The first proper look at what your project costs, and the most useful conversation we'll have.
You want to know how to stop a design you can't afford before it ever gets drawn, and you're right to. So let me say the thing I say to nearly everyone at this point. The renovation you want and the budget you have right now aren't always the same thing. That's not a failure, it's reality, and it's one of the most common conversations I have with clients.
I understand the instinct to hold the number back — naming a ceiling can feel like authorising it. But a withheld number doesn't stay withheld. It turns up at tender as the gap between what's been drawn and what you can pay for, by which point the decisions that drove the cost are already made.
Said out loud at the start, your budget is simply a constraint the design works inside.
The renovation you want and the budget you have right now aren't always the same thing. That's not a failure, it's reality.
A tested number. We put the real total in front of us — build, consultants, council and certifier fees, contingency — and check it against what your project actually costs to build in Brisbane now.
Relief, mostly. You get to stop carrying a number privately and start working with it. Once it's said out loud you'll know what's possible, and you'll never be shown something you can't have.
On your own the budget usually stays notional, and everyone quietly assumes a different figure. It becomes real when the price comes back, by which time the expensive decisions have already been made.
This is a set piece, not an awkward aside. We sit down with the real number, including the one you'd rather not say out loud, and test it against what your project actually costs to build in Brisbane now. Nobody is trying to spend the whole budget — knowing the ceiling is exactly what lets me shape the design to fit inside it. And if your budget and your ambitions are a long way apart, I'll say so.
Tell them the true maximum, as a total project cost rather than a build cost, and put it in writing at the start. Then ask for cost checking to be part of the process rather than an event at the end — a cost opinion against each concept, and an agreed point where the design is tested against it.
More than you'd think, and more again on an old Brisbane timber house. Stumps, termites, rot, asbestos and previous unapproved work all turn up once the walls come open. Keep it separate from an allowance for upgrades — contingency is for what the house does to you, not for the tapware you decide you want. I'll give you a figure for your project rather than a rule of thumb.
Usually three things at once. The budget was never tested against the design, so the drawings were aimed at a number nobody had checked. The documentation was thin, so the builder priced the uncertainty as risk. And things changed after the price was set. That figure is forum lore rather than data, and it's far less common where the drawings are complete.
Yes, and say it as a ceiling rather than a target. The useful sentence is the uncomfortable one: here's the number above which we stop, and here's what sits inside it for contingency and fees. If you're worried it will simply get spent, say that too. It's a fair worry and a fair thing to hold me to.
You have more options than you'd expect, and they aren't equally painful. Value-manage the finishes and services. Reduce scope at the edges — defer the deck, the landscaping, the second bathroom. Stage the work so structure and approvals happen once and the fit-out follows. Retender, negotiate, or wait. The costly move is unpicking the structure, which is why we test that first.
If you would rather start small, the First Sketch Session is two hours at your place. You keep the sketches, and there is no obligation afterwards.
