Single story vs double story

[quote="Corallake"]Just my 2 cents worth...
Your block is quite big compared to most and you will find that there is a minimum percentage of land that you can't build on (I suppose this depends the Council regulations you are dealing with too) having said that you can build a single story grant home/mansion with all the bells and whistles (like you said) and have decent yard. However, how close are your neighbours? Are you in a new estate (if so you can probably jump onto the local council site Application Tracker (or equivalent) and check what your neighbours will be building next to you. I don't think I could stand having a double story next to me if I went single (that's just me though). Another reason as stated by one of the members above is the view: if a second story would take advantage of that and increase the value of your home and can't be out built by other homes around you over time, then the outlay now will be beneficial later.
Stairs? We were quoted $14000 for open treads and glass around the void. Gorgeous, yes, did we do it? No. You can always put glass in later and if you have kids and pets be prepared to wipe the smears very regularly. And the obvious 'up and down'. We have 18 stairs straight up and by the 15th time it kind of gets tiring.
There are some stunning single story homes you can really add some oomph instead of having to pay for extras for two story as Structural Guy stated (scaffold, barricades and safety items) which can amount to $20-$25K.
You've been through it before so you should be right with the process. Good luck ote]

Thanks for the input. We met with our builder today to discuss the options. It’s a hard one. At the very start we had double storesy on our mind. I think at the end of the day my only concerns are that there could be some unexpected costs that will pop up come contract time but we built with Metricon for our last house and that was no different so I guess that’s building. There are other nice double story in our street and we have got single storey’s ekther side of us. I think we would be silly to not compete with the other double storeys for resale purposes. And for the stairs, we will most likely run the open treat but go for a more simple ballaustrade like the wire option.