Planning a build is as exciting as the build itself, and if done correctly, you can make this stage as detailed and future-proof as possible. While it’s not all boring budgeting and contracting, it’s certainly not all colour pallets and establishing a style either. You’ll probably find it’s somewhere in between, so be prepared for the creative and the technical. Now let’s stay away from the power tools and lay your mood board down, and discuss how you can best plan your next build and what you should consider to get the result you are after.
Find the partners and providers who can bring this to life
Depending on the nature of your home and how ambitious your plans are, you will need to enlist some help from industry experts and Sydney home designers. If you are planning to knock down your existing home and create something new, you will need a team of builders and an architect to do this work. If you’re doing some soft renovations, you might be able to do most of it on your own, with the help of an interior designer and a handyman or two. If you have friends or family members who work in the building and construction industry, ask for their professional opinion of who you should engage – as you don’t want to be unprepared and under-resourced.
Define your budget and understand your parameters
Going into a project of any scale without a clear budget is asking for trouble, and no one wants to run out of funds when the house is missing a wall or without a full roof. Your building budget should include a lot of detail about the project, the cost of the materials and any equipment (truck, concrete mixer, crane, etc) you will use to complete this renovation. If your current budget won’t cover your entire scope, stagger the project and identify what parts will be completed by when, and at what point you will have the funds to initiate the next stage of the build. As a good rule of thumb, you might want to be generous with your planning and allow for more budget than you need to account for any incidentals.
Account and plan for disruption
In all the excitement of a new build, one can underestimate how much your daily routine will be disrupted. It might be that you have to enter or exit from a new side of the house, or you might in fact have to find another accommodation solution altogether. Whatever you predict lies ahead, plan for it so that you cause minimal impact and don’t have to pause your (and your family’s) schedule to sort out something that could have easily been anticipated. This high level of planning might even avoid an unsafe building environment or an issue that would have harmed you, your workers or your neighbours unintentionally.
Improve and replace where possible
Now that you have committed to a build and have started to plan all the new and exciting features, it might also be a good idea to replace what is old and likely to break down in the future years to come. If you are extending your kitchen, why not upgrade your stovetops in the meantime if they have started to rust or falter. You might also want to replace handles and taps when you start to paint the rooms. Don’t feel pressured to replace everything though, as this is expensive and irresponsible, and might take away from the character of the home. You should only do this if it makes sense and would be completed in the near future anyway.
Hopefully, you now have a handle of your upcoming build and will have no unwelcome surprises that will cost you time and money. You can always engage a home designer to take on some responsibility and bring you a result you love, so consider contacting the experts if you want a perfect and swift build.