3-D Views Can Save Your Plans
Fitzpatrick-Okay Koontz, you say, “The idea is not to be too wed to ‘the plan.’” To quote Kyle’s mom on SouthPark, “What, what, what???!!!
What about “the plan” you turned into the city and pulled the permit on, showing the exact locations of all electrical outlets, vents and drains and possibly stamped by an engineer for structural and thermal calculations for certain window and wall locations?
What about “the plan” that had tiles laid out for an 18-inch-on-center backsplash pattern on a wall that you now think should be extended 11 inches?
What about “the plan” with the light fixtures chosen for a ceiling that on second thought looks like it should be two feet higher?
What about “the plan” where plumbing was jack hammered for an island sink that now seems better suited to the peninsula?
Peg pulls down a wall and you see new possibilities. Beg pardon, but that’s sort of a Neanderthal method of visualization. Ideally, you should get a 3-D image from your architect, designer or contractor before all the dust.
Architectural software programs such as 20/20, made primarily for kitchen and bath designers and cabinet dealerships, Chief Architect, used by many small remodelers, and of course, Autocad, the lingua franca of commercial architects, all have the capacity to render three-dimensional views of a project, in color and with varying lighting schemes. These pictures go a long way toward bridging the visual communication gap that can occur between clients who have a hard time “seeing it,” and those of us who make our living imagining spaces that don’t yet exist. Without having to knock down a wall as a demonstration.
These programs are also helpful for envisioning color; I was able to convince a client’s husband to go with denim blue-stained cabinets when I could demonstrate how a whole kitchen of them would look. Imagine if they’d ordered 10,000 dollars-worth of those groovy things and hated them.
Rarely discussed when talking about changes on a remodeling project is the eroding effect that time has on a plan that everyone, from the architect to the client to the construction team has agreed upon as rock solid. Weeks go by, permits are pulled, demolition begun, cabinetry and plumbing fixtures ordered. You pass a magazine rack at Ye Olde Home Centre; hmmm, would that be a better sink? Your sister-in-law arrives for a visit that morphs rapidly into a critique. What, your kitchen doesn’t have the warming drawer that she and all her friends have? Yet more reasons not to hurry the design process, and to document your decisions to the point that you remember the labor it took to arrive at your choices and the reasoning behind them.
The heat of actual demolition can have an alchemical effect on plans. If you think the mid-project change will yield gold, by all means, go to the trouble and expense of implementing it. This remodeling stuff is pricey and permanent; you don’t want to look at a window everyday and wish it was larger or somewhere else. Or worse, hate it so much you have to have it redone. Not all can be planned for, even with my beloved 3-D software.
So Peg, you wanna talk about Change Orders?
What about “the plan” you turned into the city and pulled the permit on, showing the exact locations of all electrical outlets, vents and drains and possibly stamped by an engineer for structural and thermal calculations for certain window and wall locations?
What about “the plan” that had tiles laid out for an 18-inch-on-center backsplash pattern on a wall that you now think should be extended 11 inches?
What about “the plan” with the light fixtures chosen for a ceiling that on second thought looks like it should be two feet higher?
What about “the plan” where plumbing was jack hammered for an island sink that now seems better suited to the peninsula?
Peg pulls down a wall and you see new possibilities. Beg pardon, but that’s sort of a Neanderthal method of visualization. Ideally, you should get a 3-D image from your architect, designer or contractor before all the dust.
Architectural software programs such as 20/20, made primarily for kitchen and bath designers and cabinet dealerships, Chief Architect, used by many small remodelers, and of course, Autocad, the lingua franca of commercial architects, all have the capacity to render three-dimensional views of a project, in color and with varying lighting schemes. These pictures go a long way toward bridging the visual communication gap that can occur between clients who have a hard time “seeing it,” and those of us who make our living imagining spaces that don’t yet exist. Without having to knock down a wall as a demonstration.
These programs are also helpful for envisioning color; I was able to convince a client’s husband to go with denim blue-stained cabinets when I could demonstrate how a whole kitchen of them would look. Imagine if they’d ordered 10,000 dollars-worth of those groovy things and hated them.
Rarely discussed when talking about changes on a remodeling project is the eroding effect that time has on a plan that everyone, from the architect to the client to the construction team has agreed upon as rock solid. Weeks go by, permits are pulled, demolition begun, cabinetry and plumbing fixtures ordered. You pass a magazine rack at Ye Olde Home Centre; hmmm, would that be a better sink? Your sister-in-law arrives for a visit that morphs rapidly into a critique. What, your kitchen doesn’t have the warming drawer that she and all her friends have? Yet more reasons not to hurry the design process, and to document your decisions to the point that you remember the labor it took to arrive at your choices and the reasoning behind them.
The heat of actual demolition can have an alchemical effect on plans. If you think the mid-project change will yield gold, by all means, go to the trouble and expense of implementing it. This remodeling stuff is pricey and permanent; you don’t want to look at a window everyday and wish it was larger or somewhere else. Or worse, hate it so much you have to have it redone. Not all can be planned for, even with my beloved 3-D software.
So Peg, you wanna talk about Change Orders?
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