Don't you love the stillness of the early morning for getting stuff done?  It's 5 am and I'm taking advantage to work in the quiet of the dawn.  I’m just finishing up a set of plans that had to get done yesterday!  It seems they all have that deadline.

They are perfect, if I do say so myself!        BTW, not my office, but isn't it sweet?                                             

I can’t believe I got everything they wanted in the designs and then some!  Wait till she sees the extra space we found for a yoga room, just for her!

But wait...what’s that I hear?  Is it my client calling to change something on the plans just when I finished drawing them??  Another baby?  Scrap the yoga room for a nursery. Yup!  Happens all the time.

I grumble for a sec then remember the end goal, the perfect home for their family.  No shovels yet, just me and the eraser. 

Cheap and easy! (the eraser, not me!) 

So, if ever there is a time, BEFORE construction starts IS THE TIME to make changes.

The design phase is where you get to dream, scribble, cross out and start over.  You can change your mind like my 18 yr old getting dressed on a Friday night!  It doesn’t cost much to dream on paper.

You, alone with a set of preliminary plans and a roll of tracing paper?  There are no limits!  Scribble, move stuff around.  Crumble it up and start over. 

Here's the reality of my office when I’m in design mode! 

Try every scenario.  Step away and come back to it. Great solutions sometimes need time to marinate!

The more time you spend in the pre planning stage of your home, the more time, money and value you will get out of the design, the process and your future home!

READ THAT AGAIN!

MORE TIME, MONEY AND VALUE.  Can’t beat that for a few extra hours of planning.

 Now it will cost you to keep going back with changes to your architect.  Check how many hours of time or changes are included in your contract and what is the hourly rate for drafting revisions.  That way you can make all your changes at once and save a few bucks.

“Trust but Verify”

Ronald Reagan

Check those plans!

Once you have a set of preliminary plans from your architect or builder, check every inch!  Don’t leave anything to chance. 

Get a ruler out, know the scale of the page you are working with (¼” scale is standard for home plans) and start measuring.  Make sure you have the space you need. 

I have never seen a perfect set of plans, never seen a set without a mistake or a major detail missed...

NEVER in 30 YEARS!

There’s a mistake in there, keep looking. 

Need more help?  Stuck with something you don't understand?  Send me an email, maybe I can help...

Measure the furniture that makes the cut to the new house.  Does it fit?  Where's the bed going?  Lay it out so you can see it.  How big a sofa can you fit and still be able to walk around?  Are the windows too low?

 My husband does not see plans the way I do.  It’s not his job.  So, when I designed our house, I took chalk and drew out spaces on the floor for him.  I used boxes and furniture as stand ins for cabinetry.  Sharpie on the walls! (what the heck, they were knocking it down anyway) 

Do whatever it takes to feel the space and get it right before you start construction.

Changes during the design phase are normal and to be expected. 

If you don’t normally spend your days looking at architectural plans and designing a home, then there’s going to be some “back and forth”  It’s expected, hell, demanded, that you comb through your plans and find those changes and mistakes now.  A few extra hours of planning and paying a draftsman to make changes is a whole lot cheaper than a change during construction.

The average change order during construction is:

$5,000

That $5,000 is;

• a soaking tub to die for
• a swanky custom walk in closet with velvet lined jewelry drawers 
• the upgrades you want on kitchen appliances
• an extra bath for a guest bedroom (or no sharing baths for kids!)

Don’t cheat yourself the things you want in your home just because of oversights in planning or changing your mind. 

THE REAL COSTS OF CHANGES

Changes are estimated to cost the homeowner between

4% and 17%

of the overall budget.  So that $5,000 is actually more like, Oh crap, I’ve gotta find a calculator!  Hold on…

THE AVERAGE COST to BUILD A HOME = $300,000

(courtesy of National Home Builders Association 2020, Home Advisor and U.S. census 2020.)

If those numbers are to be believed, that means, on average, changes during construction amount to

$11,000 to $51,000 of the total budget. 

That's expensive and painful because it is SO EASY TO AVOID!

That breaks my heart.  The things you could do with that extra cash in a design budget makes my mouth water. 

If I gave you an extra 50k while you are building your house?

What would you do?

The savings are in the plans and the planning! 

 The nuns always told me in high school (as they smacked me in the back of the head with a textbook),

“Proper pre planning prevents piss poor performance!”

Come along for the journey if you want to learn to make less mistakes in your new building project!

Best,

Liz

p.s. Like my FB page My Design Sherpa for tips, tricks and a bit of humor!