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BACK TO BASIC: THE HOUSE PLAN

The house plan is one of the first steps of building your house. You need to make the best decision at this point because a wrong decision when getting the house plan drawn will have consequences that you may have to live with for a life time.

When having your plan drawn, you should have a clear understanding of what you need to use the house plan for. It is the intended use for the house that then determines the design of your house plan.

The number of your bedrooms should at least be in line with the size of your family. A retired old couple may need just two or three bedrooms for their retirement home while a person wanting to rent out his house in a high density area might want to maximise his rentals by putting more bedrooms.

Your house plan should also reflect the reality of your financial situation, it is very tempting to have a movie style house plan but then are you financially capable of building that house to completion? When having your plan drawn, ask your architect the cost implications of your preferred designs and try to balance that with your financial capabilities.

A house plan is not drawn so that you can brag to your friends about the house you want to build, it is drawn so that the house can be built and completed.

The other thing you need to look at, are the house plans that are common in your neighbourhood because the values of houses in your neighbourhood will have an effect on the value of your own house. It is therefore important to match your house with the houses in the neighbourhood.

You should have an appreciation of cost drivers when your house plan is being designed, the roof type, the wall type, the number and position of bedrooms will all determine the cost of building your house.

Ask yourself if it is necessary to have a 230mm or double wall if your house is to be built in a high density and is under an asbestos roof.

Other ideas that can bring down costs of building the house are an open plan for Kitchen-Dining-Lounge, a single or 115mm wall, having your drainage on one side of the house, a heaped roof under chromadeck sheets and the sizes of the rooms.

At OM City Designs, we design nice and affordable house plans.We take our time to understand why you need to build your house so that we can design a functional house plan that will meet your needs and your budget.

This Post Has One Comment

  1. Peace

    Insightful information

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