Take The Stress Out Of Building A House

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None of us have just one dream. We all have a smorgasbord of things we would love to do while here on earth (#liveyourbestlife) and one of those things is building your own home. It’s getting stuck into a project where the final product gives you somewhere to live; somewhere you have designed on your wants and needs; somewhere you have built with your own two hands (through proxy) to make you the happiest person on planet earth. That’s the dream right there,




Unfortunately, though, the reality of actually building a house is pretty darn tough. In fact, people find the whole house-building thing more stressful than a) getting divorced, b) having a baby, and c) starting a new job in a new city. There’s just so much that can go wrong, and most of those things are outside of your control. But just because you need to prepare for some big old migraines to pop up doesn’t mean you can’t make the whole building a house thing a lot less stressful.

So, without further ado, here are some top tips for keeping your sanity during a self-build project:

1. Make Sure There Are No Nasty Surprises

Okay, so this is almost impossible because part of building your own sanctuary is being walloped by the unexpected at almost every turn. But that doesn’t mean you should just roll over. No way. Instead, get clued up. Speak to friends who have done what you are trying to do, use someone like Cochran to perform a land survey early on, ask your architect to help with planning permission, get a contractor through a referral from someone you trust and have a contingency budget of 15% - minimum. The more you plan for nasty surprises, the easier they are to manage.

2. Be Realistic With Your Must-Haves

We all have a dream in mind when we picture our dream house and that’s no bad thing. But you need to be realistic about it. Be realistic about how many bedrooms do you want, how big it will be, having your garden landscaped - all of that. Anyway, once you have a clear list of what you want, go through it with your building team and see if it is possible on your budget and, if you do have to make a few compromises along the way, decide where. When it comes to a self-build, everyone (except Petra Ecclestone probably) has to make compromises, which is why it's worth knowing what your priorities are.

3. Have Your Money Stacked Up

The biggest headache you can possibly suffer from is the money-migraine. To avoid this as best you can, it’s a pretty good idea to know exactly how much you have to spend, how much you can borrow, where to go for the best mortgage deals, how much contingency budget is wise and how much you think you’ll spend on home decor. It’s also a pretty great idea to have all the paperwork sorted out and ready to access so that you can keep going back to it and not be mistaken about what you can afford. Oh, and don't forget to take any other costs into account, such as legal fees and all that hoopla.

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