5 Best Premium Upgrades For Your Custom Home
When I wrote about the 5 worst or lowest value upgrades for your home a few weeks ago, I thought I owed it to the readers to apply a positive spin on the subject, so here we are. When homeowners are faced with seemingly endless decisions about their project, they’ll often come to me to get my opinion on certain products or materials, to determine if there is value there. Often times, they’d like me to confirm certain beliefs they have, or disprove beliefs their partner has (lol). Here’s where I must issue my first disclaimer: from a value perspective, I will always defer to the durability, sustainability, and longevity of products over fashion and trends. This preference can make my 5 selection decidedly “unsexy.” I prefer my projects to look timeless and classically pleasing, instead of currently trending, anyway.
Premium upgrades I will define as upgrades the client can afford to make, the budget will allow for extra expense to be used on a feature that has more added benefit than builder’s grade specs.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at 5 premium upgrades:
Radiant Hydronic In Floor Heating.
This is my number one with a bullet. I’ve never had a client regret doing this. Radiant Hydronic heat means hot water (or glycol mix) is circulated through a series of tubes poured into a concrete floor, heating up the concrete floor. As heat rises, the humans in the space are heated also. Traditionally, we heat our homes with a furnace, or more lately, air source heat pumps, which I also recommend.
The benefits of RH heat are many. Humans have glands on our hands and feet that act like thermostats for our body, thus when your hands and feet are cold, you generally will feel a chill. The same principle applies with heat. When ours floors are warm, our bodies are warm. Because radiation is a different type of heat, it heats whatever is touching it, so the objects (tables, chairs) in our spaces are also warmed. This is all in contrast with our typical method of space heating, which is to heat the air in our spaces. Heat in air does not last long, and does not heat the objects in the space well either. Nor does it target the feet and create thermally comfortable environments. Because concrete is known as a thermal mass, that means it holds heat energy for long periods of time, this means that RH heat is very efficient. If you’ve ever stepped out of the bath or shower onto a heated tile floor, it’s worth the price of admission alone. Now imagine your whole home is heated this way? Pure luxury. A beautiful home is like a beautiful love interest, if they’re always cold, it doesn’t matter how good they look.
Premium Windows & Doors
2. Be fair warned, I did tell you my selections for this list might be unsexy. Parts of your home that will be touched and operated are important to maintain as quality as the budget will allow. Windows that warp, seals leak, or operate cheaply can make an expensive home feel and look really cheap. High quality double or triple pane with a low U value with strengthen your building envelope and elevate your overall thermal comfort, not to mention add to the aesthetic of your home. As homes trend towards more viewscape and natural integration, quality windows add so much value to your home.
Standing Seam Metal Roofing
3. By now you must have noticed a trend here. Sustainability and resilience are pretty big drivers for me and my values. Standing seam metal roofing is a product I try to spec on most of my homes I design, if the budget will allow. It tends to be double the cost of an asphalt shingle roof, but there are some key tradeoffs. First we can’t ignore that it looks great. Like stunningly great. The same home that has asphalt shingles will look drastically better with standing seam metal roofing. It’s clean looking, has clearly defined colors and lines, and the best part of all, the durability factor. A metal roof has a minimum 40 year lifespan compared to 15 or 20 years with asphalt shingles. If harvesting rainwater is of interest, metal roofs produce toxin free water, compared with a bitumin based product. In North America, we’ve experienced a growing number of wildfires each year, and metal roofs have a greater resilience to falling embers that can reignite.
Weathered Steel Cladding
4. If the budget and architectural style will allow, weathered steel cladding is a beautiful addition to the home. Often Corten steel is spec’d by architects, which is a very specific type of steel made only in certain parts of the continent, but I have had great success with cold rolled steel, etched with muriatic acid, which produces the same look. Typically used on contemporary builds, weathered steel is allowed to rust freely in the environment, and often different pieces will rust differently. This makes the architecture feel alive and vibrant, as you might pass by a home once, and then a year later, and the home could look completely differently from when you first observed it. Aesthetically it produces a stunning effect, but there is an element of resilience here too. Fireproof and weatherproof, bug proof, and you can forget about the woodpeckers hammering on your siding. It’s not cheap, and you’ll need a special installer to do it, but it’s a huge favorite of mine.
Covered Outdoor Living Space
5. I’ve left this for last, but I really think this is an absolutely critical piece to well designed home. Depending on your climate, unless you live in the far reaches of the north, you can probably spend 5 months comfortably sitting outside at any time of the day. Add in some heaters or a fireplace, and you can maybe stretch this season to 7 or 8 months. What’s critical for this space is that it’s designed into the home. Whether or not this space is fully built out at the time of build is irrelevant, but it must be planned as if it were part of the house. That means power and maybe water sources are brought to the space if there’s an outdoor kitchen or TV, a fireplace should be planned for, and intentional space for seating and dining.
Humans just feel better when we’re outside, and the covered space means that barring excessively windy or cold conditions, we can enjoy nature in many seasons, and expand our living space beyond our walls.
5 premium upgrades that I always recommend on my projects if the budget will allow. These upgrades will add immense value to the occupants and take a home to the next level. Most importantly, they aren’t simply vanity luxuries, there is substance behind each. Honorable mentions to: spacious kitchens, beautiful front doors, and spa-like bathrooms, but they’ll have to wait for another list.
Thanks for reading…
