The cost of things to come

The experts being consulted obviously aren't doing the work for hugs.

As we've said before though, we would much rather invest money into getting all the 'ground research' done now, rather than have an amazing design that we find out we cannot use because the house would be under threat of sliding down the mountain.

To give you an idea of the cost of expert advice for building a house in Tasmania (prices exclude Goods & Services Tax of an additional 10% unless stated):

1. Soil Test - $409 (3 test sites and report)
2. Structural Engineers - $165 per hour for the Engineering Director; $120 per hour for the Design Engineer
3. Land Surveyor - $165 per hour (about 4-5 hours to survey site)
4. Bushfire Consultant - $1,320 (inc GST) on-site consultation fee

Neal has been excellent at copying us in on emails and relaying information from the various consultants engaged on our behalf. Getting this level of feedback has been invaluable in reminding us exactly why we picked JAWSarchitects - we would have been totally out of our depth in even guessing where to start.  

If all of the above looks daunting, don't forget - ours is a difficult site, with 'interesting' access issues in a remote area of Tasmania. Costs and the degree of additional expert involvement are indicative of this.