From Start to Finish: The New Home Journey with Shane Homes
If you’ve never built a home before, you might be curious about how the process might work. How do you go from an empty piece of land to your dream home? How many people are you going to be working with and how long is it going to take? At Shane Homes, we know that this purchase is one of the largest you’ll make in your life, so we want to make sure that your home buying journey is special! We take extra care to make sure you know exactly what stage your home is at and what the next steps are, so you feel comfortable throughout the purchasing process. Karen Kotchar, Area Manager for the Airdrie communities of Midtown on 8th and Kings Heights talked us through the new home process.
 
Before Signing
There’s a lot to take into account before it’s time to break ground on your home. Once you’ve settled on building a home, you’ll need to start visiting showhomes in communities that seem like a good fit. When choosing a community, consider the community’s proximity to work, friends, and family, among other factors that might be important to you.
 
Once you choose your community and builder, you’ll need to make sure the Area Manager is the right fit. The estimated length of time from signing to move in is around eight to nine months, during which you mostly work with your Area Manager. Since you’ll be working so closely, it’s important to make sure you get along with your chosen Area Manager.
 
With Your Area Manager
Once you settle on your Area Manager, they’ll walk you through a series of steps. The first step is making sure you’ve chosen the right lot. “The lot is the most important thing! Shane Homes can customize any home, but if you don’t have the right piece of land to build that house on, then it’s all for naught”, Karen explained.
 
Customization
After the lot is chosen, the Area Manager will talk with you about your budget and walk through your wish list. Ideally, you’ll have an idea of your budget and a wish list before you begin this process; however, the Area Manager is equipped to support you through any situation. Your Area Manager will guide you through choosing the right model, customizing it to suit your needs, and then you’ll sign a purchase agreement. The deal will be sent for approval to head office and then the drafting department for drawing to be developed.
  
Starting the Design
The first design decision you’ll make happens after the drawings are developed. Once they’re put together and approved, they’ll be sent to our Interior Designers at the Expressions Design Studio, who will reach out to you to make an appointment. During this first appointment with your Interior Designer, you’ll make decisions on the exterior of your home as well as your cabinets. The exterior design decisions include looking at shingles, siding, stone, brick, and more!
 
The look and feel of your home exterior are important decisions to be made early, as they’ll need to be approved by the Development Guideline Officer of the community. It is the job of the Development Guideline Officer to ensure that the community guidelines are adhered to and the community as a whole is visually appealing.
 
Choosing from Suppliers
At Shane Homes, we keep an updated list of trusted suppliers within the city. We have worked with these suppliers for several of years and trust that they will take the same level of care with you as we do. At this point in your journey, it is time to decide on your appliances, plumbing, and fireplace. These suppliers will reach out to you to set up appointments, during which you will have the opportunity to make choices that will best complete your dream home.
 
This is an important step, as all of the cabinets, bathtubs, and showers are installed during the framing stage. You’ll also want to have a sense of your fixtures as you move into the next stage of interior design.
 
Behind the Scenes
While you’re bringing the vision of your home to life, there is a lot going on behind the scenes. Once the Development Guideline Officer approves your home, they’ll issue a grade slip. This will allow the final drawings and blueprints to be created for your approval. Your Area Manager will go through these drawings with you in detail to ensure all the features of your home are included in your final plan. Once the final plan is approved by you, a work order will be issued and sent to all the suppliers to ensure they are properly prepared for the construction of your home.
 
Following the issuance of the work order, Shane Homes will apply for a building permit for your home. This may take some time but as soon as it’s approved, construction will begin on your home. Congratulations! Ground has been broken and construction has started!
 
Next Steps for Design and Suppliers
Now it is time to choose some of the finishing touches. At this point, you’ll go back to the Expressions Design Studio to make decisions on flooring, countertop materials, wall tiles, and paint colours. Following this, the Interior Designers will send you back to our trusted suppliers to find the perfect lighting, storage (including all shelving and closet storage), granite, and structured wiring. This is the last phase of the interior design process with our team.
 
Construction and Framing Walk-Through
Typically, Shane Homes tries to complete construction of a new home within five and a half months. You’ll see the basement approximately two weeks after the work order and building permit, and after about two months, you’ll see the framing of your home!
 
The timelines may shift based on the time of year and market conditions, but once the framing is done, there will be a Framing Walk-Through; this is the perfect time for you to ask questions or comment on the progress of your home. The electrical, heating, and plumbing rough-ins will all be completed. At this point, all deposits will also be collected and the possession date will be set. Your dream home is in sight!
 
Customer Orientation Walk-Through and Possession Day
A week before your scheduled possession date, you will have a walk-through of your home with your Project Manager and Home Service Technician. Your home won’t be completely done at this point, but the team will provide information on the maintenance of your home, including items such as the thermostat, ventilation, furnace, and more.
 
Your Area Manager will meet you the following week at your home for your possession day. They’ll reiterate important details from your customer orientation, help you finalize documents, and hand over the keys to your new house. Congratulations! You can now move into your perfect dream home!
 
My Home
Throughout the home building process, you’ll have access to an exclusive website for Shane Homes customers. This website will house all of your documents, keep you informed about the stage that your home is in, inform you of everything that you’ve selected for your home, and what you have yet to choose. When you wake up in the middle of the night wondering which colour floor was selected, you’ll have the ability to confirm your floor details and other selections in your My Home account, allowing you to rest easy at night.
 
With You Every Step of the Way
There’s a lot that happens during the home building process and it can be easy to feel overwhelmed. As Karen mentions, “we do everything we can to make your journey joyful and stress-free. We try to keep the process as informative as possible, answer all questions, and try to help the buyer know where they can find their information”.
 
While you’re building your home, Shane Homes is going to be with you every step of the way.