Parterre design center:
upgrades worth buying.

Every Parterre build-to-order buyer will sit down at a design center appointment — typically a few weeks after going under contract — and be handed a catalog of options that can easily add tens of thousands of dollars to a home they've already committed to buying. Here's how to go into that meeting with a framework instead of a gut feeling.

The design center environment works against careful decision-making in a specific way. You're in a well-lit showroom where flooring samples look better than they will in a finished home, cabinetry handles feel solid under your fingers, and each upgrade price — often presented as a "per square foot addition" or a "package" — sounds proportionate against the total you just committed to on the home itself. None of that is designed to mislead. It's just the context, and context shapes decisions.

What you need before you walk in is a category system: a way to separate upgrades that genuinely hold value from those you can accomplish yourself after closing for less, and from those that belong in neither category. If you're building to order at Parterre rather than buying a quick move-in home, you'll have more design center choices than a buyer taking a spec home. That's either an advantage or a liability, depending on how prepared you are.

The design center appointment: what to expect

Parterre's builder typically schedules the design center appointment within 30 days of contract execution. The session runs two to four hours and covers three main areas: structural options (changes to the physical layout), exterior selections (siding color, garage doors, entry doors), and interior finish selections (flooring, cabinetry, countertops, fixtures, appliances).

You'll have a design consultant assigned to guide you through the options. That consultant works for the builder. They are professional, often genuinely helpful, and not compensated to steer you toward fewer selections. Their job is to help you choose, not to help you choose less. Come in with your own notes, your own priorities, and ideally your own buyer's agent, who can give you an independent read on what adds resale value and what doesn't.

Structural upgrades: the category to prioritize

Structural upgrades — changes to the physical layout or square footage of the home — are almost always worth addressing at the builder level, for one reason: you cannot add them after closing without major expense or outright impossibility. You can upgrade flooring yourself post-close. You cannot add a fourth bedroom, finish a basement, or move a staircase once the foundation is poured and framing is complete.

The structural options most commonly available at Parterre include:

Finished basement. If the floor plan offers a finished basement option and you have any plausible use for that space — guest bedroom, home office, media room, flex space — this is the clearest case where the builder upgrade justifies its cost. Finished basements add materially to a home's sellable square footage, and the builder's per-square-foot cost to finish below-grade is typically lower than a general contractor's post-close estimate, because the subcontractors are already sequenced on-site. Buyers who plan to stay more than three years at Parterre generally come out ahead on this selection.

Extended garage or third bay. If offered on your homesite, this is worth serious consideration — particularly for buyers who use their garage as working storage rather than a staging area for the front entry. Not every lot at Parterre accommodates a three-car layout. If yours does and you pass, that option is permanently gone.

Additional bedrooms or full bathrooms on upper floors. Adding a bedroom or bathroom to the upper-floor plan at the design center costs less than a post-close renovation that produces the same result, and directly affects the home's bedroom and bathroom count, which anchors its comp position when you sell.

Finish upgrades that tend to hold value

Not all finish upgrades are equal from a resale standpoint. The ones that tend to hold value are the ones buyers at this price point in this neighborhood have come to expect — the finishes whose absence becomes a negotiating point when you list.

Hard-surface flooring on the main level. Entry-level carpet in a new construction home is the first thing prospective resale buyers negotiate against. If your floor plan's base specification includes carpet throughout the main level, upgrading the living areas to hardwood or LVP at the design center is usually a better investment than doing it yourself post-close. Builder-installed hard-surface flooring goes in before trim and cabinetry are fitted, producing a cleaner result than a post-close swap. It's also the finish that makes the strongest visual impression in a resale showing.

Upgraded kitchen package. Quartz countertops over laminate, and soft-close cabinetry over standard hinges, are the two kitchen details buyers in Parterre's mid-range price bands have come to expect. They're also the two finishes that buyers walking through an open house register immediately. If your base specification includes laminate countertops and standard cabinetry, pricing the kitchen upgrade package is worth the time.

Gas rough-in for future appliances. If your floor plan defaults to all-electric but you have any intention of cooking on gas, adding a fireplace, or running a gas line to the backyard, the rough-in at builder level costs a fraction of what post-close gas line installation runs. This is a relatively small line item at the design center that avoids a significantly larger post-close project. Treat it as permanent infrastructure, not a finish upgrade.

The "do it yourself after closing" category

Some upgrades are more cost-effective to skip at the design center and address post-close through your own contractors. The general principle: if it's a surface finish that can be removed and replaced without structural disruption, and if the builder's price represents a meaningful markup over what a contractor would charge independently, you're often better off waiting.

Premium tile in secondary bathrooms. Builder tile upgrade packages for secondary bathrooms tend to represent a meaningful markup over what a tile contractor would charge for the same installation post-close. Unlike the main-level flooring, secondary bathroom tile can be replaced without affecting other finishes. If budget is constrained, this is usually the first finish upgrade to defer.

Light fixture packages. Builder-provided fixture upgrades beyond the base package are rarely competitive with retail. The base package gives you functional fixtures; post-close, you can replace them with exactly what you want at lower cost. The exception is anything that requires added electrical infrastructure — if an upgrade includes a ceiling fan rough-in in a bedroom that lacks the circuit in the base specification, that work is worth buying now.

Appliance packages. Builder appliance pricing is rarely competitive with what you can find at retail during a promotion. Unless the package includes a configuration that requires a cabinet modification at construction time — a built-in column refrigerator, for instance, that requires specific surrounding cabinetry — you're usually better off buying your own appliances post-close and directing that budget elsewhere at the design center.

Budgeting: how much do buyers typically add?

The honest answer is: it varies considerably by floor plan and buyer priorities. Buyers who hold the line at structural options and one or two key finish upgrades typically add somewhere in the 5–10% range over base price. Buyers who approach the design center as a design-show experience — selecting premium finishes across multiple rooms without a framework — commonly land 15–20% over base or more, with a portion of that spending that won't recover at resale.

The most common regret we hear from Parterre buyers one to two years post-close isn't "I wish I'd upgraded more." It's "I upgraded the wrong things." The tile upgrade in the secondary bathroom that looked great in the showroom is the first finish the next buyers replace. The finished basement option that was available at the design center for a builder-level per-square-foot rate is now a full-scale post-close renovation at a significantly higher cost per foot.

Getting the framework right before the appointment matters more than optimizing any individual line item. Your buyer's agent should walk through the design center options with you before the session, not just at contract signing. If that conversation hasn't happened, ask for it before you sit down with the design consultant.

The decision before the decision

The design center appointment feels like a series of separate choices. It's actually one choice: how much of your equity-building budget to spend on builder-installed finishes versus on post-close projects you control on your own timeline and with your own contractors. Neither answer is wrong, but the right allocation depends on how long you plan to stay, your cash position at closing, and which upgrades your specific floor plan needs to be competitive at resale.

We walk every Parterre build-to-order buyer through a pre-appointment review — looking at the base specification for their floor plan, the upgrade pricing sheet, and the comp pool for that plan and lot type — before they sit down with the design consultant. The review usually surfaces two or three decisions that have a real effect on the home's resale position. If you're under contract at Parterre or approaching that stage, reviewing the contract structure first is step one; design center prep comes right after.

Frequently asked questions

Should I do the hardwood flooring upgrade at Parterre's design center?

In most cases, yes — especially for main-level living areas. Builder-installed hardwood or LVP produces a cleaner result than post-close installation (it goes in before trim and cabinetry are fitted), and the absence of hard-surface flooring on the main level is one of the first things resale buyers negotiate against at this price point. The exception is if you have a strong preference for a specific product the builder doesn't carry; in that case, defer and do it yourself post-close with your preferred material.

How much over base price do most Parterre buyers spend at the design center?

Buyers who stay disciplined and focus on structural options and one or two key finish upgrades typically add 5–10% over base. Buyers without a clear framework commonly end up 15–20% over. There's no right number, but the framework matters: prioritize structural changes you can't make post-close, then finish upgrades with strong resale correlation, then stop.

Can I negotiate on design center upgrades at Parterre?

Design center upgrade prices are generally published in a fixed schedule and aren't individually negotiable the way base price or closing cost concessions sometimes are. However, the overall concession package your buyer's agent negotiates before contract can sometimes be structured to apply toward design center selections — depending on how the concession is written. This is a conversation to have before you sign, not after. Your agent's leverage is at contract, not at the design center.