With its grand mountain vistas, incredible opportunities for skiing, biking, and all sorts of other outdoor recreation, having a home in East Kootney is a dream come true for many Calgarians. Communities like Fernie, Invermere, and Radium Hot Springs are destinations for alpine enthusiasts, and designing a home in East Kootenay can be a rich and rewarding experience.
It also doesn’t have to be hard. The design process isn’t all that different from designing a custom home in Calgary, and the approval process can actually be more straightforward.
Our experienced team can guide you through every step of the home design process in the East Kootenay, ensuring you end up with a design that meets all your wants and needs.
A Familiar Design Process
When you’re designing a custom home in East Kootenay with Ellergodt Design, many parts of the process are similar to home design in Calgary. You’ll still be consulting with your designer regularly and providing details on your vision for your new home.
Here’s what to expect.
Purchasing a Property
If you’ve already selected and purchased a property where you would like to build your custom home in East Kootenay, then you can jump right to the discovery step of the design process. If, on the other hand, you’re still looking at properties, Ellergodt Design’s team can help with evaluating the potential of a property, as well as the challenges.
Ellergodt Design can even make a trip to the region with you to get a closer look at properties and advise on what’s possible.
Discovery & Design
Once you’ve purchased a property in the region and are ready to get started, you’ll fill out a design questionnaire and meet with your custom home designer. There, you’ll communicate your goals and your needs for your new home so that they can get started creating the design itself.
Meeting with your custom home designer in person isn’t completely necessary, so if you’re already living outside of Calgary and looking to design a home in the Columbia Valley, meetings can be done through a virtual platform, and the process can and will still be engaging and enjoyable.
Your designer can still show you 3D images or give you a 3D tour of your home. In many ways, it’s no different from what would happen if you were designing a custom home in Calgary.
Having open and honest conversations about your goals for your home is crucial to getting a custom house design that is perfect. The process of designing a home in East Kootenay will still provide every opportunity to communicate and articulate your vision.
Working Through the Regulatory Process
Land-use bylaws can differ from municipality to municipality, and it’s important to understand the ins and outs of what the city, town, or region you’re looking to build in allows. Fortunately, that’s an area where Ellergodt Design’s team has lots of experience, having designed homes throughout the Columbia Valley in towns like Invermere and in the East Kootenays.
In general, rural areas have less onerous requirements when it comes to bylaws, so it can actually be easier to get a new project approved in places like the Columbia Valley when compared to a big city like Calgary. It’s still important to know and understand local rules and regulations so that you avoid costly delays and having to re-design parts of your home when you go for approval.
Having custom home designers who understand the bylaws in East Kootenay can make every part of the approval process go smoothly.
Collaborating with Builders & Contractors
Once the design for your new home is complete, it will be time to hire the people who will actually build your custom home in East Kootenay and bring your vision to life. It’s obviously important to hire experienced, professional builders and contractors, and if you’re building for the first time in the region, it’s to be expected that you won’t have a lot of knowledge about who is best for the job.
This is another area where working with a custom home designer like Ellergodt Design can help, as we’ve collaborated with local builders in East Kootenay in the past and can provide practical advice that comes directly from experience.
Whether you’re looking to design a home that will serve as a vacation retreat for you and your family or are looking to build your retirement home, you’ll want every detail done just right, and custom home designers can make sure you’re connected with the best builders and contractors.
Design a Home in East Kootenay with Ellergodt Design
Designing a home in East Kootenay can be a rich and rewarding experience, and there’s no reason for anyone to lower their expectations for getting their house designed.
Working with Ellergodt Design will provide you with every opportunity to communicate your goals and your vision for your new custom home in the Columbia Valley, Fernie, and across East Kootenay. Our team’s experience working in the beautiful B.C. region means we can help you navigate the regulatory process, connect you with the right builders, and design a stunning home that meets all your needs.
For more information on designing a home in East Kootenay or to get started, call us at (587)802-2304 or e-mail us at info@beginwithdesign.com today.
FAQ
Is East Kootenay a good place to retire?
Absolutely. East Kootenay has everything you could want, from amazing skiing and world-class golf courses to countless opportunities for hiking and biking or just lounging by a lake. Many Calgarians have weekend homes in the Columbia Valley, too, as it is close enough to the city to drive in a couple of hours but feels a million miles away from the hustle and bustle of Calgary.
Where can I build a home in East Kootenay?
East Kootenay is an incredible location for building a custom home, and Ellergodt Design has designed homes all throughout the region. Fenie, Invermere, Radium, and Fairmont each have all the amenities you could want, as well as easy access to some of the best outdoor recreation in the world.