Dream home: How to plan for yours

When most people imagine their dream home, it has certain elements that either must be there, or must not be there. You might find that over time, your dream home changes as your family size gets larger or smaller and your preferences evolve, but the basic parts that make up where you want to live probably won’t. For example, you may want marble countertops but can’t decide on the perfect color for the master bath. Keeping track of your favorite design ideas is a great way to ensure that when the time comes to make the big purchase, your dream house is all you want and more.

You’ll probably know your dream home when you see it, but you definitely know what you want in it. It’s easy to forget something fabulous that you saw and remember it later, particularly if you’re not actually getting ready to buy your dream home. Each time you see something you like, whether you snap a picture at a store or tear a page from a magazine, keeping those ideas together makes it easy to come back to them when you’re ready. A file folder divided by category is a great way to do this. Put all your bedroom ideas in one file and your bathroom must-haves and your kitchen renovation ideas into another. This is especially helpful if you’re remodeling your already existing home or want to do a lot of the work yourself.

You probably have a good idea of where you’ll eventually buy the furniture and decor for your dream home. Keeping a master list of your favorite places and what you want to purchase there helps ensure that you don’t leave anything out. Bookmarking your favorite sites on the computer is one good way to do this. Sign up for mailing advertisements so you always know if something new and more exciting comes along. Keep phone numbers of people you’ve spoken to and price quotes together in case you need them when it’s time to buy.

Perhaps you don’t know what your dream home is yet, but you might have an idea of what neighborhood you’d like to live in. When time allows, take a drive through those coveted streets and take note of what you like in each house and what you could do without. This is a good way to decide what external parts of your home are important to you. Maybe you want lots of trees, but not a lot of grass. Looking at what other people have done with their homes is a great way to figure out what you want too.