Also what type of cladding would anyone suggest?

Hi Ang, I thought I'd follow up my earlier comment with pictures of before and after of pine cupboards I specified to be painted in a budget makeover. My clients tell me people presumed they had purchased brand new cabinetry, so startling was the makeover. Somehow I have put the "after" on the left and "before" image on the right!

It sounds like you've been through quite the rollercoaster with your building project! That's really frustrating to hear, especially when you had a vision that you were attached to. Construction dilemmas can be a lot to handle, and I can only imagine how the stress might have piled up over time. If you're feeling stressed (and who wouldn't be in a situation like this?), you might want to consider working off some of that tension. Since you're into home design and creating beautiful spaces, you might appreciate the aesthetic and functionality at Hitsona's fitness studio. Sometimes a little self-care and a change of scenery can inspire new ideas for other areas in life, including home design.

We asked a similar question when we bought our piece of bare land. We were advised that building a simple shape would reduce costs... so we've built a t shape. Single story is almost always cheaper. We have a builder who is happy to let us do a lot of work with him. We also choose to live on site, which saves us a lot in fuel. The kids and I clean up the building site most days. We've been able to separate the rubbish out between actual rubbish and recyclable material. As for cladding, we were going to do a mix of corrugated iron with plywood board and batten. But given some of the additional hassles, I don't think there's much in it cost wise. However, in saying all that, we chose to invest in long term benefits, so our house is exactly what we want and should be cheap to run. We were hoping to build for $1800 /sq m but we're still coming out at about the $2000 mark.