Building or renovating a home is more than likely the largest financial spend of your life. With that thought in mind it is not unreasonable to expect that over the course of a project your emotions (and emotions of those advising you) are going to travel the full spectrum. Sometimes there are highs, sometimes there are lows, and most of the time things simmer along at a reasonable level. I often discuss this with my colleagues and quip that I could almost draw a graph of these emotional highs and lows over the course of a project, and they would be similar each time. To explain:

During the early design phases feelings are always good. The anticipation of whats ahead, the excitement of realising your ‘dream home’ are all front of mind. Money and time are of relatively little concern. Then we hit the assessment phase where council are doing their thing, all are anxious about whether things will be approved without amendment. There is a sense of the unknown, feelings of helplessness and frustration abound as your potential dreams are in the hands of somebody you have no control over.

Approval comes, happy days again and excitement reigns supreme once more. We work our way through detail design and the fun tasks of selecting inclusions and designing the details abound and all your dreams are real again. Then we tender the project and the reality of costs set in. Can I afford this? Do I want to spend that much on this build? Are we overcapitalising, is it really going to take that long!….again anxiety rears its ugly head.

We breathe, we negotiate, we work with our architect and builder and agree on a price, contracts are signed and the build begins. Hooray! Its real again and our dream is not far away. Then the weather interferes, delays our project, we find ourselves spending on items we could not have anticipated but need to be done for the project to keep moving and we are sometimes anxious about whether we have made the right design decisions along the way. But then , we save in other areas, we pick up time, we get back on track.

Then…we finish, we reflect, the world is at peace again, we made it and our home is fantastic!

For those who have not undertaken a build project, I am here to let you know, that this process is ‘perfectly normal’. It is human, and it is building. Any client when building, becomes a developer of property, and with that, potentially comes stresses, strains, anxiety, second guessing and all manor of concerns. But..on the flip side, comes excitement, happiness, and a project on completion that is all worth it.

To allow this ‘perfectly normal’ process to transpire make sure you choose your team wisely, interview their previous clients, see there previous work. Make yourself comfortable your prospective architect/ builder is aligned with your needs, and will safely and calmly navigate you through this stressful, happy, anxious, exciting emotional build journey to ensure that this ‘perfectly normal’ course of events does not fall into an experience outside of the above expectations.

Detail image of our concrete cladding panel installation continuing this week. Enjoy your weekend!