We're in the middle of our house build (bought the shell off plan and are now in the middle of loads of meetings to choose all the bits for heating/electrics/plumbing/flooring/tiling/etc). We budgeted about 60k for alterations and extras above and beyond what was specified in the original plans, but I'm freaking out because costs are spiralling out of control and we're currently looking at being about 20k over budget. Eeeekkk!!! I'm trying to decide where I should be cutting the budget to save costs and where to invest (because obviously some things are hard to change or fix later). At the moment I'm thinking the first priority should be prioritising by what absolutely will be there for good once it's in, i.e. springing for quality flooring, nice kitchen, generous electrics and good lighting, structural changes to make better use of the space, a limescale filtration system (our water is insanely hard here and gums up the pipes), and doing a very basic finishing off our 3rd floor loft area (which is like a 2 bed apartment, though we won't be renting out initially, just using it for guests as we have a lot of them!) with flooring/light/heat/plug sockets in place and pipes and electrics ready to go for eventually installing a kitchen and bathroom up there. But how and where should we cut corners from there? It's a big house5 bedrooms, 3.5 bath, 250sqm so everything is more expensive. Things that are running up the budget are:
- fully finishing off the loft with bathroom and kitchen(5-10k)
- glass railings on the terraces instead of stainless steel (6k)
- recessed lighting (not sure yet, probably a lot)
- bathroom things like rainwater showers (600 each x3), double sink vanities (1200 each even from Ikea!), bathtub and tap for master bedroom (1.2k), mixer taps instead of just cold water taps for bathroom sinks (100 each x 5)
- fireplace (5k minimum)
- adding an extra velux in the loft living room/media room to get more light (2k)
- making master bedroom windows into big sliding doors to make the most of a stunning view (maybe 3k minimum)
- built in wardrobe for master bed walk-in closet (1.5k)
etc.
I mean these are obviously first world problems. But... if it were you, where would you splurge and where would you save??