How the Homestead Design Changed to Fit Our Budget

Well hello again dear reader. I’m writing you about something that I wish I knew more about early on in the design process, and that’s what bits of a home are expensive to design + build. I’m sharing this in hopes that if you ever decide to build or remodel a home, you’ll have a better idea of what you can shift to meet your budget limitations. I want to preface by saying I’m SO incredibly happy with where the design of the homestead is now, and that I definitely was (and still am) very green when it comes to architecture + building, so I had very lofty ideas of what was feasible, only to be brought down to earth when I saw the line items for some of those features (😅). With that in mind, let’s dive into some of the design changes that we made to accommodate our bottom line, and some features that we decided it was worth it to splurge on.

What We Cut

• Dormers
• Curved staircase
• Loft
• Plaster interior walls
• Basement cabinetry (for now)
• Solar panels (for now)

Original First Floor w/Curved Staircase

Current First Floor w/Angled Staircase

Early on in the design process I really wanted dormers. If you’re unfamiliar with them, they’re basically the cute little windows that look like they’re popping out of the roofs of houses. But after bringing it up with the architect, I soon learned that they’re actually very expensive to make. Basically, anytime you add extra angles and corners into the structure of a home, it becomes more complicated to engineer and build, and thus becomes a lot pricier. Essentially, the most affordable house shape to build is a simple rectangle. And with dormers coming out of the roof, it makes the roof structure more complicated to design + build, too, which makes them even *more* expensive. So while I still think they’re very lovely, the dormers went the way of the dodo for our homestead design.

One of my favorite aspects of the home from the beginning was (and still is) the staircase. Originally I’d wanted a curved staircase like this one, and since we have a basement and a second floor, there would be another staircase going under it to the basement. It was a beautiful feature that hugged an exterior wall, so it meant that exterior wall of the home would be curved, too. Well, if I thought extra angles were pricey, curves in structures are next level. Because of the delicate shape of the stairs and the curved exterior wall, the staircase design alone was about 100k in the budget. I loved the original design, but not that much. So, we switched to a staircase design that kept the flow and overall “sprit” of the original staircase, but with straight lines and angled corners. You can see the shift in the staircase plans above, and the updated design below. I really love how it looks with the tall windows, and it still has that open and sweeping feeling, but at a much more affordable price point.

The Initial Loft Design

Original Second Floor w/Loft

Current Second Floor No Loft

There’s a big pitch to the roof, so we originally had a loft space that was basically kind of like a finished usable attic. But, the extra cost to finish the attic was significant, and then there were worries about the code requirements. We were going to have the loft accessible by a ladder, but that isn’t super code friendly since there would be a railing at the edge of the loft and then an empty gap in the railing where the ladder was, rather than a traditional enclosed ladder situation. So instead we just forfeited the loft space and it’s just a normal sealed attic with a lot of insulation, but there will be a bit of wood laid down so we can store some boxes up there if needed through the little ladder pull down.

As for the plaster, if you’ve been following this little journal for a while and saw my renovations in our Portland home, you know how much I love plaster walls. They just have a luster and texture to them that’s very special. We had originally wanted to do plaster walls in the homestead, too, and I knew it was expensive since I’d bought and applied plaster in our home already. But for the volume of wall square footage of the whole homestead, that ended up being a VERY large line item that we just couldn’t afford. So we made the switch to traditional drywall with a skip trowel finish.

Initial Basement Design w/Cabinetry in Mud Room

Current Basement Design w/o Cabinetry in Mudroom

One thing that adds up fast that I didn’t know was sooo expensive is cabinetry. Boy oh boy, good cabinetry costs a pretty little penny. And there’s a loooot of cabinetry at the homestead for normal storage-related rooms (kitchen, bathrooms, pantry, etc), so that line item added up quickly. One place we’d wanted cabinetry for storage was the basement. The basement has it’s own entry that will basically act like a mudroom, so we thought that we could keep things like coats and boots and outdoor-y stuff down there. But the added cost of cabinetry down there was high, and we didn’t need that level of storage right away—we could make do with some cheaper open shelving to put boxes on and things for now. And eventually if we still feel like we want cabinets down there, that’s something we could save for and add in several years down the line. So the basement cabinetry was off the budget + the plans.

And the last big design change we made was not having solar panels right away. The house is designed to accommodate them, which is great, but to install + buy the panels was about a 30-k line item on the budget, which pushed us over our lending limit for the loan. So we had to put those on the “someday later we can save for it” shelf.

What We “Splurged” On

• Mantel
• Adding arches
• Quality cabinetry
• Big bath tub
• Vaulted ceiling in bedroom

Not all of these items were expensive, but they were a little bit more “extra” stylistically than the typical pieces you’d find in a new construction home. But when we weighed the options of how that item or feature would affect us long-term whenever we looked at it or used it, they all ended up being worth it for us.

I love a good mantel. I feel like the living room is the comfiest room in the house, and it’s where people tend to gather together to relax and unwind, and the fireplace (if there is one in a home) tends to be the centering point of that space. And since the mantel envelops the fireplace, I wanted it to have a cozy old-world feel to it that was welcoming + elegant at the same time. Our amazing interior designer, Sam of Strucksured, had Mantels Direct custom design a mantel for us, and I’m completely obsessed with it. It hasn’t arrived just yet, but I can’t wait for when it does! It was about 8k, but knowing how much we’ll be in that space and the warmth it will bring made it worth giving up some of the other home features to be able to afford it. 

We had a couple arches added above two of the hallways on the home, one that goes from the kitchen to my photography studio, and another on the second floor that goes from the landing area to the bedrooms. They were $800 to add, which felt like very little for the extra special touch they added to those spaces. So for us this was a no-brainer.

The cabinetry we’ll have in the home is really lovely + very well-made. We went with Wood Mode and have a mix of different finishes throughout the house (more on this in another post!) Apparently the drawers can withstand a weight of over 130 pounds so they should definitely be able to hold the cast iron pots and pans I have without issue. Okay, soooooo we did go about 30% over the cabinetry budget, even after taking out all the cabinetry from the basement, but with items that I know will be heavily used, like cabinets in the kitchen + bathrooms, I feel like “buy nice or buy twice” really applies here. I don’t want to have to replace them all in a decade, and would rather have them last for 30+ years and just spend it now on a really solid quality cabinet.

As for the bathtub, Jeremy is very tall, and as such he can’t really comfortably fit in the bathtub we have now, so he has sadly never taken a bath in it. (That poor, poor man.) I really wanted him to be able to actually use the tub, so this time around we went with a 72″ long clawfoot bathtub from Chown hardware that would easily fit Jeremy, (and even myself if we’re feeling a bit cheeky!) I really love taking baths when the weather’s cold, and wanted to make sure Jeremy didn’t miss out on this relaxing respite at the next home.

Lastly, we decided to do a vaulted ceiling in the primary bedroom. I don’t know exactly how much this cost since we didn’t have it priced out specifically, but it definitely involved more engineering from the architect’s side and from the builder’s side because it made the roof supports a little more complex, so there was most definitely added cost involved in having it. But when I stand in the room, it adds such a feeling of openness and coziness to the space. There’s just a comfortable old-world feeling about a vaulted ceiling. And for someone tall like Jeremy, the added ceiling height makes it feel welcoming rather than claustrophobic.

I hope this gives a little insight into the budgeting side of building/renovation projects, and the constant give and take of adding and subtracting things to both fit the budget, and fit what works for you. There’s been a LOT of activity the past few weeks (as you can tell by the drywall in some of the photos!), so I owe you a general update post, too. In the meantime, have a lovely week, dear reader, and I will talk to you again very soon with a savory mushroom recipe in tow!