Building a custom home is a huge undertaking. You’ll spend significant time and money on this endeavor, so you want to be sure you find the right home builders in Greensboro to work with. But how can you find the best home builder for you? To find one that is the right fit, consider these 5 tips for evaluating home builders. 

1. Ask for Recommendations

There’s no better way to find a reliable home builder than to ask a trusted friend or relative for recommendations from their own experience. If they had a positive experience, you will most likely have a similar experience. Homebuilders in Greensboro rely on their reputation to be successful and continue to gain clients. 

2. Read Reviews

Online reviews on reputable websites are usually a pretty good indication of the caliber of a business. Use multiple sites that contain reviews, in order to compare. 

3. Make Sure Personalities are Compatible

When you meet with a home builder, get a feel for their personality and make sure yours will work with theirs. Building a custom home is a long, involved process so you’ll want to make sure you’re working with someone you like, understand, and can communicate effectively with. If you prefer to text or email, don’t work with a builder who only makes phone calls. If you prefer discussing things over the phone, don’t choose a builder who mostly uses email. 

4. Request References (and call them).

Every builder should be able to provide references of customers they have built homes for before who can vouch for their craftsmanship and customer service. Ask for those references and be sure to actually call them, not just read the review they provided. Ask questions that may not be obvious from meeting the builder just once during your initial consultation. 

5. Research the Subcontractors They Use

This is one item that is often overlooked. You may or may not be aware of the fact that many builders hire subcontractors to complete certain aspects of the home building process, such as HVAC, plumbing, or landscaping. Ask your builder for a list of subcontractors they work with and research them as well as the builder. 

Quality. Honesty. Trust. Satisfaction. 

These are the cornerstones of a superior homebuilder and what you should consider when evaluating home builders. When you research Don Mills Builders, you’ll find that these words truly describe his work. When you meet Don Mills and his wife Annette, you’ll know for sure why so many satisfied customers have chosen to work with them to build their dream home. Don’s craftsmanship combined with Annette’s design expertise creates beautiful, top-quality homes. 

Call (336) 362-1777 today to schedule a free consultation or request a free quote. 

Designing your custom kitchen is one of the most exciting parts of the custom home building process. There is a wide variety of features to consider from the basics like cabinets and countertops to the intricate details. Don Mills, one of the best homebuilders in Greensboro can provide you with plenty of ideas to make your kitchen your own. 

Lighting Under Cabinets

The counter space underneath cabinets tends to lack sufficient lighting. Consider adding small LED lights on the underside of the cabinets to shed some light on the countertop and make the space more functional for food preparation. Lights can be turned on by switch, touch, or motion. 

Electrical Outlets Under Cabinets

Did you carefully choose a beautiful backsplash for the walls between your cabinet and countertops? Don’t cover it up with electrical outlets. Put a power strip on the underside of the cabinets so you can plug in anything from appliances to electronics while the outlets remain out of sight. 

Tablet Mount

Do you get most of your recipes online? Save yourself time and paper and read them right off your tablet with a conveniently placed tablet mount. It can be attached to the underside of your cabinets to save you counter space. You can even watch cooking videos while you cook. 

Slide-out Produce Cabinet

Looking for ways to save counter space? If you keep a lot of produce on hand that doesn’t need to be refrigerated, a produce cabinet can save a lot of space. With vented drawers to allow necessary airflow, you can store your potatoes, onions, tomatoes, bananas, pears, oranges, and any other produce that would be taking up valuable space on your counters. 

Diagonal Drawer Dividers

Tired of messy utensil drawers? Diagonal drawer dividers provide organization for even your longest utensils, such as rolling pins, meat thermometers, skewers, and more. 

Carousel Cabinet

Have trouble reaching to the highest shelves? A carousel cabinet consists of shelves on a vertically rotating mechanism that allows you to bring the shelf you need down to your level. 

Deluxe Sink System

Even your kitchen sink can be upgraded to include the latest technology. Include a large sink with cutting boards that slide over top for easy food prep and waste removal and drainage grates that slide over the sink for drying clean dishes or rinsing produce. You can even close panels over your sink to create more counter space when you need it. 

Multi-purpose Island

Your kitchen island can be more than just an extra countertop with storage underneath. Include a built-in stovetop or another sink so that you can do more from your island without having to face the wall. 

Your Custom Kitchen can have it all with Don Mills

Do you want the kitchen in your custom home to be on the cutting edge of technology and style? Work with home builders in Greensboro who can incorporate these 8 add-ons and any others you’re interested in. Don Mills Builders can give you the kitchen of your dreams. Call (336) 362-1777 today to schedule a free consultation. 

Are you in the interior design phase of building a custom home? Let the fun begin. You get to choose colors, patterns, and textures to give your home a look that reflects your style and works for your daily life. You may have had a vision in mind from the beginning when you first started looking at custom home lots in Greensboro. Or you may be just starting to think about the interior décor and trying to decide on a particular style or theme. Wherever you are in the process, consider these popular design trends to give you plenty of ideas. 

Farmhouse Chic. This one has been popular for a few years now, but new twists on the same concept keep it relevant year after year. The idea behind farmhouse chic involves taking outdoor or farm-inspired items (such as barn doors, wagon wheels, and mason jars) and repurposing them to look more polished. Put your spin on it and you’ll have a unique look for any room of your home.  

Industrial. The very opposite of farmhouse chic, an industrial style is urban inspired. While it also incorporates outdoor items, the similarity ends there. Industrial style brings raw materials indoors, such as brick, steel, and wood, and leaves them exposed as you might see in a Manhattan loft. 

Oriental Zen. Bring the peace and tranquility of a Zen garden into your home with an oriental theme. Incorporate Asian-inspired art, bamboo, live plants, or even a small indoor fountain for the relaxing sounds of moving water. Keep colors subdued for a natural look.  

Nautical or Beach.  If you love the ocean, whether you live near the water or not, a nautical or beach-inspired theme is always a classic option. Incorporate anchors, ships, and bold stripes or seashells, lighthouses, and pastels. Combine any of these decorative items to create a coastal comfort everyone will love.  

Minimalist. This style is ideal for anyone who likes a neat, clutter-free home. Minimalist is just how it sounds- minimal. Simple furniture, no knick-knacks, neutral colors, and modern art. Bare floors, minimal window treatments, and no-frills are the rules with this design style. 

Retro. The best way to describe retro décor is fun. Retro design involves choosing pieces from a certain period of the past, maybe just one decade (such as the 1960s). Include bold prints, bright colors, and funky accessories that inspire excitement. You can find new items that are retro-inspired, or choose vintage items that have stood the test of time and may need some fresh paint.  

Put your own Style into your New Custom Home 

These are just a few of the currently popular design trends for custom homes. Do some research on these and other styles to find something that suits your unique personality and that of your family. One of the best things about building a custom home is the freedom to design it your way.  

Find Available Custom Home Lots in Greensboro in the Top Neighborhoods 

Don Mills Builders is currently constructing new homes on custom home lots in some of Greensboro’s most desired communities. If you’re interested in having a custom home designed and built with your own style and features, call Don Mills Builders today at (336) 362-1777.  

For many people building a luxury custom home is the culmination of years of work and planning. Every step of the process from finding homebuilders Greensboro to carefully choosing all the features and finishes is done with care and a desire to get everything just right. But even the most careful homebuyers can make mistakes when it comes to their luxury custom home. And those mistakes can make it harder to enjoy your luxury home. Watch out for these five mistakes when it comes to creating your luxury dream home:

Not Paying Attention to What’s Behind the Walls

When you are building a luxury home, make sure you choose a reliable builder who will ensure that the home’s internal systems can handle everything that you want to do now and in the future. Make sure that the HVAC system is up to par, or install two HVAC units to carry the load. Also, make sure that the home’s plumbing and wiring will be upgradable as the years go on so that if your needs change those vital systems can be updated to accommodate your needs. 

Choosing Too Many Trendy Finishes

Remember when Millennial Pink and Rose gold were everywhere? Neither does anyone else. Just a couple of years ago, Millennial Pink paint and Rose gold fixtures were featured on every trendy design blog and all over Pinterest. But those trends fell quickly out of favor. They might come back around someday but do you really want to live with those colors until then? When it comes to designing your home, consider classic, timeless styles and colors. You can always add in trendy touches with things that are easy to change out. But for the permanent fixtures in your home, timeless and elegant finishes will continue to be in style for decades to come. 

Not Thinking About Future Functionality 

This is a mistake that’s easy to make. Right now, you might love the idea of a kitchen desk where the kids can do their homework but when they eventually graduate, that will be wasted space. Right now, you might love the idea of a third-floor bonus room as a craft or office space, but in a few years when getting up and down the stairs becomes more challenging, that third story might not seem like such a good investment. When you are adding custom features to your home, pick features based on functionality now and in the future. You will have your home for a long time and you want it to be customized to your needs. So, make sure that you’re designing a home that will fit your needs now and in the future. 

Designating Rooms That Don’t Get Used

It’s easy to get carried away when you’re planning your luxury custom home. You may think that you want separate rooms for a craft area, a library, an office, and a playroom for the kids. When you’re choosing a layout for your home, make a list of the rooms that you’d really use. Do you need a dedicated room for each task or can some rooms be multipurpose? An open-concept space with the flexibility to be multi-purpose is going to be a lot more useful, inviting, and comfortable over the years than having separate rooms for different purposes. 

Not Maximizing All the Available Storage Space

Even if you think that you don’t need extra storage space now, chances are very high that you will need it in the future. The best time to take advantage of extra space in your home is when it’s being built. Having custom cabinetry and storage put in throughout the house is a great way to make sure that the house has enough storage for you now and in the future. 

The right team, like Don Mills Builders, one of the top home builders in Greensboro, can guide you through the process of designing the custom luxury home you’ve been dreaming of. Get expert advice to bring your dream home to life and ensure that you will love your home for years to come.

If you’re ready to talk about building a custom luxury home, call Don Mills today: (336) 362-1777

Each year brings new design ideas and trends for custom homes. From color to texture to architectural features, there’s a lot of focus on when it comes to style. Consider these 10 home trends that have been featured in Greensboro custom homes in 2019. 

• Interior Windows. Get the best features of the open and closed floor plan by dividing rooms with windows. Glass and steel are the current trend, providing dividers between rooms that help with noise control without blocking natural light. There is still an open feel, but with a little more organization. 

• Grand Bathtubs. Garden tubs and soaking tubs have been an item in master bathrooms for decades, but today’s trend makes the tub the focal point of the room. Large, elaborate tubs are making bathrooms feel like a luxury spa. 

• Backsplash that makes a Bigger Splash. A typical design feature in traditional kitchens is the backsplash, a tiled area of the wall between the counter and the upper cabinets. The trend has now expanded to entire walls with textured tile, either behind open shelving or on a wall without cabinetry. 

• Bathroom with Wood Features. Bathrooms can be a little cold when everything is tile or stone. Bringing wood grains into the bathroom for the vanity or décor can bring a little warmth in.

• Black in the Kitchen. While black is not new to the kitchen, large amounts of black is a new trend, with cabinetry, countertops, and even sinks and hardware in bold black.

• Dusky Wall Colors. In the past many have shied away from using dark wall colors in favor of shades of white or beige. In 2019 the trend is shifting to dark colors like navy, hunter green, and even black for primary wall colors. 

• Benches with Dining Room Sets. Dining room furniture trends include benches, and while that is a furniture feature rather than a home design feature, if you plan to incorporate bench seating, you may want to design your dining area accordingly to be sure there’s enough space or a bare wall to incorporate your bench seating. 

• Farmhouse-style Exteriors. While brick has been a dominant exterior façade for luxury homes in the past, 2019 home design is featuring board and batten farmhouse-style exteriors and accents.

• Indoor/Outdoor Kitchens. The all-natural trend for kitchens (indoor herb gardens, etc.) is leading to kitchens that open to the outside, with glass walls and large doors that open to a patio or deck. 

• Whole-Room Wall Color. The accent wall is becoming a thing of the past, as now homeowners are choosing to extend the accent color to all four walls. 

Greensboro Custom Homes with the Latest Trends

Don Mills Builders is always on the cutting edge of home design, keeping up with current trends to give customers the styles and features they’re looking for. The most desired Greensboro custom homes are Don Mills originals. Call today to start planning your dream home: (336) 362-1777.