Planning for a Home Addition: Advice from an Architect
Major home improvement projects are always an adventure. The pandemic, however, has made careful planning for a home remodeling or renovation project more important than ever before. Lead times are longer, materials costs are high, and crews are busier than ever before. That doesn’t mean you should shy away from a remodeling or renovation project. Planning, though, is everything. If you’re beginning your process towards a home addition, we’ve asked one of our architect partners, Rob Busch at drawing dept architecture and design for his top tips on first steps to make the process of major home remodel, like an addition, go as smoothly as possible.
Collaboration is key.
Build a strong team of advocates who have your best interest at heart. A team of close collaborators will allow the project to be viewed through various lenses; design, jurisdictional parameters, budget, schedule, etc. An architect and general contractor are your key allies and they can flesh out the rest of the team.
2. Manage risk.
A good team will never sacrifice vision, vision, and aspirations easily. But those goals should be informed by budget and schedule. Multiple pricing exercises can help manage risk. Consider a very rough estimate from your architect and/or general contractor from the outset. Next, consider preliminary pricing estimate after the design development phase, but before construction documents.
3. Transparency is the best policy.
Be transparent with your collaborators about your aspirations and construction budget. Prioritize your goals and understand what is a must and what is a want. Your team will want to accomplish all of your goals, but if the aspirations and budget are misaligned, there needs to be a plan forward.
Our team is ready to help bring your home improvement plans to life. We’re happy to jump in and work with you or your architect, or we can make help make recommendations as you begin to build your team and plan your project.