What makes a cost plus contract work, avoiding budget blowouts, time overruns and project disappointment?

Learn what makes a cost-plus contract work well, as Fionna and Ed share how scoping, early selections and a collaborative team kept their new build on track.

Listen to the episode now.

Hello! This is Episode 379, and it’s Part 3 of my conversation with HOME Method members, Fionna and Ed, as they share their new build journey in Canberra.

I decided to continue sharing our conversation so we could have this as a four-part series on the podcast, and then you get to hear the whole scope of their project through Pre-Design, Design, Pre-Build and Build. 

I hope, as a result, it’s super helpful for you to follow along and hear where they invested their time, efforts and money, and how that’s influenced their project journey.

If you haven’t listened to the previous parts of our conversation and want to hear the whole story from the start, head back to Episode 377 and Episode 378.

In this episode, we move into the construction or Build phase of their project, and unpack what’s helped it run smoothly under a cost-plus contract.

We discuss the power of fully scoping a project before construction begins, and how having detailed documentation, thorough selections, and early decision-making created real certainty in cost and confidence in delivery.

Fionna and Ed also talk about the collaborative relationships they’ve built… with their architect staying involved through construction and assisting with key details like shop drawings, and with trades and subcontractors actively contributing ideas and expertise to improve outcomes on site.

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE NOW.

For timeline context, Fionna and Ed joined HOME Method in July 2023. At that point they had put a conditional offer on a property in December the year before, with settlement happening in April 2023. 

They hired their architects in June 2023, and joined HOME Method the following month. They signed a contract with their builders in October 2024, and are expecting completion of their project early next year, 2026.

In this episode, you’ll also hear how their builder’s appetite for recycling materials, and finding avenues to repurpose demolition waste, brought an additional layer to the sustainability to the project. 

We explore how their cost-plus contract includes thoughtful mechanisms to encourage time efficiency and accountability, which, combined with a transparent quoting process, has helped keep things on track.

At its core, this is a story about what happens when you have the right team (professional, passionate, and committed) all working together with an informed and educated client, to bring a shared vision to life.

This is the transcript of my conversation with Fionna and Ed about their new build in Canberra, sharing their latest project update about their pre-build phase.

Amelia Lee
Well, Fionna and Ed, it’s awesome to have you back on the podcast, and I’m really looking forward to catching up with you and understanding more about the construction of your project. Last time, you brought us up to speed on all of your pre-construction experience. So I’m wondering if you can just share from a point of reference before we dive into talking about how we got from there to where you are now. Can you actually just explain, timing-wise, where are you at in your project? What’s going on on site right now? What does the project look like?

Fionna
Okay, so they’re doing the final installation of the joinery, and they’re finishing the undercoating today, and putting sample paints up on the wall for us.

Amelia Lee
Oh my gosh.

Fionna
And landscaping starts week after next. And yeah, tilings nearly done.

Ed
And the garage door is finally in place. The only bit that hasn’t been done is the stained glass panel hasn’t been installed beside the door. Other than that, the envelope is complete.

Fionna
Oh, and we need to sign off the design of the screen door.

Amelia Lee
How exciting, you’re really at the pointy end, aren’t you?

Fionna
We are.

Amelia Lee
That is awesome. So, I’m wondering if we can wind back to before construction commenced, because one of the things that came up in the conversation we had last time was the cost plus contract. And I said then that I wanted to dive into a bit more of that in this conversation. Because I think one of the secret ingredients, I think, to your cost plus contract going well, of course, is the builder’s ability to execute and know their numbers and be able to have created an estimate prior to construction that has accurately then come to fruition in the build. And you talked about the small variants of budget last time, very minor variance of budget.

I also think, though, that another key ingredient was potentially your ability to scope the project really well before all of that happened. So, I’m curious about how you actually approached scoping the project and making your selections and getting some definition and certainty and documentation around what you’re intending to construct before you committed to a contract and committed to the price. Can you talk us through how that process worked, how you worked with your architect, how you used the resources in HOME Method, what that was looking like for you pre-construction?

Fionna
And certainly, we read all the resources in HOME Method. And, I should also say, our design process looked like a five to six hour workshop every three weeks for nearly a year.

Just to give people a sense of what it takes to get the level of detail we got.

Ed
We also made it clear early on that we weren’t up for a statement piece, a show home or anything fancy. We wanted something functional. We wanted it to be sympathetic with the environment, but we wanted the architect to think that there was a cost cap. We weren’t doing a Grand Designs. And so she went down a route where she made it simple shapes rather than curves and things like that. So that helped put something of a lid on it.

Fionna
Yeah, but at the end of that process, we had 43 pages of plans, and that includes detailed joinery drawings and those sorts of things, and 38 pages of schedule.

Amelia Lee
That’s a fantastic way of really illustrating for people what a complete package of documentation can actually physically look like, and what it’s taken to get there.

Fionna
And it was really interesting, talking to a number of our friends, and particularly one who’s built many more magnificent houses than we have, that we had the most detailed set of plans that anyone had seen.

And Wendy, our architect, just, she sweats every detail.

Ed
And she’s been very good at going away and learning things like the mechanical heat recovery ventilation. She wasn’t au fait with, so she went to the supplier and learned what was going on and how to incorporate that, things like that. In the same way as the builder, subsequently, was very keen to bring themselves up to speed with specifics.

Fionna
And she was a fixed price contract, I should say, too, both in terms of the building plans and the interior design plans. So you could go for the building plans and then decide to opt for the interior design thing as well. And we think she probably underpaid herself given the just hours she bought into it, and she was doing a PhD at the same time. So she’s just amazing. And the other thing we did was have, as we said, we didn’t achieve a PAC Process, but we did have two or three strategic points when it went to the builders we were considering to get feedback. So that helped. And on big ticket items, she actually got indicative quotes, so we knew roughly what the windows would cost, those sorts of things, ahead of getting quotes from the builders. So that was very helpful. And when she knew, she’d tell us it was a more expensive or a less expensive choice.

Obviously, there’s limits to cost advice she can give, but she certainly had her eye on it for us.

Amelia Lee
That’s amazing. And did you know that she could do the interior design services when you initially hired her? Or was that something that came up later?

Fionna
Yeah.

Amelia Lee
You knew?

Fionna
So, there were many reasons we went with her, but one of them was we just got this very clear costing proposal that said, This is the price, and this is what we’re doing, and you could stop here in terms of having the building design, or we can also do this.”

Amelia Lee
And so, was part of that service also helping you with the fixtures and finishes and all of the selection of the materials and products that you were using in your interiors?

Fionna
Yes.

So, it depended on what the item was. But for the finishes for the cabinetry, that kind of thing, the finishes for the floor, she got samples. I’m just thinking, what else there was.

Ed
Just recently, the grouting samples.

Fionna
Oh, yes, we just had a session on grouting colours.

Ed
And the tiler was so impressed that the architects could bring along samples from one of the specific…

Fionna
That was better than their samples.

Amelia Lee
That’s fantastic. And so I can imagine, then, because not all architects or designers will supply that service. They often can want you to go to either a different person, or some clients also expect that the builder will facilitate that selection process. I can imagine that that would give you quite a high level of confidence that there was a holistic approach to the design and all of the intention that you’d set around the building form was going to start filtering its way through to then the expression of the design and the aesthetics of the interiors as well. 

Was that your experience, seeing that continuity and that being thought about it that way?

Fionna
It made so much difference to just having the whole thing work. And there was the odd thing, like there was one set of tiles I really wanted that were quite expensive, and did a spreadsheet up on the whole thing and said, “No, that total is not too bad.”

Ed
Something expensive in a small amount to make a statement is cost-effective. Obviously, you wouldn’t want the whole building in these tiles.

Fionna
Yeah, but a small bit over one vanity was fine.

Amelia Lee
And it is really interesting when you start to assess interior finishes that way, isn’t it, where you go, “Well, can we have a little jewel or a moment of joy here, and then pare back on other things”, and that actually lift the whole aesthetic experience of it, rather than just trying to upgrade absolutely everything or downgrade absolutely everything.

Fionna
Yes. And when we commenced on the interior design, I went back and reread Interior Design 101, and all the material you have on room by room designs, just invaluable.

Amelia Lee
That’s fantastic.

Fionna
And we haven’t had too many design surprises. The only one was recently, was because it’s a quite big, all electric house, I’ve lost one of my broom cupboards to the switchboard.

Ed
Yes, it’s a seriously electric place.

Fionna
It is.

Ed
These big cables running into the switchboard.

But that’s 21st century, I guess.

Amelia Lee
Gotcha.

Fionna
Yes. And we said, “That’s what I’m going to write down for next time.” We have an infinite number of drawers but not many tall cupboards.

Amelia Lee
Okay, that’s far less diabolical than it could have been, though. So it’s quite fantastic.

Ed
And they’d already prototyped the switchboard location, because the builder got the electrician in early on in the process, before much fit out was started.

And they thought, “Yes, we can put the switchboard here.” And then the electrician went away and came back and thought, “No, that’s too small a space,” sometime later.

Fionna
Yes.

Ed
This is the same electrician that told us that our lighting design was no good, and he could help do a better job.

Fionna
And he was quite right.

Ed
Yes, all the tradies or trades are quite opinionated in a good way.

Fionna
They’re all craftsmen, and they’ve all added something to the design.

Ed
So, he sent us to a different lighting place to get an initial lighting design, and then he and the builder went through that lighting design and refined it, and I think we’re happy. And it didn’t cost any cost delta.

Fionna
In fact, the reverse.

Ed
Yeah, it may have saved money, but his point was, “You don’t want to live in an operating theater. You need light the crowd mood.”

Fionna
Yes. I think we went without Wendy, accidentally, for our lighting design. And so they sent us one back, and we didn’t pay enough attention on the day. It was much better after that.

Amelia Lee
I was having a chat with Ben, another HOME Method member, for the podcast recently, and he was talking about how much he appreciated his builder bringing the subcontractors and the trades into those conversations with him at site meetings and things like that. You’ve had that experience too, that collaboration, and hearing from the horse’s mouth why things can be better or different, or that kind of thing?

Fionna
We really have. And the lighting plan conversation actually came out of a meeting with the electrician for the lighting and the solar installers, because Parry, our builder, wanted to make sure they knew exactly who was doing what.

Ed
Because it’s quite a long building between the solar panels and the car charger and where the battery might go and where the metre board was and where the switchboard was going to be. They all wanted to make sure that they weren’t missing something.

So it was very good to get that synthesis at that stage.

Oh, two switches, you mean.

Fionna
Two switches. And there’s one half of our living area that’s got lights, and saying, “So I’m putting this one on this side of the wall, and then the ones for the kitchen are on this side of the walls.” Just that sort of really practical advice. It’s been really good, and everyone we’ve met has been lovely. And they’ve clearly all worked together for a number of years too, which I think’s the other key to the whole thing.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, and that’s fantastic to be working collaboratively like that and to really tap into that expertise and then be able to temper that with the other research that you’re doing. Because, sometimes, their opinions may not be in alignment with what your design goals are or what your specific lifestyle goals are. And so, I love that the builder, because a lot of builders will hold you at arm’s length from their subbies or their trades, and will try just to be the go between on that information, and you just have to take their word for it.

Yes. And the the electrician, when he was doing it, said, “Oh, and I’ll be sourcing your stuff here, and they do a great lighting design for you.” And they revised it. And Parry, our builder, who likes to have a hand in everything, had another guy at it. And there were even things like, we’ve lived in this house for decades, and I still switch on the wrong switches, some of our multi PowerPoints. And the electrician was saying, “No, you only ever want two power points.”

But it works so much better for a client experience, I believe, when you get to be involved in those conversations, and then, particularly when you’ve educated yourself so you can understand, you’ve created some intention about what you want to be doing and the outcome that you want. So they then have something to speak to when you’re then seeking their advice on things. So I love that that’s been your experience of that. And I think it’ll be really great to see when the light switches go on for the first time. I know, in our house, our house was built by a builder in the 1990s and there are so many two way switches in this house. It’s unbelievable. So, you look at a light panel, and you never know whether it’s off or on.

And I still get surprised that a certain switch will turn on a certain light. And we’ve been here for 11 years.

Fionna
I get that constantly. And this house was built by a builder for himself. So same, same kind of issue, incredibly solidly built, the house we’re in.

Amelia Lee
Yes.

Ed
He put in four toilets, but not enough powerpoints.

Fionna
Yes, they’re all tidy.

Amelia Lee
So, I can imagine then, so all of that was fully scoped then before you signed, in terms of you talking about the documentation and the selections, that was all fully scoped before the final price was done?

Fionna
There might have been three items on that that weren’t decided.

Amelia Lee
Wow.

Fionna
I’m trying to think what they were.

Amelia Lee
So you picked all of your tiles, all of your tapware?

Fionna
We picked all the finishes, though we did change our mind on the floors.

Ed
And of course, with things like tiles, there’s a danger that you’ll pick them 12 months out from them being ordered.

Amelia Lee
Yes.

Fionna
The only thing we’ve had that with was, I really love the Laminex colour Infinity, and it got discontinued. But they marked it for likely to be discontinued, so we had a second choice.

Amelia Lee
Okay.

Fionna
Oh, we might have just sneaked it over the line, somebody might have had enough somewhere, but no.

Amelia Lee
Okay.

Fionna
I think that’s been the only thing.

Ed
I guess the garden design was open.

Fionna
The garden design is the big thing, but we can talk about that a bit later.

Amelia Lee
Okay, yeah, I’d love to talk about that. Because I think that what you’ve illustrated to me, I mean, it’s the key for getting any project construction phase working well for you to bring forward that decision-making, but definitely for a cost plus contract, because then, if the builder knows their numbers, and then they can price to exactly what you’re wanting, then you’ve got a lot more confidence that the sum of money that they’re showing you prior to the contract can be then reflected. And then really, then, it’s about whether they’ve got their labour right. And one of the areas that we particularly see a lot of builders get challenged by is the carpentry part of their labour. A lot of builders really struggle to price that accurately, particularly on custom projects.

And so that can often be a source of blowout. Sometimes, I’ve seen builders blow out their carpentry allowance by $50,000, $80,000, $120,000.

So, it’s really great that your builder, as you spoke about last time, total data ninja, really tracking all of their numbers, really getting a good sense of what it was going to take, so that then you’ve been able to see that play out in the project itself. And just the volume and quality of information, I imagine, that you provided, and that discipline that you gave yourself of making those decisions early. Like you say, you can always change your mind down the track, and know that it comes potentially with a cost and a time implication, but the decision is then made, and so rather than…

Fionna
That’s right.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, forcing yourself into a dramatic position down the track.

Fionna
And I’d also say, when we got the comparative quotes, Pichelmanns, who we went with, had their their management fee, their labour estimates, and then the quote from every one of the subcontractors. So we could see exactly how our quote was made up. Whereas the alternative had allowances, even though a lot of things were specified. 

Amelia Lee
Yes.

Fionna
Except for the joinery. That was interesting, because our joinery numbers quite high, but the the two joinery quotes were comparable within 50 cents.

Amelia Lee
Oh, wow.

Fionna
From two different joiners.

Amelia Lee
Wow, that’s heartening, isn’t it?

Fionna
A data point, but you see from the quote, you were getting a lot of transparency, and they were relying, of course, on their subcontractors were going to stick fairly closely to their numbers, which they largely have.

Ed
Yes. These quotes are a year old, and they’ve stuck to them by and large.

Fionna
Yeah. And we’ve had, in terms of where we have had the slight increases, some of it has been labour and some of it was on the cladding, but not by too much. But they’ve done such a spectacular job on it. And we had a neighbour get very antsy about us building our approved garage wall where it was, and didn’t want to give them access to have the the trestles up safely. So our brick layer was in there in the middle of the cold winter, laying stuff by hand with his assistant, having a stroke in the middle of it.

Amelia Lee
Oh my gosh.

Fionna
And what we did there, which Parry suggested too, was, he normally got paid by the metre, and we paid him based on time for that, because he was on this narrow trestle doing all sorts of…

Ed
It was harder than he expected.

Fionna
Yeah, it was harder than it should have been.

Ed
Your comment about the cost of carpentry, some of the delta has been labour costs on the carpenter or carpenters. And of course, leading hand who’s running a job on the site is a carpenter, and he is very conscientious.

Fionna
And meticulous.

Ed
The last budget meeting we had for the last bill, we said, “There’s some cost blowouts here.” And the response was, “Yes, I’ve had a talk to a leading hand about, I want to see this price under control. And what does he think he’s doing?” So there’s cost control up and down. 

Amelia Lee
Yes.

Ed
So, the person wielding the chisel understands that the time sheets he’s putting in are seen by the customer.

Fionna
Yeah, we get every timesheet with every bill.

Ed
And yeah, it was a positive conversation both ways. But yeah, there’s an accountability down to the tools.

Fionna
But when we say blowout, not more than we were previously indicating.

Ed
No, the pre-sheeting process, just took a long time and was longer than they expected, and it’s because we’ve got the Gyprock has no cornices and so on. It’s all 90 degrees. Yeah, certainly right, but I think it was a bit more than the project manager thought it would be.

Fionna
And there are a couple of times where they will have annotated the timesheet to go, “Yes…”

Ed
“This was our fault. We’re taking these out.”

Fionna
Yeah, “We’re taking these out.”

Amelia Lee
Yep, gotcha, okay. Yeah, it’s super interesting. I think that it’s really great to understand it in that detail level. I think you’ve done a really great job of risk-managing a cost plus contract, in terms of your builder selections been so critical to it, their business operations been so critical to the success of it. And then your ability to have everything really super defined before you finalise that price, enables a much smoother process. And I think, too, lots of builders do struggle with their subcontractors changing prices on them, and it does come to a point of relationship management and the professionalism of the builder, and their ability to set the expectations of what they will and won’t tolerate from their subcontractors in regards to those price increases.

And sometimes those price increases can be justified, but sometimes they’re just a business decision at the subcontractors level that hasn’t then been properly communicated or managed from that point of time. And some builders just then will accept it and then pass it on to the client, when they potentially should actually be having a much sterner conversation with the subcontractor about what the expectations are and how that works, or setting up business processes that actually put subcontractor agreements in place in the first place that prevent it. 

And so, it just speaks to the professionalism of your builder and how they’re navigating their business operations. And the fact that they’ve got those, that longevity of relationship with those subbies and those trades that you’re talking about, and that up and down accountability is super interesting. So yeah, if anybody’s thinking about doing a cost plus contract, this is what needs to be in place in order for it to go well.

Fionna
I think that’s right, and they don’t work on any other basis. So, that was the deal. But that said, they’ve also got a mechanism in the contract, which say they have their management fee, and that’s charged for 11 months, regardless of how long the bill takes.

Amelia Lee
Yes.

Fionna
So, they said, “That’s our incentive to to pay attention to time.”

Ed
Of course, if we change the scope so that it has to go beyond 11 months, that’s up for grabs. But we haven’t done that.

Fionna
No, and they don’t think we have either.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, that’s amazing. And your comment, too, about the architect being on fixed rate rather than percentage fees as well, so you’ve got a container around those fees associated with that.

Fionna
We had a container around those fees in the design stage. For the build stage, she’s on an hourly rate.

Amelia Lee
Yes.

Fionna
But that is perfectly reasonable. As in, it’s a reasonable rate, and she’s a reasonable person. And she also said to us, “If it’s a quick question, I won’t worry, but I’ll let you know when I’m on and off the clock.” And she’s been absolutely meticulous on that. And the other thing was, we had agreed a couple of points when we moved into build that she would be doing as extras. And one was checking all the joinery diagrams.

Amelia Lee
All the shop drawings, yep?

Fionna
All the shop drawings, because she said, “It’s a horrible job.”

Amelia Lee
It is, and it’s so worthwhile getting her to do it. Because yeah, she’ll know exactly what to look for.

Fionna
Yeah. And she did remark that she would be very happy if we chose to do it ourselves.

Amelia Lee
I don’t blame her. It’s not a nice job.

Fionna
And we had a couple of tricky bits, because we’ve got a Murphy bed that we wanted a desk at 90 degrees to come off the back of it, and that was new territory for everyone.

Amelia Lee
Yeah.

Fionna
There were a few bits and pieces like that that she was just very helpful on. It’s also been around the roof design or the insulation design, not the roof design itself, getting that right. We got her to work with Parry and the flush thresholds, because we had to manage water, manage accessibility and manage termite barriers. And the combination of those three wasn’t easy. So, there was two or three examples, and things like we were doing the paint colours the other day. And I have to say, though, the painter was just amazingly good at colour.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, fantastic.

Fionna
And interested. So he’s holding stuff up and going, “So that bit, the light’s going to bounce through the trees in summer, and it’s a blue but it’s going to read purple slightly purple next to those bricks.” He just knew his stuff.

Ed
And interested.

Amelia Lee
Wow.

Fionna
Knew his stuff so well. And we were looking at the room with the Murphy bed, and he said, “So, is it going to be more a bedroom?” And I said, “Well, it’s going to be an extra office as well. If someone wants to set up a project or a long jigsaw puzzle, or whatever.” He was saying, “Oh, well, couple of shades lighter on the paint, then.”

Amelia Lee
Fantastic. Oh, that’s great. What a great team you’ve got around you. It makes all the difference, doesn’t it?

Fionna
So there are things like that where Wendy was saying, “You don’t need me because you’ve got a colour.” And I said, “Well, I do because I want to have a second opinion.”

Amelia Lee
Yeah.

Fionna
Because you can go for too much. No, they’ve all been just amazing.

Amelia Lee
Fantastic.

Can I ask, you mentioned last time that you’ve used recycled bricks from the old home. And then you also talked about the terracotta tiles and the hardwood timber, I was wondering, some builders will really resist this because it can be cheaper and less labour to just demolish, like, put a bulldozer through everything and just push it all into a skip bin and send it off to the tip.

What was your builder’s appetite for this? How did you come to that conversation? You mentioned that it was actually less expensive for you to use the recycled bricks. Sometimes builders will charge a premium because of the work that needs to be done to tidy them up. Like, how was all of that componentry talked about in the project and and adopted? How straightforward was that for you?

Fionna
And the recycled bricks were the only bit we reused, we’ll talk about the other reuses, and we we just specified that. But it was if we wanted to use recycled Canberra reds, if we supplied some of them, it was $1 a brick including cleaning them up, versus $3 a brick buying them. And there’s a company here called Richie’s bricks, and apparently, they’ve got a little cameo on Grand Designs, like just his hands, I think.

But they just do that. So, that wasn’t even a conversation.

Ed
These Canberra reds are a thing in Canberra. Like, them and building with them. So, when there is a knockdown involving Canberra reds, people are keen to either reuse them or get hold of them. And likewise, with the terracotta tiles, there’s a lot of appetite for reusing.

Fionna
And the other builder that quoted specialises in using recycled materials, so they’ve got a whole arm that does that. And so, he was talking about the options for mixing in other bricks and so on. But it just seemed to be really what happened quite a bit.

Ed
And the brick people were just…

Fionna
Were so enthused, yes.

Ed
And at one point he said to Fionna, “I see you’ve got several of the Canberra stamps here, but I’ve got a different stamp I can put you with one of those.”

Amelia Lee
People are passionate about what they do.

Fionna
I think it’s one of the first times I’d driven past the site without the builder there, and I was with a friend, and we got out to just so she could peer through the fences. And this man came bounding out, going, “Can I help you? Can I help you?” And I said, “I’m the owner”, or one of the owners. And he said, “Oh, these bricks. Come in and have a look.” And I said, “Look, I won’t without Parry’s permission.” But he said, “Okay, so give me your phone.” Ran round and took photos of the parts with the bricks so I could admire. And he was just so excited. He said, “I’ve written to the Canberra Times because they’re going to do an article on recycling them.”

Amelia Lee
Oh, I love it.

Fionna
Just so enthused. O n all the trees, I initiated the conversation with the ACT Woodworking Guild. And when I rang the guy who was removing all the trees, he said, “Oh yeah, we take stuff to them all the time. So I’ll just take it all to them, deliver it to them.”

Ed
So that was some walnut trees and the Bhutan pine.

Fionna
Yes, and some fruit trees and the Bhutan pine. And then the recycling of all the trusses and roof tiles was actually news to us. They just said, “Oh, and by the way…”

Amelia Lee
Oh, wow.

Fionna
“Here’s where all your tiles have gone. Here’s where all your roof trusses have gone.” And I think that’s just the way the demolisher operated.

Amelia Lee
That is awesome.

Ed
And we called Thor’s Timber.

Fionn
Yes. Thor’s Hammer, yes.

Ed
They do high-end recycling and reuse of wood.

Fionna
Yeah.

Ed
Very, very nice stuff.

Amelia Lee
Yeah.

Ed
They’re always on the lookout for these old hardwood beams.

Amelia Lee
Yes.

Fionna
Somebody else has grabbed all your roof tiles.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, it’s absolutely fantastic.

Fionna
Wasn’t even an event we had to make happen.

Amelia Lee
Yeah. And meanwhile, there’s other people that are just really struggling to get that across the line. So, I love that you were finding the right people to help you with that.

Fionna
Yeah. So the demolisher said, “Yeah, I’ve dropped all the timber at Thor’s”

Yeah, it was a really delightful surprise, the tiles and the beams.

Amelia Lee
Yeah, that’s fantastic.

RESOURCES

Listen to Fionna and Ed’s previous episodes on the podcast:

• Episode 377 ‘How to Buy the Right Block and Build a New Home, with Fionna and Ed’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-how-to-buy-the-right-block-and-build-a-new-home/
• Episode 378 ‘Managing Budget, Design and Builder Selection for a New Build with Fionna and Ed’ >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/podcast-managing-budget-design-and-builder-selection-new-build/ 

Access the support and guidance you need (like Fionna and Ed did) to be confident and empowered when renovating and building your family home inside my flagship 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 

My free ’44 Ways’ E-Book will simplify sustainability for you, and help you create a healthy, low tox and sustainable home – whatever your dreams, your location or your budget. Access your copy here >>> https://undercoverarchitect.com/ways