After your first visit to your New Jersey home builder’s sales center and design studio, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the upgrade options available for your new home. Do you want to add hardwood floors to the bedrooms? What about adding a backsplash above the countertops in the kitchen? Are you considering structural upgrades that add more living space to your home?

Although many of these extras may be appealing, upgrades will increase your final purchase price. Not sure which upgrades you should add now and which can wait? Take a look at our breakdown.

Add It Now: More Square Footage or Structural Changes

Adding or expanding rooms, moving walls or making any structural changes will be cheaper and easier during the building phase. Renovations aren’t just expensive – they are disruptive as well. Depending on the scope of the project, remodeling may take weeks or months, and you may need to move out of your home temporarily. Although upgrades to the structure or the square footage of your home are among the most expensive options, they’re still much more cost effective than renovating your house.

Wait: Minor Cosmetic Changes

If you’ve already reached your self-imposed upgrade limit, consider adding cosmetic changes to the “it can wait” list. Features and items that can be changed or added quickly are good choices, such as:

• Light Fixtures: You may not love the standard choices for kitchen light fixtures, but as long as the lights are functional, they can easily be replaced a few months or even years from now.

• Paint: Delaying a custom paint job may also make sense if you’re watching your upgrade costs closely or can’t make up your mind about the ideal paint colors. Luckily, the neutral colors that come standard with your home won’t clash with your furniture. Painting may disrupt your life a little for a few days, but it’s one of the easiest and cheapest renovation projections.

• Hardware: Door and cabinet knobs and pulls are easy to replace yourself. However, although these items may not be expensive individually, the cost can add up if you’re swapping out all of the hardware in the kitchen and bathroom.

Add It Now: Additional Outlets, Light Fixtures and Tech Features

It’s always easier to perform electrical and wiring work while your home is being built. If you wait to add additional fixtures or outlets, your electrician may need to remove drywall to access wiring or even run ugly conduit along the walls in inaccessible locations.

It’s much easier to turn your new house into a smart home if you add the wiring before your builder closes the walls. Thanks to innovative technology, you can control your appliances and heating and air-conditioning system from anywhere, automate your shades, monitor security cameras and check the contents from your refrigerator from your smartphone. All Country Classics homes offer pre-wired access points to be smart home ready as a standard included feature.

Wait: High-End Appliances

Appliances costs can vary by thousands of dollars depending on the brand name and features. If a top-of-the-line Wolf range is a want but not a need, you may decide to wait to add the pricey appliance to your kitchen. At Country Classics, we offer high-quality stainless steel standard appliances that will meet your needs until you’re ready to upgrade. You can always add more expensive appliances later.

Add It Now: Flooring

Flooring is another one of those items that will be more expensive to add later. Whether you want to add hardwood flooring to the bedrooms, upgrade your carpet padding, or cover your foyer floor in marble, you’ll save when you add flooring changes to your building list.

Wait: Landscaping

Do you envision a lush backyard full of trees, shrubs and flowers? Luckily, it’s easy to add plants and trees later once you've already moved into your home. Are you considering adding a large outdoor entertaining area to your home? You may want to delay building a patio or deck until you can observe which parts of your yard are shady or sunny during various parts of the day.

Add It Now: Cabinets and Countertops

Your kitchen is the heart of the home, so why not invest in it from the get-go? Taking advantage of cabinet and countertop upgrades will add a dramatic visual impact to an area where you will spend a great deal of your time each day and will help increase your home's resale value. If you replace your cabinets and countertops after you move in, your contractor may need to move your appliances, which could void their warranty. The project will also be costly and inconvenient after you've already moved into your home.

Personal touches make your new house feel like home. If you’re looking for a new home community with plenty of upgrade options, you’ll want to consider building a new home with Country Classics. Our award-winning collection of new construction homes are conveniently located in the heart of Central New Jersey! Contact us today to learn more about our current availability.

Sources:

PC Magazine: The Best Smart Home Devices for 2019

https://www.pcmag.com/article/303814/the-best-smart-home-devices-for-2019

Houzz: 11 Smart Upgrades for a New House

https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/80545412/list/11-smart-upgrades-for-a-new-house

New Home Source: Home Upgrades That Are Totally Worth It

https://www.newhomesource.com/guide/articles/home-upgrades-that-are-totally-worth-it