In the process of building a house you would be forgiven for thinking that the day you pick all of your colours and finishes would be up there on the fun-scale. After all, isn't that why you decided to build rather than buy in the first place?
You spend months debating over the 50 shades of greige in your selection pack only to discover that "June Fog" is exactly the same colour as "Silver Pendant", drive yourself and everyone around you mad asking whether you should go for the white or dark kitchen cabinets and become so acutely aware of the various shades of Colorbond available that you can name them on sight.
By the time your plans are passed through the various councils and government bodies required to build your stock-standard, same as all the others, house, you will be sick to death of even thinking about colour schemes and just wish the bloody house was built already!
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| So. Many. Greys. |
Building your own home is a tricky business. Even talking about the possibility of maybe thinking about building a house can be enough to cause a migraine. After working in the Building Industry and having some involvement in judging display homes in the area, I thought I was pretty savvy with picking out what was a standard inclusion and what was going to send our final price through the roof. As we went along and I got some written quotes from a number of different builders I gained even more insight into how much to add onto that pretty, non-threatening base price they like to throw at you in the Sales Office. After even further investigation I managed to decipher some of the vague terminology they use and what that actually means to the final product. But try as I might I still could not be confident that their final price was actually final. Add to that the fact that no two builders have the same standard of inclusions and it is almost impossible to determine who is the most suitable builder and how far your money will really go.
In an effort to reduce the chances of someone else losing their mind as they wade through the pages of fine print, I have put together a little run down of some of the things I have encountered so far. As a general rule if it looks good in the display home, you will be paying extra for it. More specifically, expect these to be an upgrade.
