A home is a prized dream of an average household. But mostly, the budget exceeds expectations. Let us go through the example of such a family which ventured to build a home. The construction began after many delays. At this stage, the plan is only to have a ground floor, with three bed rooms, kitchen, dining, and living space. All these have been conceptualised in 1,800 square feet. Stairs inside and the pooja room are additions. The family raised Rs 25 lakh from Chit funds and pledging gold and an equal amount from bank loan.
As expected, a low cost model is the idea, though they have no intention to compromise on quality. The foundation, basement and belt construction went on smoothly. But the major part comes next. They had given up on the idea of cement solid blocks. For the walls, they sought laterite stones for which they had to go to Kannur. In Kannur, they scoured through many quarries and selected high-quality laterite stones and bought them.
To get expert craftsmen to deal with laterite stones, they had to go another 50 kilometres from the construction site. After putting in such a huge effort, they finished the walls. To cut costs they avoided concrete sun shades and the roof slab was also constructed. All this work, they thought, had been confined to the budget.
At this point, a suggestion came out of the blue– to be precise from the homemaker’s kin. As there is already a stair to connect the first floor from the ground floor, why can’t we have a bedroom also on the first floor?
The thinking was that to construct a bed room after the house construction is over and in a future date will not be feasible. Both the kids are growing and after their marriages in future, the family would any way need more space. As that made sense, the plan was expanded to build a bedroom and a bathroom upstairs. Laterite stones were again bought from Kannur for the purpose and the rooms were built.
At that time, another suggestion came from the head of the family’s relatives. They said it would only be apt to build a kitchen and a bathroom outside the house. The logic was tagged to rituals: In case you visit the house of a deceased, you will enter your homes only after having bath and cleansing yourselves. That is tradition, they say. So yet another expansion of the plan happened. An out-of-the-blue prompt for a false ceiling also came. That had to be acknowledged, leading to another tweak in the original plan.
Then a poet happened to visit the under-construction home. He opined that there should be a place to relish the scenic beauty that pervades the fields below. The owners, who didn’t even notice the fields till then, consented to make a space to relish the enchanting beauty of the fields.
As things progressed, it was only natural for the aspiration levels to go up. A balcony on the top floor was next on agenda. So that too was constructed. It was earlier itself decided that the roof of the car porch and sit-out would be paved with floor tiles.
So that had to be replicated for the roofs of the top floor bedroom also. After all this hullabaloo, when questions arose about what the view would be like, it was decided that 3D would come into play.
So the initial estimate of Rs 50 lakh, that is half a crore, has now soared to Rs 55 lakh. Counting the interiors, bathroom fittings, doors, kitchen cabinet, interlocks in the open space, compound walls and landscaping, the price tag would zoom to Rs 70 lakh. So why did this heavy cost escalation happen in this case? This is exactly where planning comes into play. The lack of planning has been instrumental in cost overruns.
The construction of a home cannot be started after drawing a sketch with some rooms and walls. The base of a good home lies in its planning. A realistic overview of all works from start to finish is a must. The other vital element is to gracefully reject those suggestions that come from all and sundry. Lack of these “vital ingredients” may pull us to a debt trap.
These suggestions may perhaps be in sync with the requirements and necessities of a home. Some of these suggestions would be difficult to ignore also. But if house owners are not able to manoeuvre out of these pitfalls, a mountain of debt will embrace us.
