Twists, Turns, and Dead Ends, The Hunt for The Perfect Architect
Designing our dream home has been a long and winding road. In the beginning, the plan was simple: renovate a split-level house and rent it out. Life, however, rarely follows a straight path. A job change and a blossoming romance, caused a re-evaluation of our priorities. Out went the rental idea, and in came the dream of a forever home. With new goals in mind, we embarked on a quest to find the perfect architect – a quest that proved to be more challenging than anticipated.
Architect #1: A Change of Plans (and Architects)
We connected with Architect #1 through a builder we were interviewing. The original plan was to add a front portico, roughly 250 sf on each of 2 floors and a workshop. The primary suite would stay in its existing location on the second floor. This, however, meant lots of steps. At the time, we were young, fly and in our prime so the stairs did not trouble us. (Cost $2,750).
Literally, in the beat of a heart, however, our lives changed. Health concerns became front and center. Walking, let alone walking up stairs, became a challenge. It really made us rethink our priorities in the moment and in the long term. We concluded that a main-level primary suite was needed. Unfortunately, by the time our health scare passed, Architect #1 was winding down his practice and unable to take on a larger project. He kindly referred us to Architect #2. Initial calls with Architect #2 about their process and expectations, however, left us with a bad feeling – it just wasn't the right fit.
The Design Carousel Begins
Thus began a seemingly endless round of interviews, starts and stops with architects, designers and design-build firms. Along the way, we encountered a range of personalities and skill sets. Our main priorities were to add around 1,000 s.f. to create a pantry and add a main level primary suite and workshop. Our pre-pandemic budget to renovate the existing part of the house and build the addition was $350,000 (not inclusive of the workshop).
Designer #3 proposed providing design plans based on our requirements that an engineer would provide construction drawings stamped for permitting purposes. Going through the project, we quickly learned that Designer #3 wasn't equipped to handle the complexities of our project or able to provide a layout that met out vision, resulting in wasted time and money. (Cost $950; not incurred engineer fees $5,000).
Designer #4, while capable of producing permit-ready drawings, left us with a design riddled with impracticalities including an open kitchen-living area bisected by unexpected columns that impeded flow and furniture layout. Further, when we presented the drawings to our builder they advised us that we would need to pay more design fees (from Engineer #5) for the detail drawings needed to build the project. Cost $3,500; lesson learned that minimum permit drawing sets may be insufficient to build an addition.
It was also at this time that we discovered that our design resulted in square footage much larger than we originally intended. The project ballooned to 3,500 sf, which made it difficult to stay within a construction budget we were comfortable paying. Despite being permit ready, we decided we needed a new design approach to stick to our construction budget.
Thinking that we may have a better end result with a combined contractor / design team, so that budget considerations could be considered throughout the design process, we turned to a design-build contractor who proposed starting over with Architect #6 to the tune of $15,600. The proposal scaled the project back to 2,800 sf, plus the workshop. It was hard, however, to envision a primary suite limited to roughly 400 s.f. and the proposal didn’t add an outdoor space that we desired. So, we knew we needed to keep looking for someone more aligned with our vision. Cost $250 for a site visit.
That someone showed up on our doorstep. A neighborhood builder happened to stop by and struck up a conversation with my hubby. After doing some initial due diligence on the builder, we decided to move forward. The plan was to knock down most of the existing house and start anew. The builder’s architect (No. #7) got to work on concept drawings. In the end, however, there were significant flaws in the drawings that caused us to question whether the design exceeded our square footage (and hence construction budget) requirements. This, along with communication barriers, caused us to lose confidence. Cost $3,800; returned fees $3,800.
Two long years into the design odyssey, we were introduced to Architects 8, 9 and 10 by a new, promising builder. We didn’t actually meet Architect #8 because the builder warned us that while talented, he had communication issues, a non-starter for us. Architect #9 sent us a proposal for $35,000. This seemed high based on quotes we received. Plus, due diligence revealed that the architect would be moonlighting our job, which also seemed unreasonable. Cost $0.
Architect #10: Seemingly right (and a Flaky Builder)
Architect #10 seemed promising. There was a sense of connection, a shared vision, and seemingly clear communication from the get-go. We conveyed our concerns with previous processes including that we needed the drawings to be sufficiently detailed for construction (not just to get through permitting). He seemed to understand our concerns. Then, the pandemic hit along with 5-6 month stretches of time between revisions from the architect. It was a slow and frustrating process to land on a design. It was even more slow and more frustrating to work through the details. 2.5 years later we had stamped architectural and engineering drawings in hand. Cost $16,000.
A Happy Ending (Finally!)
Our journey to find our architect was full of twists, turns, and dead ends. We ended up spending about $23,000 in design services, which is less than 5% of our post-pandemic construction costs. We learned valuable lessons about communication, project scope, and the importance of finding someone who understands our vision. While the process was long and frustrating at times, it ultimately led us to a design the included most of our priorities. So, to anyone embarking on a similar journey, take heart! There’s an architect or designer out there, waiting to be found.
P.S. Stay tuned for a future post where I delve deeper into the world of mid-century modern design and another unexpected detour on our road to renovation!
