Whether you're simply adding on a room or two, redesigning an existing space or building a new home from the ground up, you'll most likely need professional help. The first professional on your list should be an architect - someone to take your dreams and visions and turn them into a plan that can become, in reality, the home of your dreams. Choosing the right architect for your project takes a bit of time, research and effort on your part, but it's the first step in ensuring that your dream home becomes reality.
Do you need more storage? What activities will your new space be used for - entertaining, relaxing, working? What types of architecture already exist in your home or neighborhood? Is there a particular type of floor plan or home design you especially like - open, modern, Georgian, Victorian, environmentally friendly, northwestern? Find out which architects are designing what you like. Contact your state or province's architectural association or institute, too, to ensure that the architect you choose follows professional and ethical standards. As these are voluntary organizations, not all "good" architects will be listed, but a list from the association or institute can serve as a starting point if nothing else. Compile a list of possible choices.
Contact each architect firm on your list. Briefly describe your project and then ask if they are available to take it on. If a firm says they are available, request literature outlining the firm's qualifications and experience. If they say they can't take on your project right now, ask for referrals for other architects who may be available. Pay close attention to past and current projects. Finalize your list to two or three of the best qualified, highest recommended architects and set up interviews with them. The interview is essential to the selection process. Face to face interviewing is the only way to really know if that sort of relationship can exist between you and the architect. Some architects prefer for you to come to them.
Expect to see slides or photos of previous projects and perhaps examples of current work. How busy is the firm? Who will handle your project? (Insist on meeting with the actual architect who will be working on your project.) What is the firm's design philosophy? How will your project proceed? Ask to see an actual project, either completed or near completion. If at any time, you don't understand something or need clarification, ask for it. If you can't understand your architect, or if he or she can't communicate with you on any question or concern, then it's a good bet your working relationship will be fraught with miscommunication and misunderstanding.
Before requesting the interview, ascertain whether or not the firm charges for interviews. The right architect will be the one who can provide the creative skills, personal chemistry, and technical expertise at the most reasonable cost to help you plan a project that fits your needs as well as fulfills your dreams. Include scope of work, services provided, schedule, budget and the architect's fees. Architects are paid in a multitude of ways - hourly, by the project, fixed rates, or by receiving a percentage of the construction costs.
Fees per project vary also, depending on the size and scope of the project, the nature of your needs, and the services your project requires. Most firms have "kill fee" policies, too, to ensure that should you cancel the project at any point in the process, they receive some sort of compensation for the work they've done. Designing a building project can be fun and rewarding. It can also be a confusing, intimidating process. If at any time, you are uncomfortable with how things are going, you'll want to discuss your concerns with your architect. Working with an architect to design your dream home should be an exciting, challenging, positive experience. Choosing the right architect can ensure that it is.
A. Get Rid of Confusions between Custom Home Architects or Residential Architects
Each and every architect has its own way of working and presenting models for their work. Each and every person is unique in defining and designing their models whether it is for the home or residential or for the commercial modeling of its design. It is very important that you choose the right architect for your home design. Before making any decisions related to your project just make sure that how many space is needed for building a home, which activities will perform in which space, what is your budget for the project, how will it be financed and so on. Once you are done with the questionnaire or once you got all your answers then you can easily start the process of choosing the architectural services for your project. Get the quotations from the entire local architect.
And if you are looking for the particular residential design rather than commercial building or office design then search specifically for residential architects. Take an advice from seniors, local chamber of commerce, yellow pages, from the internet, speak to your friends, relatives, and also contact the American Institute of Architects. These sources are great way to find good architectural services for your project. It is also very important to differentiate between the custom as well as the residential architects. All custom home architects are residential architects’ whereas all residential architects are not custom homes architects.
B. The Secret Costs of Choosing Blueprints for Your New Home
When building a new home, whether hiring a builder or acting as an owner builder, one of your first decisions involves your home plans.
The choice of whether to buy stock blueprints from an online source or to have them custom designed by an architect can depend greatly on the area you are building and the local building department's requirements. If you choose incorrectly, you can run into unforeseen construction costs that can blow your budget.
As far as upfront costs are concerned, online blueprint sources certainly seem to be the cheapest.
What most people don't consider before purchasing an online blueprint, however, is that the blueprints do not come engineered for a specific county or building code. And, if you are building a walk-out basement on a sloped lot, you certainly can't expect a stock online blueprint to account for your particular foundation engineering.
Instead, online blueprints will be designed to meet one general building code, which will not necessarily be the building code for your county.
Depending on the requirements of your local building department, you may need considerable additional engineering work.
The only way to know this is to ask your local county building department what code they follow and compare this to what code the plans follow. If there is extensive work to be done to the online blueprints, it may be cheaper and better to start fresh with a local architect who is familiar with the county requirements.
Owner builders will also need to investigate whether the building department is particularly strict, as it may make more sense to hire a local architect.
Please be aware that changes to online blueprints can get pretty costly if you are making large changes.
The best course is to carefully review the floor plans being offered and decide if one will fit your needs exactly as offered. My advice to owner builders: if the cost is even close, choose the local architect.
Do not be cheap about your plans.
Owner builders who are planning to use a local architect and engineer to design their home will still need to do the same homework with the local building department to know exactly what is needed for submitting the building permit application. The more the architect has worked in that county, the better.
The county plan examiner should be able to tell you right up front what level of quality the architect typically provides. Owner builders save a lot of time and heartache by hiring someone who will provide properly engineered blueprints. This can translate to significant cost savings.
Architects, themselves, don't always provide the engineering for the blueprints. Instead, a lot of architects (especially if they are not really an architect, but a home designer) will provide the home design but outsource the engineering to someone who specializes in residential structural issues.
Anyone building a custom home, whether by being an owner builder or hiring a builder, will need to consider the overall costs of their new blueprints.
Do you need more storage? What activities will your new space be used for - entertaining, relaxing, working? What types of architecture already exist in your home or neighborhood? Is there a particular type of floor plan or home design you especially like - open, modern, Georgian, Victorian, environmentally friendly, northwestern? Find out which architects are designing what you like. Contact your state or province's architectural association or institute, too, to ensure that the architect you choose follows professional and ethical standards. As these are voluntary organizations, not all "good" architects will be listed, but a list from the association or institute can serve as a starting point if nothing else. Compile a list of possible choices.
Contact each architect firm on your list. Briefly describe your project and then ask if they are available to take it on. If a firm says they are available, request literature outlining the firm's qualifications and experience. If they say they can't take on your project right now, ask for referrals for other architects who may be available. Pay close attention to past and current projects. Finalize your list to two or three of the best qualified, highest recommended architects and set up interviews with them. The interview is essential to the selection process. Face to face interviewing is the only way to really know if that sort of relationship can exist between you and the architect. Some architects prefer for you to come to them.
Expect to see slides or photos of previous projects and perhaps examples of current work. How busy is the firm? Who will handle your project? (Insist on meeting with the actual architect who will be working on your project.) What is the firm's design philosophy? How will your project proceed? Ask to see an actual project, either completed or near completion. If at any time, you don't understand something or need clarification, ask for it. If you can't understand your architect, or if he or she can't communicate with you on any question or concern, then it's a good bet your working relationship will be fraught with miscommunication and misunderstanding.
Before requesting the interview, ascertain whether or not the firm charges for interviews. The right architect will be the one who can provide the creative skills, personal chemistry, and technical expertise at the most reasonable cost to help you plan a project that fits your needs as well as fulfills your dreams. Include scope of work, services provided, schedule, budget and the architect's fees. Architects are paid in a multitude of ways - hourly, by the project, fixed rates, or by receiving a percentage of the construction costs.
Fees per project vary also, depending on the size and scope of the project, the nature of your needs, and the services your project requires. Most firms have "kill fee" policies, too, to ensure that should you cancel the project at any point in the process, they receive some sort of compensation for the work they've done. Designing a building project can be fun and rewarding. It can also be a confusing, intimidating process. If at any time, you are uncomfortable with how things are going, you'll want to discuss your concerns with your architect. Working with an architect to design your dream home should be an exciting, challenging, positive experience. Choosing the right architect can ensure that it is.
A. Get Rid of Confusions between Custom Home Architects or Residential Architects
Each and every architect has its own way of working and presenting models for their work. Each and every person is unique in defining and designing their models whether it is for the home or residential or for the commercial modeling of its design. It is very important that you choose the right architect for your home design. Before making any decisions related to your project just make sure that how many space is needed for building a home, which activities will perform in which space, what is your budget for the project, how will it be financed and so on. Once you are done with the questionnaire or once you got all your answers then you can easily start the process of choosing the architectural services for your project. Get the quotations from the entire local architect.
And if you are looking for the particular residential design rather than commercial building or office design then search specifically for residential architects. Take an advice from seniors, local chamber of commerce, yellow pages, from the internet, speak to your friends, relatives, and also contact the American Institute of Architects. These sources are great way to find good architectural services for your project. It is also very important to differentiate between the custom as well as the residential architects. All custom home architects are residential architects’ whereas all residential architects are not custom homes architects.
B. The Secret Costs of Choosing Blueprints for Your New Home
When building a new home, whether hiring a builder or acting as an owner builder, one of your first decisions involves your home plans.
The choice of whether to buy stock blueprints from an online source or to have them custom designed by an architect can depend greatly on the area you are building and the local building department's requirements. If you choose incorrectly, you can run into unforeseen construction costs that can blow your budget.
As far as upfront costs are concerned, online blueprint sources certainly seem to be the cheapest.
What most people don't consider before purchasing an online blueprint, however, is that the blueprints do not come engineered for a specific county or building code. And, if you are building a walk-out basement on a sloped lot, you certainly can't expect a stock online blueprint to account for your particular foundation engineering.
Instead, online blueprints will be designed to meet one general building code, which will not necessarily be the building code for your county.
Depending on the requirements of your local building department, you may need considerable additional engineering work.
The only way to know this is to ask your local county building department what code they follow and compare this to what code the plans follow. If there is extensive work to be done to the online blueprints, it may be cheaper and better to start fresh with a local architect who is familiar with the county requirements.
Owner builders will also need to investigate whether the building department is particularly strict, as it may make more sense to hire a local architect.
Please be aware that changes to online blueprints can get pretty costly if you are making large changes.
The best course is to carefully review the floor plans being offered and decide if one will fit your needs exactly as offered. My advice to owner builders: if the cost is even close, choose the local architect.
Do not be cheap about your plans.
Owner builders who are planning to use a local architect and engineer to design their home will still need to do the same homework with the local building department to know exactly what is needed for submitting the building permit application. The more the architect has worked in that county, the better.
The county plan examiner should be able to tell you right up front what level of quality the architect typically provides. Owner builders save a lot of time and heartache by hiring someone who will provide properly engineered blueprints. This can translate to significant cost savings.
Architects, themselves, don't always provide the engineering for the blueprints. Instead, a lot of architects (especially if they are not really an architect, but a home designer) will provide the home design but outsource the engineering to someone who specializes in residential structural issues.
Anyone building a custom home, whether by being an owner builder or hiring a builder, will need to consider the overall costs of their new blueprints.
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