You’ve always had an idea what your dream home would look like. Maybe it’s a castle on a hill or a beach side property. Or it’s a beach castle with pony stables, towering spires, and rooftop views. You’re maybe thinking of making your own Fallingwater or even just looking for an abandoned warehouse to convert into a home.
Despite home construction prices in New Zealand increasing, building your own home is still more appealing than buying an already constructed house. Should you go for the former route, here are five things you should remember when building your dream home.
Set a budget for everything
Building a home in NZ isn’t something to just throw money at and hope for the best. You need to be smart and calculating about your financial decisions.
From the materials you want to use to finding a truck for hire in NZ at the right price, you need to find the most economical option without compromising quality. You also need to have a contingency budget in case you exceed your budget, so you won’t have to pull out money from your pockets.
Find and purchase the land
There are a lot of things to consider when buying a section. Firstly, think of the district plans, getting the proper consents, doing land surveys, and knowing the land use restriction for that section. Regardless of whether you’re moving a house onto a section or building a house from scratch, these legal processes are needed to be done in order to proceed to buying a section. They’re helpful to you in the long run, especially the land surveys. You can’t construct a house that isn’t compatible with the soil after all.
Find a reputable architect and construction team
Weathered Bones author Michele Powles and her family faced struggles when building their West Auckland home. They didn’t see eye to eye with their first architect to the point that they had to fight for a case at the Disputes Tribunal to get their money back. “… [N]ot all architects are created equally,” she said in an article.
Find yourself an architect that would not only give you an architectural marvel of a design, but also advise you about your home. Look for a construction team with a good reputation as well. You’ll never know when you’ll face hiccups and you’d want a team that will get your project to push through.
Know the rules and regulations
From all the consents you need to get to all the consumer protection rights you need to learn, building a home places a lot of the burden on you. There are a lot of laws you need to comply with when building your own home, regardless of whether you’re hiring a contractor or you’re doing it on your own. You need to know your rights and responsibilities, and all the rules and regulations on building your home to protect yourself and to make sure the whole operation is legal.
Be ready for delays and exigencies
You need to accept that your home’s construction will get delayed—whether it’s by powers out of your control or through just careful home building practices. Also, not everything in home construction ever goes smoothly. Whether it’s the lack of materials or a construction accident, be ready for any trouble that may occur in the site.
Building your dream home requires patience, effort, a bag of money (or two), and a load of paperwork to sign. Make sure you really want this before building your dream home. Otherwise, you’ll just be wasting your most precious resources: time and money.
