Making your house is one of the biggest work in one’s life. It’s a dream of a lifetime. You are doing something big for yourself as well as your future generations. So, it’s a big task that involves lots of patience, hard work & money. I feel sad to see so many of the dreams unfulfilled. The people started very enthusiastically but fall prey to oversight of some major factors. These are budget, consulting professionals, contractor issues, governmental matters and many more.
Let’s get down to the seven most important things to do before starting the construction of your house.
Financial Planning
At the time of deciding to construct your house the first thing to manage is your financial resources. We should work out how much capital will be required for actual house construction. These include approval fees, electricity & water charges, furniture & furnishing cost, foundation stone laying and house warming functions & any other government expenditures. Most of the time I see that the furniture & furnishing part is not thought about before starting. When the house is actually complete, the owners move in with their old furniture as they don’t have the money for new or they are physically drained after construction work has ended. So, plan for everything listed above & also have patience to get it executed. Have a scheduling of project done before hand to plan for financial arrangements as per the demand of construction.
Hiring an Architect
Hiring a good Architect is one of the first things to do. Write down your requirements in detail & give to the architect so that he may be on the same wave length as you are. Keep a check on the areas being planned. Also ask him about the construction cost at the planning stage . If you don’t have a clear budget then it is no use planning for more & then deciding to curtail area at a later date. This disturbs the planning of the architect & leads to many revisions which you are not aware of. If you want a house that complies with Vaastu, select an Architect who has a good knowledge of Vaastu.
Hiring of Construction Contractor
This is another crucial task for you. It’s a decision which might change your dream into a nightmare. Also remember to select contractors for electrical & plumbing works who give good quality work & are well conversant with latest fixtures & fittings. The most likely things to show wear & tear are the plumbing works. So, please get the best quality job done & not compromise on it. Plan for the minimum number of electrical points. As per my experience, people tend to provide more than the required number of points, & that too, at the wrong places. For in depth knowledge on how to do this please read How to select the right contractor of your dream home (URL).
Government Clearances
Be absolutely clear on the permissions required. Also know which departments will be required to be touched upon during the construction. Any noncompliance may result in suspension of work which will lead to escalation in project cost. Apply for clearances well in time.
Procurement of Building Material
The types of building materials required up to structure work is very limited but after that the requirements expand exponentially. You should visit Building material showrooms, vendors etc. Finalize them as soon as possible so that you don’t have to search them suddenly. If you spend time on this, you can really save a lot of money.
Sparing Time
To manage the construction, you yourself should spare time to monitor & arrange for all the various requirements which will crop up frequently. So, if you are very busy with your office or business, plan to accordingly. It can be quite stressful if you are not mentally prepared for this. Either spare time yourself or have a person whom you trust to do all the running around as you can be very easily cheated in the market.
Patience and Understanding
We all belong to different professions. Some are doctors, educationists, government officers, accounts people, software engineers & what not. In all of the above professions the work we do is more or less standardized. There are set modules & set time limits to do all the things. Inadvertently, as we grow up in our profession we tend to think that all other professions are likewise in terms of time scheduling & execution.
For example, a doctor knows that in how many days the patient will be cured & it happens like that in almost all cases. But, here in architecture profession & construction industry this is not the case. Here there are no gold standard operating procedures. In fact, while dealing with Architects & Contractors, for each has his own style of working. Some Architects might give you the drawings in a couple of days & some in a couple of weeks. Similarly, some Contractors may have different working style. Sometimes, tricky situation also crops up in execution phase which may lead to delays.
We should take the neighbours into confidence at appropriate time to keep the project running smoothly. Also don’t forget to engage a Pandit ji for bhoomipujan. The direction of the laying of the foundation stone changes every three months. Architects don’t know about which direction is appropriate. Only the Pandit ji knows this.
Final Thoughts
Apart from all the issues listed above, I recommend that you start mentally preparing for this work a few years before actual commencement. Brush up your knowledge of current design styles by referring good design journals and following trends. Keep your design ideas streamlined and don’t try to pack in all the ‘in’ things in your home and last but not the least, take advice from only a select few people if you have too. I recommend you go by your instincts developed through knowledge gained over the years and not to fall prey to any free advice giver. It’s you who know your vision the best, make sure you reach it.
