As an owner builder you are in effect the Project Manager in charge of the construction of your home. This means that you are solely responsible for the planning, organizing, securing and managing of tradespeople and supplies to bring about the successful construction of your home. That’s a lot of responsibility to take on and it is no mean feat to bring this kind of project successfully over the line.

In order to drive and succeed in bringing about this outcome, there are some key fundamentals that need to be applied during the planning and execution phases of your project.

This article will outline the 7 key fundamentals that you need to act upon in order to successfully project manage the construction of your dream home.

Starting with the end in mind

In order to successfully build your dream home it is imperative that you start with the end in mind, no matter how simple or complex your project.

This means having a complete picture of what the end result will look like. Kind of like a vision or a picture of the final outcome.

If you don’t know what you’re planning to build, how do you know that you will achieve the desired end result? Imagine a ship sailing out to sea without a destination. Where would it go?

The architectural plans that you submit to council will form a part of this, but there is much more to it than this. You need to have a complete picture of the finished product, a picture in “your mind’s eye”.

Some characteristics to consider are:

• The internal design scheme (e.g. the colours of walls, architraves, ceilings and cornices)
• The external design scheme (e.g. the colours of external roofing and walls and even the types of materials used for these)
• What style of house are you building? Will it be contemporary, federation style?
• What will your façade look like?
• The quality and design of fixtures and fittings. Will they fit the style of house your building?
• Will the living areas be oriented to take advantage of natural sunlight?
• How will the living areas be insulated from the summer heat?
• Will you recycle, collect or store water? Will you use solar energy?
• What uses will your outdoor areas serve? Will you use them for entertainment or recreational purposes?
• What sort of landscapes and plants will you have? Will they be low maintenance? Will you grow your own herbs and vegetables?

This will give you a feel for some of the things you need to think about and should get your creative juices flowing.

The more detailed your picture, the greater your satisfaction will be with the end result. By being more detailed in your initial design you will also lessen the chances of making costly mistakes and changes when it’s too late.

Getting your attitude right

Owner building a house is a long and demanding process. There are many different tasks that need to be performed and many different people and organisations to deal with. Some will be easy to deal with while others will be difficult. There will be hurdles you’ll have to overcome and issues that will need to be resolved. Problems will present themselves and you’ll need to overcome them. You must be committed and dedicated to getting the job done.

If you have a positive, “can do” attitude from the beginning you will set yourself up to succeed.

When you are positive you’re energised and you overcome challenges and complete the tasks at hand.

When you’re negative you see challenges as problems. They become more difficult to deal with and at times they even can seem insurmountable. When you focus on the problem you become absorbed in the problem and all you see is the problem. Think about the positives instead and you will see more of the positive.

The best way to develop a positive attitude is focus on the end result. That is by picturing the finished product. The best way to do this is to imagine yourself enjoying the fruits of your labour.

Picture what it will feel like to live in your newly finished home. What will it be like to walk around the house and admire the end result or entertain your friends and family in your new home? The more effort you spend working on the “Starting with the end in mind” topic, the easier this will be.

When challenges present themselves and things get a bit difficult, just focus on the end game. Everything will fall into place and the challenges will become insignificant.

Detailed planning

Once you know what the end result will look like you’ll have to map out a plan to achieve it. What are the tasks that will need to be performed to make your vision a reality?

The clearer your picture, the more detailed your plan can be and the greater the chance of succeeding in your project. And that is, turning your dream home into reality.

As part of your detailed planning you’ll need to write a list of tasks that will need to be performed as well as what sort of organisations, professionals, trades people and suppliers you’ll need to engage. You’ll need to arrange them in the order that they need to be executed in as well as map out the dependencies between each. It’s also important to note the preconditions that need to be met before each task can be commenced.

You will need to know the durations of each of the tasks as well. This can help you to determine the overall completion date. This will also help you when informing subsequent tradespeople and suppliers of their starting dates.

When planning the durations ensure that you include some contingency time between tasks so that you have room to move if there are delays. If there are delays then it can have a flow on effect onto other tradespeople and cause more widespread impact.

During the planning stage you will need to absorb a lot of information. Talk to all the tradespeople and suppliers and ask lots of questions. The more you understand about each task the better you can plan your project and cement your success. There is no room for complacency here. It’s your first such undertaking and what makes it all the more important is that you’re dealing with a budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars. So make sure you take the time to become comfortable and familiar with the entire process, right to the fine detail.

It is critical that you think of every single task during this planning stage. It will make your life easier later and save you a lot of time and money.

Budget forecasting

As part of the planning stage you’ll also need to cost up the entire project and to do this you’ll need to know the costs associated with each of the tasks. When costing up your project, ensure that you have included some contingency budget to cater for the unexpected. This is important as the unexpected will inevitably happen and it’s best to cater for it at the start rather than coming up with the additional funds when it’s too late.

You need contingency to cover you for tasks that you did not originally think about in your initial planning, overspending on particular tasks or having to do any rework.

Hence the importance of accounting for every single task during this planning stage. Missing a major task in your planning phase could add thousands and even tens of thousands to your final costs as well as a delay in time which could have a flow on affect to other tasks and so on.

Managing the plan

Once all of the planning has been completed it is time to execute. At this point you will start to engage the people required to complete the work. This is where the rubber meets the road and the quality and depth of your planning show their true colours.

It is very important to manage your project in terms of time. In order to do this you simply compare the actual start and end dates of individual tasks back to your pan. Delays will impact other tasks and people performing them so you will need to inform tradespeople or suppliers if their start dates or delivery dates have changed.

This could have a flow on affect to other tradesmen. They may even ask to be financially compensated for loss of their time or you may risk losing them altogether. You should minimise the number of delays that are experienced if you can control them. This is where time contingency included in the planning process will be your best friend.

It would also be worthwhile to re-confirm start dates with tradesmen as delays can arise due to illness, weather and changes in their work priorities. You should ensure that suppliers can still meet their agreed delivery dates.

Managing the expenditure

While executing your plan it is also important to take control of the expenditures.

It is vital that you compare each task back to its original estimate. Did it cost more or less than you originally estimated? It is quite normal to find that some of your costs are greater than estimated and some are lower.

If you find that your costs have blown out early in the project, you can recalculate your estimate and make any necessary adjustments such as cutting things out, spending less on other items, doing more work yourself or maybe even revising your budget up if you have more money available.

It is mandatory that you keep you finger on the pulse at a fine granular level so that you can prevent the situation where you run out of money and can’t pay suppliers or tradesmen. Your project would grind to a halt and you may be up for even more costs such as litigation.

Staying organised

Organisation can make a huge difference to the management of your project. Let’s face it, there is so much responsibility and complexity that you really can’t afford to not be organised.

Keep everything neatly organised in a folder or binder of some sort. It will need to include:

• Contact business cards, invoices, delivery dockets, contracts
• Product brochures
• A few copies of plans or working drawings of your house
• Your project plan that includes all of the tasks and start and end dates
• Your budget plan and actuals

It’s also wise to write everything down in a diary. Events such as meetings, phone discussions or agreements with tradespeople or suppliers you engage in should all be documented.

Ensure that all agreements are on paper so as to minimise potential conflict and confusion arising in the future based on different views on agreements.

In concluding

Having successfully owner built our own home, we’ve distilled a wealth of information into an Owner Builders Guide that will teach you what you need to know to successfully owner build your home.

It will get you started with the end in mind by helping develop a picture of what your dream home will look like. It will get you thinking about every part of the final product so that you can maximize your chances of building the kind of home that you want.

We know how important it is to thoroughly capture all necessary trades and services as part of the initial planning stage. The guide provides a comprehensive listing of the different types of tradespeople that will need to be engaged and supplies that will need to be purchased to get you to the final finished product. This alone could save you the pain and cost overrun associated with missing something during your early planning stages.

It even provides a sample estimating template that includes the items that need to be costed and their recommended budget percentage allocations.

It also gets into the nitty gritty, giving you detailed information about the different trades and supplies so that you can plan your project down to every detail.

And when the rubber hits the road and you need to manage your project and expenditure, it will give you the tools and tips to confidently execute and keep your finger on the pulse.

You can arm yourself with this knowledge for only $39, a small price to pay for success.

Just click the following link to find out more about it:

Owner Builders Guide

I’m also offering a risk free 5 day guarantee where you can get a full, no questions asked refund if you’re not satisfied. This preview version will give you a feel for the content

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