What I offer

Design your project

Designing and building your home, or even

a small renovation is a comprehensive process. We have a great passion for designing individual, affordable and eco friendly houses. Our experience with past clients tells us that living in these houses is much more enjoyable compared to living in a standard project home with limited individual choices in relation to the design. And you know what? It is not more expensive to live in a individual designed house compared to a project builders home. You will not only enjoy the benefits of living in a house that is exactly to your requirements, makes best use of the site conditions, is comfortable to live in and as eco friendly as you like, but will not be more expensive to build thanks to our selection of preferred local builders. You tell us your budget and we will design together with you an amazing place to live and we will inform you at every step of the process how much money you will spend so there will be no nasty surprises during the building process. We have a lot of experience in designing houses in rural settings.

Step by step we will guide you through the design process. This is a joint process between us and the client and we require you to be very involved in the process so the final result meet your expectations and much more.

Successfully we have completed many houses in the Tasman area for a very diverse range of clients. Their testimonies tell you all about our success full design approach.

Where to start?

It depends where you are at in the process.

If you are just starting off, I recommend to download my One page action plan.

If you have found a section and you are not sure about options, restriction and legal issues, I highly recommend to purchase a Need and options review

If you are ready to hire an architect please refer to How to hire an Architect.

Check out our free toolkits page to access many more helpful free guides.Free very helpful toolkits to get you started

Off course you are always welcome to phone me or e-mail me if you have any questions or like to know more about house design.

Deliver your project

Delivering your project is all about about budget and quality.

Changes to the design have relatively low impact on the design costs in the early stages but will have a significant impact later on. So its very important to check building costs early on the the design process and also as the design evolves.

The first stage would be to be honest about your budget so I am able to design a concept that you can afford. I am using ballpark figures from a Quantity surveyor or from builders. These are usually Square meter rates and they can vary quite a lot depending on site conditions and requirements.

After doing a pre design study, we can produce a concept design. Costs can now be verified against sqm rates. The concept design will be a starting point for the design developing stage.

A developed design will include concept structural design as well as some concept details/sections and it should really show enough information to be able to price the job.

This can be done for simple jobs by the builder usually in cooperation with suppliers and subcontractors and will give you a fairly accurate idea of the costs.

You will need to get a builder involved in the early stages.

If the project is rather complex or you want to be free to choose your builder at a later stage you should get a Quantity Surveyor involved. He will give you an cost estimate based on market rates and can be as detailed as you want. please check out this report on costing.

After obtaining a preliminary price you can now adjust the design or give the architect the go ahead to proceed to the construction documentation stage.

Major changes are now getting expensive but changes to materials and internal fittings etc. are relatively easy to do.

Budget should be checked again against estimated costs after or during construction documentation.

After obtaining all required consents, the builder can now start building your project.

I have a great relationship with several fantastic builders who I can recommend so you can have peace of mind during and after the construction process.

Planning your project to comply..

Before we can start designing your beautiful home, we need to address the issues relating to the rules and regulations for any given site to make sure the local council is happy to issue building consent.

Overview

Perhaps your plans are easy to achieve on your chosen site and are within the permitted activities allowed on your site, but sometimes special rules apply, (especially. in a coastal zone) and one or more "resource consents" need to be granted before the local council will issue a building permit. We have lots of experience in dealing with local councils to obtain the desirable outcome so you can build according to your wishes.
So if you have a site in mind please don't hesitate to contact us so we can make sure you are able to achieve your dreams on a specific site. The sooner we get these site specifications clarified, the better it is for the design process as this can take some time. Great projects begin with a clear vision. We can help you develop that vision and match it with preliminary building layouts, financial feasibility and planning related issues. I recommend to purchase a high value consultation from us that will address all planning issues and much more so you can have peace of mind. It is called a Need and options review

Amazing Feature

Design your project

Deliver your project

Planning your project to comply..

Overview