in your best interest and help you save tons of money on your future utilities bills. By considering the following options, you will be able to save more money in your new Mt Sterling Home.

1. Use LED Lights

Using a LED light bulb instead of a normal incandescent light bulb, you will be amazed at how much money you can save. According to the Energystar.gov website, LED lightbulbs save up to 90% of the energy of old light bulbs. By using these lights in your home, you can expect to save a huge amount on your electricity bill. We can help you can make decisions while designing your home that will help you see these benefits. We suggest that people should do this not only to save money, but to also do a small part on helping create a greener society.

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2. Insulate Your Home

For those who live in the intermountain west, we know that heating in the winters and cooling in the summers can be a huge cost for homeowners. By insulating the openings of doors and windows, this can help keep the heat or cold air inside. If you couple this with managing your thermostat to make sure that when you aren’t home or during the nights you can save a bit on heating or air conditioning. While other builders will offer insulation upgrades at a premium, Mt Sterling Custom Homes goes above and beyond to ensure that your home is air tight from extreme temperatures. We have thermal tested our homes to ensure our practices keep your windows, doors, and walls as a barrier from the elements.

3. Save on Hot Water

We understand that very few people like jumping into a cold shower. Not every homeowner is willing to sacrifice their warm showers, but did you know that you can save on your water and gas bills by making smart shower head purchases? By installing shower heads that use less water, you will be able to save on both the cost of heating the water and the water itself.

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These are three easy ways to help you live comfortably in your new custom home, yet save money on your utilities. Be sure to ask us about other ways to save when designing your home! At Mt Sterling we have small tips that will help you save money in the long run.

January 15, 2016

Why build a custom home?

Benefits, Custom Home, Decorations, New Home Owners, Purchasing Benefits, Budgeting, Building, Custom Homes, Design, experience, Homes Northern Utah, Planning

In today’s world, everything is made the same, from technology to cars to food. Everything is put on a conveyer belt, assembled the exact same way, and shipped off to the masses. It is rare to have something that is truly unique. That is why a custom home is so exciting. You have the opportunity to make something that is only yours. No one else will have the same home, it is genuinely exclusive to you!

Customization is key. The range of products that you can choose from is almost limitless. You get to choose the layout of the home, special features to set it apart, and even the specific material that is used. Everything is up to you. You can pick the most up-to-date technology that can make your home stand out in the modern era and make life much easier and more fun. Green building or sustainable building is also important to make sure that you can do your part in saving the world (as well as your wallet).

Found that amazing neighborhood close to a park or the school? Want to be close to your workplace or family? Great! You have the freedom make sure you are in the perfect location. Part of a custom home is placing it exactly where you want to be. Location is almost as important as the home itself. The location that you select will insure that your home really is ‘home sweet home’.

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Another important aspect is time. You have the chance to spend as much or as little time working on the home as you want. You can choose from featured homes or create a brand new home from scratch. This gives you the power to be as involved in the creation of your home as you want. You have the flexibility to customize every square inch of the home or work on the big picture aspects and leave the rest to our talented team of drafters and interior designers.

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Mt. Sterling is the premier custom home builder in Logan and northern Utah, so building with us carries many advantages. The most important is that you pay exactly what you expect to pay. Before we do anything extra, we make sure that it is what YOU want. We also customize a personalized home owner’s manual that is unique to your specific home. After the home is completed, we walk you through it to make sure you know exactly how to maintain it. We want to help you feel comfortable and confident in every aspect of the upkeep. And before you move in, we help celebrate your big day with a move in event. It is a special opportunity to build houses and we want to help you take the first steps towards making yours a home full of happy memories. Mt. Sterling goes above and beyond every step of the way.

Mt. Sterling makes sure to use the most current techniques and quality materials to insure that your house is truly a work of art. We have established craftsmanship and expertise as well as years of practice to make your home a reality. Your home is going to be exactly what you want, where you want it. It won’t be just another conveyor belt house, it will be your own customized home.

December 12, 2013

Pick the Right Layout for Your Lifestyle

Custom Home, Purchasing Custom Homes, Family, Layouts, Lifestyle

Finding the right home for your family can be tough! That’s why many families choose to build custom homes to fit their needs. But even designing a custom home that will fit your family’s needs is difficult! In order to build the home of your dreams, you need to consider your family’s lifestyle from the beginning of the building process. Your northern Utah home builders will help you along the way, but here’s some extra thoughts to consider!

1. For the extroverted family: If your family loves social interaction, build accordingly! Create open spaces where visitors can be comfortable in your home. If you anticipate that your family will spend most of their time in the main areas of the house, pick a floor plan that accommodates family togetherness. Don’t dedicate as much time or money to the private areas of the house if you expect that your family will mostly be in the main area.

2. For the introverted family: If the members of your family highly value alone time, then take that into consideration when building. When you focus on creating better bedrooms and solitary spaces, your family will enjoy the floorplan that you create! Be realistic when thinking about what your family is really like so that you can build a home to fit their needs.

3. For the family that is part extroverted and part introverted: It’s likely that most families fall in this category. Most families are not all extroverted or all introverted, but a combination of the two. Or maybe your family has both extroverted and introverted interests. In order to satisfy the needs of this family, pick your priorities when it comes to both the extroverted and introverted sides. If your family, for instance, enjoys cooking as a social activity then focus your energies on a social kitchen. Or if your family enjoys reading, create reading spaces in your home. You may not be able to satisfy all the extroverted introverted needs of your family, but you will satisfy the most important ones!

Don’t worry! With these careful considerations of your family’s lifestyle, you will build the perfect home for your family!

August 22, 2013

Housing Industry and the Current Status in the U.S.

Architect, Industry, New Home Owners, Purchasing APR, Building, Homes, Housing industry, Mortgage Rates, Mount Sterling Custom Homes, Safety, US

There are plenty of people that worry about the state of the housing market in the United States. The housing market affects different people on different levels. Some depend on the housing industry for employment. Other people are worried about getting a return on an investment they made on a home in the past. There are groups of people that wonder if now is the time to buy a home or would they be better off renting a home. There are many reasons to worry about the housing market and that is why there is so much information being written about it.

The state of the housing market can be broken down into several areas. These include the sales of homes, the construction of new homes and the interest rates of mortgage. In order to understand how the housing market is doing, you have to look at all three areas.

Sales of Existing Homes

During the height of the real estate boom, houses were selling like hotcakes. You could get a premium price on any home you owned because of the demand that there was. When the bottom of the market fell out, the sales of existing homes also slowed. Homes would sit on the market for a lot longer and the price they could get was much lower. Over the last few years the average price of homes has risen slightly, but it really depends on where a home is. Many homes have still not gotten back to the value they had before the real estate bust, but they will get there eventually. The amount of time it takes to sell a home is also decreasing and homes that are priced well and presented in the right way can still sell quickly.

Building of New Homes

At the height of the real estate boom, the sales of new homes were never higher. When the market fell, no one needed a new home and construction of new homes stopped as the supply of homes in the market was much higher than the demand. In 2012 the construction of single family homes increased a little less than 3% over the previous year. That trend is expected to continue and should increase even more in the future.

The Mortgage Rates

The mortgage rates and the availability of money for people to buy a home is a reflection of the housing market. For the past several years the rates have dropped and people have been able to obtain mortgages for as low as 3% APR. That makes home more affordable for everyone to buy. It also is easier than it used to be to get a mortgage although it is still not as simple as it was 10 years ago.

June 24, 2013

Why Be Choosey When Building a Custom Home

Custom Home, New Home Owners, Purchasing Custom Homes, decisions, Mt. Sterling, new home, purchasing

One of the biggest decisions that a person or couple can make throughout their entire life is having a home built or purchasing a home. However, there are many pros and cons to both, most custom home builders will tell you that it’s cheaper in the long run and you get exactly what you want with homes that are custom designed by the buyer. Being picky over how your home is going to look or how the floor plan is going to be is not a bad thing. In fact, it shows that you are more interested in the future than what is currently happening right now. Why be choosey when building a custom home? Because in the long run it will save you time, money, and headache.

Having a home built can be extremely stressful and when it comes down to married couples, most say that it caused several discrepancies within their marriage. The decisions to be made may take up to a year to work through and plan. This is just the beginning. The planning process itself can take up to a year and a half depending on if the buyer has an idea in mind for what their end product will look like. This is one of the upsides to having a home custom built. Being choosey about it, just shows that you don’t want to live with the last homeowner’s choices but want to create your own dream house.

A key point to be choosey about when having your home custom built is the appliances, fixtures, and landscape. Even though you’ve already got your foot in the door to owning your dream home, these things can be the make it or break it of your vision. Choosing to place a chandelier in the kitchen might seem like a great idea now, but considering prices and how much electricity that fixture might take, you might find a cheaper fixture that looks just as good and drains less energy.

It’s very important that the choices made are those that you’re willing to live with for the remainder of your stay in the home. If you are indecisive about certain things, try visualizing what it will be like in your home. You can even take pictures of the items in the store, or find them online to compare how it would look versus a different model. Why be choosey when building a custom home? Because if you’re not, you could end up paying a ton of money for remodeling that could have been avoided by being choosey and planning ahead.

June 21, 2013

Questions To Ask Your Custom Home Builder

Architect, New Home Owners, Purchasing architect, Building Process, company, experience, new homes, purchasing, questions

Purchasing your first home can be a very rewarding experience, especially if you get the chance to watch the construction as it is progresses. The first step in the construction of your home is finding the perfect custom home builder. This might be challenging for those that are novice in the field of purchasing homes, however with the following ‘questions to ask your custom home builder,’ the process will be easy enough for a toddler to do.

1. What are the strong points of the company?
The answer to this question will vary depending on the size of the building company. Strong points can be a personalized updating system where the owner is notified after each milestone has been met in planning. Another could be working solely with one project until it is completed before scheduling another, for companies that tend to overbook their time this can be very worrisome.

2. Does your company work with an architect?
This may not be a very big deal to some people as the architect can be hired outside of the company, but companies that provide their own are rated higher among individuals who are looking to work with custom home builders.

3. Are you experienced in building this size of a home?
This is an excellent question because many companies are either large home builders or small ones. Finding a company that can build any size home at the owner’s desire is a diamond in the rough.

4. What stage in the building process should you be called in?
Although many companies will say immediately, because the quicker they get started on building your custom home, the quicker you can move in it. However, if the decisions have yet to be made on location, size, or style it’s best to figure those out before going forward.

5. Do you have a company construction crew on hand?
Normally this would be ideal, but some companies do tend to sub-contract. Companies that are larger might have their own crews on hand but if they do, the question of how many projects they are currently working on should also be asked.

6. After construction, can you help with home decorating?
This question is not one that is highly asked but there are many home designers that are connected to specific custom home builders. If requested, they might be able to give you a great deal on a package through their advised designer by having your home built by them.

7. Can you provide References?
This question should not be overlooked. References are the only real key that anyone has to knowing what type of work that a company is capable of. By calling the previous clients that they have built homes for and getting a review, you’ll be able to understand exactly what they can provide to you.