Architects, draftsmen or both?
This is a blow by blow of what we did to come up with a design for our house. I’ll start off by saying it was a long process. It also caused quite a few sleepless nights along the way. But I can also say, that for all it’s pain, the process eventually delivered a design we are happy with and which we know is the only one that is possible for us!
1 We met with a local architect
An architect was advertising in the local paper so we called him round for a brainstorming session. It cost us $700 for 2 hours, and to be honest we didn’t make the best of it. I had come up with a design that I would have liked us to achieve and the architect’s first comment was that it would cost 3 times our budget. We spent a lot of time discussing this rather than just moving on to what was possible. What I learnt from the process though is to have key questions set in your mind – where are the stairs going to go? Where is the best place for the bathroom and kitchen? If you go down this route, have an idea of how much you are prepared to extend and also a good idea of what you can spend. Know exactly how many rooms you want and where you want the focus of the house to be
2. We met with a draftsman
The architect said he would draw up concept plans for $10,000, but we were not sure that he was right for us as he hadn’t inspired us at the first meeting. Also, 10k seemed like a lot of money to be forking out. Friends suggested we talk to David Reynolds a local draftsman who did lots of similar houses, so we went to see him. For $1400 he would come up with 4 designs. He did. None of which we liked. We gave up.
3. Time passes
We lived with the house as it is, went off around the world, came back and decided to sell up and buy something else. Then we went to look at houses and saw a house we loved; it was just like ours, only renovated beautifully. The only problem was it was in a dreadful location. So we found out the name of the architect and approached him.He was very pleasant and we got on very well. He drew up some plans and they were not at all what we wanted. They were also twice our budget. We learnt that just because you like someone and have liked one house they have designed you shouldn’t be led to thinking they will be right for your design.
4. We persisted with the architect
We liked the guy – so I went back to him with what we didn’t like about his designs and what else we’d want. He drew up new plans but we could tell his heart was not in it. We learnt that you save a lot of time and heartache if you move on as soon as you realise the relationship isn’t delivering.
5. We put the house on the market
Sick of it all, we decided to sell. We had loads of offers and everyone kept saying – why are you selling? It is such a lovely house with GREAT POTENTIAL and in a fantastic location. Hubby said we should look at renovating one last time, but set a time limit of 3 months to get the design done.
6. We went back to the draftsman
We went back to the draftsman but this time with our own much more detailed ideas of what we wanted. It was an amalgamation of what had been said to us by the architects, the draftsman and some builders and also what we thought we could afford. The draftsman drew up the plans. We modified them a bit. We showed them to builders and modified them a little bit more based on their advice. And finally we came up with our plan.
And with the benefit of hindsight what would I say? Well if you can find a good architect you get on brilliantly with and who you can afford, then you will get an original piece of work. A draftsman will give you something more functional, but it will cost you less. So it kind of depends what you need. Personally I'm happy with our house, but sometimes I wish we had some quirky corners or original elements which an architect may have delivered.