FAQs
- What should the customer know about your pricing (e.g., discounts, fees)?
Our pricing is based on square footage, so pricing is always easy to understand anytime during the process. During our initial meeting, we will work with you to determine the approximate size of your home, garage, porches, etc. We will use this estimate to give you a fair and up-front pricing estimate. If you decide that you want more space and and need to expand the foot-print of your home, the total estimated design fee will also grow based on the price per square foot. We want to make it easy to understand our fees and our timelines. By calculating price based on total square feet, you will always know your total design fee based on the size of your new home. We understand, designing a new home is a major investment in time and money. We usually split our payments into three, to match our design phases. Payment 1- The first payment is a design deposit based on the estimated size of your new home. This is usually 1/3 of the total design fee. Payment 2- the second payment is due after the floorplan is finalized and sent to the client, just before we start working on the elevations. We usually know the new square footage (if it has changed during the floor plan revisions) at this point because once we finalize the floorplan, we won't be growing the footprint. If the square footage has grown we will adjust the second and third payments to reflect the additional square footage. Payment 3- The final payment is due when we provide you with construction ready plans. Sometimes, you may have additional small revisions after this payment, but those revisions are usually included in the overall design price and thus are done after the final payment has been made and are not charged if the revisions are small.
- What is your typical process for working with a new customer?
We break our design process into phases to make it easy to understand where your project will be at any given time during the process. Each phase of the design process takes about 15 business days. This ensures your project moves forward smoothly. New Home Design Process: Initial meeting- We go over our process and get to know you to understand your needs and ideas. We will provide you with our pricing and if you decide to move forward, you will pay a design deposit. Phase 1- During this phase, we will provide you with an initial floorplan taking into consideration what was discussed at the initial meeting. Once we have have them ready, we will email the plans to you or print them out for you to review. You can review them for as long as you need to, make revisions (we call this "redlines") and get the revisions to us. We will make the revisions requested, and send you the updated plans . Once you are happy with the floorplan, we move to phase 2. Phase 2- In this phase, we add elevations: walls, roof, and sections. Many people have a difficult time envisioning their home from just a floorplan, and the elevations are where your house comes to life with walls, windows, doors, and roof. We will create the elevations based on previous discussions. We then send them to you to review and revise. The process is the same as the floorplan. Once you are happy with this phase, we will put together a rendering and basic virtual reality view of your home, if you have chosen the VR option. Phase 3- During this phase, we are making the changes you requested from phase 2 and adding all of the construction information your builder will need including a door and window schedule. When we finish this phase your plans are "construction ready" to be submitted to for local permitting or to builders for a build quote. You may have a few small revisions at this point, and we complete those along the same timelines. Remodel Design process is similar to the phases listed in our design process. It is simplified into two phases, instead of three. You will have your initial meeting and measurements will need to be taken of the space. Phase 1- As built drawings, remodel plans, and revisions. Phase 2- Finalizing plans, information for permitting, scheduling, and you will have your last review.