How To Get A Great House

One of our “typical” client concerns (we don’t really have typical clients, they’re all better than that, but work with me here) is what they need to do to get a great house. “Great” in their minds is a completely undefined “something” floating around in the ether… they can’t even begin to describe it but they know they want it. They come to us because they seen some of the wonderful houses we’ve done for others and they know we have a reputation for giving our clients what they want, not just another version of one of “our” designs.

And we do design wonderful, exceptional, breathtaking houses. We know what we’re doing, we’re passionate about doing it, we’ve done it enough that we’re pretty much the most expert experts you’ll find. But… sadly, not all of our houses are wonderful/exceptional and there’s a reason, one reason and always the same reason. The client. Great clients get great houses.

When I was younger, I thought I could make anyone’s house a perfect expression of my client’s desire, by the force of my unbreakable will and my rugged good looks if by no other means. I’d work endless hours, burn through multiple design options and show them how their house didn’t have to be just like everyone else’s. Sometimes I’d be successful and sometimes I just couldn’t get them where they needed to be and inevitably their house would be just… OK, better than if we hadn’t touched it but not close to what other houses we’ve designed have been. We still do the endless hours and the multiple design options (that’s part of the life of a residential architect) but at least now I know that it is not within my power to make it what it could have been. Great clients get great houses. Poor clients get exactly what they ask for.

Great clients get great houses, poor clients get exactly what they ask for. I like the truth of it so much, that I thought I’d say it again. Great clients and not so great clients share many characteristics. Sometimes they know exactly what they want, sometimes they only have a vague idea. Sometimes they have large budgets, sometimes they have very small ones. The real difference, the only difference, between a great client (the one that gets the great house, remember?) and the poor client is that a great client lets us be the designer and they resist the temptation to pick at a concept until the design clarity is gone. I’ve had great clients that would send me sketches almost daily, but they didn’t expect me to do just what they sketched, they where communicating graphically and they expected to get a sketch back from me proposing what I thought might be a better alternative. When a poor client sends me a sketch, they don’t understand why they’d get a sketch in return.

A great client, when working with multiple designers, say an architect, landscape architect and interior designer, will make clear to all parties where they stand and in what areas (if any) their (the designer) opinion will be considered as primary AND will let a strong design concept override minor considerations. Poor clients let the interior designer force (totally different than “suggest”) changes to the architecture or they let the architect overrule the landscape designer on plant selection or they’ll crush a strong design concept because they “can’t see themselves being satisfied with a dishwasher on the left side of the sink” (as an example of a minor consideration). The great client knows why they chose the members of their team, knows that it’s their job to make sure that the team members are playing nicely together, knows who’s opinion is important where AND let’s the designers work through design issues. They know when to leave a design alone.

Building A Compact Home Or Directions To Develop A Diminutive Dwelling

“Our last house was too large.” “I really want to build a house that’s just what I need and nothing more.” “I’m tired of cleaning all of these rooms that I never need, I want a cozy little cottage.” If I had a dollar for all the times I’ve heard that in the last five years I’d have a dollar. I keep waiting for the light to come on in the market. I’ve been hearing rumblings from prognosticators for years about the coming trend in downsizing, but frankly, it hasn’t happened. There are so many reasons to build smaller; lower overall cost, potential lower maintenance cost, ability to afford higher quality, lower operating costs and, if you decide to build a new house, nothing reduces your carbon footprint like a smaller physical footprint. Always the optimist, I’ll assume that the reason you haven’t been insisting on a smaller house is that you don’t know how to build a smaller house. Here are my concise considerations for “Building a Compact Home” or “Directions to Develop a Diminutive Dwelling”.

First and most importantly, compile a detailed list of what you want to build. Don’t focus on the size but what rooms you’ll need and how you’ll use them. Think in terms of whom (and how many of said whoms) will use the room and the furniture you envision in the room, such as, “a den, with bookcases for 1,000 books, seating for three around a fireplace with a sofa and a comfortable chair. A 5 ft. desk and chair will allow us to also use this room as an office.” Don’t worry if you don’t know how many books to plan for, but if you don’t give your architect at least a general idea, how will you know if you the bookcases in the plans are adequate or way over what you need? Be firm with your program requirements. To say, “maybe I want a separate office,” means that you’ll get a separate office. “A dining room to seat 6 to 8” literally means you’ll get a dining room that seats 8. A plan that includes a furniture layout is a good way for you to see if the space is being used efficiently. Eliminate all of the things you think you should add because “every house has them” but you’ll never use. Formal living rooms, dining rooms and large bathtubs frequently fall into this category. Large “glamour” baths photograph well but don’t make it any easier to get ready in the morning and a smaller bath can be very luxurious and still cost less than larger ones. “Lots of closet space” is on everyone’s list, but how much of what you put in those closets do you ever use? (Almost) like in the movie “Field Of Dreams”, if you build it, stuff will come to fill it up.

Hallways can eat up space but they are not “wasted space”. Halls are useful in providing separation between rooms and allowing rooms to occupy areas on the property where multiple rooms can take advantage of views. However, if you want to be on the extreme end of efficiency, there is nothing inherently wrong with walking from your family room directly into the master bedroom. But, please, make up the bed before letting guests in! Look for rooms that can serve dual uses. If you only use your dining room for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners maybe that space could be an office for the other 363 days of the year and the dining table, sans extra leaves, could be the desk. Or, maybe you need to have room for your breakfast table to expand. You could use that extra space for a sitting area with 2 wingback chairs that will be used at the ends of the expanded table. Don’t build for furniture that you have but never use. Your grandmother’s dining table maybe nice, but is it nice enough to build a room, say 12 ft. by 16 ft (192 square feet) at $200 per sq. ft. for a cost of $38,000? Is having a place to display this piece of your family history worth that to you? Also, consider what’s going to happen to it when it becomes part of your estate. Will your children really keep it? Maybe, you should give it to them now. Although, chances are that it doesn’t fit their lifestyle and they can’t really use it. Maybe it’s time to talk to an antiques dealer or a consignment shop.

And finally, we all have dreams of our children and grandchildren at home with us over the holidays. We all do the mental calculation of our children and their spouses or future spouses and grandchildren, real and imagined when planning our dream homes. At $200 per sq. ft., allowing for a closet, bathroom and hall, you’ll spend $60,000 per guest bedroom! You might consider renting a house for the holidays. A Hilton Head Island ocean front house with 4 bedrooms can be rented for $3,250 over Thanksgiving week. Consider starting a new family tradition and save money!

Although it may sound like it, I’m not telling you to sell your dining room table if your greatest joy is cooking on Saturday night for your friends and I’m certainly not suggesting that a long soak in a hot bath isn’t one of the great pleasures of a cold winter night. My point is that in order to build a smaller home that meets your needs, you have to leave some things out and that those things should be the ones that you won’t miss.

Design Can Change Lives!

What a concept! Not a replacement for a wheelchair, but it supplements it. Think how you interaction with someone changes when they’re standing instead of sitting. Think how the much difference it would make in the life of someone who’s movement is currently restricted by a wheelchair!

It does have implications regarding accessible design, of course, but this is more about lifestyle.

See more.

What’s Wrong With Kids Today?

Well, based on Celina Dill Pickle’s blog, absolutely nothing! 16 years old, great student, teaches dance part time, interning for a great architect, Ross Chapin and building her own tiny house in her spare time.

Read more about her on the Tiny House blog.

What Color Did You Use On…

Long ago, a friend of mine told me about an exchange she had with an architect. She was so mad that she could hardly speak to me in a calm voice. (Guilt by association?) She had seen a house in a magazine, liked the color of something (I don’t remember what), tracked down the architect and called his office to get the paint color.

She went right out and bought enough paint to paint the what-ever-it-was and, low and behold (do people still say that? Besides me?) anyway, low and behold, it was the wrong color. She was convinced that the architect had either been too lazy to look up the color and just told her something to make her go away or had deliberately mislead her because he was protecting his “look” or something like that.

Well, that really was a long time ago and I didn’t have any hands-on experience, having never had a house published, being tracked down and asked for details. There’s nothing like hands on experience and in this case it has taught me to say (as nicely as possible, of course) something like this:

“I’m sorry, but the color that you think we used has been photographed, digitized, adjusted, transmitted to the magazine’s art director who has further adjusted it. When I look at it, I see the color that it really is, so if I give you the spec, I’d do it honestly believing that the information is correct. I’ll be wrong and you’ll be disappointed.”

So, the point I’d like to make is that the well meaning architect or interior designer on the phone may not know what I know. Save everybody a little time and effort. Don’t even bother to call. Take the magazine to the paint store and match it to the photograph.

Who Should Interpret The Architect’s Drawings, The Builder Or The Owner?

For those of you who’ve ever assembled a grill, a bicycle or similar item from the instructions, you know that there is nothing like clear drawings that show each step in order. For me, anything less is generally cause for words not used in polite company and, occasionally, a tool or “extra” part may be propelled at maximum velocity against a conveniently positioned vertical surface. I am amazed that so many “some assembly required” products have such poorly written instructions, and by amazed, I mean the kind of amazed that causes the veins in my forehead to protrude and my wife to send the neighborhood kids inside. With these items, there is no interpretation of the drawings and specifications, it’s either there, on the picture AND on the parts list, or there’s trouble ahead.

Architect’s drawings are not intended to be that way. They are merely a rough schematic, an outline, of the intended building. Even the most detailed sets of plans and specifications, aka “working drawings”, require experience, knowledge and the ability to interpret those documents to achieve a completed building. So this really is a trick question. The owner, in all but the rarest cases, isn’t capable of properly interpreting the intent of the drawings and the builder is too concerned with timeframe and profitability and generally has limited experience with esthetic judgements necessary to do so. The standard AIA contract places the architect as the sole judge of the intent of the documents, the theory being that we (the architect) are trained to be fair and impartial in this regard, even if we must find that the drawings support a solution that isn’t what we (the architect again) might wish that it to be.

One example is plumbing drain pipes. If there are specifications, they may make reference to all work being in compliance with the latest version of the applicable building code. That will generally be the only place that will lead to the requirement that these drain pipes even exist. You take it for granted that these pipes will be there and be sloped so that they drain properly, but to find out exactly how much, you’ll need to go to the building code to get the proper reference for the plumbing code that will refer to American Society of Plumbing Engineers documents. However, an experienced plumber will know that 1/4″ per foot is the recognized standard and also know when that standard is not adequate. Because these drain pipes aren’t shown on the drawings and because drain pipes and heating/air conditioning ducts may sometimes need to occupy the same spot, the builder is responsible to work out the conflict. If the builder is unable to resolve the conflict without dropping the ceiling, an interpretation of the drawings is called for.

(Don’t lose interest, there’s an important point coming up soon.)

If the builder is the experienced type that plans ahead and is always trying to anticipate conflicts before they happen, he will have seen this and informed the architect of the conflict before either the plumber or the HVAC subcontractor have fabricated or installed their work and they will work out a solution. If the builder is not a forward thinker, he’ll let the plumber install his drain pipe in a place that the HVAC duct needed to go and his only “interpretation”  will be that the architect didn’t know what he was doing and the only solution will be to drop the ceiling. Maybe he’ll bring the architect in but he will have already boxed the architect into to the only solution that doesn’t require the plumber to rework his pipe. NOTE: this is NOT how it’s supposed to work. Given some time, the architect and builder, working together, can usually find a solution that is invisible (as plumbing pipes and duct work generally should be).

As irritating as the example above is to my architect sensibilities and as esthetically poor the solution might be, there are worse examples of “interpretation”. As architect, we not always involved with the owner and builder during construction. In these cases, we see the the completed house and it bears only a passing resemblance to the house we designed. What happened? Well, the builder will tell the owner that (for instance) the 14 inch diameter columns the architect specified are special order and he can save the owner $x by substituting 12 inch columns and, by the way, “no one” can tell the difference anyway. The framing subcontractor picks up 10 inch columns (“no one” will notice and the 12 inch columns will take a week to get) but no one changes the width of the beam above or modifies the architrave (details of the beam) so the end result is a jumbled mess. Repeat this scenario 20 times and the house is not the house that the owner paid the architect to design but has been “interpreted” in a way that looks remarkably like every other house the builder has built.

What the architect designed and the owner contracted with the builder for.

What the owner got.

If you prefer your builder’s sense of beauty and proportion more than your architect’s, then you’ve got it! If you really wanted your architect’s version of your vision, you’re out of luck. A good working relationship between the owner, (skilled and experienced) architect and (also, skilled and experienced) builder where all parties are actively working towards the same goal is the most reliable way for the owner to get the final product that he thought he was getting when he started construction.

Old Age And Remodeling Are Not For Sissies

A fixer-upper, what could go wrong?

It may appear that I’m going to try to talk you out of that remodel you’re thinking of, I’m not. I’m just trying to help you enter the process mentally prepared. Even simple remodels can surprise you and the more you know, the better prepared you’ll be.

Before the first worker steps foot in the building, a series of small events, assumptions, really, have all worked to make you think that you’ve prepared for the worst, when you’ve really been willingly ignoring potential warning signs of things that will affect the cost down the road. You listened to your real estate agent confidently telling you what the cost would be but you didn’t find out what his track record in preliminary pricing exercises was. If you would have, you would have found out that he really doesn’t have too much experience in that area. You did, being a savvy buyer, build in a contingency, but  it was a contingency added on to an unrealistic number. The same thing happened with your architect and your builder. Each one got you to edge your number up somewhat, but in each case, they’re reading your reaction to what they’re saying and without realizing it, you and your architect and your builder have eased the projected cost a little closer to your comfort level.

Now, I’m really not trying to talk you out of the project! You need a house, the architect and the builder need the work… but there’s more.

If there are existing drawings of the house, everyone will assume that, for the most part, they are relatively accurate. They’re probably not. If the plans can’t be found and your architect measures “everything”, he really hasn’t. He’s made assumptions and best guesses because … well, because it’s really hard to check everything and insure that your measurements are accurate. Usually, discrepancies are very minor and don’t affect the work. Usually. And the architect has explained this to you (maybe) and told you that he doesn’t accept the responsibility for the existing drawings or guarantee the accuracy of his own as-built drawings.

The builder and his subcontractors will also make assumptions when pricing the work. They may miss that sloping floor. They may see the sloping floor and assume that the fix is simple. The may see the sloping floor and forget to include anything for it in their price. The slope isn’t a little thing because in this case, it’s caused by a sagging foundation caused by the collapse of an abandoned (and now worthless) silver mine. They’ve warned you that things like this happen and that you (rightly) will be expected to pay for anything not specifically addressed in the contract as “fixed price”.

However, you have a design and you have a price that has a contingency built in and you’ve decided to spend more money than you hoped you would, but it’s still the right house at the right time, so you bite the bullet and sign the contract for construction.

Only, you really don’t know what the cost will be even if the building itself yields no surprises. You didn’t pick out things like kitchen cabinets, appliances, flooring, wall tile, door hardware and a few other things. There just wasn’t time, so you, your architect and your builder used “allowances” in the contract to cover the expected cost. If those assumptions were correct, you’re in business! No financial surprises and you’ll get just what you want. Hopefully. Unfortunately, we just entered a trade war with France and the La Cornue stove that the whole project has increased in price from outrageous to other-worldly.

By this point, you should be sure that I’m bent on talking you out of remodeling in spite of my assurances, so again, I’ll say, “do it! It will be OK.”

But now that construction starts we find that the squirrels in the attic have eaten through a place in the roof that no one noticed, raccoons have chewed through the wiring and it has to be replaced and termites have attacked the house through the one place under the house that no one could get to. Your contingency was blown by sagging floor/abandoned silver mine but you’re under construction and you can’t stop now and in the end, that will be a good thing, because you are going to love your house. In the end, you’ll be sure that it was all worth the effort.

Just remember, remodeling, like old age, is not for sissies.