SEE, BEFORE YOU BUILD…

the absolute reason for this whole websitel

it the cornerstone,

the touch stone

the kernel,

the KEY of good design, good logic, beauty.

It seems so obvious, but even really really great architects, DO NOT DO THIS.

When an architect gives you his blueprints….THEY ARE IN 2D…. You do not see where the windows and doors are, how high, how low.

You do not see the views

You often get an exterior drawing…….covered up with bushes and trees..hiding/disguising errors.

And yet….if YOU approve of “all the hard work” the “great architect” did…..YOU are SOLEY RESPONSIBLE for all mistakes….it always get passed back to YOU..”well you approved of the blueprints….”!!!!

I thought you meant

I didn’t know

Well you didn’t say, you didn’t tell me…

Starts popping out of the architects mouth….

See?

The ONLY way to avoid this, is for YOU to do your own drawing. YOU have to make the 100’s of decisions calmly, in your easy chair, with no pressure… You make the compromises, the good-better-best decisions…. weighing out cost, vs. appraisal afterwards….

This is not done in a hurry….but slowly…as you drive, do dishes, sleep…. the design crystalizes over and over till it is refined for all the right reasons,… space, $$$  appraisal, cost to build, flow, light, logic, zoning, and flexibility…

NO Arhcitect has time to extract all these decisions out of you…. YOU have to think…YOU GET to think… this is the joy and reward of drawing YOUR own house… for once in your life… YOU achieve this…

Else, how? Why? Would they build a freckle stone house, with siding and a roof that does not match….

A house where the roof does not match the siding

A house that absolutely does not fit the neighborhood.

A house with a 3-car garage facing the street, like a car repair shop.

All these ideas could have been mitigated, fixed, softened, on screen for free… but no.

In practical experience of building… so many decisions are made, on the spot, with 5 minutes of biased discussion in a pressure filled moment, when everyone is in a hurry for some answer… any answer….we just gotta get this job done…NOW mood.

But, if you were in a basic, design and architecture class…and you presented a 2-5M house that looked like this, your teacher would kick the design back, and say NO. It would be a mercy C if that.

How often do people get excited at the framing stage, and walk thru their new, dream house, and THEN realize it does not make sense?

The grand kitchen has windows at look at a 8foot fence? The pool is right under the neighbors window, the 3 car garage, and parking lot, is where the majestic views are… IF ONLY the entire house was rotated 180 degrees, suddenly it would all make sense.  If only…

Finally, having pictures of your house, will help you when a contractor or sub, says it it can’t be done…

“you can’t put a driveway in this tight space”

And you pull out your drawings, showing cars in each position.

Or an architect that puts stairs up, and not providing a landing, and windows at the top, middle and bottom of the stairs.

Having the landing right where you want a full-size door to fit…where he puts in a crawl space.  Over and over I could prove the better design is possible… not by words, or demands or anger. But by pictures.

And so so often, the subs did not speak English….and a picture bridged the communication problem.

So often, a contractor or sub, will repeat what they have done before successfully… repeat, repeat, repeat…. because they want to do the job, and get paid. Be done, and move on.

Showing them something different, is challenging, scary, a risk to them and their job.. A picture calms them down, and things can proceed with confidence.

Front yard stairs, with no rail….and sharp stone corners.

Straight stairs with no landing, in a 12 foot ceiling room.

Stairs that stick out to the main passage way, that is a trip hazard to people looking at the glorious room.

3 story house, with no elevator?

Decks too small to lean back a chair and put your feet up.

Resting in a grand living room, looking at the underside of a roof, instead of the sky and Nature.

A bathroom, completely internal to the house, such that it has absolutely no natural light.

Massive rooms, with no outlets for a lamp in the center where the people sit.

Just thoughtless, painful, ugly, and inconvenient design from top to bottom.

Besides the looks of a house… seeing it first, on your screen, from inside and out, checking the views, proportions, the flow…this can all be fixed.

In the moment, when the compressor is on, you can barely hear the question, when English is the second language.. you have to defend an idea… only a picture will get you thru this moment… A picture made in the calm of your quiet living room, without pressure… THAT will weigh decisions not what is easiest, fastest, or what we have done before.

Yes, been there, done that… over and over again.