When we stuff up renovating or building, it rarely involves tens or hundreds of dollars. More often than not, it means thousands, tens of thousands, and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars extra. For many things in our lives, we can correct our mistakes. Have another go, and do better next time. Yet, when it comes to building or renovating our family homes, most of us only do it once or twice in our lifetimes. The expense is big, the decisions are permanent, and the ch

Last year Vicky was lucky enough to visit the big apple- check out her snaps... #NewYork #Holiday #Architecture #Details #building #Photography #Travel

Perception Planning is a team of resource management planning, landscape and freshwater professionals based in Martinborough, Taupō and Christchurch. We help people with feasibility assessments, resource consent applications, submissions on plan changes, strategic resource management planning, as well as landscape design and assessment, ecological assessments and consultation/engagement projects. Our company tag line is ‘your connection with the environment’. We are focussed

The cladding you choose for your home is an important step in defining the look and feel of the project—you may have strong ideas or you may want to talk to your designer about the pros and cons of each option. There are many variables in choosing a cladding type including budget, function, maintenance, aesthetics, architectural intent and context. A cladding type can take on a different character and meaning depending on the building design or setting. Some schemes have a st

LBPs are designers, carpenters, brick and blocklayers, roofers, external plasterers, site and foundations specialists who have been assessed to be competent to carry out work essential to a residential building's structure or weathertightness. If you’re thinking of getting building or renovation work done on your house or apartment, you need to check if it’s ‘restricted building work’ (RBW). If it is, you’ll need a licensed building practitioner – or LBP – to do it. Restricte

Sometimes I meet clients who only want to engage us for the design stage, who do not know that our full services include follow-up on site. In other cases clients choose not to have us involved during the construction because they think it will save money. Informed people make better choices, so here we can confront seven reasons people think they don’t need an architect in the construction phase... 1. THE BUILDING CONTRACT DOESN’T NEED TO BE “ADMINISTERED” If we are engaged

Whether it's a new building or a renovation, there's a lot of information to gather and assess before design begins. The most important decisions are the early ones: what to build, how much to build, where to build. It is crucial that these early decisions be well informed. This design phase known as Pre-Design. Let's take a look at a couple of essential considerations: 1. The Building Programme The "programme" is an accounting of the required spaces, their sizes and characte

The design and dreaming is over, now it’s time to watch your new home arise from your plans. This is a busy time and is fraught with possible problems – but it’s easier than you think as long as you know what to look for. Five things you need to know You need a contract with your builder—it’s a legal requirement for projects over $30,000. Your builder is a crucial partner – you need a good one whom you can trust. Your builder needs to be a licensed building practitioner (LBP)

Plans, Sections and Elevations can often obscure design ideas rather than illuminate them. Unless you’ve spent lots of time reviewing blueprints, you may find it difficult to understand the drawings well enough to have an active partnership with your architect or designer. There is, however, a solution. 3-Dimensional Renders allow you to fully understand your plans and become an active collaborator in your design. At VRA we offer them free to all of our clients. In the early

Most clients who come to see me have the same question uppermost in their mind—“How much will the project cost?” With careful planning and using the correct process keeping within budget can be straight forward. Knowing your spending limits and developing a building budget will go a long way towards keeping you out of financial trouble on your project. Bringing a building firm or quantity surveyor into the process right from the start provides cost certainty and ensures every