It's all about the Budget

(Source: realestate-queensland.com.au)

We have a budget, well, pending bank's approval. But we did set ourselves a budget to spend for our home build. And we'd like to stick to it as much as we could. Well, we should, really.

After looking at all the displayed options list, plugging it in to our spreadsheet to track what we'll be spending, we come to realise ... this is much more than what we really want to spend.



Here are the basics that we need include in our budget (we are overestimating some to be on the safe side):

• Base Price of the house
• Area Surcharge (add $7,500)
• Site Costs, non-standard (add $60,000)
• Demolition Costs (add $15,000)
• Tree Removal (add $2,000)
• Independent Building Inspector (add $2,000) - a must have

What's left from our target budget amount is supposed to be what we want to spend for upgrades:

• Electricals
• Tile Selections
• Kitchen upgrades (plain laminex or glossy finish, soft-closing drawers, etc)
• Driveway and pathway
• Basic landscaping
• Basic outdoor area flooring (timber decking vs concrete flooring)
• Timber flooring (we love hardwood timber flooring)
• Basic window coverings (roman blinds or timber venetians)

And what did we want included from the Display Option List? LOTS!!!

And from our basic list of upgrades above, we haven't covered Electricals, Tile Selections, Driveway and Pathway, basic landscaping and basic window coverings. AND WE'RE VERY CLOSE TO OUR TARGET BUDGET!!!

And what can we do to solve this? A few options ...

• Increase the budgeted amount to spend (good luck with the bank!)
• Ditch some of the upgrades ("must haves" versus "nice to haves")
• Choose a smaller sized Whittaker
• Choose a cheaper and smaller house design

When we were looking, the smallest was Whittaker 45 (as of the time of writing this, Whittaker now comes with a 40 square version).

We're now looking for a cheaper and smaller house design.