YES!!!!! I think that is a perfect way to engage...

Here's a house that we love - but we don't want a copy, we want something that FEELS like this house, updated for our needs and modern living.

I think that is you walk through the house and talk about what you like, what you don't, why you like the outside, etc - that's a great way to kick things off.

It's a good "jumping off point" and that discussion will help them put pencil to paper.

Rather than an architect at this stage, find an experienced designer who can develop basics. Someone who has worked with builders and understand the complexities of construction and building. This will be an "investment" in defining your key requirements along with ideas for ultimate end point. Once the basics are laid out, then get researching an architect that best meets your needs. Someone who has done work in your area. You will need a person/firm who has good relationships with local governing entities and can get the plans through the approvals and building permits process, as well as work with inspectors to find resolutions to identified issues. Designers consider many things that many architects aren't trained to do. Furniture placement and sizing, window locations and kitchen layouts that work as well as bathroom layouts, closets, etc. I have done this with clients and the earlier in the process the better! Loads of details to consider and I hope you can see that value. Good luck and hoping you find people that get your desires really well, and you are comfortable with.

Just a word of caution since we haven't seen the layout of the house. It may work really easy to do what you want or it may be that doing what you want requires many more changes to make it work and you will end up with nothing that really resembles what you thought you would have. This is because when you enlarge pieces and move other pieces it often means that things have to be re-worked around it and the house so I would consider the house a jumping off point, but depending on your lot and if it faces the same direction as your property etc. and if you have things exactly the same as the existing house that you may want more changes and the moving and enlarging of rooms can mean something else also has to move and the roof, shape etc. will have to change so it won't be an exact copy etc.

That last sentence is amazing...

"Someone who has worked with builders and understand the complexities of construction and building."

IMO... much more likely to be an architect than a designer. While I don't object to an interior designer being involved, that person should be part of a design team that includes an architect. And who says architects can't figure out how to place furniture or design a kitchen? I'm the cook in our family. My favorite kitchens I've ever used, I designed. Every single floor plan that comes out of my office has furniture placement. I know a lot of architects who do the same.

Are we using "interior designer"(ID) and "designer" interchangeably? I didn't think so. To me the "designer" referenced here by Flo is not a ID but someone who designs houses.

In my area (in my experience) there are designers that work at architectural firms that design houses. Most people incorrectly refer to these people as architects but the person actually doing the design does not have the degree.

Virgil - were you referring to the OP's last sentence? or the run-on in the prior post? Because I thought both were worthy of the comment....

No - using a 70s house as a reference will not lower the costs - I would think if anything they would raise them. I am not in the industry but if I was, I would increase my price out of principle (ok -- probably not) but certainly not a discount to use another house as a reference.

Think of an architect as someone writing a story. If you were an author paid to write a story, would you give a discount if someone said to make it like Star Wars? Or would you be kind of insulted? The analogy isn't perfect of course - but consider it from that perspective.

While I understand you may like your parent's house, you also should acknowledge that you don't know what you don't know. Unless of course you have lived in 20 or 30 modern architect designed homes and after that really love your parent's home still....

Hi Melissa

Your idea is absolutely a great way of moving forward. When you say you looked at stock plans, does that mean you also visited model homes? If not then would highly recommend a couple of weekends touring the layouts. That exposes you to other layouts and features that aren't readily visible on plans.

Otherwise you can get someone to measure your parents home and provide you with a scale plan that you can play around with before you spend any significant money.

Taking a rough design and some photos/site meeting to your architect/designer would enable you to discuss why you like certain spaces / how you live and incorporate into the style you prefer.

@User thank you!

As far as my pricing question, I certainly wouldn’t ask or expect them to discount for this reason, was just curious if it would likely take them less time and in turn naturally lower cost. I am definitely not doing this with the goal of lowering the cost but it’s a perk if it does.

We moved into our short term house last year and toured tons of homes in the process. The current trend in my area is large two story homes with all bedrooms upstairs. I can’t stand that because it isn’t practical for the long term as we start aging And as a young parent currently, O don’t want to carry kids upstairs or have Them climbing stairs. Here is what I like about my parents house and why I am hoping to someone redesign it.

- There are two distinct areas of the house. The “front” (left side When facing house) for entertaining: kitchen, breakfast, both formals (which we may not need), den, gameroom, half bath

- The back/right side when facing house is four bedrooms connected by a hallway - two bedrooms on each side of the hallway

- This was practical in all phases growing up: mom could have us on the gameroom/playroom when we were young and still see us from the kitchen. When we were teenagers, we could have friends over and stay at the front of the house and my parents could close the hallway door and stay in the back. They were still close enough that we couldn’t make trouble, but we were good kids so they didn’t worry much and could go to sleep

- I don’t like the split bedroom trend for these reasons - that puts the bedrooms way too close to the common areas.

- The house is very rectangular with only a jut out for the gameroom - lower foundation costs

- The rooms were cozy and not open. You could actually feel like you were talking and bonding with people vs feeling like you’re in a museum (high ceilings are a trend I can’t stand!)

- Along with the above, the space is efficient - no heating 12 foot ceilings!

- When we were young kids Santa could come easily - parents could close the hallway door and none of our rooms connected directly to family room where we would hear Santa, like many split floor plans have

- One level living so it is suitable for the long term

- Kitchen was very separate from bedrooms (there was the den in between the kitchen and the hallway where the bedrooms were) so early birds could get up and do chores/use blender/cook without waking the late risers

My first post outlines Some of the things I would change but figured I should cover why I like it in the first place - It feels much more practical for our lifestyle than the stock plans I’ve found online and the houses I’ve toured. The only houses that have come close are plans I’ve found in the old 70s catalogs! Ha!

I still have the plans for my parent's 70's home. They may be on file with the city, so check.

Would the doctor that delivered your first and then second child charge less for the second since he already knows the layout after having a site visit once before?

The site and the architect FIRST. Be open to new ideas as well. Houses are emotional, and your memory may even need some "refreshing" as to what was "convenient" and not : )

You have considered that you like a more "closed" environment than currently favored..........but I know few seventies builds that have the very convenient kitchens and mud entries, and closets and master baths we see today.

Just saying......................think it through very carefully with the help of a great architect. Note too, the Santa years are short lived.

Designing backwards from an existing plan can prevent you from taking advantage of ideas and opportunities that develop during a site analysis and preliminary studies of your needs. Your parents' home should just be one source of inspiration not the starting point of a collaborative design.

I agree with others - your site should be a prime driver of a design. You will want your house to respond to drainage, climate, views and a number of other factors. That being said, yes, of course, an architect should be willing to make use of your parents home as inspiration. He or She should also be able to suggest ideas that might not have even been around when your parents home was built. Good luck!

Ditto to BOTH above. Don't get "stuck" by clinging to a "once was". Free yourself, and it's one of many inspirations, not the least of which is light, air, and an exterior you love with an interior just as great.

Horses and buggies, covered wagons etc were positively super, beat the daylights out of walking........, Until there were automobiles : )

If the OP's desire is to mimic her parents house, the architect's time and expense may be greater than normal, not less.

That's because the architect and an assistant would have to go to the parent's house and do detailed as-built measurements, and create as-built drawings before beginning design studies.

A better, more creative, and more responsive approach may be to simply consider the parent's house from a conceptual point of view and see where that might lead.

In the end, it will be the OP's life style (not the parent 's), site and budget which will drive her design.

Instead of a floorplan, I would take your written descriptions to your architect, open your heart to unknown possibilities, and see what s/he comes up with. :-)

If you strongly feel that your personality type isn't quite this trusting, or that you already very firmly know exactly what you want and there is no changing it, then instead of engaging with an architect (who is half artist, half scientist), consider hiring a draftsman or residential designer. Not that draftsmen or designers are necessarily less artistic -- some of them certainly can be -- but I think that taking a client's well-formed ideas (ideas that they are closely attached to and incredibly unlikely to divorce from) and translating them into a house is more of a draftsman/designer thing.

I share your dislike of split plans and other current builder trends (especially style-less or patchwork exteriors), and it's super frustrating to not be able to find what you're looking for "off the shelf." It might take more time, but think over the option of trusting an architect with your house, without a strict preconceived plan of what the house should be.

I'm currently struggling with this, myself, having gotten quite attached to the idea of a Spanish atrium house (I'm in central Texas, where a house like this makes at least a little sense, lol). At our first meeting, I admit to a bit of excitement at my architect's idea of a central kitchen with rooms kind of wheel-spoke shooting out from it. Which is pretty much the opposite of having a house with a big hole in the center. :-D

I don't know how helpful or harmful having these kinds of plan attachments are, but my gut (which could be wrong) is telling me that they are more bad than good, if working with a talented, creative architect is something you'd like to do. I admire my architect's creativity, especially in the details, so letting go of a strong attachment is challenging. I don't want to bring firmly held notions to the table, and possibly miss out on something extraordinary.

You want something exactly like your parents house but different that is what you are saying so why not give the architect some idea of what you want and let them do their job.

It would only take an hour or two for one person to sketch a rough plan of the existing house and then measure the important dimensions with a laser device. Lots of photos would be helpful. It might not even be necessary to draw the plan to scale. The hard part is preventing people from talking to you while you work.

This approach would also require a discussion of what the client likes and dislikes about the house.

I seriously doubt the final design would resemble the existing house much.

Measuring up an existing house doesn't take long at all. I do it all the time.

Best set up is to have myself drawing and two other people (usually the owners) running the tape.

I call out what I want measured "Ok, give me the dimension from that corner to the edge of that window"...etc. I draw it to scale as the measurements are taken, only using the scales edge for a straight line, eyeballing right angles and I normally don't note the dimension unless they're critical. If the dimension called out is 12'4" I simply draw the line 12'4" long along the scales edge.

Here's what one looks like with my portable "board" I arrive with 2 or 3 sheets of velum clipped in ready to go. And the first floor serves as a template for the second floor. This one is pretty simple and took 30 minutes:

It's beautiful to go all the way around a complicated house footprint and to close it up I scale the last dimension and say "It should be 17'8" and the tape folks call out 17'9"........ SWEET!!!

Since you're not going to renovate the existing house, you could probably get by with photos, a diagram and a list of room sizes.

The discussion with your client regarding likes and dislikes should occur in the exiting house without a drawing. Its too easy to misinterpret a client's ideas when looking at a static plan; its more reliable for the client to be walking through the house demonstrating likes and dislikes while you take notes.

When it comes time to sketch solutions you don't want that drawing to keep showing up.

My philosophy is the more information my clients bring me, the better. If that's photos, floor plans they admire, plans they've drawn or a house they've lived in... it's all good info. However, keep an open mind and let your architect design you a better home than your parents house.

After looking at some current plans that people post here, I'm not surprised that you find a 70's plan better. It seems you're out of luck if you don't want a complicated roof line, or a double height ceiling in a great room. I guess those are things that many people like,.