Omelet's right. All architects are different to some degree but no different than that of any other profession. But as others have noted above, most successful design results come from a highly collaborative effort with the client involved every step of the way. A couple of weeks later I asked if we could meet and he showed me his preliminary plan. To be honest, that scared me a little bit. I'm a believer that the best designers are fast on their feet. Coming up with the basic concept, or "big idea" ("Parti" in architect speak), should be highly interactive with all the conceptualizing done right there. Depending on project complexity, we all have to go "back to the shop" to some degree to fine tune up the "big idea" but if a guy/girl ALWAYS has to do that, IMHO he/she is probably not that creative. I do these sessions all the time, call them design “charrettes” and they typically last 4 or 5 hours and at the end of that time we have a house conceptualized. And no spectators are allowed as everyone there is an active participant! And you’d be surprised at the number of great design ideas a builder or owner can come up with. I do all the drawing freehand and if a “straight” line is needed, I just use the edge of my scale. A computer drawing may show what I know but a sketch will show what I’m thinking. To remove some of the mystery and to give you an idea of what you should be shooting for, here’s a recent charrette and it’s interesting in that the sketch in the photo I'm working on is the first floor plan (first sketch photo) and you can see how close the final “hard line" is to that sketch. There's usually dozens if not hundreds of sketches. This highly condensed explanation might make it appear there's one per floor!! I put a little star in a circle on the ones that are important so I can find them later in the debris field! That’s the builder in the grey shirt flanked by the owners and me with pen in hand. We started at 8AM and by noon we had the freehand sketches below. I hardlined them later so everyone could understand what we did but most of the designing was done in that meeting. And here's the actual charrette sketches, the fine tuned sketches (done later) and the final. Hopefully you can see the concept is all carried forward from the first "big idea" to the final. And also, everything is thought of simultaneously. We're not coming up with a floor plan and then "tacking on" elevations. And we're stopping design at the property lines, not at the exterior walls, like most posted plans in this forum do. This sketch is the actual one I'm working on the the charrette photo: First floor "Big Idea": Second Floor "Big Idea": Elevations and plans interposed Fine tuned up Final....not much different from the freehand conceptuals that were developed interactively:

Andy, For one, I had one of my design charrettes (if you're a regular here, you'll know what they are). The client loved what we came up with in that 5 hour session. Got back glowing emails, etc. We really didn't have to get going on construction docs right away because what was driving the bus schedule wise was the site/grading plan approval. About a month later I get a sketch by the husband with a "How 'bout this??" note. Different "bubble diagram". I rework the whole thing. Get a reply back that it now addresses all their concerns and they love it! About two months go by and I get another note from the husband with "How 'bout this??" I rework the whole design again. Get another note back saying "Looks great now! We love it!!". Two more times with this. I finally ask the husband what's going on. He says the problem is his wife always likes the initial design but over the ensuing weeks begins to have growing doubts about it and he sketches up something to "fix" it. At this point I'm wondering if I can make them happy. I didn't want to "leave them hanging" but I'm having serious doubts about a happy ending. The husband calls up. He says he loves what I'm doing but the wife wants to show my ideas to other architects and then get back to me with their comments. I jumped on that like a dog on red meat and politely said I think I've done the best I could so best to go with someone new. That was last fall and still no building permit filed for yet. For the other one there where about 30 small reasons that together added up to one big reason but part of it concerned the lack of trust I wrote about above. And that one was rough. This project was a reno of an existing empty house. We scheduled a meeting out there and a few days later I concluded, for a variety of reasons, it wasn't working out. I thought I owed it to them to tell them face to face in lieu of an email and decided to use the meeting to tell them. What I thought would be a 5 minute discussion turned out to be an hour. They refused to take "no" for an answer. I was drained. In retrospect I might have been able to bring them around on the trust issue given their effort to keep me as the architect but there where a bunch of smaller reasons too. When I look on these situations, it's never been about my income but always about my assessment of keeping the client happy while having their trust. For 36 years I've set that as the order of priorities and the income has always been good.

FWIW, and I realize the thread is old, but I have very recent experience with Dornbracht customer service I would like to share. It’s the pits! I bought near-$1000 of Dornbracht fixtures installed in my master bath. It’s been 7.5 years and the cartridges need replacing. Ok, perhaps the hard water in my area is a factor in their early demise. I can accept that. The screws with blue/red (cold/hot) plastic caps fell off within the first 3-4 years. I hadn’t thought about inquiring into a warranty at the time until my contractor happened to mention that there was a lifetime warranty. Now over 5 years old, Dornbracht customer service says the warranty is void. For two lousy screws! I don’t want free cartridges and this and that, just the two screws with the caps. MEANTIME, I called HANSGROHE about the kitchen faucet, same age, and they are sending me a replacement part with very little hassle. If you can even call emailing a photo to them a hassle, which is a totally reasonable request. HANSGROHE 4 EVER <3

I just read a post on here about Newport Brass, so maybe this was the best spot for my faucet question! I just posted this on Kitchens.. ..... I'm planing to get the Dornbracht Tara Ultra pull down for the kitchen sink. For the other faucets in the house, I slightly prefer the looks of the Waterworks Henry faucet over the more modern Dornbracht wall mounted faucets. Because they will be wall mounted and hard to access for repairs, I'm mostly interested in which brand has the best reputation and should require the least maintenance. I would switch to Dornbracht for the wall mounted faucets and shower plumbing if you think it makes a difference. I don't know which faucets are expensive because of their name or design vs which also have the quality to match. THX