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The full contents, before you pay for it. Open any piece to see what it covers. The section counts are the real ones.
Helps you decide whether to start this year or next, and on what number.
If you only have ten minutes · The reality nobody tells you up front · Why mistakes cost more the longer they wait · The framework for being ready: why are you building this? · Money: are you funded for the whole project, not just construction? · Build, buy, or wait · What to do this week · Checkpoint: do not move to Module 2 unless · If you remember nothing else · What comes next
Helps you decide whether to buy a plot, before the token advance leaves your account.
If you only have ten minutes · The order matters: legal before everything else · Before you pay any token money · Layer 2: Soil · Plot size is not buildable size · The financial reality of site cost · Site visits: the minimum schedule before commitment · Checkpoint: the plot itself · If, then · If you remember nothing else
Helps you decide what you can actually afford, rather than what the per-square-foot rate implies.
If you only have ten minutes · The cost-per-square-foot anchor, and what different budgets build · The full project cost stack · The contingency, in detail · The loan reality check · Reading a contractor quote · Where projects actually blow budget · The cash flow curve over 18 to 24 months · Checkpoint: the numbers and the quote · If you remember nothing else
Helps you decide when to start, so the slab is not being poured in July.
If you only have ten minutes · Concrete: the non-negotiable wait · The lead time table: items ordered before they are needed · When it is too late to change things · How long sanction actually takes · Realistic timelines by home size · If your site has significant rock or steep slope · Normal turbulence versus real warning signs · Checkpoint: before construction begins · What to say when something feels off
Helps you decide which architect to appoint, and what to hold them to.
If you only have ten minutes · Finding the right architect · Questions to ask in the first meeting · The architect’s fee, and what it covers · Building the design brief · The Pinterest problem · Vastu, family input, and other late additions · When to walk away · Before signing: what should be in writing · Checkpoint: the contract and the brief
Helps you decide where the house sits on the plot, and which way the bedrooms face.
If you only have ten minutes · Layer 1: Orientation · Layer 2: The roof · Layer 3: The walls and the material conversation · Layer 4: Windows, glass, and the light versus heat trade-off · Layer 5: Ventilation and the cross-breeze · What an Indian electricity bill actually looks like · The architect conversation about climate · Checkpoint: envelope and layout · If you remember nothing else
Helps you decide what to spend on finishes, and which of them you will still like in 10 years.
If you only have ten minutes · What you are actually buying · Designer or decorator: the distinction that affects your budget · The six ways interior projects fail · Where the architect’s work ends and the designer’s begins · The brief: what changes when you brief an interior designer · Fees, procurement, and the question nobody asks · Climate decisions that interiors can undo · Where to spend, where to wait · Signs of a good designer, and the warning signs
Helps you decide who builds it, what you pay when, and what you withhold until the snags close.
If you only have ten minutes · The four contractor models you will encounter · Reading a quote: the diagnostic version · The contract: what we have actually seen go wrong · Site supervision: how often, and what for · The first 3 months: when irreversible decisions are made · Why construction projects run late · The snag list: catching the small failures before they become permanent · Checkpoint: before construction · If you remember nothing else
Lets you recognise the hard months as normal, and gives you something to do in them.
A note on how you are reading this · What nobody tells you before you start · The financial commitment nobody talks about · The shape of the emotional arc · The relationship layer · Practical tools for the hard moments · A note from us
Gives you words for what you want, in language an architect can draw from.
What most builders do not notice until they move in · Proportion at human scale · Light that has direction and changes through the day · The one non-functional element · Materials that are what they say they are · Inside, outside, and the spaces in between · Storage that has been planned, not added · A home with personality, lived-in and yours · A home that sounds right · How to use this in your brief
Shows you what to do first, and what to set up before the project generates its first 200 documents.
How to use Build Informed · Where are you right now? · The only reframe you need before you begin · How projects actually fail · The five rules · How to move through the system · The emotional reality of building a home · How to use the tools · Guided tier, and consultations · What to do this week
Gets your legal and financial setup in place from abroad, while all of it is still easy to arrange.
What you can and cannot buy · NRI home loans · Managing payments from abroad · Power of attorney · Managing the POA relationship · Managing design remotely · Managing construction remotely · Handover when you are abroad · Five India visits to plan around · Where this connects in the main system
Lets you hold the Vastu conversation as an informed participant, while changes are still free.
What this reference is, and how to use it · The one rule that saves the most money · Main entrance · Kitchen · Master bedroom · Toilets and bathrooms · Water and drainage · Working with a Vastu consultant alongside your architect · The main schools, and why they disagree · Frequently asked questions
Catches the small things that cost nothing to get right now and a great deal to fix later.
Structure, envelope and roof · Electrical, plumbing and HVAC · Kitchen · Bathroom · Utility, laundry and entrances · Bedrooms · Living, dining and home office · Staircases · Windows, doors and safety · Garage · Lighting, joinery and other systems · Outdoor and exterior living · Children, pets and later life · Accessibility and later life · Safety · Insurance and compliance
Lets you tell a fair quote from a strange one, line by line.
Statutory and pre-construction · Site works and foundation · Structural framing · Walls · Slabs and roofing · Waterproofing and roof insulation · Electrical · Plumbing · Sanitaryware and bathroom fit-out · Kitchen and countertops · Doors and windows · Balconies, railings and shading · Flooring · Plaster, paint and internal finishes · Solar, backup power and water heating · Water systems · Waste and drainage · Fire and life safety · Smart home and security · Landscape and external works · Lighting fittings · Appliances · Professional fees · Contingency and taxes · Demolition and renovation
Turn what you have read into your own numbers, and into something you can hand to an architect or a contractor.
Build Readiness Scorecard · Budget Reality Calculator Lite · Home Personality Worksheet · Site Assessment Checklist · Site Comparison Worksheet · Site Development Cost Estimator · Budget Reality Calculator · Cash Flow Mapper · Contract Checklist · Project Timeline Tool · Architect Comparison Sheet · Design Brief Template · Design Iteration Log · Orientation and Room Placement Guide · Climate Strategy Guide · Eco-Build Cost Reality Check · The Vastu Extension · Interior Design Brief · Interior Budget and Climate Check · Designer Evaluation and Procurement · Finishing Materials Reference Guide · Contractor Evaluation and Quote Comparison · Construction Milestone and Site Log · Snag, Handover and Defect Tracker
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Your access is being prepared right now. Here is exactly what happens next.
Let's start by understanding your project.
We wrote this to be read, so it is short and there is no fine print. Tick the four boxes at the end to continue.
Build Informed is an educational decision-support system created by Kartofl Studio for people building their own home in India. It contains modules to read, tools to work with, and guidance messages timed to the phase of your build.
It is a decision making system. It is not a building contract, an architectural service, a project management service, or professional advice for your specific project.
Build Informed does not replace an architect, structural engineer, contractor, lawyer, or any other licensed professional. The tools and modules are based on general good practice and our own experience, but every real project has specific conditions we cannot see from here: soil, site, local regulations, family circumstances, budget realities. Your professionals see those. We do not.
Every decision you make using anything you read or calculate here remains yours and your professionals'.
You may use Build Informed for your own home-building project, and share it with your spouse, partner, or anyone directly involved in that project. You may not redistribute it professionally, resell it, or use it as a resource inside your own paid service without a licence from us.
If you bought the Guided tier, you also receive written reviews from Kartofl Studio at each phase transition of your build. These reviews cover the Build Informed tools you have filled in and the results they produce, together with the information you send us alongside them. They do not extend to the review of contracts or other legal documents, or to the review of architectural, structural or services drawings, and they do not include the production of drawings or design work. These reviews are advisory. They are not a professional signoff, a structural certification, or a legal opinion. They are one more informed view added to your decision-making.
Module 1 is free, so you can judge the depth, tone, and approach before paying anything. After you purchase, you may open one further paid module and take your time with it. If Build Informed isn't right for your project, tell us within 15 days of purchase and we'll refund you in full. Eligibility ends at whichever comes first: 15 days from purchase, or the moment you open a second paid module. We do it this way because one complete paid module, on top of the free one, is enough to know whether this works for you.
We store the information you give us (name, email, WhatsApp number, project details, tool inputs, diagnostic answers) to make the product work for you. We do not sell it. We do not share it with third parties for marketing. If you want your data deleted, write to us and we do it within 30 days.
If we update this document meaningfully, we tell you before it takes effect and ask you to accept the new version. Small clarifications may happen without notice, but nothing that changes your rights.
Write to us at design@kartoflstudio.com for anything: questions, refund requests, data deletion, or if you just want to talk to a human about your build.
Guided means our eyes on your results at every phase. You send us the tools you have filled in and what came out of them, and a written review comes back, up to 9 across the whole build. It starts with a 25-minute call with Lakshman, grounded in your project, not a script.
Six of them. They put you at the right phase of your build, so everything you see next is timed to where you actually stand.
Four questions. Each one saves you from typing the same thing into a tool later. You can change any of it whenever you like.
Not a test. This shapes how the guidance reaches you, and the tone we take when we do.
You won't hear from us every day. Then, three months from now, the evening before a site visit or an architect meeting, your phone buzzes.
A short message. The three questions to ask tomorrow. The one mistake to avoid. Timed to exactly where your build has reached.
You don't have to hold the whole process in your head. That is our job.
Before you go, three things worth checking:
1. The plinth waterproofing decision needs confirming before the plinth pour. One application moment, hard to redo.
2. Anti-termite treatment at plinth level, same window.
3. Curing takes 28 days to full strength. A contractor promising faster is using an admixture or building a defect.
One mistake to avoid: releasing a payment before the milestone it belongs to is verified.
Eight of them, covering every stage of the build in order. Open any of them any time. Nothing is locked, and nothing expires. Read what you need, when the decision is in front of you.
Twenty-four of them, each tied to a real decision: a budget, a site, a contractor quote. They remember what you enter, and what you do in one flows into the next.
Your home base. It shows the phase you're in, your Confidence Score, and the one thing worth doing next. Come back to it whenever you're not sure where to turn.
And the guidance ties it all together, putting each of these in front of you at the moment it matters most.
Most people think building a home is about concrete, bricks, and drawings.
It is really hundreds of decisions made over two years. Some cost a few thousand rupees. Others shape how your family lives for decades.
We built Build Informed because we kept meeting good families making avoidable mistakes. Not because they weren't clever, but because nobody had ever shown them how the process actually works.
You don't need to become an architect. You need enough understanding to ask better questions, and to recognise when something doesn't feel right. That is what we are here for.
Welcome. We're glad you're here.
Vanessa & Lakshman
Kartofl Studio · Mysore