Designing your Dream Home: Tips and Suggestions

If you are fortunate enough to be in the position to build your dream home, you care certainly in the minority and such an opportunity allows you to design your living space to suit your lifestyle. Whether you and your partner have recently retired and you are going to live in tropical Brisbane, or you finally have the equity to sell up and build on a secluded plot of land, there is much to consider.

Composite Building Materials

A new build deserves cutting-edge composite materials that offer effective insulation and when talking to a local builder, ask about composite building materials and he would be happy to show you some of their previous projects using composite materials. Polished concrete is worth consideration, which does look stunning and requires little maintenance.

Choosing a Bespoke Builder

Ideally, you want to source a local builder with extensive single-property experience and there are established home builders in Cairns who, with your input, can design and build your dream home. Look for award-winning builders, as this is a very strong indication of quality work and the chose contractor should have been in business for at least 5 years. The bespoke builder would have numerous templates used for design, although they are happy to work with the client and if you have something special in mind, the builder would love the challenge. Take the time to visit a few of the homes the builder created, which gives you the opportunity to inspect their work closely and ask the occupants what they think of the contractor.

The Design Stage

Once the structure is built, changes cannot be made, therefore, you should spend time thinking about design at the very outset. Most builders use a computer 3D program that gives the client a chance to view the property in three dimension and the in-house architect should make you feel special and work to your concepts and ideas. Click here for a few home comforts that are often overlooked.

Clean & Renewable Energy

The Australian government offers homeowners financial incentives to switch from the traditional power grid to solar energy, which might come in the form of a grant, or an interest-free loan to install the system. You can choose a system that generates all the electricity you need, or you could install a system that provides a portion of your power needs, the choice is yours. The savings are huge – you can get a return on your investment within 5 years or less – plus you can sell excess energy to the national grid. It would be completely illogical to use traditional electricity in a new house and the builder would have extensive knowledge about solar power systems. The smart home of the future is easy to configure if you are in at the very outset and you can add features to the system at some time in the future.

Click here for more reading on buying and selling real estate in Australia, which is a valuable resource the outlines taxation and other property ownership aspects.