How to get the Best Home Design, Best Quality and Best Price from the Best House Builder: BEST HOUSE DESIGN

In our quest to create our ultimate home, and create the spaces where we can pursue our ultimate and intimate lifestyle choices, we find that many choices, options and elements need to be integrated.

A careful balance has to be maintained between the funds available, utilization of the available land, space requirements, House Design, contractor options, quality inclusions, and finish and general workmanship.

All of them are important in their own right, and unless you have a clear idea of your desired overall outcome, individual factors can heavily influence your choices, and in the process distort the end result.

The goal is to balance the constituent components, so that those most important to you predominate.

Understanding How the House Design Process Works

There are a number of methods whereby House Hunters have traditionally selected the Home Designs they have built.

Project Builders – Project Builders are Home Builders that build a set-range of House Designs, with a minimum of design modifications. Despite the widespread perception that Project Home Builders design and build the vast majority of Homes in Australia; given this definition, Project Home Builders have a significantly smaller market share than is commonly realised. The perception probably arose because many Builders are assumed to be Project Home Builders simply because they have display homes. This is often not the case at all.

Design Builders – Design Builders will design and build a home to your specifications, sometimes using and modifying a design they have previously used or built. Design Builders are more numerous than Project Home Builders, who often start out as Design Builders, and along the way accumulate a few ‘Standard House Designs’.

Contract Builders – Contract Builders simply contract to build YOUR home. Contract Builders will sometimes offer House Design Advice, primarily for technical reasons.

House Designers – House Designers are professionals that will design a home for a fee. House designers will always work from a brief that you provide. Everything depends on these instructions, and a poorly thought out brief will generally result in a poor home design and/or frustration and wasted money and effort.

Self-designed or Owner Designed Homes. This process is more common than is generally thought. Usually an Owner Designed Home will come to fruition with the help of one or more of the previous methods: A project Home Builder may be able to modify one of his standard designs to resemble the owner design, a design builder could flesh out the meat on a bare-bones owner supplied sketch, or a contract Builder could engage an affiliated designer to give form to an owner‘s House Design.

In each of the previous scenarios, the end result depends entirely on the clarity with which the Owners were able to convey their desires to those that ultimately gave technical form to their dreams.

Remember, a vital step occurs when the brief is given, and a wish-list prepared; because everything ultimately revolves around the options that will eventuate from these notes. If you later realise that you inadvertently provided incorrect instructions or information; don’t hesitate to correct it; because mindlessly toddling along the wrong path is a waste of yours and everybody else’s time.

What Happens With the House Design Brief?

The short answer to this question is; “it depends who you give it to”.

If you approach a Project Home Builder, they will use one of their standard designs, modify it until they believe it resembles what you are looking for, however remotely, and then present that as a proposal. Often people accept this outcome on the basis that it makes fewer waves and will probably cost less . . . perhaps.

If you give it to a Design Builder, they will provide you with a very rough estimate of the costs involved in building the home. If this figure is somewhere in your budget ballpark, they will need a preliminary deposit to do working drawings so they can prepare a proper proposal. Not a bad process if you are entirely certain what you want; because you will pay for the work whether you use it or not. If you don’t know precisely what it is you want, you probably will not want what results that eventuate from an imprecise brief.

If you give it to a Contract Builder, he will ask for more details, perhaps arrange for you to meet with a Building Designer, so that they can provide a proper proposal. If you proceed along this path; ensure your designer has some inkling of current building costs or you may end being the proud owner of a design you may be unable to afford to build.

The Building Designer will draw what he believes you are asking for. Often he will first do a preliminary sketch so you can obtain estimate prices before he finalizes the design. He will charge a set fee to do this work, plus variation costs for excessive modifications to this basic sketch.

All this is well-and-good, although very little comes at no costs whatsoever, but what if you are unclear about the desired result, or even what you are looking for? This is not as uncommon or absurd as it may sound. Not everyone is dead certain about what they want, and often it is the case that a couple could have conflicting ideas and preferences.

That is why I recommend you at least start with a Self-Design.  When you try to put things on paper, it clarifies your thoughts, exposes embedded conflicting ideas, and gives some shape to abstract concepts.

Below is a brief outline about how you go about doing this:

1. First make a wish-list. This is easier to do than you might imagine. Simply make a list of everything you can think of that you maybe … possibly … could … want in your home. Don’t be shy or embarrassed about it. Pretty soon fantasy will collide with reality and you will rationalise the list. Until then … fantasise!!!
2. Now roughly figure out the spaces you require. How many bedrooms … living area … outdoor areas … storage.
3. Figure out where North is … if possible; orientate living areas and outdoor areas so that they take full advantage of north-East and South-East breezes. Try to ensure that the living areas are not affected by direct summer sunlight.
4. Do what is called a ‘spider-sketch’. So-called because they often look like a drunk spider wandered through a pot of ink and onto the page. There is no need to overly precise about the scale, or the sizes of rooms.
5. Use whatever resources you can find for ideas; copying an arrangement of rooms, in whole or in part, is not stealing, the Building Industry does not lose billions of dollars, and R&D investment into proper building design will not dry up.
6. If they ask, “who told you that”, tell them www.buildingbuddy.com.au told you so.
7. Give the sketch to someone, like here at buildingbuddy.com.au, so that he can create a set of usable sketches for you; so people will not constantly be worrying you for funds to do ‘proper plans’ you may never use.

This approach is different and revolutionary; but only because people don't realise there should be a proper division of labour in the House Building Industry: Builders should Build the Homes; Designers should design homes people want; Draftsmen should prepare the working drawings; and Customers should only spend money on work that benefits them directly, and not on speculation.

Once we have our design clear, we next make sure we know how to get the Best Quality. Happy House Hunting!