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Before you start: agree your brief and budget
Foundation Series · Episode 1 of 12
Tina Patel & Bart Kolosowski · 13 January 2026
You know your home needs to change. But have you agreed what the project needs to achieve?
Before drawings or builder conversations, Bart and Tina explore the work that starts at home: defining your needs, agreeing priorities and being honest about the money and time you can commit.
A new kitchen—or a different way to live?
A kitchen where everyone can cook together is a different brief from a kitchen that keeps cooking smells away from the living room. Both might begin with the same request: a new kitchen. The useful conversation is about what you want your home to let you do.
Bart and Tina suggest describing needs before settling on a solution. More space might mean an extension, but it might also mean using the existing rooms differently. A brief that explains the problem gives an architect room to find options you have not considered.
That conversation needs to include the people who will live there. Separate lists of needs can reveal where a couple or family agree, where they differ, and which choices need more discussion before a design team is involved.
01
Needs
Describe how you want to live.
02
Priorities
Agree must-haves and compromises.
03
Budget
Set a comfortable spend and cap.
04
Timing
Include the work before site starts.
Is your budget for the build—or the whole project?
A builder’s construction figure is only one part of what a project can cost. Professional fees, surveys, approvals and applicable VAT also need a place in the budget. Moving out can add rent and storage costs that continue throughout the works.
At this early stage, the useful starting point is what you are comfortable spending and your firm upper limit. Once there are design options, those options can be tested against it.
Keeping the budget hidden leaves the team missing part of the brief. Clarity gives them a better basis for proposing a home you can actually deliver.
How long before you can move back in?
The visible building work is easy to notice. The months spent briefing, designing, securing approvals and choosing the team are much less visible. A neighbour’s time on site is therefore a poor measure of your complete project.
A baby arriving, a school year or a Christmas deadline may explain why timing matters. Tell the team about those constraints, then test whether they are realistic.
Allow time for your own decisions too. Rushing into appointments before the family agrees the priorities can move unresolved conversations into a much more expensive setting.
How much can you realistically take on yourself?
Being comfortable with spreadsheets or managing projects in another industry does not automatically make construction familiar. Every property, team and set of site conditions brings different questions.
The practical test is time as well as skill. Can you take calls, attend meetings and make decisions during working hours, alongside your job and family commitments?
Bart and Tina distinguish staying involved from taking on the whole management task. Agreeing what you will do—and where you need experienced help—belongs in the brief, before the project depends on it.
Three decisions to take into your project
01 Agree the brief together.
Write down the needs, priorities and unresolved questions before meeting the design team.
02 Budget for the whole project.
Include the costs around construction, and be clear about your upper limit.
03 Be realistic about your own time.
Decide what you can manage and what support you will need.
The full conversation
The Foundation Series is our 12-episode guide to the home project journey. Architect Tina Patel and quantity surveyor Bart Kolosowski work through the decisions, people and processes involved, step by step.
In Episode 1, Bart and Tina explain how to prepare a useful starting brief before appointing professionals. Watch the complete conversation below, or listen on your preferred platform.
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Continue the Foundation Series
Next: How does your brief become a home design? →
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