How do you choose?

After making the purchase, unlike buying a house, the fun really starts, you need to start making big decisions and relatively quickly. Who are you going to build with? Single storey, double story, or split level? Where on the land? Do you want to have room for a pool?



As for the builder decision at least we had started looking at options while we investigating the other development.
But is the end it comes down to a couple of choices, with so many options available it all comes down to finding a floor plan you like (or love if your lucky) or if you have the budget (we don't) to find a builder you can relate to who can help you realise your dream.
The other factor for us when looking for a builder was the package on offer and what was included as standard and what was extra, or what standard costs were covered and what was going to be an unpleasant surprise because it is an absolute requirement but not include i.e council fees!?
We ended up with Rawson Homes because when push comes to shove we are working within a really strict budget trying to keep under the first home owners cap and Rawson had the best level of inclusions for the budget we are working in.

The decision to go with single storey came down solely to budget as I would much prefer double storey but we would run the very real risk we would go over budget and miss out on the bonus, not going to happen for this house, and in the end it will be an investment property when we leave Sydney.
In the end I realise that the process is going to be long and stressful and no matter which builder we chose there are going to be hidden extras, unpleasant surprises and misinformation so all we can do is make the best decisions we can with the information we have at the time, make and stick to very conservative plans (our own not the builders) and communicate very clearly with each other about our expectations, wants and desires.

So this is it, our little house, the plans for which are currently with council, we are hoping to be finished and in for Christmas 2014, we should be in sooner but I am not holding my breath.

AAx