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How do you know you are happy, if you never really understood what it was you wanted in the first place?  Here are a couple exercise to provide some clarity.

What Can Go Wrong if You Don’t Establish Clear Priorities?

Many designs never get built, or the final result is disappointing, often due to unclear priorities. Here’s what can go wrong:

  • Cost overruns: Constantly changing ideas can lead to significant cost increases due to amendments to plans and materials. For example, you may end up sacrificing the thermal performance you initially wanted for high-end features to stay within budget, or realise too late that appearance matters more to you than comfort.
  • Strained relationships: Frequent changes and uncertainty can lead to stress and frustration, souring relationships between everyone involved.
  • Dissatisfaction with the result: Without clear priorities, you may end up with a home that feels like a compromise.

How do you avoid this?

Establish your priorities, honestly, before the design stage.  Aim to understand what is driving them and importantly agree on them with your partner!

When asked ‘what do you want in a home?’, most people immediately list ‘features’ they want in the house, for example, a timber weatherboard traditional style house, 4 bedrooms, a large kitchen, natural light, wooden floors etc.   This is great, don’t get me wrong, but let’s also think beyond what the house looks like.

In other words, understand what is important to you and why.  Here are a couple exercises to try:

  1. Exercise One

First list all the things that you ‘think’ are important.  Then think about why each ‘thing’ is important to you.

Once you know the ‘why’, you might gain clarity about what factors are more important to you than others.

Here are some examples:

  1. I want a warm home because I don’t want to come home each night to a cold house because it makes me feel ‘grumpy’ rather than happy to be home.
  2. I want to build an amazing looking architectural home because I want to realise my dream of owning such a home because I have worked long and hard for this goal, and I am now in the position to realise that dream.
  3. I want a modest size home because I don’t need a big home, because it’s a waste of heating and time cleaning, because I spend too much money and time keeping it warm and clean instead of playing with my kids.
  4. I want a lot of big floor to ceiling windows, because I want to see the wonderful views every day because I invested in the section for the views.
  5. I want a healthy home because it’s good for my family because I can help provide a better environment for them to live in.
  6. I want a traditional villa style house because I love the style because I want to live in a house that I find beautiful because that makes me happy.
  7. I want a large cook’s kitchen because I love cooking because it’s a passion of mine and I love that I can share this passion with family & friends.

Using ourselves and our 2018 build as an example :  

  1. We wanted a warm healthy home because we don’t like being cold, or being sick, because it frustrates us, especially as we have the opportunity, due to building innovations, to live better.
  2. We want a good connection to the outside because we are moving from a lifestyle block to the suburbs and we still want an outdoor feel because we love the outdoors and it makes us feel more relaxed and happy.
  3. We want a smaller home because we don’t need all the spare rooms, because it encourages our family to be separate, and its wasted space. 

The priorities for our family appear to be linked to physical and emotional wellbeing, in other words, having a house that allows us to be healthy, warm, and connect to both our family and our environment.

You will notice that there is a definite emotional element to many of the examples above.  Don’t underestimate the power of emotions.  If you can understand this it is a whole lot easier to rationalise decisions and balance the more black and white limitations such as budget, site or timelines, with those emotional elements.

Thinking of Building – Final Words

Communicate!! Establishing your priorities means little if they are not communicated clearly to the right people, firstly discussion and agreement with your partner or family, and then with your builder and designer!

 

Establishing priorities assists in decisions and compromises.  In most cases you will have more than one priority. You and your partner/family may well grade them, or have agreements ‘subject to’, but if they are agreed and understood by all parties, the smoother and more successful the design build process will be.

 

If you would like some help with your build journey, give us a call on 03 3130103.