Also, if you're designing the house yourself - try to have all the plumbing down one side of the house, it's cheaper, and the hot water reaches your taps quicker.

We also only have footpaths on 1 side of the street, not ours.

We've been in the house 2 years and we still haven't landscaped the front or side of the house. We just can't afford it.

Kitchen and bathroom cost vary greatly... Do you want glass splash backs, Caesar stone bench tops, bathroom walls tiled, mixer taps?? They will all cost you more.

How many down lights in the house? PowerPoints in each room? Most builders have a standard 1 power point in each bedroom, we increased that to 2 or 3.

You have lots to think about!