Our House Design Process

With our background as Architectual Technologists (Licensed Residential Designers) we are able to help advise you throughout the design stage.

We will assist you with items as listed (but not limited to); design of space & function for each room, room layout & traffic areas, exterior finish details, roof & window styles, reccomend optional structural components, future space planning etc, all while keeping in mind certain elements such as; natural light, possible furniture layouts and cost effectiveness.

Upon approval of our design quote, this is our 5 step home design process for each of our projects.
House plans and their necessary revisions will be relayed either by email, fax or available for pick up during these stages. 

Time from step 1 to step 5 varies greatly on each individual client and their time frames. Some clients come with hopes of breaking ground in the next 2.5 weeks, while others come with a desire to start building in 2 years. Therefore, each client and their needs will be treated respectfully for their individual time restraints.
As a rule of thumb try to allow a min. of 4 weeks from start to finish.
 

a. We have a consultation, preferrably here at our offices, or at your present home ( must be on-site for additions) to discern the client’s wants & need.
b. We establish your present and future lifestyle
     i. Establish what you like & don’t like
     ii. What you want & don’t want
     iii. Distinguish form & function
c. We listen to your priorities, design styles, goals & budget and design a solution.
d. We find out or determine constraints such as view, privacy, building envelope & setbacks
e. Client presents any photos, house plans, sketches of their desired outcomes

Typically at this point we draft up sketches with you as shown to right to help get a sense of "wants" 

From the information we obtained, we create and send the client a concept floor, a “starting point” to get the ball rolling. These preliminary concepts quickly help establish size, shape, scale and structure of your new home.

 

 

 

 

 

We take the clients response to our initial preliminary concepts and begin to change & revise the floor plans as the client has wished. At this point we send back the revised floor plan to the client and this process gets repeated over again till the plan is “just right”. The time that is required for this process is in large based on the clients ability to receive the house plans, review and return comments to us. Some clients take a few days to replay back with comments, some take weeks to months – you may take as much or little time you like. During this time, which is the bulk of the home design process, we discuss different details, ideas, layout possibilities, room sizes and locations, windows etc. This is the time that we recommend the client to come in and sit with us while we make changes/revisions and create ideas right before your eyes. We recommend the client take out a measuring tape and compare their new room sizes with sizes of the current home they live in. Also we ask that you give us sizes of any important pieces of furniture that you currently own that are to be incorporated in the design.

At this point with the clients final approval of the house plans we began to re-draw the house plans so they are permit ready. We complete structure, add all required notes & details, finishing touches to the elevations and cross sections. 

At this stage with the working house plans ready to be printed off, we send one final copy to the client to make sure there are not any last minute changes they want to make or failed to mention.

Step 4 will take 15 +/- business days from the time we are notified from client to finalize, to the completion of the full set of house plans. 

 

 

 

 

With your finished dream home completed and plotted off, signed designer schedule 1 sheet – which is a guarantee of building permit, we now arrange a time to meet for pick-up, or ship the final set of house plans.

See a example of completed construction house plans.