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EDIT - Now a 'work at the local school' mum a few days a week while juggling the job of parenting 3 teenagers! I am a SAHM who does work from home occasionally, dedicated to raising 3 Godly, independent, healthy children. Loving the home building process though it is not without challenges. I have fairly free reign over the creative aspect of the project...just not the financial side!

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

A few hints

Wow! I can't believe how many people are looking at this blog. The traffic is enormous especially considering we haven't even started to build yet. Don't forget you can either be a 'follower' which means that it comes up in your reading list with eblogger or you can follow by email, meaning an email is sent to you when I post something rivoting (or not!)

A number of friends are in the process of dreaming, researching or tendering for a house build so I thought it might be useful to post a tip or two for that stage of the build.
  • Identify the upgrade items on the display home you choose to build (take the upgrade list and visually tick them off one by one making a note that they are  upgrades) So much of the display homes are upgraded throughout. Many builders do have display homes that are set out only as a standard home ie without any upgrades. Ask to see one of those for comparison sake. Of course, this is difficult if your home doesn't have a display home or you make so many structural changes like we did!
  • Have a look at similar house plans on the online forums if possible since this will give you  ideas that other customers have come up with. HOMEONE forums are invaluable. There is a 'thread' topic in these forums title 'Things you forget'  - lists many, many ideas for adding to your house to make it your home. HomeOne - Things you forget
  • Make sure all items that you would like to have and think you have included are listed in the tender document.
  • Communicate with your builder via EMAIL. This keeps a record of your dealings with them.
  • Double and triple check prices in the tender - they do make mistakes with calculations!
  • Ask questions from fellow home builders for recommendations since some the other home builders bad experiences may help you avoid a painful situation. Again, I recommend getting onto HomeOne forums.
  • Think about including Provisional Allowances for items that you think you might want to add later in the selection process. For example, we added $10K for kitchen upgrades (needed $20K!!), $15K for electrical, $5K for tiles/carpet, $10K for window coverings etc etc If you do not do this, the variations costs post tender requires short payment terms and this will need to be settled before handover.

    Hope this helps a little.

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