OK, I'll be the guy who points out that a guy (presumably) named Thomas building a house on an island who works as a PI...... I so hope you drive a red Ferrari!! :)

(yes that was a tongue-in-cheek Magnum PI reference! My wife loves that show! LOL)

LOL thanks, no red Ferrari here. A big white Tundra Double Cab, a Highlander and a 26' boat which will be far to big to put in the darn garage anyway.

Ok, so Thomas the PI, now that it's established that you don't have an eye for this, you need to find a single person architect or person of design talent who for several thousand dollars (vs the $30-$40,000 you first stated) will sit down with you in a one day charette and create a home that works for you and the Mrs.

Then you can take the drawings to a draftsman to finalize. And since you already have a builder, it would be great if when you sit down to design the house, you include the builder in on the session.

Don't look for the big firms. You need a single person who creates homes mostly.

(Kind of disappointed you don't have the red ferrari. lol)

And once again I highly recommend the book, The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka.

Thanks for the input and yes, they're Emerson DC fans. Our fans run here 24/7 and well worth it. No swimming pool, we spend our time on our boat and having a larger boat built. In our HOA, no detached garages. I have given thought to the turning radius to get into the garage and I am going to shorten the depth from 28' to 26'. If we put one side of the house at it's current length on the 5' setback line and the garage meets up with the left edge of the house, that'll pretty much give me a 30' width of concrete for turning in. The truck is 20' long. Worst case, pull in and back up slightly once and pull back in. I typically back in anyway so I plan to run the concrete past the edge of the garage by say 15' which should be plenty. The house faces the north and the rear patio will be covered so no heat worries from direct sun. The office has or will have one window facing the west as will the two bedrooms behind it. The one thing that is VERY hard by just looking at the floor plan is the feel for the house and plan. We have lived in it now for 8 months and it's really not horrible. I have owned my fair share of houses and toured countless model homes when I lived in South Florida. I have also toured some here locally and with an OPEN mind. NOTHING made us go WOW. Even just looking at sites like houseplans dot com or a host of others, when I plug in the parameters of a 4/2 and 3 car garage, no more than 65' in width, the returned options are NOT great. And out of those that are, ONLY ONE had a house with all walk in closets in every room. Maybe it's just me, but having storage is a great thing in our minds but, what do I know LOL?

The plans are with the drafting company at this time. They have seen, drawn, modified and created surely countless plans. I have passed on the thoughts posted here as well as the drawing that DP created. We can live with one larger walk in closet in the master but, the size of the master needs to be comparable. The office cannot be any smaller due to furniture requirements and I just had new custom made office furniture delivered. The remaining 2 bedrooms can be sized as they are or a tad smaller, no big deal. We'd like to combine the laundry area and pantry for canned goods. As for going up with a 2nd floor, we'd rather not. We are in good health, the better half is 49 and I am 56. However, down the road and this IS our forever house so no more moving and we have to take into consideration the thought of climbing up and down stairs and we'd prefer not to do that. The one thing I know I can do to open up the darker hallway is add solar tubes for some natural light and also add in one long rectangular mirror and that will help open it up. Overall size wise with our requirements for the office and master etc. just in looking online we would like to stay in the square footage size wise. In any event, I asked the drafting company to see what they can come up with. When I spoke to the owner, she told me that she'd see what she can come up with and will give it some thought.

She's very good and has done countless houses for developers and done the drafting for a good many architect and the plans are very complete when they're done. So for the time being, I'll keep on thinking reworking what I have and retweaking it and also see what the drafting company comes up with and yes, you're right this is something that we have to live with and we don't want to make a $350,000 mistake and then some.

The one thing I know I can do to open up the darker hallway is add solar tubes for some natural light and also add in one long rectangular mirror and that will help open it up.

They are not the same as walking towards a window or light. And they don't light up a space like windows do. I stand by my comments.

Just because lots of badly designed houses have been built, doesn't mean when building a custom home, you should follow a tract home plan and also build one that is bad when with more effort you can build a good or even great house.

The plans are with the drafting company at this time. They have seen, drawn, modified and created surely countless plans.

So has my draftsman but anyone who has followed my saga on my design will agree with me that he is no designer. In fact he's a draftsman and while he knows how to use a CAD program, he couldn't sketch a crooked line.

Notice the ideas I gave you yesterday were all hand sketched to get the overall feel.

She's very good and has done countless houses for developers and done the drafting for a good many architect and the plans are very complete when they're done.

When a draftsman is doing a plan for an architect, they are NOT designing the house. They are just finalizing the ideas that the architect has given them. Big difference. Please don't fall into the trap of thinking a draftsman can be a designer. Most can't. (And yes folks, I realize there are exceptions to the rule and maybe Thomas will be getting one of the exceptions, but they're few and far between.) Ask me how I know about how draftsman are not designers. LOL.

Plus what about your exterior?

And lastly how many revisions will she be willing to give you to make it right? Doing revisions isn't cheap. So when does it become cost effective to do as I've been suggesting throughout this thread and have the charette and then give it to the draftsman.

Now having said that, maybe what she comes up with will be good, but you still don't have elevations and you still have no clue how your exterior and interior will relate to one another and you still will have no clue how best to site the house.

And if there are any views that are worth seeing, plopping any old house on the site may or may not take advantage of them, whereas something well designed for your lot may make all the difference.

Please don't be penny wise and pound foolish. :) Like you said, it's a heck of a lot of money.

Thanks and although it has not been discussed here, I know exactly what the exterior elevation will look like as well as the roof pitch etc. That is all based off of the house we are residing in. Hip roof with a 4/12 pitch which would fair far better in any storm.

Glad you're going with a low pitch. (And hipped is definitely what everyone does in FL because of wind). Drives me nuts when I see one story houses with "top hats". LOL.

Since the exterior needs to work with the interior, what are you planning?

Exterior is all brick and yes with the roof pitch, I lived in S. Florida when Andrew hit and the anemometer broken when the wind speed hit 212 mph so they don't know what it topped out at. I don't have an exterior photo of our current house we are renting but for the roof top and deck, VERY general look will be something close to this pic BUT, no enclosure. Deck with a roof on top and no traditional deck railings, we're going to use cable to allow for the view. This is ONLY to give you an idea on the deck, nothing more.

Here are some pics of the lot Our lot is the lot to the LEFT of the circular drive in the photo.. One of our views between the houses. The house on the right is a single story and our deck will allow us to look over that house. Second and third pics show lot on the right. 4th pic is lot on the left and the 5th shows the view from one point in the lot. The house to the right which can also be seen in the first pic is a single story. Our deck will give us a view over the top of that house.

I like the overall look of that house. Has a real FL feel. I especially like the overhangs.

Interesting you're using brick as I don't see too much brick where I am in FL. We're going with lap siding on the top floor and stucco on the ground floor. We had to go up because our lot is only 9100 square feet and we're only allowed to have a total of 35% under roof and that includes the garage, front porch and lanai. So our only option to get everything was to put my studio and the guest bedroom on the second floor. Being we're at that age, we're also adding an elevator.

Do you find the Emerson fans are the best choice?

So does that also mean you have to build up so the first floor is high enough up for flood plain?

It looks idyllic btw.

Lots of brick in our development, maintenance free. Same with our deck material for roof, Azek decking. NO WOOD DECKS. Emerson fans are very good. Another company "Big Ass Fans" makes some nice fans but some are $2K plus and that's out of the question.

We are NOT in a flood zone. The lot is in an "X" or no flood zone. The lot itself and the front is over 2' above the road way.

You can read more on the island here (Innerarity Island) https://www.captrichwittig.com/innerarity-island-real-estate/

I am a PI,

So you're a PI who works at home -- you're a cyber sleuth? That fits with being detail-oriented on sourcing your house materials. Since I'm sure you work heavily with computers, you should take special care with your electrical and internet needs in your office.

The prewire for the video surveillance
will stay, running wires is cheap now and later not so much so.

I'd say skip it altogether. A surveillance system tells you someone broke into your house. Spend that money elsewhere on preventing the burglar from breaking in; make it more difficult to break into your house, and the guy'll move on down the road to someone else.

Thanks
for the input and yes, they're Emerson DC fans. Our fans run here 24/7
and well worth it.

Ceiling fans are great, but pretty much, fans are fans. You asked for places to cut your budget. This is a place to cut without loss of quality.

We have lived in it now for 8 months
and it's really not horrible.

Your original plan is no worse than your average tract house, but I don't think it's worth the effort of custom building. Yeah, you can get the storage, and that's good, but what it's missing is function and circulation.

The plans are with the drafting company at this time. They have seen,
drawn, modified and created surely countless plans.

Sure, that's what drafting companies do: They listen to what you say, and they modify according to your requests.

Here's a story about my husband: He's a math and science guy to the core. He started at community college and began a degree in Drafting with an eye towards transferring to university to become an Architect. When he began his sophomore year, he realized that he's not an Architect. Why? Because he lacks creativity. When you say, "I want to make that window into a door", he can say, "Yes, I'll make that happen" or "Sorry, no, code says ___." He was one semester away from graduating with his AS degree, so he finished the Drafting degree and worked in that field for a while -- he was TOPS as a Drafter; but, as I said, not creative enough to suggest what changes should be made. So when he went on to university, he landed where he really belonged: Engineering. His Drafting background is useful, and the occupations have great overlap, but he's where he belongs in Engineering.

Question is, He's essentially the person you're hiring. Do you want him to make major changes to your plan? If you're looking at small alterations -- yeah, he can do it, but he's not going to point out to you that the hallway isn't good design, etc.

I don't think everyone needs to use a full-fledged architect, but I think you do. You're looking at major changes to a stock plan, not just tweaks. You have ideas about what you want, but you're definitely "settling" with this floorplan.

Our deck will give us a view over the top of that house.

Sounds like a good idea. Your steps are exterior?

Interesting you're using brick as I don't see too much brick where I am in FL.

Yeah, I don't associate brick with Florida.

Agreed free, it will be going in. If I am home when a break in occurs, I pity the fool. If not, I've got them on video.

I'm with free and thomas regarding home security systems especially since we are away for periods of time.

I also agree with mrspete's comments regarding a draftsman. I've seen how they will do exactly what you tell them to do and that's all. In most cases, their skill is not in thinking creatively or even offering suggestions on how to improve things.

I will definitely look into those fans. Actually we had Minka fans in our condo and they worked well. Only in the guest room did we cheap out since that was only several x a year it was used.

To start with, I'll hard wire it all in. Wire is cheap, walls are wide open. I can pickup a good system (6) cameras for under $2K networked to my home system and backed up on our storage and onsite for pennies. All wiring routes to one central location in my office where the heart of the system will be placed in a locked cabinet.

To say that a choice only adds a few hundred so it's immaterial is misleading because over the course of construction there are dozens of choices like that, but overall they add up to tens of thousands of dollars or more - heck in kitchen cabinets alone you can double the cost within the same line by adding different options. We attempted to approach it systematically by categorizing them in four categories, based on a) Did we care about it, and b) Did it add to resale value. Obviously two of those categories made the decision rather easy (care and it adds value, don't care and it doesn't add value). Of the other two, we found the harder one to be don't care/adds value. I suppose if it truly is a 'forever house' that doesn't matter, but while we hope we live here for 25 years, I know that life throws curves, so we have to keep resale in mind.

To say that a choice only adds a few hundred so it's immaterial is
misleading because over the course of construction there are dozens of
choices like that, but overall they add up to tens of thousands of
dollars or more

Exactly. The original question here was about cutting the budget; a security system is a questionable 2K purchase. In reality, if a burglar breaks in, the alarm will alert police, but he will be out the door before police can arrive. Sure, you'll have a picture of him, but he'll be wearing a plain baseball cap, dark sunglasses (perfectly reasonable in Florida) and plain, unidentifiable clothing that covers any identifying features such as tattoos. You'd be able to say he's tall/short, heavy/thin, black/white -- but it's unlikely you'll be able to identify him. The real value of this 2K purchase is questionable and even offers a sense of false security.

Half that amount could be used to make the house more difficult to break into. A rock-solid front door with glass up high/away from door knobs, motion-sensored lights, a high fence around the back yard. Design decisions play into it: Avoid a recessed front door and bushes that allow the burglar to hide easily. Don't place your electronics/valuables where they can be seen from the front door. And the #1 thing burglars say deters them from choosing your house? A dog, even if it's not a watchdog type. These are the things that'll keep the burglar out of your house -- more effectively than a sign in the front yard -- which is better than finding out he's in.

If a security system is something you really want, it's not all that much money in the grand scheme of things, but it isn't going to help you like those people on TV: No easily identifiable criminal's going to look at your camera, kick in your door, then be picked up by a police officer who happens to be in the neighborhood.

Homebuilding is death by a thousand cuts, as freeoscar points out. And - unknowns. Anything under the ground is unknown. And can drive a LOT of costs.

Nothing gets cheaper. In my build, steel prices have gone down 20% and I have a steel quote / install for $99K. Great, right? Nope, labor getting tighter. It's a wash and I am THRILLED!

Also - there's a lot of "it's "easier" to do now. And while that's true - it will drive cost. And, there are some things that almost impossible to do later (wiring, etc) but will you use it?

Spreadsheets are great. Cost analysis work is great. Paper is great. the REAL work gets done on the ground (and I sympathize - because we thought we did a GREAT job along with our builder / site super on cost estimating) and we're off. Soil conditions, weather, delays, etc - all stuff you can't control - add costs. No one ever built a house on paper. The real stuff is dirty, complicated, more expensive than you can ever plan and never fits nicely into columns and rows.

I think that, barring doing work yourself (and even then it's iffy), there are really very few places to "save" money, and a crap ton of places to spend money. The odds are not in your favor. And materials costs are so fluid - you are at the mercy of the market. It's actually one reason that I am NOT a fan of cost plus - there's little incentive for your builder to negotiate / save, etc. For example, in fixed price, if the market is trending up on lumber, your builder will buy ahead. In cost plus - he'll hold on to his cash and credit and get it whenever. After all - you're paying it and the uplift (usually a percentage?) so he actually makes more profit by delaying and spending more of your money.

@mrspete - and the reason dogs are effective is because they are a deterrent - same as video cameras. most burglaries are opportunistic or smash & grab, so you just want your home to be less attractive than the house next door.

But the point of my post is that we all have to make these dozens of decisions on where to spend money based on our own criteria. For my matrix above, cameras fall squarely in the "don't add value, but we care about it" category. We found a system we are comfortable with for $600, so that's what we'll do.

I have caught two thieves with just a trail cam...

Finally got a moment on a Saturday morning while watching
the Olympics to put pencil to paper here. Given the thirty minute effort, it
still needs considerable work and parts of it don’t work at all (like the
roof!) but it’s good enough to convey the “big idea” or in architects speak,
the “Parti”.

The “big idea” is a split garage and here’s what I
freehanded out. And all things being equal, I generally like the master bedroom
oriented to the rear for privacy reasons.

At 2526SF I cut out over 100SF with all the spaces still the
same size but the kitchen, which actually got BIGGER! Given the abbreviated
effort, the house could still be smaller without effecting the homes’ function
or comfort.

I drew this up with all the same relationships that you had
because I wanted you to focus on the differences I wanted you to focus on and
not have you get distracted by other approaches. When I do these things for
real, the more “stuff” I keep the same allows an easier “apples to apples”
comparison by the owner.

That being said, if this were a real project, I’d be
recommending you also be giving some thought to a two story home with the two
bedrooms and the bath upstairs. Again, when I do these in real life, I’d be
sketching that out too while you’re at the table, participating. After all
atthis stage everything’s just lines on paper.

I know, I know, this is a “forever home” and all, but Mrs.
Architectrunnerguy and I, having lived in a house with a first floor master and
two bedrooms upstairs, we hardly ever went up there because everything we
needed was on the first floor. And if the occasional access is a concern of
yours just set it up for a future elevator in what would now be 5’X5’ closets,
won’t cost you a dime to do that now. I’m currently working with two
couples where we are designing their houses that way now.

Reasons for a two story home???.... they’re generally
cheaper (remember the thread title?), the two bedrooms can maybe have water
views and the roof deck is that much higher giving it better views also.
Explore alternates and don’t limit yourself with a preconceived way of
thinking. But whatever you do, from looking at what you did to CP’s fine ideas,
don’t load this into PS and “play with it” yourself.

Final
advice….. if I needed to get the facts on somebody, I’m smart enough to know I
wouldn’t make a very good PI and I’d get a talented professional on board to
avoid a trainwreck of an investigation.

Good morning and thank you. First and foremost, I won't take this into PS LOL. The ONLY possible way that I think a 2 story would work would be with my office upstairs and a spare bedroom upstairs. We would also need the deck combined into the plan. There are height restrictions on the island so a 2 story plus a rooftop deck would be a big no no. Now, since I am the one going up and down daily, if it were fashioned in such a way that the deck was in FRONT of my office or at the front of the house with a set of french doors that I would walk out onto the deck, that would be quite the view. Size wise, I'd like the office to be close to 16' square, the additional upstairs bedroom would be for company and not used often but it would need a walk in closet. I'd also venture to say that if a 5'5 walk in were incorporated into the office, in years to come if need be an elevator could be added. ALL of our daily living would be on the first floor. I would be working out of my office daily on the second floor. Given the right design aka "look and feel", I'm not overtly abject to it. If this was something we'd do, it would be a must to have the deck at the front of the house on the second story. Most homes I have seen with a second story deck are all at the rear. I dare say though, the other PLUS to something like this would be very nice views year round from say a set of french doors that would open onto the deck. The only other concern would be heating and cooling. Heat rises, so the likely hood that my office would be hotter is good and keeping it cool in the summer perhaps not so easy. Conceptually, a great idea though. Thanks again.

So after "opening my mind to alternatives" once I read your post about 10 times I was just using Google searching "Old Florida" style 2 story houses. Below first and foremost is a photo of the 2 houses across the street which are two story and nice. They're very big houses and very expensive since they're right on the water. Here's a pic.

So during my search in just kind of "goofing around", I found this house. Exterior wise and design wise, it would appear to fit right in. We are wanting a brick exterior though. Interior wise, good grief it is about 6,000 square ft but quite the house. So sans any changes, here is what I found. Clearly way out of what we are looking for BUT.... when I looked at the second floor of this layout it peaked my curiousity.

Now for the INTERIOR layout changes. The areas that are "shaded in white" would disappear from the house. The rooms on the first floor can be made a bit smaller. The study would actually become a bedroom and the wet bar a closet. The great room, dining room and kitchen can be considerably narrower as the same with the master bedroom. On the SECOND floor, again the "shaded in white" areas go by by. The porch gets rotated to face the front of the house and one full bath UP can be retained. Overall, this area can be reduced in size as well and taking into consideration leaving a spot to POSSIBLY install an elevator down the road. This would give me an upstairs office, a spare bedroom upstairs and a view of the bay with french doors in the office. The only issue becomes where to place the stairs in the plan to access the second floor. I am ONLY GUESSING here but I would think that adjustments could be made to REDUCE space considerably. The layout gives us a split plan on the first floor, a good size eat in kitchen after we cut space and we still have the walk in closets. Just thinking out loud and maybe it's an awful idea LOL but when I started to look for images earlier, the thought in mind was to find a house with a deck/porch facing the FRONT of the house. The exterior elevation would change significantly and I'm not even going there. Just layout wise as far as what our needs are this works. Too much space in it's current configuration on the second floor that we don't need as well but again, layout wise it just works IF we went to a 2 story. The split garage would also actually work and serve as our gym. So, am I out of my mind here LOL ?

Just a thought - you started the post with "where to save money". That many corners, porches, and complex roofs will drive up the overall cost.

Agreed BUT, the overall exterior would drastically change and the vast majority of those would go away. The focus at this point is on the interior layout. Tweaking the exterior would be not so hard. Example on the first floor the covered lanai extends outward as does that roof line. That could be changed to a straight run across the rear. Straight runs are far less costly and I think the vast majority of design changes would take those into consideration.

I think ARG's plan is so superior that I would look to explore working with it further. I love the idea of the split garage and I think it would be easy to go up if you're amenable. You saw my upstairs further up in this thread.

We decided for 2 reasons to add the elevator now, but if I was your age, I'd just put in the closets. We decided to do the elevators because, 1. we're older and I watched my parents lose their ability to maneuver stairs and 2. we live in an area where the average age is retired. LOL.

As you can see I have a balcony off the rear of my studio, but it could have just as easily been made off the front if I had better views in that direction.

Additionally, since you're orienting the house N/S, you'll help with heating and cooling. It's easy to zone your AC's or do mini-splits to keep the upstairs cooler. And lastly if you put the money into the unseen parts of the house, such as superior insulation and better windows, you'll be able to keep the upstairs cooler and save money in the long run.

I'm using 32" eaves all around my house and I'm choosing a light colored cement roof, which will also help with cooling.

As for the plan you found above, it is nothing like what ARG just did for you and is nothing that I'd even consider. What you just posted is a hot mess.

Good. From reading the above, it looks like you're willing to look at other approaches. After all, at this stage it's just lines on paper. It's still my view however that you need to commit to spending a little money and sit down at the same table with a designer of talent and work it all out. It's also my view that there's a reluctance to do so. The purpose of my little exercise wasn't to come up with an EXACT plan that you're 100% happy with, it was to illustrate another way of thinking. Noting the fact that a CONCEPTUAL idea has a space 12'X17' instead of 16'X16' suggests to me you missed my entire point which is get a CREATIVE person to sit down with you.

Get that person to sit down with you and any other decision maker(s) and have a four or five hour highly interactive design session. I do these all the time. Here's one I put on this forum. Scroll down to my 5/12/16 post. And that's me pen in hand (I forgot my cape and frumpy hat that day!) with the builder in the gray shirt across from me flanked by the owners: http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3887104/what-should-i-expect-from-my-architect-long?n=22

And here's a few others a colleague of mine put on his architectural blog, Life of an Architect: http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/design-in-a-day/ (and interestingly in the last house there (The Waterfront House) you can see from the clients drawing the required three car garage and I reduced it's mass, same as your house without effecting function by breaking it into two spaces).

Back to the geometry of the office and how stuff like that is addressed....In one of those houses I learned DURING the design session that the family room had to be a precise distance wide to fit a shelving/bar unit (I'm sketching and the client says "Oh BTW, we need that room X wide to fit this furniture" and I then make it that wide. In these sessions I find these things out because it's a dynamic, fluid exchange as oppose to the crappy "How's this..?"/ "That won't work because..." exchanges here.

Look at it this way, if you have $350K to invest, would you talk to a person who took Finance 101 at a community college or a CPA/Finance/Certified person with proven investment experience? Happily, with investing, the wrong decision in that regard can be "done over" with only the possible loss of some money due to poor returns. Unhappily, when building a house, there are no major "do overs".

As ARG just said, don't get hung up yet on the details. The idea is to come up with what will work for you and your DW for the long term. How can you incorporate the things YOU need.

Get the concept first. The exterior and interior and then worry about the exact room sizes. Room sizes can be changed.

Seek out a design person, not a draftsman to do as ARG suggests. Spending money upfront to get it right on paper, will save you money in the long run, so while it might seem odd to have to pay a professional part of your budget, in the long run, you'll probably save money with a better layout, etc.

Thanks for the updates. Actually here in our immediate area there are only a couple of architects. One of which I know from asking around is just someone that I would not want to do business with. The second, is so highly involved in commercial projects that they're not even interested in doing a small residential project. We are WAY West in the panhandle unlike say the Jacksonville, Orlando or South and even in SW Florida where there are other options. And yep, no darn designer. I do however know what we need and what we like. Space and or room sizes are a hard requirement due to our current furnishings to there are minimum room sizes. For example the great room, our preference would be something square vs a true rectangle while I understand that others would far prefer something entirely different than we have. But again, I think we can do a second story with a spare room and my office up there and a deck facing the water. When the day is done though, what works for our personal needs are far and away different than what would work for someone else. I may think other designs are horrific and other folks will love them. I do like the "get creative involved but again, locally we are nothing short of extremely limited". One person with no time or interest and the other with the time and interest is wide open because they have a history.

Then drive somewhere and spend the night. It's a $90 room at Holiday Inn Express for crying out loud!

I live in Annapolis and have had folks drive up from Richmond, Va. and down from Philly.

Lol. I just would echo the get a talented professional voice on this one. What you want is fairly specific. You have a good idea of what you need. And not a great knowledge of how to put it all together.

I consider myself to be very good w layout and space planning. Except everything I've done this far has been a remodel of a fixed space. As soon as I started working on a house from scratch I just couldn't put all my (our) thoughts together cohesively. And rooflines?! Ugh I can't see them at all! Lol.

So just a bit before I spent a timeshare week in Annapolis hunting up Mr. ARG, I finally found someone not-quite-really-local that is creative and does residential work. He really took the time to learn what we want. He toured our current house, our farm that we are building on. He looked at my concept drawings (I had drawn up about 5 houses from basic concepts to full plans) and really loved the one we liked but that I couldn't put the pieces together at all. It's going great! Hopefully I will be posting some things for feedback after we meet tomorrow! :)

Bottom line is that it has cost some extra dollars, but in the grand scheme of the project, getting it right is well worth the effort, money and giving up that bit of compete control.

Good luck!!

"Bottom line is that it has cost some extra dollars, but in the grand scheme of the project, getting it right is well worth the effort, money and giving up that bit of compete control."

Well said Doc!

Don't be penny wise and pound foolish.

I do however know what we need and what we like. Space and or room sizes are a hard requirement due to our current furnishings to there are minimum room sizes. For example the great room, our preference would be something square vs a true rectangle while I understand that others would far prefer something entirely different than we have

And that's even MORE reason YOU need a person of design talent. Because you have your own specific needs and wants. An off the shelf plan will NOT work for your needs and wants and you shouldn't settle for crap when you can have fabulous.

Thanks and lastly a BIG issue is the maximum width we have to work with. The lot is 100'w. Minimum set back is 5' for the house and the driveway/patio area etc can be no closer than 2'. Add to that, the garage needs to be 26' deep so that I can fit my truck inside and I would need 30' of space for a turning radius i.e. 30' of concrete. That puts me at an absolute maximum of 63' of house and not an inch more. Oh happy day !

Guess I should note that is with a side load garage which I do prefer.

Which again proves our point that you need to find a person of design talent to help you create a house you will love and will work for you. You keep making the same points that just prove what we're trying to tell you.

But again, instead of looking at the overall ideas, you're focusing in on the details which is a good thing in your business, but for design does not work well in the beginning. First it is important to get the overall look and feel, the overall connection of rooms, etc. Only once you do that, do you start refining the details. Stop looking at the details and see the forest before looking at the individual trees.

Actually here in our immediate area there are only a couple of architects.

I just did a search for architects in Pensacola (20 miles) and Mobile (60 miles). There are many.

Thanks. I must digress a bit, yes there are indeed "many". Back when I started this project, I called the vast majority of the "many". They were ruled out for a variety of reasons, some of which were far too busy, others who did not want to take on a small residential project and others who were outrageously priced in my opinion as in well over $10,000. It was then taken down to 2 who would consider working on a small scale residential project. One of which after a phone call turned out to be far too busy and the second after doing my due diligence is not someone I could work with.

I may well be WAY out in left field here but.... I "think" if I were able to find an architect to work with who can come up with a design that just plain works for us based upon our needs and wants that fits within the parameters of the lot we would be good. Once a concept is drafted and design agreed upon, my drafting company can do the actual drawings and set the rest in motion such as the engineering etc. Last I spoke with them, it would be a couple of weeks before they can dig into our project due to their schedule.

Sounds like your mind is made up that you will not trust any designer/architect because you have already made up your mind what you are convinced that you want. I wish you the best with your project

I'm thinking the same thing.

As a nod toward the lurkers because I think your mind is made up also, here's a C&P of an earlier post of mine (all the "regulars" have seen this many times!) on the critical element of trust in the client/designer relationship:

A good architect, when given the chance, will provide a design that can give a client everything they want, but often in ways completely unexpected. But for that to happen it takes a critical element necessary on the part of the client in every successful project and that element is trust.

Often during our initial meeting, the client will reveal their ability or inability to trust others. If I feel the element of trust is not there they will likely be referred to a permit drafter. A creative person should explore other approaches with you in the spirit of "That's great but have you thought of this.......". But for that to be carried forward successfully it takes a trusting client to not only allow the architect to expand on alternative ideas but to objectively look at other approaches in a collaborative effort with the architect. And that's an intangible that all successful projects are born out of.

And as an aside, that's why the charrette process works so well in that, ideas can be explained, heard, modified, explored, remodified and evaluated all in their rough form and all in real time. I can't tell you how many times a client sitting across the table from me has said "Wow! We never thought of that. We like the kitchen idea but how 'bout if we move the entry here and the...." As I hand them the pen. In some of those design sessions the client commands the pen almost as much as I do!

Just be ready to expect any preconceived ideas to be questioned. They may in fact turn out to be perfectly valid but at least they've been evaluated against alternates as any good architect should do.

Finally, regarding preconceived ideas, I've quoted on this board before these two quotes by two creative people.....

Henry Ford observed "If I had asked people what they wanted they would have told me "A faster horse".

And Steve Jobs mused “A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them. Everyone wanted an iPhone when they first appeared, but no one could have described what they wanted before seeing one".

So put trust in your architect to carry you through the process in the spirit of Mr. Ford and Mr. Jobs and you'll have a home that is the very best.

And speaking of the best, here's wishing you the best of luck with your project. Exciting times!

Made up, yes to a point. If you read my post (second paragraph), you would see that I indicated I am more than willing to work with an architect. Perhaps not local that could come up with a design that meets our needs. Once a design was complete, the balance of the project would be handed off to our drafting company for final drawings and engineering. ARG's earlier response has really got my thinking. A 2 story house with my office and a second bedroom upstairs and an oversized balcony/deck off the front of the house would be quite nice.

When the day is done and no matter what the final design is the lot is only so big and we have some specific needs and a creative architect may well be able to meet and exceed our needs. ARG, you've been quite helpful and if this is something you may have an interest in taking on shoot me a message or an email here.

Thomas, Pretty busy but either message me or look at my profile for my email and send your contact info.

Email sent. Thank you.