How long did it take? It will vary to much depending on the builder you use, I recommend using one that will guarantee a time frame and if they fall short they pay your rent or home loan. Most of our delays were in the planning stage where we had to keep sending it back becuase they kept leaving things out that we had asked them to change... VERY frustrating lol
How much did you go over budget? we stuck to the budget, that's a matter of discipline I guess. Work out what you can afford and find things to fit it or work out what you want and how much it'll cost and go from there.
What were the hidden/unexpected costs that you encountered? if you change the base plan the builder will charge for all the changes so find around about how much that would be if you are using an existing plan. Other charges are teh fees to the council and and engineer to check retaining walls etc, but the builder should be able to advise you of that.
What would you do differently next time? ummmmmm, get started on the plan sooner, as I mentioned we didn't think we'd have to keep sending it back.
Anything else you want to tell me? Get it all done when you are building, as in don't say that you'll do things later because they never get done lol also if there is an option to get things through the builder than do that rather than getting yourself jsut to save a few hundred dollars. eg, our spa could have been purchased through the builder but we got it ourself from a spa shop and it was a bit cheaper. The problem was that the spa shop didn't deliver on time and because it was our fault that building was delayed the builder can then charge us a certain amount each day that they are delayed