[Bucknaked]

I haven't read through the entire thread, but if there's one thing I did when we built our house, was to have all those little things incorporated into the cost. Easier to cost it all up, and get the 1 home loan for everything you need. Things like carpets, curtains, floor coverings and concrete. We did get caught out by some hidden costs. The concrete and the curtains. Builder unestimated the costs, and at the end of the day, there was not much we could do about.

I also got extra powerpoints, light points and had the bathrooms wired up for IXL's. I bought all the exterior light fittings from project lighting as well as the tastics, and gave them to the builder to install at the same time they installed the lights.

I figured it was easier to get it all wired in at construction, than trying to get it done after. Plus it wasn't all that much more to get it all done by those guys. I also had the hole where the fridge went made bigger. We bought a new fridge which is larger than the standard, so we had the kitchen place adjust the area where the fridge goes. They made adjustments to the plan before it went to the machine to build the kitchen.

Finally, I made adjustments to some of the room layouts. I didn't like the layout of the laundry and the bedroom behind it, so I asked for the cupboards to be moved to different locations. Builder was cool with it. They never charged me for the change to the plan.

Just little things we made sure we were on top of early.