Bucolic Bliss Awaits: 4 Home-Building Tips to Expedite Your Move Upstate

  |  June 23, 2020

Maris Quick Ship, Image Courtesy Atlantic Custom Homes

Advice from Atlantic Custom Homes,
an Independent Dealer for Lindal Cedar Homes

The Mid-Hudson region is just two weeks into Phase 2 of New York’s four-part reopening plan and houses Upstate are already selling like hotcakes. The large-scale shift to remote work coupled with the ease of social distancing in rural areas has many city dwellers daydreaming about life in the country. While the pool of available houses shrinks, more and more people are turning to building their own homes Upstate.

Though building a home can be a lengthy process, there are a few ways to speed things up and get settled in your new abode in record time. For a few tips on how to fast-track your dream home, we turned to the owners of Atlantic Custom Homes, Hudson Valley and Connecticut’s independent dealers of Lindal Cedar Homes, Jennifer and Pascal Smith Couti.

Lindal Cedar Home

Heron Quick Ship, Image Courtesy Atlantic Custom Homes

1. Choose a Local Expert

Building a home from scratch involves thousands of decisions and months of planning and construction. To get through the process as quickly and seamlessly as possible, Jennifer recommends choosing a team that is intimately familiar with the area you’ve got your eye on. A solid local team, from site engineer to general contractor to a dealer like Atlantic Custom Homes that specializes in design and relationship management for a manufacturer, will give you a head-start on the process.

“The benefit of working with a company like Lindal is that you get a local dealer who knows the ins and outs of building in the area, from applying for permits to hiring contractors,” says Jennifer. “We can help you swiftly navigate the whole process and stay involved from beginning to end and beyond, as we are also your customer service arm for the lifetime structural warranty.”

Ash Quick Ship, Image Courtesy Atlantic Custom Homes

2. Look for Low-Maintenance Land

There’s a whole world of knowledge around permitting and town approvals that comes with the choice to build your own home. According to Jennifer, in addition to the building permit itself, you may need additional approval from the board of health for a well and to build a septic system. To speed up that process, she recommends buying land that may already have as many approvals in place as possible. “Even if the board of health approval is expired, it’s typically much faster to renew it than to start from scratch,” she says.

3. Choose an Existing Design and Layout

Building a custom home offers you the opportunity to select every last detail. If your goal is to enjoy your new home as soon as possible though, Jennifer recommends going with an existing design. “If you already have architected and engineered plans for your location, you can cut a lot of time off your whole project” she says. Lindal Cedar Homes, for instance, has a portfolio of Quick Ship homes that have already been drawn to the final permit stage and allow for some small revisions to make it personal to you.

Cascade Quick Ship, Image Courtesy Atlantic Custom Homes

4. Decide on Details Early

Even if you go with an existing design, you’ll still have plenty of choices to make, from flooring to countertops and more. “Get clear lists of what you’ll need to make decisions about from the start,” says Jennifer. “Make those choices close to the beginning so when you’re ready to build you don’t lose time selecting finishing details and waiting for those shipments to arrive.”

To learn more about Lindal or to get started on your own Lindal home, call Atlantic Custom Homes at (833) 332-3327 or visit www.atlanticcustom.homes.

About Atlantic Custom Homes

We are Jennifer and Pascal Smith Couti, owners of Atlantic Custom Homes. We are the third-generation owners of this successful dealership started in 1983. We bought the dealership after designing and renovating homes for ourselves and our customers around Westchester County NY. We and our staff place customer service and our relationship with our customers above everything else. We have won numerous awards and recognition for our efforts and have consistently been a proud member of Lindal Cedar Home's prestigious President’s Club. Atlantic Custom Homes has served customers building locally and in many other parts of the country and the world. We are a fully-staffed, full-service dealership in Ossining, NY. We are open Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM, Saturday 10AM-5PM (appointments recommended).

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