does the design process usually take this long?

13 years ago

or am i overly obsessive?

i've been working on the remodel plans for close to a year!

first i had the grand idea for a full two story addition, which proved too pricey. so then we played around with turning the living room into the kitchen, and a bunch of other variables. i meet with the architect almost weekly, thank god she is a family friend who has her degree but not her license, so i can afford all of these meetings. she does the drafting up of my ideas, which i than bring to the builder for his costs.

granted, our remodel has some complications, but i'm sure most do as well.

so how long did it take you to get to a plan you were happy with and could afford?

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Comments (5)

dianalo
13 years ago
We have the added issue of needing a variance for doing anything to the side of our house where the work will be because the builder put every house on our block too close to the property line on one side.
The plans part could have been the easier part. However, because we have SO much time while trying to satisfy the town's every whim (new regime which nitpicks to the nth degree), our plan has changed a ton. The layout has stayed fairly stable, but details within it have changed a lot.

I think the layout we will end up with is greatly improved from where we started, but you get to a point where the gains are not very big because you thought everything through already.

On the bright side, if you are taking out a loan or refinancing to do the work, rates have come down and it is a little bit easier to go through that process now than a year ago.

You will know when you have a plan that works for you. You can also always fine tune little things while in the process of the work being done. I think you do not want to rush the planning phase because you will have many years to regret haste. It takes the time it takes and can be different for everyone because of different starting points, challenges and goals.
warmfridge
13 years ago
I spent about 9 months planning my kitchen renovation, which did not involve any major structural changes to the house. It takes a long time to research everything...cabinets, countertops, sinks, faucets, etc.
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User
13 years ago
I have a couple of clients who have been planning a major reno for going on 4 years. At first, they couldn't agree on the scope of remodel the existing and tweaking or a new addition. When they settled on the new addition, we did a layout for that. Then the home market crashed and they put the project on hold because of financing. The came back to it and decided on the tweaking the existing. I did another layout. It didn't have everything that the addition would provide, and utimately, the wife decided that even if they had to finance it from selling some of their stock portfolio, they were going ahead with the addition, just a smaller one. I did another layout. Then the stock market took a bit hit this spring and we were back to tweaking the existing structure with maybe just a small bumpout---which they discovered was much more pricy per square foot than the larger addition. We're back on hold for this project. They've invested who knows how much with their architect and have long since exhausted their retainer with me. If they weren't family friends, we would have had to have more $$ for this project or have parted ways.

It's good that you have similar friends with which to bounce your ideas around. It's probably even better to invest in Chief Architect yourself. And, remember that adding space during a renovation will cost you at least twice as much as new construction of the same square footage, if not more. If there is any way to tweak your existing space, you'll come out many dollars ahead. That's pretty important in a flat or down market.
la_koala
13 years ago
Yes, it can.

I started imagining my kitchen remodel about 3 years ago. At that time, it was just going to be redoing the inside of the kitchen space/layout plus some new windows.

After the first few years where I learned a lot, but got paralyzed with choices, we decided to hire an architect to ground us in reality and give us more momentum. That was a year ago! Over that time, we expanded the remodel into the powder room next to the kitchen and the mud room off the kitchen.

I will say that at this point in time we have an almost complete list of specifications for the project, are done interviewing GCs and their references, and are very very close to having the final construction drawings done and ready to go to the GCs for bidding. Even though it took a full year with the architect, plus all of my previous research, to get us to this point, we are very comfortable with our choices--and for people like me and my spouse, reaching that comfort level was worth the time it took. The time investment has lowered the level of risk.

The downside though, is that the state's building code has changed over those years and brings with it some additional baggage that we have to fulfill.
breezygirl
13 years ago
I've been seriously planning this (layout, cabs, granite, flooring, etc.) for almost 1 year. We've been semi-planning for two. I THINK I have a layout that will work, finally, after dozens and dozens of layout drawings. BUT now we are considering moving the kitchen to the current dining room and swapping the family and living rooms. I've gotten over the impatience to start because I know now how valuable this planning process is. If we had built the first layout we had with the help of our not-really-an-architect-but-home-designer-guy last winter, I would not have been happy in the long run. We're doing more than just the kitchen, but I've spent most of my time planning it.

Affording the plan is another issue. We had a GC we really liked. He came in at a fair price for the estimate for the work on the bedroom/masterbath end of the house. It seemed like he would have more than enough left to do the main living areas of the house including the kitchen. Wrong. His estimate came back the day after we moved out of our house for the demo. He was more than $50K over budget. We don't have the extra $. Many of his sub bids seem very high. Plus, his cut of the project was $25K, plus tax. We finally let him go yesterday and will proceed as the GC ourselves. Money is more of an issue for us than time. We've moved into a 4-bedroom house in the neighborhood for which we only pay the utilities with no timelimit to move out. Time is on our side. I know GC'ing this ourselves will take more time, but will save us major money. I've learned so much here from others doing the same thing, and I know I can always ask for advice here along the way.

Just stay with it. I also think you should get some drafting software. It should save you $ from the architect doing it.

Do you feel like you're getting close?

does the design process usually take this long?

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dianalo

warmfridge

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