How to build your Dream House. Part 4 in the Achievement series

You're successful, you've worked long and hard to achieve your dreams. Money is no object, there's now more than enough to purchase more or less anything you want.

You and your partner are enjoying a romantic dinner one evening and she suggests you should now build your dream house. She probably means to build her dream house, but no problem, you also will have some input - mostly financial! The secret of success is to be realistic, it will perhaps but not necessarily turn out to be more her creation than yours.

Given you've now been sold on the idea, you're both keen to get started. How long does it take and what are the steps to achievement? Can you start digging?

Acquire the Land
First you need to agree on the general location, the environment in which you wish to live. Then to find and purchase a suitable plot of land in the neighborhood. You'll change your life by seeing you can't yet start digging. Yet you've probably already taken several months if not more so far.

Now you can commission an architect to design your dream house. Let's assume selecting the architect overlaps the time to search and purchase the land. He now needs to see the site and come up with some plans. Say this takes another few months, can you start digging?

Planning Permission
No, you first need government building permission for the house. So not yet, although you've taken many months so far. Don't self sabotage, the secret of success is not to neglect this step.

A New York developer was ordered to remove the top six floors or so from an already built 70 story office block. It seems he had not received Official Planning Permission for the total number of floors in the building!

The City Council in Toronto, Canada ordered a man to remove the front 18 inches of his house! He changed his life by violating the guide-lines, he built his new house too close to the street. Since he had started building without waiting for Official Planning Permission, they refused to grant him a waiver.

Let's assume you overlap the building permission with selecting an experienced builder to build the house. But will he start immediately? No, if he's competent he's probably got lots of current work and can only start yours in a few months time. Can you start digging?

Now you can Start Digging
Once he's available, your builder can start digging. You've probably taken many months if not a year or more so far. Yet are you impatient? You'll change your life by seeing that the first step to building your dream house is not to start digging!

A landscape architect is needed to ensure the place looks lovely when finished, and then the builder can start clearing the land. The foundations come next and then the plumber, the electrician, and the rest. This takes many more months.

Decorate your Dream House
An interior decorator will be needed for the decor and the finishes. Don't miss out this secret of success! I've seen several renovated places with glaringly ugly tiles and paint jobs because an amateur thought hiring a professional would be an unnecessary waste of money and she wanted to do the job herself.

Your new house will undoubtedly need new furniture, as well as luxurious fixtures and fittings. Once it's decorated to plan you'll be set to move in. The question is how long does each step take and how long after starting your dream house before you can move in?

Some of the steps you can overlap, and some you cannot, yet the crucial steps before you can start digging will take much time.

These Steps apply to Everything
To build your dream house, you'll spend a year or so planning and selecting and ensuring your house is actually what you really want. The actual building part will, roughly speaking, take around half the total elapsed time.

But is this only for building a house? No. You'll change your life when you see this applies to many if not most endeavors. It applies to your career, the education you need before you actually start work can be very substantial. IT projects need careful planning before you can start coding. And to design your life so the rest of it is more satisfactory will also take substantial time.

Don't skimp on the essentials before you start digging!

© Copyright worldwide Cris Baker, www.LifeStrategies.net All rights reserved. Republishing welcomed under Creative Commons noncommercial no derivatives license preserving all links intact, so please +1 and share this widely!

Food for Thought

"Too fast arrives as tardy as too slow."

- William Shakespeare, 1564-1616, English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest English language writer and the world's pre-eminent dramatist.