Design and Builder Search

Firstly alot has changed since our first build in 1998. A trip to home world walk through a dozen or so display homes from a handful of builders (note a few of these are no longer in business). Choose a design, go into the selection room (garage) to choose a colour for the walls, a limited tile selection, fixtures were as displayed. Fast forward to today with reality tv, internet, eco, bushfire regs, higher expectations, Blogs, home forums, multiple facades and so many different variations of the same product.

So our first point of call was trawl the websites of as many builders as we could to shortlist designs that we liked and fitted the wish list. Once this was done (not a short process especially with the number of mainstream and boutique builders with multiple designs we needed to go and see some display homes (obviously builders have more designs than display homes makes this difficult if you are a visual person like my better half).

After a couple of trips all over Sydney we haven't found a design that meets all our requirements but we find a couple that are close so builder flexibility is going to key. Additionally because our block is a designated bushfire zone this needed to be factored in because depending on the BAL rating some builders don't build over certain ratings. There is also the costs to consider as the rating goes up so does the cost.

So after a number of visits and discussions the decision is made and we have selected a modified version of the Olivia 34.4 by Alkira Homes.
http://www.alkirahomes.com.au/our-homes/single-storey/floor-plans?storey=2&homeid=4