assemble your dream team - part II
THE BUILDER, ARCHITECT AND INTERIOR DESIGNER YOU FINALLY CHOOSE
LET’S CATCH YOU UP:
In Assemble Your Dream Team - Part I, you read about who you need on Your Dream Team when building a Custom Home, why they are integral to your build, how they make your life easier and where to find them. If you haven’t read that post, go back and read it before moving on.
This post will show you how to choose between all your options. I’ll also break down for you an easy way to try out a builder without committing to the whole nine yards. And I’ll reveal what we did, and share a cautionary tale, so you know what not to do…
Let’s go!
SO HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHO IS ON YOUR DREAM TEAM?
I know you noticed that I told you the name of our Architect, but didn’t reveal the name of our Builder.
Spoiler alert: I’m not going to.
“Wait, Tash” I hear you say, “I thought this was going to be a full tell-all”
I am NOT going to tell you the name of the builder we initially went with because if I am going to be brutally honest in these posts, then he might sue me for defamation. For real, people. We made a COLOSSAL mistake by choosing him. And we learnt a huge lesson. And my lesson will, hopefully, be YOUR lesson and save you some heartache. I’ll tell you the sordid saga next.
But before I do that, let me go back to the Interior Design thing, since I only talked briefly about that in my previous post.
DO You Need an Interior Designer for Your New Home Build?
Most people think they’ll hire an interior designer once their house has been designed by their architect, they’ve picked out finishes, and their builder is almost done building. That’s when an interior designer is most useful, right? WRONG.
An interior designer is MOST useful when you hire them FIRST - before you sign a contract with an architect or a builder - as there are a thousand ways they make your new build process easier. I see them (us) as the conductor of the custom home process, bringing all the elements together, and translating a confusing and very overwhelming process for the homeowner.
YOU NEED YOUR INTERIOR DESIGNER WHEN DESIGNING YOUR HOUSE PLANS
An interior designer starts their process with you by really getting to know you and your family, and how you function. When I start working with a client, I spend a great deal of time learning what they love, who they are and their stories. Only then do I start conceptualizing a design plan for them. When I’m working with a client building a new home, I bring that understanding to their design meetings and help them articulate all that to the architect to formulate a design for the house that they will love, including figuring out a floor plan that works for how their family lives - not just one that works for how a generic family lives and looks good on paper!
I cannot stress enough how invaluable it is to have someone by your side at those Architect meetings, considering whether you should put in an elevator for aging parents, or whether you want your 5-year-old son’s bedroom to be on the same floor as your bedroom (spoiler: you don’t – he’s going to turn into a loud, obnoxious teenager who plays very loud music sooner than you think!).
YOU NEED YOUR INTERIOR DESIGNER WHEN MAKING SELECTIONS FOR YOUR CUSTOM HOME
And then I help them translate their vision into picking out just the right materials, fixtures and finishings that will work in their space to create the atmosphere they love; things like windows, doors, hardware, tile, faucets, tubs, sinks and more.
Have you ever had to choose four matching tiles for a bathroom and been super proud of yourself, only to realize that the installer needs a tile layout for every single tile, like, yesterday? AND you have about 5 more bathrooms to pick tile out for? Yeah…
When you’re at the lighting showroom picking out every single light fixture for every single room in the house, including your canned lights and your outdoor fixtures, AND THEN have to go to the hardware showroom to pick out all your cabinet knobs and pulls for the kitchen and every single bathroom AND all your interior and exterior door handles – PHEW!
And then tomorrow, you have to pick out tile! YAY! Exhausting… And, if you haven’t engaged an Interior Designer yet, you have to make all these decisions BEFORE you’ve decided what furniture you’re going to have!
Right about then, you’re going to wish you had an Interior Designer with you to all those Showrooms! Because honey, that’s usually when I get the manic phone call from a client saying, PLEASE help me, Tash! True story…
(Want a taste of all the decisions and selections you’re going to have to make with a new build? I’m about to launch a Custom Build Selections Tracker in the Store. Sign up for the Newsletter and be notified when it goes live!)
So do yourself a favor and do your homework. Find the three professionals that you LOVE and ask them LOTS of questions. Every question you can think of. Don’t know what to ask them?
No worries, my friend! I’ve done the hard work for you! Just pop in your email address below and you’ll be sent a FREE GUIDE to:
Questions to Ask Builders, Architects and Interior Designers Before You Hire Them.
Once you’ve picked the three that you like best - your Builder, Architect and Interior Designer - go and meet them in person with your significant other to make sure what you felt on the phone was real.
It’s like dating, y’all.
You’re going to be spending a LOT of time with these people. You’ve got to like them. I mean REALLY like them. Not kinda sorta.
Ask for references and call every single reference on that list. Ask for a list of properties they’ve built and ask if you can go to see them. If you can do a walk through of a property they’ve designed and built - or several - do it. There’s nothing quite like seeing a space and touching the finishes in person to give you a sense of the mood they’re able to create. And if their clients are present, all the better. You can tell from the rapport they’ve kept with the Builder, Architect or Interior Designer how easy or challenging their experience was.
With every reference you speak to, make sure you ask what the best - and worst - parts of their process was. Were there any surprises or unexpected parts? Did anything delight them? Make sure you push for the good and the bad, so you get the whole picture. As consumers, we have a tendency to decide ahead of time which vendors we like and then put on rose-colored glasses and find ‘evidence’ to support our initial choices. This is especially true with emotional decisions like building a house. But custom homes involve a very large amount of money and a very significant amount of time. So it is incredibly important that you keep emotion out of this initial process and consider all the information you are provided with in as open-minded and level-headed a way as possible. Weigh all the pros and cons of your favorites before making your final decisions. And if your first choices don’t work, go visit your second choices and don’t be afraid to start the process again.
This is not wasted time - this is an investment. Trust me - I WISH we had done this the first time. It would have saved us a full year and about $50,000.
Once you know in your head AND your gut that you are making the right decision - can you be sure you have your Dream Team.
Then – and ONLY then – sign a contract.
Oh yeah, and sign a contract, will you? Make sure it’s all in writing.
And get a property lawyer to look the contract over to make sure it covers you.
Most contracts (Builder contracts especially) protect the professional rather than the client. So go through it with a fine-tooth comb. I’m a real geek and seriously love reading the fine print on everything. Yeah, I read the tiny little print on nutrition labels too… So contracts - count me in! I highlighted about 50 things on our final build contract to clarify with our Lawyer and Builder. Do the same with anything you don’t understand or want changed.
what we did:
I talked to all the Architects and Builders and honestly, liked quite a few. So, I had a hard time choosing. Because the Doc (my husband) and I are investors, we always look at things from a value perspective. So even though this is our Dream House and we do anticipate living in it for the long term, at least until the girls go to college, we also know that we get itchy feet and love moving. I know that if some other property catches our eye, we might move. Or, if some other country catches our eye (we’re looking at you, Australia), who knows?
With that in mind, it was important to us that we look at this house from a value perspective - not with rose-colored-dream-house-glasses - on. So while I liked quite a few Builders and Architects, there was one who said the magic words to me, and got me hook, line and sinker: “value engineering”.
I have to hand it to LB (the Builder we went with first) - like any great salesman selling snake oil, he did a great job listening to my words, and then turning them back into his product offer. In my excitement, I didn’t see through it. There’s that emotion rearing its head! I tell you this, sheepishly, so that you, my wiser-than-me friend, will see through this smoke-and-mirrors trick.
BUT he did offer something unique that, in the end, turned out to be very advantageous - a Pre-Construction Agreement. This Pre-Construction Agreement allowed us to evaluate if we were a good fit for each other before we signed a full build contract and it was the reason that we were protected in the long run. It turned out to be so pivotal that I believe that every Builder should offer it and every client should INSIST on it, so I’m going to take a minute to lay it out for you here.
THE PRE-CONSTRUCTION AGREEMENT
If a Builder offers something like this or you can negotiate something like this (especially with a Builder you haven’t worked with before), DO IT. It will protect you (and protected us) in the long-term.
What is a Pre-Construction Agreement?
Essentially it is an opportunity to try each other out before you commit. Think of it like dating before you get married. The Builder does a few things for you so you know you can trust him or her and delivers up to a certain point. Your agreement value is worth a very small percentage of your total build price, so if your Builder is not to be trusted, you’ve only lost a small amount of money in the grand scheme of things. This is obviously much easier to stomach.
You also get to meet several times in the Builder’s office, so you see their setup, see how organized they are, how they communicate, how their personality works and the quality of their contacts and connections. You also learn little things about them that may or may not sit well with you.
For example, we learned with LB, that he was a very slick, fast talker, but was slow to deliver. His office was modern and edgy, and perhaps not your traditional, established space, but his contacts were impressive. What I could NEVER get past though was his constant lateness and never-ending excuses for flat-out not showing up. I am a stickler for time and think it says a great deal about someone who cannot make it to a single meeting on schedule, especially a client meeting! There were plenty of red flags we caught onto in those first few months that later served us in looking for a new Builder.
What does a Pre-Construction Agreement Include?
The world is your oyster, baby! But our Pre-Construction Agreement included the following:
Design: Introduce us to an Architect, who would design and develop new home plans that meet the City’s code requirements for permitting.
Documents: Soils Test, Survey, Energy Analysis, Elevation Certificate and any other required permit forms.
Engineering: Contract with an Engineering Firm and obtain Structured Engineering Plans and Civil Engineering Plans (as required) for permitting.
Permitting: “Plan running” services (providing plans to each department at the Permit Office),
Management: Manage the entire process and all the people/companies above to ensure that our new home plans meet City’s code requirements for permitting and obtain a construction Permit for us to build our new home.
Once a Permit was in our hands, the Pre-Construction Agreement was complete and we were free to choose to sign a Build agreement with any Builder we chose.
So basically, we would have the house designed, all the reports and engineering work done, and the permits in our hands, and ready to build the new house once the Pre-Construction Agreement was done.
IMPORTANT - If you sign a Pre-Construction Agreement, make sure you include two clauses in there:
1) The Permit should be in YOUR name, not the Builder’s name and their is NOT included in any of the official Permit documents.
2) Once the Pre-Construction Agreement is complete, you are under NO obligation to sign a Build Agreement with the same Builder - you can bid the Project out and build the house with ANY Builder you choose.
LB also verbally promised that he would be at our architect meetings (yes! This is what I wanted!) from the get-go, so that he could advise us throughout the process on anything that would cause our build to be more expensive and help us ‘value-engineer’ the house. This was music to my ears. And truth be told, THAT is why I hired him. Because I know from working on new builds how important it is to have the builder in the room through the design process. And I figured that this way, we would have the Architect, the Builder and the Designer (me) in the same room through the Design Stage.
And that was that. We (thought we) had assembled our Dream Team.
Now it’s your turn.
Do your research and assemble your Dream Team. Do not skip this step. Do not just hire one part of the Puzzle like the Builder and think you are done. You will regret it. Hire the triad - remember,
Your build will go ‘B-A-D’ without a Builder Architect and Designer
They each have a different - and invaluable role - to play in your Custom Home and they each will be responsible for turning your Dream Home into a reality, rather than a nightmare.
You will call on them a million times over the next year or so. Make sure you adore them and that they are responsive and accessible.
Make sure they have a sense of humor that matches up to yours.
And make sure you really check out every single one of their references and see a few of the houses they’ve built.
These pre-build steps are SUPER important and will make or break your build.
Once you have your DREAM TEAM in place, you can start to have a little bit of a fun.
WE’RE ALMOST AT THE ‘DREAM’ PART OF ‘DREAM HOME’
ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE…
We’ll get there, my love. But in the meantime, remember: ALWAYS Tell A Story with your Home.
Love you, mean it!
xxx Tash Loved reading this and want to turn your home into a space you absolutely adore? Follow @taashkistudios on Instagram and join the Taashki Tribe newsletter below! Write and tell me what you struggle with in your home design and I’ll help you through your design woes!
WANT SOME HELP WITH THE HOME BUILDING PROCESS?Building a custom home is exhilarating, but it can also be overwhelming and time-consuming. There are SO many decisions to make, and sometimes, you just don’t want to go at it alone. If you want a partner in this process who can steer you towards options that work best for your family, life and style; a knowledgeable guide to take you from ‘dream’ to ‘done’ and who can hold your hand every step of the way, our Custom Home Interior Design Services might be just what you need. Find out more about Tash or Schedule a Discovery Call to learn more about our process. We can’t wait to come on your journey with you!