NestbriefKnow what you want before you buildSee how Nestbrief helps →Planning a home, before anyone draws
Guides · Lahav Meiri, licensed renovation contractor
Most of what's written about building and renovating starts once the work does. These are about the part before that - working out what the house has to do, what it can cost, and what you need to have decided before anyone starts solving it. Written by a licensed renovation contractor, from the other side of the table.
- Where to start building a houseThere is no step one. Three decisions come before everything else, and each one changes the other two.
- How to know what you wantThe direct question doesn't work. These are the ones that do.
- Must-haves when building a new homeOrganised by what's expensive to reverse, not by what everyone else wants.
- What is a design brief?And the answer to the question nobody tells homeowners: who is actually supposed to write it.
- Building a house as a coupleThe arguments about tile resolve themselves. The ones that don't are the ones you haven't had yet.
- Questions to ask an architectTwenty-eight questions, including the ones your architect will ask you.
- Your first architect meetingWhat the architect is doing while you talk.
- Building a house checklistA checklist tells you what to do. What you need is when the window shuts.
- Mistakes to avoid when buildingThe lists cover what people noticed. The costly ones are the mistakes nobody sees.
- How to plan a home renovationThe building surprises you less often than you surprise yourself.
Every one of these ends in the same place.
Nestbrief is a guided conversation that works through these questions with you - one at a time, at home, at your own pace - and turns your answers into a structured brief you bring to your first meeting.