Here at Building Dreams, we must always build per code. In other words, each of our new custom homes we build, or our major room additions, or smaller kitchen, bath or basement remodeling projects must conform to a strict set of rules. These so-called ‘codes’ are in existence for the benefit of you, your family and all of your guests into your home. These codes are enforced by your local building inspectors through your local building department with permits and required inspections.

Specifically, building codes are written to help protect the general welfare and safety of anyone on your property. All general contractors, like Building Dreams, and each of our specialty tradesmen have their own set of codes to follow. They cover the types of materials we use during construction. Examples would be in the amount of fire protection, how much natural daylight enters each room, the required ventilation, the structural elements like concrete footings and steel I-beams. Additionally, your entire mechanical systems are regulated by codes. For obvious reasons the electrical system, water supply and sewage, and your heat and air-conditioning systems must perform safely and correctly to ensure a family’s safety. 

Our building code books also help us determine how much insulation to put in the floor and wall surfaces, as well as the attic or roof. Plus it details how efficient the windows and doors must be to perform to today’s energy models. Green building and other energy conservation techniques are the wave of the future with regard to construction building practices.

As a professional contractor with strong ties to the National Association of Home Builders, we use a variety of very thick code books for research and use on every project. The books themselves can be quite complicated in its finite details and specifications. Many pages are ear-marked with corners turned down during both the design phase of a new project and during the actual construction of a home.

To discuss your upcoming project, call or email the offices of Building Dreams.

Since 1993, BUILDING DREAMS puts on Residential Roofs. Our shingle roofing crews are busy throughout Indiana & Illinois.

To discuss your upcoming project, call or email the offices of Building Dreams.

Since 1993, Building Dreams has been satisfying clients throughout Indiana and Illinois.

We are a Custom Home Builder with our own in-house computer Cadd staff preparing blueprints. Major Structural Home Additions, Residential Roofing and all Home Remodeling such as Kitchens, Baths and Basements.

To discuss your upcoming project, call or email the offices of Building Dreams.

As you know, owning a home comes with the responsibility to keep it functioning safely for your family. So now that the weekend is here why don’t you tackle some of those tasks before the big game gets started. Let’s get to work.

Thinking about safety, Building Dreams wants to ensure that you have a working smoke detector in every room of your house (not the kitchen unless you plan on using it as an alarm when dinner is ready). For obvious reasons having those types of detectors that are run both on your electrical current as well as a battery is ideal. However, just having the units that are strictly battery operated is far better than having none at all. The units with the little halogen lights would also really help to see through the smoke if ever the issue arises.

My home has 14 smoke detectors and several fire extinguishers. To me this was a very worthy investment. To mount them all you’ll just need a small drill, plastic molly’s if mounting into drywall (and not studs) and a screwdriver. This may require a quick trip down to your big home improvement store. While you’re there, be sure to pick up a couple carbon monoxide detectors to put in your laundry and mechanical rooms. Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s installation instructions, especially when considering locations in the rooms to mount them.

Before heading out to the store, check to see the size of furnace filter you have as well as the humidifier filter. These are mounted on the side of your furnace ductwork. Both of the filters should be cleaned or replaced twice a year. Since we’re talking about filters, be sure to replace that old water/ice filter in the refrigerator.

Now for some quick outside chores: Clean those dirty windows and hose down those insect screens out in the yard. Then too, grab your ladder and clean out your entire gutter system. We want to remove all the leaves that are clogging up the downspouts. This is important so you don’t have water, snow and ice building up on your roof which would cause major damage to your walls and ceilings inside.

As you can see, these chores only require a few hours of your time and not much money. You’ll also feel better knowing that your family is safer at night with those detectors monitoring your home while everyone sleeps. This is what’s called putting in a little sweat equity into your home.

Next step is to grab some drinks and snacks and head off to the family room relaxing while enjoying the game.

To discuss your upcoming project, call or email the offices of Building Dreams.

Obviously when you have a major home improvement project to complete, a residential roof to put on, or even a new custom home to build, homeowners generally will call for a few estimates. While most owners tend to focus their attention to the price of each estimate, there are other more important factors to consider.

For starters, everyone knows that all contractors must have proper licensing and insurance requirements to protect your home during the construction process. However, are you aware that measuring a contractor’s skill set to see if they’re even qualified to do your work, can actually be very simple for you?

Regardless of whether or not you know how to build yourself, or what materials are called or needed, a contractors written specs can tell you an awful lot about the attention they’ll bring your job. For instance, our Building Specifications, here at Building Dreams, is like a book. It is full of details that tell you what were building, how were building it, what materials we’ll use, what colors they are … and even perhaps what were ‘not’ doing or is ‘not’ included. These specs are not a simple half page effort on our part they are usually a dozen pages packed full of information. No home remodeling project should start without one.

Another major item to consider is the schedule. What good does a fair price, insurance and specs do if a trade is incapable of finishing the job. We at Building Dreams use the latest in computer scheduling software to ensure your job will be run as smoothly as possible. Items are not overlooked, things are never missed and the total coordination runs near to ‘clock work’ as possible.

A good schedule ties job progressions with your installment payments. As an example: 30 days to complete excavation and concrete foundation walls; payment is due upon approved building inspection. Scheduling is important because in a large home design projects there are literally hundreds of people and details to coordinate. Building Dreams strongly believes that communication is the key to having your project getting complicated in a highly professional manner possible.

To discuss your upcoming project, call or email the offices of Building Dreams.

In many of our home improvement projects we have homeowners doing some of the interior painting themselves. Often times this is the result of the owner wanting to save a little on budget, so they can spend a little more elsewhere. Then others just want to get their hands dirty so they can tell their friends they have a little ‘sweat equity’ in their project.

Even if not doing any other home remodeling project, the simple task of putting on a fresh coat of paint to some of your rooms will make the home feel brand new again. Combine that with adding a bold splash of color on one wall of a room will really make your friends envious of your creativity.

To start, be sure to clear out all of the contents of the room. Now’s the time to do that really good vacuuming you’ve been meaning to do. Cover the flooring with heavy duty drop cloths. Use painters tape to mask off baseboard, windows, door casings, electrical and hvac registers. The tape also works great when meeting up different colors to one another.

We always like a flat white painted ceiling to brighten the room and to hide any surface imperfections. The majority of the walls can be another flat color while making one wall the accent wall. It’s common practice among interior designers to have at least three different main colors in a room.

Having your older kids help paint or by throwing a painting party with someone manning the grill is a good way to get assistance, not only with painting, but with moving the furniture. Have one knowledgeable person watching everyone and offering tips. Such as doing only one wall at a time, have someone brushing while another is rolling, and never leave off the drop cloths without first taking your shoes off.

Interior painting can be done when the weather outside isn’t perfect. It’s a great way to keep those winter blues away while doing a project that makes you feel good. By using a good latex paint you’ll be assured that cleanup is just as easy. Contact Building Dreams if needing any other advice. Enjoy.

When you and your family ultimately decides to build yourself a brand new custom home, this decision can both be a little exciting and a little stressful. The unknown of what to expect during the planning and construction phases can seem a bit overwhelming.

Realizing too, that any home is usually the biggest investment a family makes. So when tasked with creating basically your retirement villa, can seem like the decisions you make are so heavily weighted.

One builder tip that we can pass along is to keep yourself as organized as possible. Sure your friends and family will be envious of your accomplishments, but we need to help get you to that point. For starters, create folder with all of your ideas in it. We want you to write out as much detail as possible regarding what you envision in your home.

Remember, just because you can picture yourself walking around your entire new home – we as builders can’t yet see what you want. Having good communication between us is key to having a successful project. We want to hear you tell and show us what each room in the house looks like. Show us magazine pictures, material brochures and even your own personal sketches.

An example would be: how many bedrooms, bathrooms, where is the master bedroom in relation to the remaining other bedrooms, where is the laundry room located, what kind of flooring does each room have, does the fireplace have windows flanking it or does it have custom bookshelves alongside?

Our purpose is two-fold. One, is to pass on the knowledge we need to accurately design your intentions with a great blueprint. And two, our cost when we put together our initial and final estimates tend to be a little sharper. When we don’t have to guess as to what we think you may want or like in your home, the costs tend to be cheaper. In other words, when we figure costs on items that we don’t really know if these items would be the final products, we tend to add in a little fudge factor, leaving room for adjustments later.

In closing, be sure to keep a well documented journal of all of your wants and desires. This will go a long way to keeping your house affordable and making certain your home is the show place you want it to be. Every builder loves the clients who know exactly what they want. Don’t worry if you don’t have all the knowledge, we will help point you to the materials and practices that you may like.

As a custom home builder, we really like clients who are up to that challenge. Building a home is a fun time with good communication. All of the decision you’ll have to make may seem like thousands, but we’re here to help put it all together in bits and pieces so that it all is manageable.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project.

We often get asked if there are smaller home remodeling tasks that homeowners can complete that would have a significant impact on saving them money. A couple of those tasks can be completed on a Saturday afternoon when there’s not a good game on. Think of it as ’sweat equity’ to maintain your house in peak condition.

Perhaps surprisingly, if you change out your old and outdated toilets and bathroom shower heads, you can save a significant amount of money. Each new water-saving toilet and shower head can save you hundreds of gallons of water each, per year. And as you already know, your sewer bill gets equally reduced as it is based on the amount of water you consume.

So, before heading off to your favorite home improvement store make a quick list of the materials you’ll need. I’ll assume you already have the basic tools of a small wrench and pliers. Look to see if you need new operable water shutoffs under each toilet. Measure the distance from the back drywall out to the bolts holding the toilet to the floor. New toilets generally come in a with a 10” or 12” rough-in.

So, all you‘ll need is a few bath toilets with the same number of wax rings (to be placed under the toilet making a seal to the floor), new water supply lines to connect the toilet to the water shutoffs (don’t try and use the existing ones), and matching toilet seats.

Be sure to read the manufacturers installation instructions. Care must be taken when tightening all bolts so not to crack the fragile vitreous china. Also, when changing out the shower heads be sure to use a cloth or something between the wrench and the polished brass so not to mar or scratch the finish.

As you can see, saving money and giving your house a new look doesn’t take a lot of skill, time or money. Your actions are also good for the environment as water consumption is always good. With the money you’ll save you’ll be able to take your significant other out for a nice dinner.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project.

Below are some of our most useful articles that are potential and past clients have rated to be very useful to them. If you have comments, feel free to use our Contact Page.

Enjoy_Building Dreams

As a custom home builder our ability to effectively communicate with you is critical to our success. Like planning a big wedding, graduation party, or a golf outing, there are literally thousands of details to coordinate. For starters, Building Dreams has a great system in place so that communication is easier. We take great pride in supplying our clients the knowledge required to bring a big project through to completion.

Since there can be hundreds of different companies, tradesmen, employees, building inspectors, architects, designers, material suppliers all involved in your project, our technique of controlling the environment and educating all to our desires is crucial. We use a Critical Path Schedule to coordinate the entire building process. This schedule keeps your project moving forward seamlessly in many directions all at the same time.

As perhaps there are many trades working on the interior of the home, there too can be different trades working on the exterior. Our office can be working on scheduling next week’s crews, or confirming material delivery dates, or finalizing finished product selections with the homeowners that we’ll use two months down the road.

Our schedule must also be flexible enough to adapt to conditions that alter the schedule. Sometimes crews are delayed coming into your project because of unforeseen circumstances on their previous jobs. Your materials can be delayed or even shorted, and we constantly have weather related issues to contend with. Rest assured, these are all common practices in a typical construction schedule and usually never extends the overall project beyond the intended completion date. Building Dreams always plans for a few delays and pushes hard to stack trades when having to make up time.

One thing for certain is that our quality control will always take precedence over time. We want you and your family to enjoy our expert workmanship for years to come. Hiring Building Dreams allows us to handle the schedule while you continue your other life responsibilities. Look around our website for great desing ideas.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project.

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Building Dreams, Inc.

Serving Indiana and Illinois clients since 1993.

See our many ways to obtain construction financing article.

We would love to visit your home and family. Please use our Call Building Dreams contact page to obtain your free consultation or bid.

When your house is too small, have you ever wondered what the steps to building an addition to home are? Often times when we meet a new homeowner who wishes to add more bedrooms or baths to their home, they describe to us what the finished addition will look like. The paint colors, tile selections, the furniture layout, and the like.

However, the following items are our concerns – in order!

Structural Integrity

During the entire design and build process of an addition to home, Building Dreams wants to maintain or improve the structural integrity of your existing home. In fact, this is our top priority. We inspect and measure your existing concrete footings, foundation walls, center posts and beams, structural steel, large header openings commonly found over windows and doorways, and many other items. We do this so we can calculate the amount of weight these items can hold. With any addition, we can determine the total amount of weight being added upon your existing structure. This calculation is through live loads and dead loads (building materials, occupants, furniture, snow, etc.). If required, some of your existing structural elements may need to be up-sized. This actually is quite common and further increases the homes integrity and your safety.

Mechanical Systems

A further inspection of your electrical, plumbing and heating/ventilation system is crucial to the safety and well-being of your family. Often times we find that the electrical service may need upgrading to perhaps a larger 200 amp service. The electrical portion combined with perhaps the running of new water and gas lines (where required) are usually never much of a problem. An area of concern is determining how to run sewer lines and ductwork from the new point-A (your addition) back to your existing point-B (the mechanical room). Much thought is put into this avenue so not to open up many chase areas within your existing and finished space. Our blueprints take all of these factors into account so your house runs smoothly and efficiently.

Because sewer lines must be properly pitched downward sometimes our choices are limited. With ductwork however, it is often more efficient to install a new second furnace and air condenser.

Home Designs

We take great pride in our in-house design process so to give your family lots of unique construction elements. Examples could be walk-in closets, vaulted ceilings, skylights, architectural residential roofing shingles, a floating staircase, halogen mood lighting, material textures and many others. We want your friends and family to be wowed.

We involve you in our design presentations so you can visually see what the new and revised floor plans will look like. Additionally, we want to blend in the exterior elevations of any new wall and roof lines so the addition looks architecturally natural to the original home.

Final Words

In 95% of the additions we build, the homeowners and family can remain in the house during construction. Watching Mother Nature is crucial when planning on tearing off the roof structure on second story addition. We go to great lengths to build quickly and to protect the home as much as possible against unforeseen elements.

Many times we cut in the staircase from your existing first floor up to the new second floor after drywall is completed. This keeps the home secure, better HVAC, and the noise and dust is in better control. Our workers and all of our materials enter and exit up ladders through the new window openings. With this way we don’t keep trampling through your home. 

Building Dreams would be honored to show off our impeccable quality standards to you. 

For more information or to schedule an appointment, go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project.

CertainTeed offers you the broadest range of color and style choices. But you’ll see it’s not style over substance. You’ll get a roof that’s made from the highest quality materials and backed by a strong warranty program. It’s our promise to you: quality made certain, satisfaction guaranteed.

Lifetime, 40-year and 30-year limited transferable warranties, including 5-year and 10-year SureStart™ protection, are  applicable only in the United States.

Building Dreams would be proud to install a new roof for you.

Certainteed Landmark Series Roofing Shingles (pdf)

For more information or to schedule your residential roofing appointment, then go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project.

Building Dreams  would love the opportunity to introduce ourselves to you. Your request for our free home building consultation will allow us to come to your home and listen to your construction needs.

Completing our email contact page is the quickest way to set an appointment. Your information provides us the building details we need to contact you back with a schedule of times we could get together. Of course calling and leaving a detailed voice mail message works well too.

Normally we schedule times during the day, early evening or on Saturday mornings. Please provide as much information about your project as possible to us prior to the appointment and during your building consultation. If you have a sketch, a blueprint, magazine clippings, written idea’s, lists of finish products you saw and liked, or anything else to help convey your project desires – we would love to see them.

A Detailed Building Estimate

Remember, the more information you can provide to us – the sharper we can make our pencil when figuring your costs. This is because we wouldn’t have to guess so much of what we ‘think’ you may like. We tend to guess high thinking we can always cut design and/or plans to really fit your budget.

After meeting with you very informally, seeing your home, and asking you many questions, we’ll go back to our office and prepare a detailed written estimate for you. Upon completion, we could bring this back out to you to walk you through it, we could send it out via regular mail, or more efficiently we could email it to you. We encourage you to read through our materials and highlight any areas we need to further discuss. Most times our estimate is just an initial step for further written documentation. 

For more information or to schedule an appointment for your building consultation go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project.

There are many different types of options for construction financing for your home. First and foremost is ‘cash’ of which usually yields a slightly better price for you. Of course if the project is small a credit card or even opening up a line of credit at a material supplier such as Lowe’s, Home Depot or Menard’s may be beneficial.

For most mid-size projects, it is necessary to borrow against the value of your home. Different lenders have different names such as a ‘Home Improvement’ or ‘Home Equity’ loan. To qualify, you must own your own home, be on time with your payments, a fairly good credit score and a ‘Loan to Value’ (LTV) usually under 80-90%. An example would be if your your home is currently worth $200,000 and your current mortgage balance(s) is at $140,000 then you could qualify for a $20,000-$40,000 loan ($200,000 * 80/90% less $140,000).

Residential Roofing | Home Remodeling | Home Addition | Custom Home Builder | Home Designs

Of course if you plan on adding on quite a bit of space, such as an Home Addition or finishing off your basement, there is another option to pull even more money. That is to ask for a construction financing loan that takes into account the ‘future’ appraised value upon project completion. This is how people can hire a Custom Home Builder.

This works well for a big home addition too. These larger projects usually add quite a bit of finished square footage, more rooms and/or bathrooms. It is quite common that the after-construction value of your home, will greatly increase your property’s worth.

This added equity is borrow-able without a further down-payment. The key here is to qualify for a loan that takes into account the ‘future’ appraised value. They determine this with the help from your builder.  Building Dreams provides them information to review your current appraisal, our working blueprints and detailed building material specifications for your project.

For more information on construction financing or to schedule an appointment go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project.

Construction Practices of Building Dreams

Your project is an investment to your home and will affect your appraised value.

Repairs, maintenance, major remodels and additions will certainly boost your resale profits if and when you sell.

As a professional residential building contractor, we believe our clients should have a well written contract that protects them and their home.

Business License

Licensing ensures you that Building Dreams and it’s subcontractor’s have met both State and Local legal requirements.

Surety Bonded

Bonding provides you the security of proper project completion of which is either a County or Local requirement.

As guests in your home, we often have your house key and are conscious of your family’s safety with tools.

Certificate of Insurance

Workers Compensation insures if a tradesman gets hurt at your home that their medical bills won’t be yours.

Our Business Liability insurance protects your home and your furniture against accidental damage.

Weather & Safety Protection Procedures

We maintain exit’s for your family in case of emergency. We maintain security from any new added space into your home to protect from a possible easy burglary (example temporary walls and insulation). We shield your house to minimize the risk from the elements of weather during construction.

Municipal Building Inspections

Building permits insures that all work will be safe, legal and in compliance with current building codes.

In ‘new’ construction, an occupancy permit allows your family to legally move in to your new dream space.

Building Contract

Our contract tells you exactly what work must be done prior to any construction payment being sent to us.

This contract also states a start and finish completion date.

Detailed Building Specifications

Specifications shows you exactly what work you are asking us to complete and with what materials we will use.

With Owner’s “sweat equity”, our spec’s will also state any work you are wanting to do yourself to save on budget.

Written Change Orders

The price we quote you in our contract is what you will pay at the end – unless you request a written change to the building specifications. Many changes (i.e. choosing a final paint color, etc.) do not affect cost.

Computer Cadd System

Our in-house architectural design work can eliminate an outside design firm and its expensive add-on fees for you.

With our Retainer Agreement, we design your dreams so that our fee can be credited to your project account.

Detailed Billing Statement and Invoices

Our easy to read statement shows all of your deposits, payments, charges and credits to date, including any material allowance balances.

Waiver of Liens

Very Important. A mechanic lien waiver gives your family the protection that all suppliers and tradesmen that have been to your home have been paid in full. This protects your property from otherwise false claims.

Financing Options

With our credit application completed, our financing resources can offer your family up to 100% financing.

Federal Disclosure           

As required by law, we must inform you that you would have 3 days to cancel any written contract with us.

Lead Base Paint Disclosure

As required by law, we must inform you that you may or may not have lead base paint in your home and that we may or may not be disturbing that paint.

Emergency Contacts

In today’s technology age, (cell phones, voice mail, email, texting and fax’s) you can always get in contact with us.

Family Owned Business since 1993 

Our stability is insurance to complete your project and provide any warranty work that may appear.

Knowledge of BOCA, CABO, International Residential Building. Mechanical and National Electric Code.

This experience further protects your home’s investment. Be sure our competitors notify you of your rights and supply you with the same detailed information above. We know we can service your building needs beyond your satisfaction. Let’s get started today. You deserve your dreams to come true.

For more information or to schedule an appointment go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project.

Our company owner is a long-time professional builder and one who has a degree in construction, business skills from Purdue and have served on many building association boards. He knows that his company has to bring your project in on-time . . .  and on budget.

To do this, Building Dreams utilizes a construction schedule using the latest computer scheduling software that has been fine-tuned to alleviate the otherwise many hurdles that can creep into a project. Our company strives to foresee every foreseeable potential problem or delay so that a working strategy can be developed as your dreams progress. The biggest key to helping things move smoothly along is having open communication.

Further, our building specifications are so detailed, showing what were doing, how, what materials, what color, etc., that we’re confident that there will be no change orders to your construction schedule unless you sign a change order request.

Change Orders

Certainly if changes are made prior to the work that would be affected, then schedules remain intact to the point that the change itself doesn’t add time. Then too, not all changes add either time or money. Some changes like finalizing a painting color or making final selections on a material allowance item, such as your cabinet color & style, or a roofing shingle color selection, work seamlessly into our project coordination.

For more information on our construction schedule or to schedule appointments, go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project. 

Now that you’ve decided to do a big home improvement project . . . what comes next? 

For starters, the area around what is being transformed needs to be cleaned. Furniture needs to be moved out and boxes packed. Valuables and wall hangings that could vibrate off the walls or be damaged need to be stored away.

Building Dreams also needs lots of room for our construction vehicles, dumpsters, materials being delivered and some equipment. Because we start before 8:00 am most days, your vehicles need to be pulled out of the garage and driveway so not to get boxed in. We discuss and plan this with you prior to the start and during the entire job.

Family Safety During Construction

Most days of the project we will have many different crews going in and out of your home. They can be carpenters, plumbers, electricians and even building inspectors. Because of this, we either need you standing by for everyone’s access, or arrange a key or other acceptable means that you feel comfortable with.

We’re also very concerned that children won’t be allowed near or around any construction traffic areas. Our pneumatic and power tools could look inviting to touch to unsupervised kids.

Depending too on the season or type of project we’re doing for you, we may suggest that we build temporary interior walls for security and/or to contain heat or conditioned air for your family. When the remodeling involves the kitchen, we will always look to relocate your refrigerator, oven and even a temporary sink if logistics can be decided upon.

Taking the time upfront to plan the entire job and all activities will lead to a successful project. As always, if you have any concerns during the project our office staff and your project manager are always reachable with emergency numbers.

Building Dreams actually plans to educate you on the building process as well as making sure you have reasonably good time living through it all.

For more information or to schedule an appointment to further discuss your ideas and your family safety, go to our Call Building Dreams contact page and tell us about your project.