Choosing a House

We had a number of factors to consider when choosing a house plan. Two bathrooms were essential, a open plan living area, outdoor space for WRX to play in, and resale value.
After having been looking at established houses we found that four bedrooms had much higher value, and given there generally was not a massive extra cost this seemed to be the way to go. This however was against the aim of having a bit of outdoor space. Outdoor space was not only for WRX, but also for us, we didn't want to be on top of the neighbours when outside.
The solution then presented itself with a two storey home. Having found what was a great design, all living spaces up stairs and down stairs open plan we thought we had the solution. Placing the floor plan on the block however, it was a tiny house, would only be using 1/3 of the land. Back to the drawing board, and most two storey houses seemed out of our price range. Eventually after much searching we found a builder, they had some good designs and the prices were great.
Typically still cynical it was back to Google to search out the reviews. Not surprisingly there wasn't a whole lot, definately not a heap of people raving about their experience, but also no complaints. Becoming more positive we got in contact with them, and a meeting was arranged to discuss extras and changes. Again I was surprised at how accommodating and reasonable they were, both being accommodating and reasonable in pricing. Smart construction techniques also seemed to explain the cost savings they presented over a typical two storey builder.
A few more discussions and this is feeling good, they have had all the right answers to my questions, and there is plenty of them, that's what building services engineering does.