ONCE you’ve finally found your perfect plot of land, it’s time for the real fun to begin. Choosing the right floorplan is exciting, but it’s vitally important to consider a number of factors to ensure you get it right and aren’t faced with regrets once it’s too late.
Functionality of your home and your lifestyle
The floorplan of your home must flow with your needs and reflect what areas of your home you use the most. If you host a lot of get togethers at your place, then you may require additional living space, a gourmet kitchen and a large outdoor area. If you spend a lot of time outside, you may require a mud room. Other things to consider include how many children you currently have and whether more children may come along in the future, whether or not older family members may need to move in with you in the future or if you need a spare room for guests.
Your land
The size of your block plays a huge role when selecting the size and layout of your home. Choosing your block first, not house first, is the first step to ensuring it all meshes together. Taking this route will help you to envision how your home will sit on your site and ensure that your chosen floor plan will actually fit. Making sure that you pay close attention to your blocks features such as shape, size, zoning, council covenants and requirements as well as potential obstacles such as sewerage lines will go a long way to ensure a smooth building process. Also be sure you take things such as driveway placement, air flow in the home and the angle of the sun into consideration. Living in a regional area means there may be other factors to consider such as water tanks etc.
Work out your non-negotiables
We’ve all lived in homes that has had things that drive us a little mad. Maybe you have found storage space to be inadequate, perhaps the pantry design in your current home seems nonsensical or even a lack of internal doors in your home has led to a lack of privacy. A good idea is to visit many display homes with a notepad and write down things that stand out to you. Decide what are your must haves, what are your ‘would like to haves’ and what are things you want to avoid.
Know Your Budget
Before falling in love with a particular floor plan, know what costs are involved with building it. It is very easy to get lost in the fantasy of your dream home while forgetting about the associated costs that go along with it. Remember many display homes are built with thousands of dollars of extra inclusions not covered by the base price. Think about things such as the required retaining walls you will need for your site, the fall of your site and landscaping. Asking a builder or someone in the know to help you determine the costs will help to narrow down your potential floor plan choices. There’s a fine line between cutting costs by going as basic as possible and finding it’s cost you more in the long run as you quickly outgrow the space or need to renovate earlier on account of selecting the cheapest options.
