Everybody has a dream of building a new house- a house that he can call his own, one that he can design on his own and a small, cozy house that will soon become his sweet ‘home’.

Building castles in the air is easy but when it comes to reality, all that matters is money.

So, before you make your final plans and meet your builder, you ought to have a clear idea of your budget. Here, you need to do something called “guesstimating”. That is, you should know the approximate cost of your project. Knowing this will help you to modify your plans according to your budget.

Here are some tips that will help you to do the ‘guesstimating’ work.

•Talk to the local builders who are well versed in constructing the kind of a house you want. Builders will not only tell you their charges per square foot but will also provide you with a 'ballpark idea' of what your dream project might cost you. If you wish, they can also let you know about all the materials they plan to use. This will help you to know what exactly is included in the pricelist.

•Next, calculate the “square footage”. For this, you need to find out the price of some newly constructed house, one that is very similar to the house you have dreamt of. Next, subtract the price of the land from the cost of the house. Finally, divide the amount by the square footage of the house. This will give you a rough estimate of the cost per square foot. Multiplying the average square footage cost by the finished square footage will give you a ‘ballpark estimate’.

•Keep your budget a bit flexible as there are certain features like the bathrooms, the kitchen, quality of the windows, vaulted ceilings etc., that are expected to cost more. An interesting thing to be noted here is that the cost is often lower for a large house than that of a smaller one. The cost of the expensive things is spread over more square footage in large houses.

•Before selecting a final blueprint, make sure that you have estimated the construction expenses. Size and shape of the house, site preparation, cost overruns, inflation and market conditions are certain important factors to be kept in mind.

Hope these tips will help you to realize your dream in a systematic way.