The whole kit and caboodle!

Today’s kits are so adaptable to you and your family’s tastes and style that their designers and builders can create a bespoke look for you. No wonder this is the most popular route to a new home for self-builders. WHEN we say the whole kit and caboodle, we mean it. The dictionary tells us caboodle is a noun, informal, and means, ‘The whole number or quantity of people or things in question’ and that sums up the benefits of choosing a kit home. You can have the ‘whole’ answer to your self-build. You buy the entire house and most of the companies that supply kit homes will provide you with a service to take care of planning permission, building warrants and even deliver and build your new home for you. And if we are talking words, then ‘kit home’ just doesn’t do these properties justice. The word ‘kit’ is way too small to describe what a big choice there is. ‘Kit’ some how conjures up something that comes out of a box and is put together with glue. Something where one size fits all and you will take what you are given. Nothing could be further from the truth. Go online and check out the websites of all the leading suppliers, producers and builders of these homes. They offer you everything from a neat studio-style property through to a bungalow, right up to country mansion. Once the choice has been made you can ‘flip’ the design to suit your choice and the location. Come in the door and the original plan says lounge on the right kitchen on the left? How about the other way round? No problem. These kits are designed with customisation in mind. Want to add a sun lounge, conservatory, garage, double garage? Many of the original house plans are designed to allow you to add these features. Is there someone in your family with special needs? Bathrooms can become wet rooms, doorways widened to be wheelchair friendly and joists strengthened where you need to add a hoist. A kit home, precision manufactured away from the site, can be built far more quickly and that is a bonus when the West Highland climate decides to assert itself. Some kit home manufacturers have the ability to take your architect’s drawings and use their production techniques to build your home from start to finish and give you a bespoke service. When it comes to the interior, they can offer an incredible number of fixtures and fittings, from the doors, skirting and window frames through to the finished look of your staircase. They create and build many different styles of home for many different people and so the choice of bathrooms and kitchens and flooring reflects that wide range; you can even source fittings from other suppliers if you have your heart set on a particular style or type and they will carry out the installation.