Designing a new home is a fun and exciting process.  It involves identifying all of the parameters that may control the design and then crafting a plan within those parameters.  The process identified below leads you through the steps we generally take when designing a custom home.  Use the navigation bar on the lower left to step through the process.

Initial Consultation.  The whole project starts with the initial consultation.  You’ve decided that you might want us to design your home so you contact us and we set up an appointment.  There is no charge for this initial consultation. 

Pre-consultation Research.  We like to come to the initial appointment prepared with some site specific information so we ask you to supply us with a means of identifying the lot you plan to build on.  That generally takes the form of an address or tax parcel number.  We use that information to determine some of the site specific characteristics that may govern the design.  We use online resources to determine which jurisdiction that controls the permits, the property’s zoning, a rough idea of topography and current development conditions on the site.  If available on line, we identify the general zoning restrictions and any special mapped environmentally critical areas on or adjacent to the site.

Initial Interview.  Next we meet face to face to discuss your project.  We interview you to determine your design objectives.  Those design objectives, along with the site constraints, generally define the project’s program.  You’ll tell us:

• what kind of house you’re looking for (number of stories, architectural style)

• the size of the house (generally a square foot target)

• your budget (again a general target)

• which rooms you want, generally the sizes of those rooms

• any special arrangement of the rooms

• specific amenities you want

You may have graphical aids as well.  You may show us photos of elements you’ve seen that you like.  You may show us pages from a magazine or sketches you’ve developed.  We try to learn everything we need know in order to design your home in that first meeting.

This interview process works both ways.  When we’re finished we’ll know what we need in order to give you a proposal.  Hopefully you’ll have learned enough about us to know if you want to hire us.