Points for the Designer
Koontz - I'm going to back-up just a half step from my previous post to comment on "The Plan".
You can only be brave enough to make changes in a plan when you have a plan to start with. Probably the worst remodeling projects begin with the knowledge that you don't like something and so you proceed to demolish it without a plan in place as to what you do want. This is the Neanderthal effect in action. Without a specific plan to implement, you'll spend too much time and way too much money getting the space back to a liveable state. I'm guilty of this in my own home-where I haven't had a floor material in my office for lo on four years...but I would never go into a client's home without concrete plans.
If you know you can't live with something, but you don't know the options or you haven't developed your tastes enough to know what you want to replace it with-you find the designer who can help you develop your style. Or for a bigger project, the architect who can create the plan that is structurally sound.
Jodi mentioned the "alchemical effect", which is a perfect word to describe the changes that often come about because of others' input. These are typically changes you want to avoid. They are often based on whims, as Jodi mentioned, brought about by the magazine article or the relatives who say you just have to have this or that. If you didn't have them in your plan to start with, chances are you never felt the need for them until someone else said you should.
I can't control the traffic through a jobsite when I'm off-site, but my partner and I try to discourage tours of a job by the clients' friends while we're on site. Everyone feels the need to put in their two-cents and I don't want to go to the work of talking a client out of these kinds of whims. I remind them how long we've spent working on "the plan" and why they don't need two dishwashers, and that their priority was cabinet space, which obviously would now be significantly reduced.
And although many changes can be made in the field, be aware that some cannot because they have to do with structural changes. Even I am not so bold as to effect those without prior approval from my building department and usually an engineer.
One of the significant changes on the coastal property I mentioned in my last post was the change in location of the fireplace. The architect centered it in the second floor diagonal corner of the livingroom. The area with the best view of the ocean. An obvious mistake that the client didn't realize until it was about to be built. The client wanted to keep the view, move the fireplace all the way across the room and have mitred glass installed where the fireplace was to go. I would guess that change cost the client an extra $20,000.,and that probably didn't include the cost of the new windows she wanted. It meant re-drawing plans, engineering fees for structural issues, time out for re-submitting to the building department, (and new fees), and as with any changes made "in the process", higher fees from the work crew to implement the new design.
That's an example of a plan change that shouldn't have happened, because the architect should have known that with an ocean property, you'd want to keep the ocean view-nobody's that jaded are they?
Most of the time, the changes that I'm confronted with on jobs are not related to sudden whims on either the clients' part or on mine-they come about because of unexpected discoveries. For instance, we did a remodel on a kitchen in an older home and the farther we went, the more we discovered we were putting back what had originally been there. Or the changes come about because of the "sense" of the space, something that often only comes about as the project moves forward.
In my current project we've ripped out the living room windows to install French doors leading out to the patio. It's a lovely change in the feel of the room, and because the windows were slightly larger than the doors that went in, we have an equal open space next to the doors. A friend of ours who walks her dog by the house each day finally stopped in and her first remark was to ask what kind of side lights we were going to put in next to the doors. Well, that wasn't in our original plan, but it was a good idea and our client agreed, so now we're adding side windows instead of wall to that space. (Okay, one of the rare examples of someones' two-cents being good...)
Another good example is a kitchen where the plan was to demolish two kitchen walls; one that separated the diningroom from the kitchen and one that separated the side area of the kitchen where the back door and wash area are located. That area had been opened up by a previous owner, but they only removed part of the wall and the client wanted it all out. This client also though had a very complicated idea to remove an adjacent bathroom in order to create a type of "mud room" entrance to the kitchen. (She was from back east, and though we don't typically need or have mud rooms in our area, it was a connection for her that she wanted to replicate). By the time we tore out the diningroom wall, we realized and the client agreed that the kitchen felt large enough now to install pocket doors where the wall used to be separating the kitchen and wash area, and the client got both her wishes fulfilled without demolishing her second bathroom.
So there's not sticking to the plan-but making changes that benefit the client and the house, and making the whole project more than it might have been-and not always in the sense of money...both my side light client and the pocket door client pretty much ended up even when credits and charges were calculated for the specific changes, and the pocket-door client actually saved a bundle by not needing us to accomplish the next stage of her re-design.
Good rule of thumb-be flexible to ideas and then pick an architect, a designer and a contractor who are all willing to be flexible, and you'll have the best of all their talents, both before and during the project.
You can only be brave enough to make changes in a plan when you have a plan to start with. Probably the worst remodeling projects begin with the knowledge that you don't like something and so you proceed to demolish it without a plan in place as to what you do want. This is the Neanderthal effect in action. Without a specific plan to implement, you'll spend too much time and way too much money getting the space back to a liveable state. I'm guilty of this in my own home-where I haven't had a floor material in my office for lo on four years...but I would never go into a client's home without concrete plans.
If you know you can't live with something, but you don't know the options or you haven't developed your tastes enough to know what you want to replace it with-you find the designer who can help you develop your style. Or for a bigger project, the architect who can create the plan that is structurally sound.
Jodi mentioned the "alchemical effect", which is a perfect word to describe the changes that often come about because of others' input. These are typically changes you want to avoid. They are often based on whims, as Jodi mentioned, brought about by the magazine article or the relatives who say you just have to have this or that. If you didn't have them in your plan to start with, chances are you never felt the need for them until someone else said you should.
I can't control the traffic through a jobsite when I'm off-site, but my partner and I try to discourage tours of a job by the clients' friends while we're on site. Everyone feels the need to put in their two-cents and I don't want to go to the work of talking a client out of these kinds of whims. I remind them how long we've spent working on "the plan" and why they don't need two dishwashers, and that their priority was cabinet space, which obviously would now be significantly reduced.
And although many changes can be made in the field, be aware that some cannot because they have to do with structural changes. Even I am not so bold as to effect those without prior approval from my building department and usually an engineer.
One of the significant changes on the coastal property I mentioned in my last post was the change in location of the fireplace. The architect centered it in the second floor diagonal corner of the livingroom. The area with the best view of the ocean. An obvious mistake that the client didn't realize until it was about to be built. The client wanted to keep the view, move the fireplace all the way across the room and have mitred glass installed where the fireplace was to go. I would guess that change cost the client an extra $20,000.,and that probably didn't include the cost of the new windows she wanted. It meant re-drawing plans, engineering fees for structural issues, time out for re-submitting to the building department, (and new fees), and as with any changes made "in the process", higher fees from the work crew to implement the new design.
That's an example of a plan change that shouldn't have happened, because the architect should have known that with an ocean property, you'd want to keep the ocean view-nobody's that jaded are they?
Most of the time, the changes that I'm confronted with on jobs are not related to sudden whims on either the clients' part or on mine-they come about because of unexpected discoveries. For instance, we did a remodel on a kitchen in an older home and the farther we went, the more we discovered we were putting back what had originally been there. Or the changes come about because of the "sense" of the space, something that often only comes about as the project moves forward.
In my current project we've ripped out the living room windows to install French doors leading out to the patio. It's a lovely change in the feel of the room, and because the windows were slightly larger than the doors that went in, we have an equal open space next to the doors. A friend of ours who walks her dog by the house each day finally stopped in and her first remark was to ask what kind of side lights we were going to put in next to the doors. Well, that wasn't in our original plan, but it was a good idea and our client agreed, so now we're adding side windows instead of wall to that space. (Okay, one of the rare examples of someones' two-cents being good...)
Another good example is a kitchen where the plan was to demolish two kitchen walls; one that separated the diningroom from the kitchen and one that separated the side area of the kitchen where the back door and wash area are located. That area had been opened up by a previous owner, but they only removed part of the wall and the client wanted it all out. This client also though had a very complicated idea to remove an adjacent bathroom in order to create a type of "mud room" entrance to the kitchen. (She was from back east, and though we don't typically need or have mud rooms in our area, it was a connection for her that she wanted to replicate). By the time we tore out the diningroom wall, we realized and the client agreed that the kitchen felt large enough now to install pocket doors where the wall used to be separating the kitchen and wash area, and the client got both her wishes fulfilled without demolishing her second bathroom.
So there's not sticking to the plan-but making changes that benefit the client and the house, and making the whole project more than it might have been-and not always in the sense of money...both my side light client and the pocket door client pretty much ended up even when credits and charges were calculated for the specific changes, and the pocket-door client actually saved a bundle by not needing us to accomplish the next stage of her re-design.
Good rule of thumb-be flexible to ideas and then pick an architect, a designer and a contractor who are all willing to be flexible, and you'll have the best of all their talents, both before and during the project.
permalink
