Kakande Alex has an interesting post today on his substack channel Tips for Avoiding Costly Mistakes During Construction which I felt was very high level and not providing real strategies and tactics for getting through the construction process.

The first aspect of construction for a home to understand is that it is a process of creation, therefore changes should be expected, as the project advances, due to more information becoming available, and more experience/understanding in construction dynamics by the project owners.

This advice and lessons are based on 3 separate projects over a decade and is specifically for home construction, some may apply to commercial property

  1. Design - this is when the vision is brought from the owner(s) heads onto paper into architectural drawings which are then taken to local authorities for approval
  2. Financial Plan - in this case, I would advise getting an estimate of the costs of construction, the final figure will be anywhere from 50% to 200% higher

  3. Actual construction - many will advise construction firms but these too will require close supervision during these stages as decisions, choices and mistakes will come back to bite one later
  4. Construction is a labor of love, you cannot delegate this to others, you need to get involved and take the time/energy to bring it to life. It is akin to parenting

Overall construction is a journey, with multiple twists and turns, what is your experience?