Want to feel confident and clear when renovating or building your ideal home, right from the start of your project?

Learn 3 key ways to make confident, clear decisions in the Pre-Design phase and set your project up for success from the very start.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 373, and I’m kicking off a 4-part mini-series on how to make confident, clear decisions in your project.

SO MANY homeowners tell me they wish for the ability to make confident, clear decisions in their project. And that’s totally understandable when you’re investing this much time, money and effort, and creating something so long-term and impactful as your own home. 

The good news is that it IS possible to feel much more confident, and clearer about what are the right and most suitable choices for you and your home, whilst avoiding the costly and stressful mistakes along the way.

What’s important to understand is this: Confidence doesn’t just appear at the end when everything’s finished. It’s something you can build step by step, with the right guidance, tools, and support along the way.

Confidence in your project also isn’t about having all the answers on your own. It’s about being resourced with the frameworks, the questions, and the support that make the answers easier to find. 

When you have that, every step becomes clearer, calmer, and more rewarding. And in this mini-series, I’m going to take you through some tips on how to do this through each Phase of your project.

So, this episode is all about the Pre-Design Phase. This is the phase that sets up everything that follows, yet it is the most skipped. In this episode, I will show you three practical ways to build clarity from the start so you avoid costly detours later.

These are not dramatic horror-story moments. They are the quiet missteps that creep in when you do not have a plan for the early stage. Each can derail progress, add expense, and leave you second-guessing.

Whether you are just getting started or already feeling stuck, this episode will help you step back, reset, and move forward with much more confidence and clarity.

Early in 2025, I ran a survey of the Undercover Architect audience, asking a range of questions about your projects. And one of the questions I asked was “How would you love to feel when it comes to designing, building or renovating your home?”

I always love asking this question, because given this is a process that can take two years or longer, and it’s something that will consume a lot of your time, energy, thoughts and money, how you’re feeling through all of that timeline and process is super important. 

And so, I think that when you understand how you would like to feel in any given situation, that can be a great guide for what you need to do, and the actions you need to take, to create those feelings for yourself.

There were a range of responses to this question that revolved around these themes:

• Excited or energised
• Calm or relaxed
• Supported or empowered
• Happy or positive

All super understandable and great feelings to aim for when bringing your home dreams to life.

However, one general theme that outstripped all the others, and dominated the majority of the answers. And it was this:

You want to feel confident, clear, informed, knowledgeable, competent, certain or in control.

In fact, over half of the answers aligned directly with this theme of clarity and confidence.

And so, thinking about how I could help you feel this way in your project, I thought it would be worthwhile to do a 4 part mini-series on the podcast sharing some tips for how you can make confident, clear decisions in your project.

The episodes will follow 4 phases of every project, which are also the 4 main modules I teach inside HOME Method. 

These are the 4 phases that EVERY project travels through, whatever the scope, location or budget. Whether you’re doing a kitchen renovation or a multi-million dollar new build, your project will travel through these phases:

1. Pre-Design
2. Design
3. Pre-Build
4. Build

So, in this episode, I’m going to kick off with the Pre-Design Phase, and then the following episodes will go through Design, Pre-Build and Build, and how you can make confident, clear decisions in each of those phases.

Sound good? OK, let’s get to it then.

Firstly, let me set a bit of context about Pre-Design. 

So, to directly quote how I introduce the Pre-Design Module inside HOME Method:

“Pre-Design is the research and investigation phase that sets up your whole project.

A lot of the steps inside the Pre-Design Phase have to happen at some point in your project, regardless of what you’re doing. And all of the steps, when done as the first phase of your project, will streamline your project journey overall.

I’ve found that when the Pre-Design phase is done properly, it saves homeowners tens of thousands of dollars, and even hundreds of thousands of dollars. For some, it’s simply made their project more achievable. For others, it means they’ve had research and a framework to rely on when things have got confusing and overwhelming, or they’ve got off track.”

Now, there’s three things to know about Pre-Design:

1. As I mentioned just then in that quote from HOME Method, the steps in Pre-Design need to happen at some point. So, getting them done before you dive into your project design streamlines everything overall.

2. The Pre-Design steps can be done at any time before you start the Design phase, and you don’t necessarily need professional help to do them. I love this, because when you, as a homeowner, understand what’s involved in Pre-Design, you can undertake much better research for your project, and get yourself really well set up before you hit ‘go’ on working with a team.

3. And lastly, the Pre-Design phase is one often skipped in projects, to the detriment of the project overall. Not all professionals take you through a constructive Pre-Design phase, they can barrel through this info as part of design, and not give you sufficient time to prepare, get intentional, and ensure you’re designing the right project for your goals and lifestyle. Or worse, they can push back the checks and steps, and you then have to deal with them further along in your project, when you have most likely invested time and money, and findings at that point can be more onerous to deal with, plus you’ve missed the chance to be strategic with the information before you begin.

It’s also worthwhile helping you understand that it’s completely normal to feel overwhelmed at this point of your project. Pre-Design often gets skipped not only because people ignore it, but also because it can feel like a world of endless options and a mountain of unknowns. And facing and holding that uncertainty, that ‘not-knowing’ feeling, can understandably be overwhelming. 

In addition, it can be a point in your project where, the more you dig into the research, the more you realise you don’t know, or need to learn about your project journey. It’s really common at this point for homeowners, some of whom have been doing research online, or collecting ideas and inspiration for ages, to say “I have no idea where to start”.

This is one of the reasons I love providing a really structured, step-by-step path through the Pre-Design phase of your project inside the first module of HOME Method. That way, you can stay focussed, gain the info that’s meaningful and helpful to you at this stage, rather than getting distracted and overwhelmed, and losing focus before you have even begun.

Remember, if you skip the phase of Pre-Design, you can waste money on unviable designs, waste time on false starts, and miss opportunities to get things right, right from the start.

So, let’s look at three ways you can make confident, clear decisions in the Pre-Design phase.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

RESOURCES

Season 1 of the podcast >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/season-1/ 

Hear the stories of other homeowners sharing how they’ve navigated their renovation and new build projects >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/tag/home-method/ 

Answer these 7 questions to work out whether to demolish and rebuild, or renovate >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/renovate-or-detonate 

Learn more about how to get started on your home design, whoever you’re working with >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/happy-home-design

Access the support and guidance you need to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my signature online program, HOME METHOD >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/the-home-method/

Learn more about how to interview and select the right builder with the Choose Your Builder mini-course >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/courses/choose-your-builder 

Want to create a sustainable home when building or renovating? Grab the 44 Ways to Create a Sustainable free e-guide here >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/44-ways