You are setting out on a new home construction project. You wrote down all the must-haves for the design brief and you have agreed upon your home construction budget.
However, when you get to your architect or design professional you realise that your design brief is bigger than your construction budget…by quite a bit.
No need to feel daunted or alarmed because you are not the first one to do this. We always want more for our money. Whether it is to get a few extra feet on to our bedroom or squeezing in that small reading nook, we always aim for that extra bang for our buck.
However, these extras can add up and soon your construction cost can spiral out of control.
If you realise that your home design brief is becoming more than your construction budget, here are a few things you may want to look at.
Number of Rooms
One of the easiest reasons to spot for why your home design brief may be bigger than your construction budget is the number of rooms.
Fitting a four-bedroom, three-bathroom house into a two-bedroom, one-bathroom budget can be a challenge.
Having that challenge along with all of the normally expected, yet underused rooms like the dining, patio and two-car garage can start to add quite a bit of extra dollars to your construction budget. Not to mention the bonus rooms like the TV room, office and the games room with the pool table.
Building a home is a major investment so it is fair to expect you would want to pack it with as much functionality you can squeeze in.
However, when those extra functions start to burst the limits of your budget, it is a good time to start considering some compromises. Not all compromises may force you to lose all your functionality. You can start considering how one room can serve multiple functions. Also start thinking about moving some of those functions to exterior spaces, which is a great advantage of living in the tropics.
Sometimes this may not be enough to bring you down within your budget. If so, some rooms may need to be pushed into another phase of construction sometime in the future.
In some situations, a few rooms may also have to be sacrificed. It will be hard, but once you have had a moment to grieve, you may realise that perhaps you didn’t need that second guest room with the en-suite bathroom.
It is important when making your list of rooms to focus on what you need and not only on what you think you might want.
Size of Rooms
The next thing you may want to consider is the size of your spaces.
It is common to want to create generous rooms to ensure you have enough space. People often want rooms like their kitchens, master bedrooms and master bathrooms to be bigger than they necessarily need to be.
It is sometimes difficult to visualise how big a room really is from its length by width dimensions or even seeing it on a drawing. Many times, we can hear room sizes, or see them on a drawing and the first impulse is to ask to make them bigger, (for the same budget).
Hence, we can sometimes create rooms that are bigger than required. This can result in extra unusable space that then needs to be filled with unnecessary furniture or just go unused. For example, creating an extra-large master bedroom is okay, if you intend to create a sitting area within your bedroom. That’s fine if you plan on making your bedroom a hangout spot for you and the family, provided your budget allows it. However, it can be excessive if you intend to only use your bedroom for sleeping.
Think about how you live and how you intend to use your spaces. Then make the rooms the sizes they need to be to perform that function. This will avoid creating wasteful spaces.
Also, having inflated room sizes can sometimes make a room less useable. No one wants to take fifteen steps to get from one end of the kitchen to the other.
Outside The Box
It is good to want to create an interesting and unique looking home. I admire a homeowner who is willing to push the boundary a little to create something different than the house of the Joneses next door.
However, too many twists and turns in your home design can increase your cost. Your architect and designer can, for most of the time be your ally in ensuring your house remains in the budget. But this is one of the few moments they may sometimes tend to get carried away.
An overly complicated design can be a challenge to construct and hence increase construction cost. If your budget will allow for it, then be as adventurous as you would like to be. However, if your budget is already being stretched to its limit, then you may want to consider simplifying a bit.
You can have a home that is well-designed without the need for too many frills. Having a home that is responsive to the site conditions and climate as well as to your needs, is the sometimes best design you can ask for.
Professional Advice
As mentioned before, your design professionals are your allies. They will often try to ensure your home project stays within your budget. Use their experience to guide you with deciding how big your rooms need to be.
What may seem like just a few extra feet on to a room can sometimes have rippling effects in other parts of the project. Your design professional can spot these impacts more easily. Some of the additions you ask for may not be worth the expense.
Also, listen to reasonable and informed estimates of the cost of your construction. It is fine to get second or third opinions from people in the construction industry or even friends that may have recently completed their own home project. However, be cautious of construction cost rates that seem too good to be true. Very often they are and can end up costing you more in the long run.
Conclusion
Building your own home is going to be one of the largest investments you make. Understandably, you would want to get as much as you possibly can out of your budget.
However, if you find yourself pushing the limits of the budget, consider reducing the number of rooms by focusing on the rooms you need. You can also look at reducing the size of some of your spaces. They are often bigger than you think.
Ensure that your design provides you with all the comforts you need without getting overly complicated. A complicated design can sometimes mean a complicated and more expensive construction.
Be guided by your design professional. They have a ton of experience that can be useful to you. Trust their advice.
Designing and building your home is a special moment in the life of a family. Create and construct a place that is a joy to be in without being too much of a burden on your budget.
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