Monthly Archives: November 2012

…but I’m “saving” money !!!

Standard Plans  are a wonderful way to spend a few leisurely hours looking at all the wonderful  new innovations. But are they alwyas exactly what you want?  While  display homes and  standard  home designs  can give you a good idea of what you want they very rarely tick all the boxes. Many of the comments we hear are;

  • The kitchen is too small
  • Not enough storage
  • Laundry is too small
  • There’s a dunny facing the living room!!!
  • or I would change this or that…

 

The Answer is simple.

Spending a little time talking to a  professional designer to make a wish list of all those things you require in your home is a fun experience and often a lot of great ideas come out of a design brief session.  Sometimes your designer throws ideas at you that you would never have dreamed of.

 

But doesn’t is cost a lot??

Well it depends on how you want to look at it.

A properly designed home can cut down on lighting and cooling costs to an extent that the “investment” would be recovered in a very short time.  Expert design  can remove  wasted or  excess space…………..”floor and roof  is a very expensive  non essential item”

But  The Display Home has a fixed price!! 

The biggest cost saving a professional designer can offer is  flexibility and transparency by putting YOU in control.

By engaging a  building company to prepare your design you are  constrained to  that company and their pricing structure. Due to copyright restrictions it’s impossible for you to get comparable prices for the same  home.

By engaging  your designer to prepare YOUR design you are free to get comparative prices from a variety of construction companies. This is exactly why large companies and  consultants offer TENDERS to enable competitive prices to come in. When  offering a project for tender it is most important that the potential contractors are all comparing the same  end product.


Should I simply go for the cheapest price??

We often see and hear advertisements for new homes based of  $$$$ per sq/m  this is often used as a way of  comparing a company’s  “value for money”.  Well this isn’t entirely correct………..

  • A smaller home is ALWAYS more expensive per sq/m as there is still  bathrooms, kitchen etc
  • Roof design can increase the price substantially
  • Elevated floor is always more expensive.
  • Gold taps and expensive fittings have an effect on the build cost (surprisingly many consumers don’t relate these)
  • Non standard windows and doors can easily blow a budget.
 

Ultimately  some things in life remain constant and  “you get what you pay for” is one of those. Saving time and money on getting your design stage right usually doesn’t  !!!

 

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