your plan
Interesting thread, I always love seeing peoples view on per sqm, my input to the thread is;
1. throwing sqm rates around is pointless unless coupled with inclusion lists. Its the inclusions which blow the price out significantly. Further more peoples understanding of "low-cost" is more times than not low-cost e.g. low-cost means laminate kitchen bench tops, ready made vanities without recessed sinks etc etc most people "cant bear the thought of building such a development" and find they always tend to build a medium standard home and hence the figures blow out.
2. Architects although they "cut out" major cost items if you stress this from the start they jump on seemingly innocent lines in your brief e.g. "would like a interesting facade" or "clean lines" etc etc. Clean lines for instance translates to less columns and walls but more steel (without experience, you wont see this on the plans but see it when the builder tells you $$ for it)
If your architect speaks to you as if he wants to eventually be designing the opera house extension RUN. you need an architect thats in tune with develop expectations e.g. if most of their past work are unit developments then good but if most is unique single houses then theres a risk he will always lean towards $$ rather than cost effective design.
Basically its easy to spot out the costs, ANYTHING that looks groovy, different will cost additional $$.
(RYAN)
Regarding your plan, this is only my opinion and what I would change/do on the plan as per attached;
1. There is a lot of space you can save on this design;
a) Your rooms are huge, especially your master bedroom. (ensuit is too, its almost as large as your main bathroom)
b) theres a lot of wasted space in the corridor a smart design could minimize this e.g. the same behind what looks like the "fridge" space, the little section leading into the main.
tip: I would pinch sqm from each of the rooms and add a dedicated study/nook. This will get you more $$ because people compare houses feature to feature e.g. just because your rooms as massive you will still loose against another 4 bedroom + study house. E.g. 3 small bedrooms will always beat 2 large bedrooms in price.
2. There are a lot of corners in this house which cost you more $$ in truss design, footings etc (I know this was done to build along the boundary, i just feel it can be done better)
a) find out if for instance in the main (wir\ensuite) if you can have no eave and rather build under the roof line rather than having it stick out creating two more corners, and roof lines.
b) (i dont 100% support this comment but its something to think about) in the main if you go for a built-in and ensuit you could reduce the size significantly and square off this part of the house and increase the size of other sections in order to reduce the number of corners.
$$
a) that porch is cantilevered that will cost you $$ and wont add a single dollar to your development. - this may have been done because most of the house is hidden and this is your ONLY design feature? still it will cost you $$
b) sliding door to master is this necessary? it will cost more $$ and be annoying because you would logically place the bed against that wall as the entrance to the WIR and the door entrance is on the other side. A better solution would be to change the sliding door to a window and flip the ensuit/wir mirror imaged this way the bed can logically be against the b2/master wall and the entry to wir at the end of the bed and have a window you can see through while sleeping and make the room more impressive when you walk in.
C) the laundry surely can me moved from the centre of the house and facing the backyard??? most laundries for houses have direct external access (your female potential buyers will spot this in under 2 seconds)
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I dont know the zoning rules\building codes for your area but ive seen many and most let you build garage\parking to the boundary. so ask your architect this;
Question
Is it not better to have the parking for BOTH units on southern boundary??? i.e. where its currently labled "we need to locate open space for unit 1"??
I would asume if you have a locked up garage which would get you more $$ would fit in this spot and can be adjoining to the existing development and have 0 set back from the neighbor AND substantially increase your private open space on the other side. (NOTE* if your architect agrees he basically has to flip the back house design i.e. start again
)
Well i know most of what i wrote is hard to understand and I didn't write it to lecture... its just my opinion and what i would do.
Cheers and good luck
