Engaging Professionals

Reply to: Hi Anni So much feedback! It all seems very thoughtful and helpful, if a little overwhelming. And now I am about to add to it! I would like to add some comments about the process. We have been living in our custom home for a little over a year, and are very happy with it. When we decided to build, we started to: 1. Talk to and visit friends who had recently built and talk about what they liked and would do differently about their new homes; 2. Visit open homes/developments/project homes; 3. Pore through magazines and cut out images of anything we liked (go to your nearest Vinnies and pick up a bundle of good mags for $1 each!); 4. Discover Houzz and all the great info and tips here; 5. Build up a scrapbook of just those things we really wanted to incorporate; 6. Develop a list of our needs and wants (in our case sustainability and green design was very important). At this stage, we made appointments with an architect, a building designer, a draftsperson and a potential builder (each of whom was recommended during the above processes). The interviews were fairly short (approx 20 mins) and we took a summary of our design brief and site photos. We asked about the person's experience, their cost structures, billing procedures, potential support,, etc. These interviews were very instructive. As soon as we left his office, we knew we were going with the building designer on the basis of his experience and personality - we quickly just got on really well together. (Later, we used a somewhat similar process with builders). After this, the project pretty much fell into place. We were dealing with people we liked and got on well with, and who we believed had good experience. Our home was finished on time and on budget, and we really enjoyed the whole thing and learnt a lot. One little thing I would strongly suggest with your design is to have the outdoor areas included in the master plan (you mentioned a pool, and others have mentioned the clothesline, also bbq). You don't have to include them in the build, but it is really helpful to think about them as part of the overall plan, traffic areas, access, lighting, etc. Anyway, I hope this is helpful and that you enjoy your build, and, mostly, living in your lovely new home.

Q