Blog #04: Finding an architect

Now it was time to find an architect who could bring our vision on to papers. And boy, did we have a vision (somewhat unrealistic).

Before talking to the architects

Even before we started talking to the architect, my husband and I spent hundreds of hours working on designing the floor-plan, layout of the house, exterior look of the house all by ourselves using the 3D design software Sketchup. We talked through every little detail and between ourselves tried to align on what was a must have vs good to have. When we started, our must haves included:

1. Open floor plan with fully functional first floor. By this we mean that you have everything on the main floor without needing stairs - kitchen, bath, bedroom, laundry, etc.

2. Designed to add elevators,

3. Ours and our daughter's bedroom to be on the same floor,

4. Laundry on the same floor as the bedrooms,

5. Daughter's bedroom to have its own private bathroom,

6. Closets for all bedroom and lots of storage everywhere,

7. A private unit for long-term guests,

8. Eaves to protect the house from the constant PNW rain,

9. Rooftop terrace to enjoy the 270 degree lake views,

10. Flat yard for the kids to play,

11. Covered deck for entertaining.

Finding the right architect

We interviewed about 5-6 architects and here are the criteria we looked at before finalizing one:

1. Common aesthetics: As we started talking to architects it became clear that it was easier to communicate our vision to someone who had designed a house like ours before. For example, when we told one of the architecture firms that we wanted eaves to protect the house from the rain, their response was "we don't do eaves". An honest answer that allowed us to rule them out, not because we wanted eaves and they wouldn’t give it to us, but because we had a specific reason for wanting them and they didn’t offer an alternative solution or have an explanation as to why.

Example homes and exteriors we liked

2. Approximate cost of the home: Since we knew exactly what we wanted, we asked the architects about the price range of the houses they typically design. The answer ranged anywhere from $500 - $800 per foot. Essentially, a 3000 square foot house would cost anywhere from $1.5 M to $2.4M!! The high sqft. cost comes from the fact that the property is on a hill in the middle of the city.

1. Fee Structure: This definitely became one of the deciding factors for us. Turned out, there are more than one fee structures:

   1. Percentage of the construction cost: Most of the architects we talked to quoted us this fee type and the range was anywhere from 8% to 20% of the build cost. E.g. If we had a 10% arrangement and spent $2,000,000 building our house, we would pay $200,000 to the architect. We did not like this arrangement because we were worried that if we went over budget or if we decided to upgrade our kitchen cabinets or floors, we would pay extra to the architect as well.

   2. Hourly fee: Although only one architect quoted us this fee structure, we were very hesitant because we, as clients, had no idea how much of the architect's time was going to be required. Just thinking about this arrangement made me nervous about the budget and we quickly moved away from architects who quoted us this arrangement.

   3. Flat fee followed by hourly fee: Needless to say, this is what we went with. Flat fee until the plans with the city are approved, and then hourly to ensure weekly/bi-weekly check-ins to ensure the construction is going according to the plans. Our architect gave us a flat rate that was lowing than any of the quotes we got and he also mentioned that

2. Approachability & Communication: This was important for me since English is not my first language and I did not grow up talking architecture. I wanted to make sure we went with someone who II would feel comfortable brainstorming my thoughts with. Someone who could explain things to us in layman terms and someone who would make the case for elements he/she felt strongly about became a priority. How did we know our architect would do this? This is where the design we had come up with in SketchUp helped the most. We would walk through the design with the architect and gauge how they gave us feedback and whether we can talk to them.

Architect Cost

Overall, our architect flat fee was 3% of the overall budget. I will keep you posted about the hourly cost. But he did mention that he will end up spending about 100 hours throughout the build.

Tip:

1. I highly recommend talking through/drawing out all your wants and needs with your partner ahead of time. It helped us become more succinct in our questions and become less combative with each other since we had talked through most of the things.

2. Take notes throughout the discussion with architects, because the more we spoke to the more we knew and the better follow-up questions we should ask.