Frequently Asked Questions

One of the main things to look for is orientation, “which way is North?”. Ideally you want North to be facing the longer side of the property. This will maximise the North sun to your home, which will help heat your home in Winter and designed right to keep the home cool in the Summer months. Not only will it be a bright and warm feeling home, it will save you money with the bills in the long run. Also, if the site is levelled, as a sloping site can add cost to the site works, unless you are after a home that has multiple split-level sections. If there is a BAL rating on your site will add cost to your construction.

The difference is who own’s the copyright to your dream home design. When you pay a Designer or Architect, you pay for their service plus you own the copyright to your dream home. This allows you to have the power to select the builder that is right for you. A free design from a builder is owned by the builder, you cannot take that same design to another builder to ask them to quote and build the home. Even if you hand sketch your design and have it drawn by the builder for free, they essentially still hold the copyright as they have paid the draftsman to draw the plan. Their will always be a price involved with a builder offering a free design, it is just included in the build cost and hidden from
view.

Most importantly is the property address, this allows us to do some research before having our first discovery meeting. A scrapbook, Pinterest board, the ideas you save or put on paper will allow us to draw inspiration from the styles you like and we will get a better understanding of what you are really looking for in a home. How you live in your home is an important thing to think about. Are you big entertainers? Do you live more in your alfresco area? Are you the dinner party type of family? All this information helps to achieve the best outcome for your new dream home. Do you have any hobbies? Wine enthusiast and require a cellar? Collect car’s and need a bigger garage? Play golf or any other sport which requires extra storage space?

At Timeless Home Designs, we offer “The Designer Experience Package”. What this package offers is our experience in the building industry and knowing the quality builders, by going out and doing our own research on the builders, their construction site and seeing their quality of constructions and how they run. We then partner you up with 3-4 builder’s that will be the right fit for you, so you can have the final say who builds your home.

If you want to go through this process on your own. Speak with a few builders that build at the same level of quality, and go with who you feel comfortable with. But also do a background check on them, by checking their registration. Just the other day a client who is doing a big renovation had selected a builder and was looking to go into the next phase of the process, after I had a 20 minute meeting with the builder I could tell there wasn’t something quite right and so I started my normal background check and found they are not a registered builder and their company didn’t hold a builders registration.

For a custom-built home, yes this is a must. For us to do our best design for you, we will need to know how much you are ultimately going to spend. As a building designer, we will aim to design the home to fall under your budget. This will give you extra money to upgrade appliance or finishes if you would like. A builder will upfront allow for a standard but because everyone’s wants and needs are different it’s hard to allow for the individual needs. This information is also helpful to know if your style of home is going to be achievable for your budget as styles of each homes cost different to build.