Am I going to be stuck with a custom plan to get this, and is there a good...

Hi David – try Landmark. A friend is building with them up at Westmorland and she told me she had specifically chosen because they do a lot of 2 storey and she wanted a living area upstairs. She said they had plans she didn’t have to change much 🙂

In Nelson we have a company called The Orange Group / BQD, hearing quite a lot of negative feedback about them. Their sales tactics involve criticising other home builders methods of building and offering fixed priced contracts that turn out not to be as fixed as you may think!? They keep prices low by quoting very low coverage of kitchens / bathrooms etc. If you are building with them, please make sure you have images of everything you want and have them sign it / your specs may not match what you are expecting otherwise. Seriously, this is a company you should avoid from what I have heard. Milestone, and Jennian are company’s here in Nelson that have a good reputation, and stick with their fixed contracts. Their allowance for kitchens etc are higher so less chance of a variance. Good luck with your ventures. Joane ;o)