Some advice to consider before sending your new build plans to council
Of course, you don’t have to take on the advice I’m about to impart with you, but don’t be alarmed if you hear a faint ‘told you so’ when you come running back for reassuring words of support and the all-important answers to those tricky questions. Now, unfortunately, our dream home doesn’t magically appear out of thin air (I would be instantly out of a job if they did), but rather in reality we must take slightly less magical steps to create our new home.
Hire professionals to look over your plans
Besides chocolate and wine, nothing excites me more than looking over floor plans. Strangely, I’m not the only one. I and thousands of other Interior Designers have the training and experience to adapt your floor plan during those crucial concept stages to make sure we get the most from your layout. Each build requires something different as does each client, we listen and take into account your unique needs during the design process so you don’t end up with just another copy and paste home.
Map it out
Do you ever find yourself stumbling from the couch to the fridge wishing the journey was a lot quicker? Me too. One of the many advantages of designing your own home is the ability to recognise your priorities and design to cater to them. We like to take into account your daily routines and specific way of living to get the most out of the layout of your new home. Get in touch with your draftsperson and ask what you can do to shorten those paths in your home, think about eliminating unnecessary hallways and strategically placing rooms. Map out with a coloured pen on those plans the different daily routines you have, and let us and your draftsperson find a quicker more efficient way for you to live out those routines.
Circulation is Key
I wholeheartedly support, nay, encourage you to go with that bath you could do laps in, just be sure to allow enough circulation room throughout the rest of the space. You don’t want to be using the toilet with your legs perched up on the bath. The same goes for other spaces like your kitchen and laundry, these tasks are already stressful enough so give yourself some breathing room. Also, make sure these rooms will be able to house the exact furniture items and think about circulation, can you walk comfortably around the lounge suite you wish to purchase! Consider everything, we can import your exact furniture pieces into your floorplans and even build your home in three dimensions, that way you get to walk through your new space and rest easy knowing everything fits perfect.
Before submitting to the council, check again
You’re so close to the construction stage that you can smell the paint. However, I’m going to be the party pooper and recommend getting your preliminary kitchen joinery drawings and bathroom plumbing locations looked at before submitting them to the council. I recommend doing this because moving plumbing can sometimes affect council approval, not always but sometimes. If you hire a designer after submitting it to the council and they have the bright idea to move the toilet to the other side of the bathroom it can sometimes be an issue. I would get as much decided on before jumping to that step incase a decision you make alters the design of your home in a way that the council wants to see it again, it can really hold up a build!
Get it right the first time
Do it once and do it right. Choose all of the appliances for your kitchen and bath ware for your bathroom as early as possible, this gives you time to digest the choices to ensure you are 100% committed to that product. There are too many things that can go wrong with last-minute hasty decision making. We want to deliver as much of a fully-fledged design as possible as it can be tricky and time-consuming to make changes closer to that construction date.
0 Comments