You’re going to build a new home, your first house. For years you’ve dreamed, scrimped and saved with the vision of your ideal home stirring you on. Finally you’ve accumulated enough money to make a down payment on a piece of land and your goal is finally within your reach. So how do you intend to finalize your dream? You can’t just blindly go ahead and start building.
You’ve probably looked through hundreds of pre-drawn house plans in catalogs or web sites, and even though you see elements in different plans that you like but haven’t quite found a plan that has all that you’ve envisioned. You’ve also probably seen certain elements of your friends and neighbors homes you liked but still, the overall lay out just did not seem to fit what you wanted.
It’s also probably a fair assumption that you can’t rely on your own technical skill in either design or construction unless you’re trained in that area of expertise. So now you have two choices.
Hire an Architect
This is a common choice and all well and good. The architect was trained with this sort of thing in mind. These are professionals who’re trained to design projects ranging from homes to skyscrapers. The biggest problem with this is more times than not, you are going to pay a premium amount to hire them.
But hey, if you are building a mansion, the best professional to have is the architect simply because of the enormity of the project and the greater amount of skills and resources needed to complete such a home. And more times than not, your ideas can be used by him or her to create a very original design. I was told by the architect that trained me that many people did not really know what they wanted and that the architect was there to enlighten them.
Hire a Designer
However, if you “do” know what you want, a designer is your better choice. This professional is also trained to design and draw homes within technical specs. If I know my colleagues well enough, are also willing to bend over backwards to give you the home that “you” want at a lower cost, the way “you” want it as long as it meets code and it is within the budget you’ve set for the construction of your new home.
Tim Davis is an Architectural Designer with 30+ years experience. His website is at http://residentialdrafting.net/.
