Although I have been involved in many build projects, there are still some costs which I don't expect however add up very quickly during the estimating stage as well as post-handover.
Here are 3 considerations:
Higher ceilings = higher costs
King Homes NSW offers 2.7m ceilings height to the ground floor as standard, however, I knew we wanted higher than that on both levels. And considering we had a flat roof, we could get away with the home increasing in height. So with that in mind, we chose 3m ceilings on both levels.
However, once we increased the ceiling height on both levels, we felt the following changes were necessary from a design perspective which incurred additional costs:
Increasing our internal door height from 2.4m to 2.7m
Increasing our joinery height to be built in to 3m as well. Alternatively, the use of bulkheads can reduce joinery cost.
2. The amount of stone we required
Would you believe me if I told you we required 17 slabs of stone throughout our home? It adds up very quickly. We did our joinery plans and then decided on site where we wanted the stone to go like media cabinets, around the fireplace etc.
But because we wanted to utilise all of the stone provided in the slab, it was only after our joinery plans were done that we realised how many slabs we needed. It was a worthwhile cost but a good tip is to find out the slab size from your stone manufacturer which can assist in estimating costs.
3. The amount of money you have to spend once the home is handed over to you
Apart from removalist and moving costs, I didn't realise how much we needed to spend after we moved in. It's always very easy to say 'we will do that after handover' during the initial tender stage, but those costs add up very very quickly.
A good list of items to consider is:
Installation of pendant lights
Window coverings including blinds and sheers
Landscaping and turf
Fencing
Garage epoxy floor cover
Racking or storage solutions for the garage
Additional wiring for sound systems or home theatre systems
Paint costs for any feature rooms
It goes on and on and on