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Dave S
Posts:0
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| 02/27/2008 8:48 PM |
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| I have been stick building for a good number of years. My wife and I are ready to build our own house and are wanting to use SIP's. We are looking for designers-architects who are familiar with them in the Cashiers, North Carolina area. Any suggestions? |
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wes
Registered Users
Posts:374
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| 07/04/2008 12:01 AM |
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This is very strange.
On another thread - architects vs. chief architect-, bullfrog asks the question should he design his own plans.
This question is quickly answered by someone from webster architects.
Now on this thread, bullfrog is recommending webster architects. And this post was put up 10 minutes before he starts the new thread about doing his own plans.
Bullfrog, I think something smells a little fishy, don't you? Are we trying to grow our business, Mr. Webster?
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Wes Shelby
Design Systems Group
Murray KY
wandr@ainweb.net |
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cmkavala
Registered Users
Posts:807
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| 07/04/2008 8:01 AM |
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I run across many who claim to have the expertise, ask them for a list of SIP projects they have successfully completed and a list of their SIP customer references
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Chris Kavala
chris@southernsips.com
1-877-321-SIPS |
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Donaldson
Registered Users
Posts:90
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| 07/04/2008 8:50 AM |
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Attention DYI'ers The internet is a great tool for plans humting. My wife and I spent weeks going through plan after plan, and yet we never found what we wanted, or what we needed. (6 bedrooms and 4 baths under 4000 sq. ft. with little wasted space such as a formal dining room etc. and lots of closets)
So I decided to make some plans myself. Half the fun of building your own home is doing the floor plan. I spent $68 for Punch Pro Platinum at Sam's Club. Today these are click and drag programs and are easy to use. We pretty much designed the house the way we wanted. Why settle for for someone else's idea, It is your house. You can get it very close to buildable and hash out all the differences with your wife of what needs to go where as far as living area. Then print off a few copies and show them to your friends and ask for suggestions and input. All of the corrections and changes can be done on your own dime and not at the high cost of the architect. Then when you get it real close take it to the architect and or SIP builder and have them go over it and make any necessary changes. I was surprised to find out that I did a pretty good job, the Architect only changed a couple of bathrooms to help them flow better. It was fun. They are going to charge you for their planes or yours the same to put them in CAD and make them presentable to the plans reviewer. If they are worth anything they will tell you what is good and not so good, and what will work and what wont, and why. The closer you get it to what you want the less it will cost you. Then you have the satisfaction of saying, Yes I designed this myself! |
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wes
Registered Users
Posts:374
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| 07/05/2008 6:44 AM |
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Donaldson,
The vast majority of my clients do exactly what you are suggesting.
About half do OK with the basic layout and design, the other half don't.
My job is to take my clients ideas and make them workable reality.
The science of home design is relatively simple, take a group of spaces and assemble them into a workable arrangement
The art of home design is to take this workable arrangement and make it pleasing to the eye.
And that means pleasing to everyone's eye, not just your biassed eye.
To me, an owner designed home can usually be seen a half a mile away. Usually its the little things.
Don't get me wrong, a lot of architectually designed homes look like crap. But generally, professional designers have learned, either thru education or experience, about these little things.
However, as a designer, my job is to make my clients wishes come true, and if it happens that I don't like the concept all that much, that's OK.
I focus on making sure the 'bones' of the project are good. And smooth off as many of the rough edges as possible. After all, the client is the one who has to live with their ideas when its all said and done.
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Wes Shelby
Design Systems Group
Murray KY
wandr@ainweb.net |
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Donaldson
Registered Users
Posts:90
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| 07/05/2008 1:50 PM |
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Wes,
No argument from me, the point that I was making was the owner can get the basic floor plan done with out having to spend 4K$, Which is why I mention that if your architect/builder is worth anything they will tell their client the pro's and con's of their ideas.
I was tired of going to brand new gated communities and looking at million dollar homes that from the out side were spectacular but then you find that other than the cloths closets in the bedrooms, they have two closets of only two feet wide in a house of 3500sq. ft. In my home I designed that each bedroom has at least a five by five walk in and then there are three 3 1/2 X 6 utility closets in the main toy room and 600 sq. feet of air condition storage space in the drop ceiling "attic" area and this is just up stairs. My kitchen has two 4 X 4 pantries, and a huge storage area under the stairs, that doubles as a tornado room. All of these ideas were from my wife and I going over floor plan and moving and pushing things around. Are you going to tell me that you are not going to have me on the clock every times I come in to your office and say Hey we would like to see the kitchen over here instead of over there. and have you print me out copies so we can look at it and talk it over with friends etc My kitchen moved twice and made multiple revisions before we had what we wanted.
So again my point was to go ahead an give it a try and just see what you come up with, what features you like etc and then take it to a designer such as yourself for the final touches and or suggestions. This makes more sense to me than buying a floor plan from across the country and not having any help with minor changes. |
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wes
Registered Users
Posts:374
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| 07/05/2008 7:27 PM |
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Donaldson,
Your points are well taken. And I agree that, for me and the clients, the worst scenario is a client that can't make final decisions, and be satisfied. My record is 12 total revisions of a plan. And it cost the clients a whole lot of money. My time is my living and I explain to every client that changes cost money.
But every plan should at least be reviewed by a competent designer to spot problems that can be corrected on paper much less expensively than after construction. I currently have 3 projects in house that came in with owner produced cad drawings. Every one of them had a least one problem that I have been able to correct before construction started. I have saved each of these clients substantially more than my fees have cost them.
Bottom line-- its far less costly to be told you goofed by a designer than by a builder.
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Wes Shelby
Design Systems Group
Murray KY
wandr@ainweb.net |
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Donaldson
Registered Users
Posts:90
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| 07/05/2008 7:46 PM |
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Posted By wes on 07/05/2008 7:27 PM
Bottom line-- its far less costly to be told you goofed by a designer than by a builder.
Wes, You are absolutly right!!!!
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ReadyToRetire
Registered Users
Posts:195
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| 07/05/2008 8:23 PM |
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Wes,
What types of problems do you have to correct in the owner designed houses -- could you give a few examples? (NOT a challenge, just curious.)
Very respectfully,
Larry
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wes
Registered Users
Posts:374
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| 07/06/2008 9:19 AM |
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Larry,
This will sound like a simple stupid, but the most common problem I see is that the owners and their cad programs don't allow for wallspaces. So many programs take measurements center to center of walls, and people don't realize this and take it into account with laying out floorplans. These leads to having to undersize doorways, and walking down hallways sideways. And the correction of this simple problem is never simple. Often it leads to total redesigns of the layout.
Another factor that comes up a lot is the lack of understanding of what feels comfortable to human beings. A simple example that I see a lot is the use of very tall ceilings in small spaces. A 16x16 room would normally be large enough for most bedrooms, etc. But if the ceiling is 20 ft tall, this room will feel uncomfortable. Ever notice how a lot of homes have these huge great rooms with tall ceilings and major windows, but the people spend all their time in other areas?
A very small sampling of what I see.
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Wes Shelby
Design Systems Group
Murray KY
wandr@ainweb.net |
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ReadyToRetire
Registered Users
Posts:195
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| 07/06/2008 5:25 PM |
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Thank you Wes.
My wife and I have been looking at houses for awhile, and the room-proportion and too-tall-of-a-ceiling issues are not limited to owner designs -- they are common in high priced homes. If someone tries to copy what they see, it would go down hill from a bad start.
Very respectfully,
Larry
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