Building Plan/"Naksha"

How should your new house be? Its the most important aspect and most of the people till the last moment remain doubtful about if its the best plan and if not then where they will find THE plan. I also got caught by this bug and infact i paid twice for making the file (which gets submitted to MCD) because at the last moment i changed the building plan and it happened because the night before somebody visited us and commented on the drawing and i rather took that very seriously. Its like a night before your exam, on your friends tip you start focusing on different chapters which were not part of your original plan. Anyways, i think i got the right tip luckily and i am happy with the decision at the end of the day.

My analysis of this is that the best plan for two families for their adjacent houses in the same locality could be different. What works for me may not work with the other family. So one need to decide and fix some key places in the house like kitchen and master bedroom etc and rest will fall in place. And the other important thing is once you are convinced and got it approved then don't solicit any advice from your neighbor/friends/relatives etc.

One important point to know :

If your plan is to build a new house from ground zero in place of the exiting building then you MUST first demolish it and then apply through an architect for building plan approval. There was some confusion when i planned my house and i found this rule quite silly as there could have been a situation where i shift to a rented house with my house razed to ground and my new building plan is not getting approved or is taking longer than what it should ideally take.

But whatever you think/say, THIS IS THE RULE and must be kept in mind. Had i known it earlier, i could have planned much better and saved on money, time and effort.

Anyways, i had at least one reason to cheer about as my plan got approved in about 10 days time without any "EXTRA" money.

Just for your idea, the MCD fees for making 4 floors with stilt parking on a 200 sq yd plot is about 3.25 lacs. Based upon my experience, its better to try and go yourself to the MCD office for taking the plan approval if its in accordance with all the rules/bylaws etc. You might save some money this way which otherwise would have to be paid under the table.

So the "Take Away" is that hire a good architect who don't make fuss about creating as many rough plans as you want to reach that "dream-come-true" feeling and don't give excuses to avoid site visits when construction is in progress. Architect's role is very significant in ensuring the structural strength of the building and it must not be compromised as building house can not be someone's pass-time. Its a serious business and must be taken very seriously.

My Architect :

I was lucky having found my architect as he is doing pretty fine and both me and my mason contractor is learning quite a bit from him. His email id is "vga.2007@yahoo.co.in" if somebody wants to get in touch with. The other good thing about him is that he is very patient and gives all the time you need to understand and discuss rather than throwing tantrums of a typical busy man.

This is one problem which i found common between most architects, lawyers and doctors. With no offense meant to people of these professions but they generally talk very little leaving you craving for the answers to your questions and just want to see-you-off ASAP to goto next one :-)

Do's and Dont's

Before i write anything about anything, here are some absolute Do's and Dont's. These are hard learnt or rather hard found pearls of wisdom.

1) First make a project plan in terms of identifying tentative dates for some important milestones and a budget sheet for the projected expenses after gathering some information on rates from the market. The latter is not necessary if you have loads of money and is not a concern :-)
2) Always work with a contract no matter if on a plain paper.
3) Wherever possible, address exit clauses in the contract in case of termination of contract.
4) Always do your due diligence before fixing the contractor. If you get even a single negative feedback, get to the bottom of it and convince yourself about the person before signing him up.
5) Get your existing electricity and water connections cut otherwise these people will knock at your door with heavy penalties later.
6) Also get your sewer connection blocked from inside as it can potentially give you hard time later.
7) you like it or not but "Bargain Hard" after taking prices from as many places/people you can. It applies from signing up the contractor to buying cement/saria anything and everything.
8) In my experience, always keep the next guy/material ready instead of buying it when the need comes. There should be minimal delay between two dependent activities and it should work like a well oiled machine. If have bought the saria then the lauhar needs to be standby to start work on it rather than finding one after the saria is bought.
9) Never ever let the altercation with labour/contractor go as far as scuffle. It can turn so ugly which you wont even imagin. Its absolutely not worth getting worked up to the extent of "dhakka-mukki"/"maara-maari". if the things are not working out and you are not happy with the contractor, settle his dues and get him out of the way.

"Profit from my experiments"

I was thinking for quite sometime about actually blogging it and here it is. The idea is to log my experiences and experiments with house construction and also to share it with other layman/naive/gullible people like me so that they can benefit from it and don't repeat the mistakes which i made and lessons which i am learning while going through the full lifecycle right from demolishing the existing house to building a new one from the base up to the 4 floors.