How To Get The Most Value From Your Builder With Jess & Kris The Home Chaperone

Jaimi: Welcome to Home Building Like a Boss, the podcast dedicated to helping first home buyers in Perth build their dream home with ease and excitement. I'm Jamie, your host and go to building broker. Are you ready to feel empowered, in control and excited about your building journey? I'll help guide you with expert advice, insider tips and tricks and real life stories to help you navigate the confusing world of home building.

Let's get started. Tune in as I take you on the journey to building your home like a boss.

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I'm your host, Jamie, as always. And this week I have the amazing Jess here from the Home Chaperone. Thank you so much for coming in, Jess. 

Jess: Thank you for having me. It's great to 

Jaimi: be here. Yeah. I'm so super excited to do this episode with you. Let's kick it off by.

Tell us a little bit about you and what you do and how you got here. 

Jess: Yeah, we have a small business called The Home Chaperone and our whole business is designed to help people get the most out of their builder. So, you know, for my husband and I, we've got about 28 years combined experience in the building industry.

And, uh, you know, we've done every role that you could poke a stick at. So. I was a construction coordinator, client liaison, a pre start consultant. What else have I done? I've had a few gigs. A sales consultant, an executive assistant and a sales trainer. So, and my husband, he's a carpenter, a site manager and you know, so.

We've got a really unique insight into the inner workings of building companies. So we use everything that we've learned over that 28 years to just help our clients get the most out of their 

Jaimi: builder. Huge. That's like such an amazing experience and so many different roles to have in to share your knowledge 

Jess: with everyone.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we certainly don't know it all, but, um, you know, everything that we have learned over that time, we really try to harness it and use it to help our clients as much as we can. So it's a pretty cool gig. Yeah. 

Jaimi: Amazing. And what do you do at the home 

Jess: chaperone? I'm so So we've got an online course, which is, you know, all of the years of experience that we have, I literally downloaded it from my brain onto an online course, and it talks people through the building process step by step and tells them exactly what they need to do, when they need to do it, and how to do it.

So that's like the DIY version. And then for the people that are time poor and just, You know, if life is busy, they can book a personalized consultation with me, which is where they send their plans across to me. I'll go through their plans with a fine tooth comb and make suggestions of how to improve the overall functionality, the practicality and, you know, tailor the home to suit their lifestyle.

Um, rather than just having one of the builders, you know, cookie cutter, stop standard cookie cutter. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't suit their lifestyle. Yeah. Yeah. 

Jaimi: Cool. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see people make when 

Jess: building? The number one biggest mistake that I see people making is the people that just go into it thinking that they can just.

they, they, they walk in totally blind and then they're surprised by the amount of, you know, decisions that they need to make. And you know, the, the biggest one is the structural elements of the home. So, uh, when I say structural, I'm talking about things like doors, windows, any sort of openings in the house fairly early in the process, when you're meeting your sales consultant, it's really exciting.

You know, you're going to display homes and you're doing all the. Fun stuff. And you're seeing all this beautiful, you know, design work. And a lot of the time you're quite quick to sign paperwork and pay deposits, but a lot of people don't pay attention to those structural items. So, you know, one that gets a lot of people is window sizes.

So, you know, for instance, in a minor bedroom, like the kid's bedroom, they might have a window that goes from the floor to the ceiling, but they might not realize the size of it. And when they get to pre start stage, when they're told about the size of it, they go, Oh, I had no idea that was the case. I actually want to raise the windowsill up so that I can fit, you know, a bookcase or a desk or something like that under the window.

So, yeah. You know, the structural elements tend to surprise people. And the thing about, you know, the structural elements is the builder, a lot of the time by pre-start, has already done the majority of their certifications. You know, they've had engineering done certificate of design, compliance, a lot of that accounts, so all of that.

And what they don't realize is if they wanna make a change to the structural elements at the pre-start stage, they actually have to put the whole thing on hold. Rewind to the beginning and start the process again. So it costs time and money to do something like that. So that is by far the number one biggest mistake that we see people making.

Yeah. 

Jaimi: It's crazy because yeah, people get caught up in the nice stuff and the designs and the colors and they forget about checking the windows, the doors, the roof, all your structural stuff and. Yeah, then it costs money and you make mistakes and people don't know that. That's 

Jess: it. And it's, you know, it's natural.

Of course, you're not going to be paying attention to the boring stuff at that stage. Like it's uh, you know, it's really fun to look at things like your tablet and dream about your rain head showers and all of that kind of fancy stuff. No one really wants to be looking at the boring things like the bricks, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, 

Jaimi: cool. Are there any other forgotten or overlooked things on a floor plan 

Jess: that you find? All the time, uh, with my consultation clients, a hundred percent of the time there will be something that my client has either forgotten or they've overlooked. But the really popular ones are electrical.

So, I did a poll on Instagram recently and I asked people if they wish that they had more PowerPoints in their home and 98 percent of people said they did. It's a huge statistic, right? So, you know, 98 percent of homes just don't have enough power points. So you end up having to run extension cords around your house or having to put one in later, which can end up costing a bomb if it's on it.

So much money. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, you know, electrical is always forgotten about, but then also bins. A lot of builders aren't putting in bins in kitchens as a standard, so that tends to be something that people forget until they have to go and get the old trusty Kmart bin and put it next to the fridge. You know, not a good look.

You want it hidden. 

Jaimi: Yeah. Or a proper spot for it at least. That's it. Yeah. Cool. And yeah, I guess with the electrical standard that builders give. It's only one PowerPoint and one light per room, which is never enough. So you're always upgrading at pre start electrical. 

Jess: That's right. Yeah. And it's one of those costs that a lot of people don't, you know, allow for in their overall budget.

Yeah. Um, you know, adding PowerPoints, you, you are looking at about, I don't know what the cost is nowadays with most builders. Probably around 80, 90 per double power point. Um, so it adds up really 

Jaimi: quickly. Yeah. It's easily two to three grand you could spend on electrical at pre start. And if you don't factor that in, that's.

You have a rude shock when you get your variation. 

Jess: Yeah, yeah. I mean, who wants to spend money on a PowerPoint when you could have a rain head shower? But where are you

Jaimi: going to put the a little bit about some mistakes and things that are overlooked. How does being prepared and doing your research impact your build compared to going in blind and ignoring all the red flags like you mentioned earlier? Look, 

Jess: being prepared is really, really important. Now I'm just going to change hats when I talk about this.

So, uh, when I used to work for builders and I used to do the pre start role, the most annoying clients that I would ever have, aren't the ones that would come to me with a list of their wants and needs. You know, those clients there that done their homework, they were really prepared. They knew what they wanted so they could make quick decisions.

The worst clients are the ones that come in and think that they're chill and they just want to wing it and they end up making decisions on the fly. And then, you know, after the meeting, once they're overwhelmed and you know, they, they've had time to process their decisions, they come back later on and they change their mind over and over and over again.

So, you know, So when you are prepared, it really does make the entire process so much smoother and fun. You know, nobody likes the feeling of being overwhelmed. So it's really important that you know, like that, you know what you need to do and when to do it and how to do it. Yeah. Absolutely. Each stage so that you can just say, you know, cool, the cucumber, yeah, yeah.

It 

Jaimi: is crazy how many people think they can just wing building and are unprepared and they are the worst clients 

Jess: to deal with because. 

Jaimi: You don't know, what are you doing? We need stuff to work with. And yeah, the clients that come with Pinterest boards or lists and know what they want. It's so much smoother and you save so much time going in and out of drafting and back and forth and pre start and, and then they wonder why it takes so much longer because you're not prepared.

Absolutely. 

Jess: And you know, when it comes to building time is money as well. So when I look at it from the builder's perspective, uh, they've promised you. Super cheap prices. And you know, they want to build you a quality home as quickly and as efficiently as they possibly can. And when you're flip flopping on your design choices, that really slows down the process.

So from a builder's perspective, it's really important that all of their staff have KPIs that they stick to as well. So, you know, you might get into your pre start meeting and find that your pre start consultant is trying to rush you through the process as quickly as they can, but. The reality is it's just because they are trying to provide you with a home that's really cost effective and that's the only way they can do it.

Yeah. 

Jaimi: Yeah. Time is money. Time is money. Especially 

Jess: in this market. Yeah. 

Jaimi: It's crazy. What are three truth bombs or industry secrets people need to know when building? 

Jess: Oh, I love this one. It's juicy because it always kind of comes as a surprise to people. So, and I'm going to talk about the sales arena. Now I have been a sales consultant, so I can speak from experience, but you know, the first thing is that you don't actually need any qualifications at all to sell a home for a builder, which just blows my mind.

I'm very lucky because I had experience in the building industry before I came into selling homes, but a lot of people don't, you could literally be selling. iPhones one day or vacuum cleaners, and then the next you could be selling a home. You know, you're spending someone's like hard earned cash on this home and they might not have a clue what they're doing.

Yeah. They're not like real estate agents who need to study and obtain a license. You can just literally dive into it. So, uh, you might be gambling your life savings with an amateur. Yeah. 

Jaimi: Not a good gamble that you 

Jess: want to make. No, that's why you want a broker. Yeah, exactly. Truth bomb number two. Truth bomb number two.

Okay. As a sales consultant, you've got targets on your back, right? So, uh, their job is to sell as many homes as they can as quickly and as easily as possible. So when I was a sales consultant, I had to sell three homes per month. And if I didn't hit that target, I would lose my job. That's it. So, you know, I'm not saying this happens all the time, but that was one hell of an incentive to tell you whatever you want to hear so that you hurry up and sign on the dotted line.

Right. And then the third one is, you know, it's way easier just to sell people cookie cutter designs. Yeah. We've already touched on this time is money. Right. So. The longer a sales consultant spends on your home means the less time they have to spend on the next deal that they're going to get done. So, you know, they will probably encourage you just to go for a standard cookie cutter design and then move on to the next 

Jaimi: client.

Yeah. It is crazy how many people come in and they've obviously gone display shopping and they've done the builder stuff and they get, they don't realize that you can customize a plan and make it yours. And it's just, why should a family? Or a person have a cookie cutter design when every family is unique and different.

Absolutely. 

Jess: And do you know what? It doesn't need to cost a lot either. You just need to know how to tweak the plan to really suit your, your lifestyle. So a lot of builders aren't charging for like relocating bongs or doors and that type of thing. So you can really harness that. And, uh, You get the most out of your builder by just tweaking it.

Jaimi: Yeah. I guess that kind of leads us into the next question. How can people get the most value out of their 

Jess: builder? That all comes down to buying power. So when you look at a project builder, project builders really harness their size to get the most value for you. So they know that they're going to include paving on every single one of the homes that they sell.

So they go to the paving suppliers and they say, Hey, what are the. is you can give us on this paving. If we guarantee you're going to be able to pay 600 homes a year. Um, and then of course, all of the paving suppliers, they start negotiating on that price and they've just put their best foot forward.

They're going to give the builder a really, really super cheap price. And then the builder can pass on those savings to you. So anything that's included in the standard specification can really be used to give you the most value out of your home. Yeah. 

Jaimi: And I guess the. Return or like the opposite of that is if you credit those things out, people always are like, why is the credit so little for paving or blinds or something like that?

But it's because of their buying power that it's so cheap. 

Jess: Exactly. They can only credit you what they've paid. So, you know, if you want. aggregate concrete to your driveway. Don't delete the paving out, just relocate it down the dead side of the house, outside where the clothesline is so that you're not living in a dust bowl out there.

Yeah. And you know, utilize the allowance that they've already included in there rather than just getting a tiny. 

Jaimi: Yeah, that's good. What tips and tricks do you have for people preparing 

Jess: for pre start? My biggest tip is to make sure that you have a super strong coffee before you go and a really big breakfast.

Because, you know, a lot of the time people go into that meeting and they don't realize the sheer amount of decisions that they're going to be making. You know, you're choosing the colors of every single item in your home and there's a lot of items in your home, let me tell you, and then every single product.

So, you know, a lot of the time those pre start meetings, they go for about three hours, sometimes more. I'm, I once sort of, Yeah. I once held a pre start meeting that went for three days with a client. Oh God. So you can just imagine the amount of decisions that they had to make. It was a massive house, but you know, by the end of those meetings, a lot of the time people are feeling hangry and they've got decision fatigue because they've just made decision after decision.

So have a big breakfast, have a strong coffee and just be prepared. Yeah. Uh, the one thing that people are always surprised by is also the electrical plan. So you're going to make all of those decisions. And then at the very end of the session, The consultant's going to whip out an electrical plan and then ask you to make a hundred more tiny little decisions.

And by that point, you're just exhausted. So if you sit down and do your electrical plan before the meeting, um, and really think about how you're going to utilize each of those spaces, it just takes the pressure off so that you can do the fun things like just choosing your tiles and your colors and that type of thing.

Jaimi: Yeah. Breaking it down in little stages so you don't have to make every tiny decision in six or three hours on one day. That's right. Don't do it in one 

Jess: day. Yeah. You've got so much time before your pre start meeting to sit down and really think about how you're going to use each space. So utilize that time and then go into the meeting prepared so that you can just have fun.

Yeah. Yeah. 

Jaimi: Where do you think? Uh, the most, like the common areas that people forget their PowerPoints or what's the ones that they should always 

Jess: think about. Okay. You mentioned it earlier, the Christmas tree. Yeah. Anything to do with Christmas, Christmas tree, Christmas lights, any sort of garden lighting that always tends to be forgotten.

So, uh, you know, if you want to light up some trees outside, it looks really nice. A PowerPoint in a cupboard so that you could.

So if you're going to charge a stick back out of sight, don't want any cord back cubes cordless all the way cordless all the way and hidden from sight, you know, take it away. So when we, you can't see it. So, you know, PowerPoints and cupboards are really, really handy, even for robobacks that type of thing.

The kitchen is another one where a lot of people don't tend to have enough PowerPoints. So you think of all of the small appliances you have, you've got your microwave, your toaster, your kettle, your coffee machine, your sandwich press, your juicer, your, the list goes on, right? You need a lot of PowerPoints and you need them to be accessible.

So that's always a good one. Uh, and then another one is a PowerPoint beside the couch. for charging your phone. You know, when you're just watching TV and you're scrolling, it'd be so handy to have a PowerPoint right there so you can plug it in within 

Jaimi: reach. Yeah. Yeah. There's some good ones. Oh yeah. Even your laptop when you're on the couch too.

I'm always like that. Yeah. And I, I need to plug my laptop in PowerPoint. That's it. So 

Jess: handy. 

Jaimi: So handy. What DIY hacks do you have for people who might be doing things after handover? What's Worth doing after handover, not doing after handover. I know at the moment, like, builds cost a lot and budgets are going in the opposite direction.

So a lot of people are doing structural things with builders and non structural things after handover. But it comes to that hassle versus non hassle. What, yeah, do you think are things that are worth it or not worth it? So they get value for 

Jess: money. Yeah, look, that's a really great question and it's something that I like to touch on all the time because I've lost count of the amount of times that people have said to me, will I save money if I do that myself?

Of course you will. Yeah. You know, if you organize a trade or you do some work yourself, you will save money because the builder's not putting their builder's margin on it. But it's the amount of money that you would save. So the example I'm going to give you is, you know, some builders are charging about 400 for adding an exhaust fan into a toilet.

Yeah. So then they ask the pre stock consultant, will I save money if I do this myself? Yeah, you probably will save 20, 30 if you organize that trade yourself. But what they don't tell you is that if you put an exhaust fan in yourself, you're then liable for all of that work. So firstly, you have to get an electrician out to do that.

You then have to cut a hole into the roof. Now, anytime you cut a hole into the roof that opens the potential for water damage, you know, for rains. And then that exhaust fan leaks later on down the track, it might damage all of your plaster and your ceilings and your corners. And then your painting has to be redone.

And guess what? It's not covered under your warranty. So is the hassle of doing that work yourself worth the money that you would save? Absolutely not. No. So you really need to think about the, those items that are actually going to get you banged for your buck. You also don't want to get overwhelmed, right?

The building does have high pressure situations in it. It's an amazing rollercoaster. There's lots and lots of ups, but there are moments that can be quite stressful too, if you're not prepared. So you don't want to end up at the end of construction with an unfinished home and a DIY list that's going to take you every single weekend from now until Christmas.

Yeah. So, to answer your question, the things that, you know, will get you the most bang for your buck if you organise yourself are things like window treatments. Uh, floor coverings, internal wall paint, that's super easy to organize yourself, air conditioning, uh, any external concreting, that type of thing.

They're all things that have a lot of builder's margin attached to them, but are fairly simple to organize yourself later on. I mean, air conditioning is a prime example of that. You know, on single story homes, uh, it's really simple and straightforward for them to install ducting in the roof space.

That's with just a standard pitched roof for a single story, if it's a skillion or it's got any sort of fancy raking ceilings, that's a little bit different, but for a standard pitched roof, it's really straightforward. And a lot of the time it's just a matter of calling up after handover and saying, Hey guys, can I book you in for an install?

They'll come out a couple of weeks later and run all of the ducting and do all the electrical all in one hit. 

Jaimi: Yeah, it's that's what's such a good one that I think people has this misconception of oh It gets done when the roof goes on and it's like no it gets literally done right before handover So you can save that money and just do it just after you get the keys.

That's right. 

Jess: That's right It's really straightforward to do and you know I've had it done in two of the homes that we've lived in now and it's amazing watching the guys work They've normally got a team of people there and they're so quick at getting in and out. So you know, it's a very straightforward thing and you can save thousands of dollars just on that alone.

Jaimi: Yeah. Cause there's how much roughly do builders margins do they cover on things like that? Oh, 

Jess: you know, it varies from builder to builder and uh, it should actually have a section in the contract of how much margin your builder will be charging. Some of it's up to 40 percent so it can be a lot of money.

Yeah, definitely. And that 40 percent I have to say. That's not just because, you know, all that 40 percent is for profit. It's because they have big overheads that they have to pay. They've got a lot of staff working behind the scenes. And then also they have to charge that for things like their warranties as well.

So, you know, if five years down the track, your air conditioning system breaks down, they're then liable to come and come out and fix that for you. So, you know, there's also that element of, you know, covering the expenses for any potential damage later on down the track. Yeah. 

Jaimi: I guess like another one is.

People always ask, like plumbing, should, can I install a bath after handover? And it comes down to that same thing. Well, if there's something wrong with the fixtures or the bath doesn't get there on time, then you're actually held liable, not the builder. 

Jess: That's right. Yeah. And you know, it all comes down to who's responsible and who's liable, who's going to foot the bill at the day.

Jaimi: Yeah. Yeah. You want that to be the builder. Yeah. 

Jess: Yeah. Absolutely. What are some of 

Jaimi: your kitchen design 

Jess: tips? I've got so many when it comes to kitchens, like this is my favorite place to work on and where I spend the most of my time with our clients, but my biggest tip is to think about the kitchen in zones, right?

Think about how you're actually going to use the space. So for me in my kitchen, I created a cleanup zone. So in that cleanup zone, I've got my bin. And I've got my dishwasher and my sink all within one step. That way, you know, when it comes to cleaning up at the end of the night after dinner, I can scrape my plate, rinse it in the sink, put it straight in the dishwasher without having to take any extra steps around the kitchen.

So, uh, you know, creating a dedicated cleanup zone, creating a dedicated cooking zone. So a lot of the time people have these massive walk in pantries that are actually on the other side of the kitchen. So think about when you're at the hot plate and you're cooking something and you need all of your spices and your salt and your oil and all of that type of thing, you need it to be within reach.

So I love to make the drawers either side of the hot plate. A little bit shorter. So having them as at 200 high and then having all my utensils and all of my spices and everything right there so that I don't have to backtrack to the pantry. So I get it every time, you know, it's all about efficiency after cooking.

So that's another one. I also like to create prep zones. So, uh, wherever I'm going to be standing to prep my meals for me, I've got two young kids at home. So I love to sit on the island bench and chop my veggies so that I can keep an eye on them and make sure they're not getting up to any mischief, any funny business.

Yeah, that's it. So, you know, that's where I keep all of my chopping boards. I store my chopping boards vertically. So I've got my builder to put in a vertical. dividing panels in my cupboard. So instead of laying them horizontally and then having to get to the bottom of the stack, I can easily access all of my chopping boards right there.

I keep my knives next to my chopping board, and it's really close to the bin as well so that I can just scrape all the mess straight in there. So it's about thinking about your kitchen in zones and just really making sure that you're going to... Make that whole space super practical. 

Jaimi: I love that. It's a little thing that's like, make the most difference.

Jess: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I'm not a massive fan of cooking, but now that I have a big, beautiful kitchen that actually works well, I don't mind being in there anymore. Makes it slightly a little bit better. That's it. And now 

Jaimi: the bathroom. What about some of your bathroom hacks 

Jess: or design tips? Okay. Uh, I do find that a lot of builders nowadays are just putting in the standard, uh, like 1.

5 meter long baths. Don't know if you've ever been in a bath that small before, but a lot of the time you end up feeling like your knees are up around your neck. You know, it's not, not very comfortable for people that a 1. 5

meter long bath to the 1. 8 meter long baths. So that's the first little super cheap trick that you could do. Another one is, you know how you've got the shower screen positioned next to the vanity and there's always this tiny little dust collecting gap. The worst. The worst. You know, it's sometimes it's too small to even get anything in there to clean it.

So, you know, when you're standing in the shower, looking through the shower screen, all you can see is, you know, the, the clumps of hair that have, you know, Compiled. Compiled. Over the months and months. Yeah, that's it. So, you know, getting rid of that dust collecting gap by putting in a little half height wall between the vanity and the shower.

For me, that's a no brainer. The shower screen sits on top of the half height wall. The wall can be used to store all of your shampoo bottles and that type of thing. And, you know, it does create that little bit of extra storage space in your vanity as well. 

Jaimi: Yeah. That one is like a. One of the best ones for a bathroom.

Two beds with one stone. You get the ledge and you fix the dust collector. 

Jess: Absolutely. Yes. Now let's 

Jaimi: go on to the laundry. What about your laundry tips and tricks? 

Jess: Okay. I hate doing the laundry. It drives me mad. Me too. So having a practical laundry just makes it a lot easier, um, and less of a chore. So the first thing is having a broom cupboard.

Most builders don't put a broom cupboard in as a standard. So, uh, put a section where you can put your ironing board, your stick, fax, all of that type of thing can be hidden out of sight. And another one is having a rail underneath your overhead cupboards. And that rail can be used to hang wet clothes on coat hangers.

So instead of having one of those big bulky clothes, horses that you move from room to room all the time, you can literally just put your shirt on a clothes hanger and then put it straight on that rail and it will dry in the laundry. Um, so that is one of my favorite ones because it's also super 

Jaimi: cheap to do something as well.

How much does that roughly cost 

Jess: for a rail at the last builder that I was working at was charging 45 per lineal meter. And you're not having a long one in there really. That's it. 

Jaimi: Yeah. Cool. Yeah. That's a good one. It's so much easier just to pick your clothes up and hang them out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Is there any other important advice you would share with anyone looking at 

Jess: building?

Yes. Important advice. Okay. Building is a really big deal with a, like an even bigger budget and you know, if you make one mistake or one oversight, it can end up costing you thousands of dollars in the long run. So my advice to anyone out there is to really just make sure that you. Think each stage through.

You don't need to make all of your decisions at once. You just need to break it down into stages and, and really make sure that you've thought through how you're going to be using each space so that it's practical 

Jaimi: and functional. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good one. Yeah. It is no point looking long term because you can't get to step seven without doing step three.

So why are we talking about step seven? That's right. And then you make mistakes because you're thinking about the whole house rather than 

Jess: one little you know, The majority of clients that come to me, they've reached a point of overwhelm and it doesn't need to be overwhelming. It really doesn't. It can be fun, easy and stress free if you just know how and, and the how is knowing what to do, when to do it and how to do it, um, at each stage.

So yeah, breaking it down into those individual stages is so important because you don't need to think about every single item 

Jaimi: all at once. Yeah, for sure. And what about, I guess, people who are in that early stage of Do I look at building? Do I look at renovating or buying? I know like you guys are renovating at the moment.

Is there any advice you can give on how to come to that decision of renovating or building? And what are the differences, 

Jess: I guess? Okay. That is a brilliant question. Uh, cause it is still fresh for us. And let me tell you, building is so much easier than renovating. It truly, truly is. Like if you are looking at doing a full house renovation, You're dealing with other people's design mistakes and, you know, that in itself is hard because you're still compromising, right?

So yes, you might have got the house in the location that you want, but you're compromising because you're not getting the storage that you want. It's hard to get PowerPoints in the locations that you want. You know, it's just a chain reaction of. Dealing with somebody else's mistakes. So for me as a perfectionist that I am, I really struggle with that because we've just finished this renovation and it's gorgeous.

You know, most people would walk in there and go, it's stunning. I love it. For me, I walk around our house going, Oh my God, that 

Jaimi: could have been done so much 

Jess: better. I could have saved money there. So, you know, you are constantly compromising when you're renovating. It is hard because you're, you have to remove everything that's there.

And a lot of people underestimate the time and it. Expensive doing that. We had to get five skip ins during our renovation. 

Jaimi: Wow. Yeah. Yeah. And even that's the cost, that $500 a pop. Yeah. Yeah. It's huge. You need to 

Jess: factor in. Yeah. And all adds up. It does. And it's, it's time. It's money. Yeah. So you know that, that type of thing.

It's not the greatest. And then there's just the extra hidden costs that pop up. So, uh, in our house, we had to replace our water unit, so that was three and a half thousand dollars. We've had to replace our bore, so that was another two and a half thousand dollars. We moved into the house and the person that owned it before us used to just tinker with his own electrical, which can I just say to everyone, please do not touch any of your own electrical.

You know, hire an electrician to do it. But because he tinkered with it, it was really dangerous. You know, there's a potential for, for house fires because he's, you know, you'd have to look at our Instagram page to see how bad it was, but we had to rewire our entire house. So that's a cost that I never factored into when we bought the house.

Yeah. So they're just a few of the little things that, uh, were unexpected costs. Oh, and the air conditioning broke as well. So there was 14, 000. Okay. So, uh, when you are looking at renovating, you really have to have a contingency built in there of about 20, 000 for things that might surprise you, because I promise you they will.

Yeah. 

Jaimi: And that's a big contingency to have for surprises. Yeah. You're working with the unknown, I guess, until you get in there. You don't know what you're working with. 

Jess: And you know, we had all sorts of things. We had a bee infestation in our roof. We had a rat infestation. We had a flea infestation. All of those things, they do kind of add up.

And you're living in a used house when you're renovating, right? It is a used house. And half a 

Jaimi: construction 

Jess: site. That's it! Yeah, we were living in a dust bowl for two years while we were doing this renovation. So, you know, it is tricky. I do love renovating though. We're going to do it again. But if I had to compare building and renovating, building is so much easier.

You're starting from scratch. You can have it the way that you want it. You can do all the fun stuff. So yeah, I would a hundred percent choose to 

Jaimi: do it. Yeah. I think I, I think I would too, because I'm not about renovating. Especially for first time buyers, I guess too, that. Experience or don't have trade backgrounds and things like yours and Chris's background obviously helps a lot in renovating too, but if you don't know what you're doing, that makes renovating even harder because you're paying more money for more people to do other 

Jess: things.

That's right. And, you know, you need to have contacts when you're renovating as well. So that's a huge thing, especially right now in the building industry, you know, it's busy. So. Will a tradesperson prefer to go to a brand new construction site where they don't have to deal with somebody living in the property and working around them?

Yeah, they're probably gonna prefer to work on that site than to work with you and your family, you know, on a renovation site where they have to deal with somebody else's workmanship. So, you know, finding trades for renovations is pretty hard too. 

Jaimi: Yeah. You don't really think of that, do you? Yeah. It's easier for them to go to a new build than to a Reno

Absolutely. Jess, what advice would you give to anyone looking at starting at building or thinking about building, but hasn't spoken to anyone in the industry yet and is fresh and where do they go? What do they 

Jess: do? How do they start? Um, I love this question because for most people, they would just run straight into a display home and they'll go to the display village, start talking to some lovely, charming sales consultants that would probably jump the pants off them.

And then they'd dive straight in and. Sign up to build that is probably the wrong way to go about it. My advice to anyone getting started is first of all, sit down and work out what your priorities are. So like come up with a wishlist of absolutely everything that you want in the home. You want the outdoor entertaining area, put that on the list.

If you want to double shower, double basins. You know, scullery in your kitchen, all of that type of thing. Write it all out in a massive list and then go down that list and order everything in priority order. So what is the most important thing to you? What's a non negotiable and what are you willing to compromise on or what are you willing to actually do yourself afterwards?

So do that list first, then do your research on who you want to be. your consultant through the whole process. So, you know, go out and find somebody that's got a really good reputation in the business. Look at their Instagram pages, see if they're putting any information out there to help other home buyers, see what their clients are like at the moment.

So, you know, if somebody was to find you that. See that you've got an amazing Instagram page where you're sharing tips and tricks and that type of thing. You're staying in touch with your clients the whole way through the journey. I can, I'm sitting here in the studio and I can actually see a photo wall of all of your clients and what stage they're at in the process.

It shows that you genuinely care and you want to help them and you're not going to disappear as soon as you sign up. You know, you, you're going to help them the whole way through. So that's the 

Jaimi: golden ticket is that people do disappear. They do 

Jess: a hundred percent. You know, if we circle back to what I said at the beginning of the podcast of, you know, you don't need any qualifications to sell a home for a builder and you know, sales consultants, they do get paid quite well from builders.

It is a hard job and they get paid well for it. But what that tends to do is it attracts a lot of people into the building industry that just want to make a quick buck. And then a lot of the time they end up. Coming in, trying to do the gig, working out that it's actually pretty hard, and after three months in the biz, they decide to leave, and then whoever they've signed up in the meantime is just kind of left high and dry, so...

Lurching in the system. That's it. That's it. So make sure that the person that you're working with has a really good reputation, and actually wants to help you through the whole process. The building industry is It's filled with so many incredible individuals that really, really want to help people out.

But you just need to make sure that you find the right ones and that you go in prepared. Yeah. Prepared. Prepared. Prepared. Prepared. That's it. You can't go wrong if you're prepared. And you're bound to have fun. Yeah, exactly. And it should be fun. Yeah. It is. Yeah. It's so fun, easy, and stress free if you just know how to do it.

Yeah. 

Jaimi: Solar passive design. What are your tips, or I guess advice, on solar passive design, basic, broken down? 

Jess: Very basically, you just need to utilize, uh, how your house is positioned on the block. So, uh, if your windows face north, that means that you're going to get beautiful sunlight in through those windows.

It's going to be like a gorgeous space. If your window space South at that means that the sunlight's not actually going to touch that window at all. It's going to be shaded all year round because of the position of the sun in the sky, uh, particularly in winter, it's going to get quite cold on the Southern side of the home.

So the idea is. To make windows smaller on the south side of the home so that you don't get that heat loss through the windows. We spoke about renovating earlier and what we would do, sorry, how difficult renovating is compared to building. One of the design issues that I have in the house that I'm in at the moment is that our laundry door faces.

South. So every time I step into that laundry in winter, it is just cold freezing. It is so cold in there, and it's right next to my kids' bedroom, so I've gotta have the heater running all the time. If I was building, I would just make, you know, the door smaller if I could. Yeah. Instead of being a gigantic sliding door, I would've actually put a timber door there instead.

Jaimi: Yeah. Not to let that 

Jess: light in. Yeah, keep the heat in. Yeah. Don't let it escape through that window 

Jaimi: in winter. Yep. And that saves on your energy and electricity and it saves money in the long run. Absolutely. Yeah. Do you have any ways people can save money on their build? I know people are always looking to save money and sometimes saving money does worse because you have to fix it later.

But are there any good ways to save 

Jess: money? Oh, there's so many, I actually don't even know where to start. So, you know, working out what jobs you can actually do yourself later on down the track so that you, you aren't paying that builder's margin. So aggregate concrete driveways is probably the best example I can give you.

A lot of people love the look of aggregate concrete and they'll get a quote from their builder and it'll just be ridiculous through the roof. And it is, it has to be because the builder needs to warrant that product, right? Concrete, it's bound to crack one day in the future, later on down the track. So, uh, you know, they need to make sure that they have a contingency in their budget for when you come back and they have to.

fix it by getting a bobcat out to rip up all of that concrete and then redo it. So the margins are really high on something like that. Whereas if you were to just go to a trade and pay them directly, you're going to save a lot of money. So yeah, concrete, anything to do with landscaping, fencing, clotheslines, letterboxes, internal wall paint, air conditioning, floor coverings.

If you're game, you can organize the floor coverings yourself as well. You'd save a huge amount. You know, if builders include like a Standard floor covering through construction and you just don't have the money then and there to pay for the flooring that you want Get them to put in lino and then later on down the track You know in five years when you've saved the money for your hardwood floors You can then put the flooring in you don't need to be spending big bucks on things like that at pre 

Jaimi: start stage Yeah.

What's the best way for people to utilize standard builders items at pre start rather than racking up a 20, 30, 40 grand bill? From a pre 

Jess: start perspective, we have a lot of people come in and go

things like they want to own a supply their own baths or they want to own a supply their own sink and that type of thing. What they don't realize is that. That type of work, it actually involves a lot of people. A lot. If we look at an island bench for instance, your island bench, you've got the cabinet maker that's going to be putting the cabinets in.

You've then got the stonemason that puts the stone on top of the cabinets. You've then got the plumber that does all the plumbing provisions and then installs all the fittings. You then will probably have an electrician there as well that's going to be putting in power, you know, one for the appliances that you'll use above the bench and then another one for the dishwasher.

So, For that sort of cabinetry, there's a lot of people that are involved. I like to say anything that's got plumbing or electrical in it, leave it up to the builders to do that type of thing. But if it doesn't have plumbing and electrical in it, you can do it later and it'll be really straightforward.

For instance, overhead cupboards, really simple and straightforward to put in overhead cupboards yourself after handover. You can just get your builder to put in a little bulkhead above the area that you'd like the overheads to be. That's cheap as chips. And then you can Once you've saved up the money yourself, you can then pay a cabinet maker directly to install those overheads for you.

So it's really straightforward. All you need to do is put the provisions in during construction and then you're avoiding paying all of that builder's 

Jaimi: margin. Yeah, and that's about putting the provisions I think is like such an important part of that. If you don't have the provisions, that's going to cost even more money for you to Fix it.

I'll put that provision into them. Do it. Yeah, 

Jess: you've hit the nail on the head. So I've had a lot of people say, oh, yeah, I'm just going to put in my overhead cupboards myself later on, but they don't actually think about the corners that runs in the area that they're going to be putting those overhead cupboards.

So if you want it to look like it was always intended. You actually need to put a bulkhead there so that the cornice can be run along the top of it and the overheads fitted underneath it. Otherwise, you're going to end up cutting your cornice or cutting your cabinetry around the cornice that's already there and it just looks a bit like an afterthought.

Yeah, it looks like you've done it after. Yeah, yeah, exactly. 

Jaimi: And what about the range hood then? Because I know that if you want an integrated range hood. How does 

Jess: that work? Yeah, so if you do want an integrated rangewood, that's a bit of a different story because you do have the electrician that's going to be putting that in.

Integrated rangewoods are actually quite simple. They've just got a power point in the roof space. So you could do it yourself afterwards. If you wanted to, I would actually just get the builder to put in the section where the rangewood is and then I would get a cabinetmaker to do the remaining overheads.

Jaimi: Yeah. Yeah, perfect. People often then forget about that too. I'll do it after. Oh, shit. What about my range? Should I wanted that integrated? That's right. 

Jess: Yeah. Yeah. So a lot of builders are putting in a canopy range hood as a standard at the moment. I've got a bug there with canopy range hoods. I'm not a fan of them because they end up being dust collectors.

Yeah. You know, you always have to clean them or if you don't, it just always looks dusty and you don't have the storage space. Whereas, you know, I love integrated range hoods because storage, you've got extra storage in there. Utilize it. Can't go wrong with 

Jaimi: storage. Yeah. Yeah. Storage is such a big important part.

And I think a lot of people forget that on designs too. 

Jess: Absolutely. You wouldn't believe the amount of homes that I've seen that have a tiny pokey little linen cupboard or tiny little, all of my clients come to me and say, one of my priorities is storage because, you know, especially for people that have a family, kids collect so much stuff, particularly in that baby stage.

Um, I remember in our very first house that we owned, it was, uh, a home that was built by somebody that just really didn't think things through. Yeah. They, they didn't look at storage whatsoever. So our spare room was literally just a junk room because we had nowhere else to put it. We just threw everything in there, closed the door and tried to pretend like it wasn't Out of sight, out of mind.

Yeah, that's right. So we had like bassinets in there and all the pram attachments and you know, you name it, it was kind of shoved into that room. You know, for all of my clients, I love to design their homes so that you store it where you're actually going to use it. Yeah. So if we think about garages, a lot of time people go, Oh no, I'm just going to put a garden shed in and then I'm going to store all of my stuff in there.

But the garden shed, it ends up being dusty and dirty and spider webs and who really wants to go down there to find the picnic chairs. So I like to design garages so that you. Store the things that you actually would use on an outing. So you'd create shelving in there for things like your esky and your picnic chairs, your picnic rugs, all of that type of thing can be stored there so that, you know, if you have that spontaneous idea that let's just go down the road and have a picnic, you can actually grab everything and go rather than having to dig through that dusty old 

Jaimi: shed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a very, very, very good point because yeah, storage is always so forgotten and you want it where you're using it. 

Jess: Exactly. And it's actually so cheap and easy to incorporate it in your design. A lot of people just don't know about it. So for like a standard shelf, most builders are only charging about 50 a linear meter nowadays.

And it's that cheap because I've got a carpenter that's already working on site and they buy that material in bulk. So, you know, my husband, Chris, he is a carpenter by trade. He can't go to Bunnings, buy all the materials and build it himself for less than what a builder would charge. So it's definitely worth trying to utilize the allowances of shelving as much as he can throughout the whole house.

Yeah. 

Jaimi: Cool. Yeah. Amazing. Well, I think that wraps us up for today. Thank you so much for joining me. I think we've given a lot of value for the listeners today, so I hope you guys love it. Could you tell us. Where people can find you and about your course, and if they want a little bit more help, where to reach 

Jess: out to you.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, uh, our Instagram is the number one place that you could reach us. We are always on Instagram sharing, you know, what's happening in our lives, as well as like lots of tips and tricks that we have about the building process. So jump on it onto our Instagram at the home Chaperone.

We've also got a website, www.thehomechaperone.com au. You can jump on there and check us out. 

Jaimi: Amazing. Thank you. And Jess has been so kind enough to give us 200 code. If you guys want to purchase her course, 200 off, which I'll post in the show notes below. So if you want some DIY help with your house and building, feel free to check out the link and the code and purchase the course.

Amazing. Thank you so much for joining me 

Jess: today, Jess. Pleasure. Thank you for having me. 

Jaimi: Thank you so much for tuning in to the home building like a boss podcast. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something new. Remember you've got this and I've got your back until next time. Stay inspired, stay informed and stay confident on your building journey.

I can't wait to chat with you on the next episode. Don't forget to check out the show notes for more information and free resources. If you haven't already hit that subscribe. So you never miss an episode of the Home Building Like a Boss podcast.