There’s something for everyone as each of us is an individual and we like different things – colors, texture, lighting and flooring, furniture and accessories. Most of the furnishings are for sale although what I liked the most was the variety of wall treatments and attention to detail with wonderful wood trims so here are the details so you too can visit the show …

North Shore Design Show at the Wenham Museum
Saturday, May 12 to Sunday, May 20, 2012 (details here)

When visiting a designer show, you first want to consider it’s location as it’s space, location and mission will influence the designs. The North Shore Design Show is held each year at the Wenham Museum which celebrates the history of childhood and domestic life on Boston’s North Shore and I loved the doll houses! The 13 designers were asked to transform an 8-by-8 area into a favorite space inspired by the museum’s mission of North Shore life past and present.

The variety of rooms is amazing and one thing that struck me was how many books and bookcases there were in contrast to our lives today, full of electronics and far fewer books than lives lived just a generation back. Pause … as I sit back and reflect on the mood, the feelings of a bygone era where people really lived at home, where people sat and read or painted or puttered in the garden. It really highlights how our lives have changed and I wonder what we’re giving up as we move firmly into the electronic world surrounding us.

Rooms for Reading and Relaxing

What’s your favorite place to ready, and I’m not including reading at your computer because that means you’re sitting at some type of desk like I am right now (writing this has made me more aware of where I am). I’m still a huge fan of holding a real book although I can’t ignore the thousands of people who love their Kindles and Nooks, and I have downloaded books to my iPad for traveling. Check out these calm, relaxing rooms meant to create the feeling of a warm, cozy library where you can get lost in a great book …

There are lots of lessons we can take away from this room. At first glance you think it’s a dining room but when you look closer, it’s also a library with a cozy bench seat for snuggling into a good book.

As we rarely use our dining rooms with families scattered across the US, and the world, it makes a lot more sense to have your dining room take on 1 or 2 more roles that support your lifestyle today.

My visit to the Wenham Museum for the North Shore Design Show is thanks to Camille Garro, of Camille Garro Interiors.  Her living room design feels like I’ve been transported to another era and more important, the room  inspires us to sit and relax with a book, soaking up the warmth of the room.

What’s intriguing is how the designs on Camille’s website are more contemporary, yet the rich red and earthy tones, coupled with natural materials like the leather chair, are the same.

This room is magical bringing the outdoors inside from the trees painted on the walls and ceiling, to the chair with a leaf print design.

In the northeast (the North Shore is north of Boston), winters are long and cold so we’re indoors for many months and tend to get cabin fever. The room comes alive with green, real (terrariums on the trees) and imagined, so we feel like we’re outside. This is especially nice when outside the windows, there’s a white snowy landscape.

We’ve got more photos to share – rooms for hobbies, home offices and more, so check back soon. For now we want to acknowledge all the interior designers and the people who helped create this wonderful show.

Camille Garro Interiors
Carpenter & MacNeille
Eric M. Haydel Design
Finn-Martens Design
Honey Collins Interiors
Mary O’Neill Interior Design
Nightingale Arts of Salem
Sacris Design
The Drawing Room Interior Design
The Walsingham Gallery
Timeless Interiors
Wilson Kelsey Design
Yvonne Blacker Interiors

Maybe you don’t have any ceiling fans in your existing home? Growing up in the northeast where it doesn’t get uncomfortably hot, ceiling fans haven’t been common … until recently with the new focus on energy efficiency. The question then is how much does a ceiling fan cost to run versus air conditioning?

Fans vs Air Conditioning, a Cost Comparison

In a typical house, air conditioning uses more electricity than anything else, typically 16% of your total electric bill. In warmer climates, your air conditioning use can increase up to 60 to 70% of your summer electric bill, so it pays to research alternative ways to cool your home.

Let’s start by looking at relative cost comparisons. As the cost of electricity varies based on where you live, the information is provided in terms of watts used per hour of operation for fans and air conditioners … and for fun, an average refrigerator.

Hopefully the “picture is worth a thousand words” makes this message really easy to understand. We don’t expect you to forego the benefits of air conditioning but we do want you to consider adding fans to your home. Think about the times when consider turning on the air conditioner but don’t because you realize it’s costly, or maybe you want to head downstairs to the controls in the family room.

What Fans Will and Won’t Do

Ceiling fans do not lower the temperature like air conditioning.

Ceiling fans do not remove humidity from the air, they don’t work like air conditioners.

Ceiling fans cause the air in a room to be circulated … and this makes people feel four degrees cooler in the summer.

So now you’re wondering why I’m talking about fans?

Ceiling fans make you feel cooler by creating a wind chill effect similar to wind chill on a cold winter day, where the wind makes it feel colder than the air’s temperature. When a fan causes the air to circulate, the fan makes it easier for the air to evaporate sweat on your skin, and sweat is how your body eliminates heat … so the more evaporation, the cooler you feel.

Why Fan Rotation Matters

You want to buy ceiling fans that have a switch to reverse the rotation direction, and you need to switch directions twice a year. The biggest expense if you don’t already have ceiling fans in the rooms where you want them, is the installation.

• During the summer, your ceiling fan needs to run counter-clockwise to provide cooling breezes by pulling cool air from the floor up to the ceiling.
• In the winter, you should switch the fan to run clockwise to circulate the warm air rising to the ceiling, back down to the floor where it will make you more comfortable.

Installing a Ceiling Fan

Older homes often don’t have ceiling light fixtures so you’ll need to run electricity through the walls to the ceiling where you want the fan — this requires a licensed electrician, and the cost will likely exceed the cost of the fan. If you’ve got an existing light fixture, the power is there and you can swap the fan for the light fixture although you may need to add some extra support when the ceiling fan weighs more than the light fixture.

Watch for articles on other types of fans – whole house fans, swamp coolers, etc!

Remodeling a home is a great alternative to selling your existing home and moving. Remodeling means you get to remain in your community, the children don’t have to change schools. Your lives might be uprooted a bit during the actual remodeling project but afterward, you’re able to continue with the routines you love like walking the dog, bike rides and more.

It pays to spend time researching and planning any remodeling project, big or small. With a well thought out design, plan a 10 to 20% contingency in your budget, things will go more smoothly. Know that it can be hard to budget for remodeling projects. Don’t be surprised if you find existing problems in the walls, and you might have to replace a window, insulation, or sheet rock unexpectedly.

Another planning tip is to review your planned project against the most popular, to see if the improvements you are making will increase the value of your home. That’s where the annual Remodeling: Cost vs Value report (check out 2011) from Remodeling Magazine can help. Home professionals like realtors and home appraisers can also give you input on the market value of your home after completing the remodeling project you’re planning.

Remodeling Trends in 2011

With lower home prices, homeowners are focusing more on spending less to update their homes. 42% of homeowners think it’s a good time to remodel this year with replacements performing very well in resale value (cost-value ratio is an above-average 71.6%).

Here is a recap of 2011′s top remodeling trends for you to use in planning your remodel or home makeover. If you want more information, you can read Remodeling Trends Focusing on Lower Costs.

1. Easily maintained materials are key. Homeowners are favoring smarter, smaller homes made with materials that are easy to clean and maintain. By investing in these high quality materials, you can save a great deal of money in the long run by not having to replace them.
   
2. Implementing universal design principles in a subtle way increases the resale value of your home. Larger doorways and open floor plans that are wheelchair accessible will make your house marketable to a larger audience of buyers.
3. Go Green. Sustainable materials are in and they’re here to stay! Always buy energy-efficient windows, lighting and appliances to save money every month and keep your home up to date.

Remodeling Tips for You

Here are some planning tips to point you in the right direction. Every situation is unique so consider these as one input to your ultimate plans for your remodeling project.

• Home maintenance should be your #1 priority, and should not be deferred. Unless it’s a freak storm, the first roof leak is when you start planning for the new roof as more repairs will only drive your costs up.
• Focus on your family’s lifestyle and how a remodeling project will enhance your lives. A kitchen with more space for the kids to do their homework or a garage with a workshop are perfect if you use them frequently, and a money pit if you don’t.
• When remodeling a home it’s all about planning. If you’re going to update your kitchen remodel in stages, plan the entire project first to guide you and insure all the pieces come together.

Every home is different, so communicate with your family about what their needs are and decide together what kind of remodeling you’d like to do. Thanks for reading!

My online business means I’m on the computer from about 6am into the wee hours most evenings, and that includes weekends. Our Internet access died yesterday afternoon and my husband is really good at trouble shooting. This story is real time, and my personal story dealing with Fairpoint Communications as they stall and delay sending a technician out to repair or replace our modem, and get us back online.

The sad thing here is our phone and cable companies are monopolies so customer service is sketchy, as they don’t have competitors to keep them on their toes. Their recorded message when you call 800-240-5019 says “… for your convenience, we’re available 24 hours a day” only refers to someone answering your call. It’s probably good at calming down angry customers but it’s misleading!

Timeline for Internet Outage

This article illustrates the frustration and poor customer service related to the loss of our Internet access in Hampton, NH beginning Friday, May 11, 2012.

• My husband found himself without Internet service around 3pm Friday. He called Fairpoint Communications and got a recording saying “… if you’re in NH, power your modem off and on“. This seems to indicate a broader failure affecting many Fairpoint customers.
• After completing the modem power off, power on procedures … the modem had a red blinking light, the one that says “fail”. My husband reported the “blinking red light fail” problem around 4pm and they would schedule a service technician to come out to our home, but they wouldn’t come until Monday afternoon.
• When my husband called me around 6pm to alert me to the Internet problem, I suggested he check on status and communicate the impact of the problem as we both work at home … and Saturday, I was told the problem was raised to “priority high”.
• Friday night I called when I got home, then again Saturday morning (twice, the second to get information for this article) and the troubling thing was, each time I got a very different story – problem opened around 7:30pm? problem assigned to repair department but they’re not allowed to give out estimated up times.
• Around 11am Saturday, they called my husband’s cell phone to confirm the modem had power? That was a ridiculous discussion as the box needs power to have a blinking red light!
• About 12:30pm, a technician arrived and Dave replaced the modem. Unfortunately they initialize the modem from the office but the process failed so we’re still offline. There was nothing else he could do, so Dave left for the next customer on his list of work orders.

Many of my clients want the satisfaction of living in a fantastic looking, functional, comfortable and healthy home that they also know is eco friendly. Because I also have a passion and commitment to green design, I have found ways to accomplish this goal without compromising budget, aesthetic or schedule.

Here are just a few examples of how green can be gorgeous from some of my recent client experiences:

• Slab countertops that are created from recycled marble are a really lovely alternative that people rave about – the material is different, eco-friendly, and really beautiful. For examples, go to http://www.eurostoneinc.com/toscana.sht

• An eco-friendly pendant light made from recycled beverage bottles became the light of choice for clients wanted an eye-catching bar. Several of these lights would be perfect over a kitchen countertop too. See http://store.bottlehood.com/wine-bottle-light-from-1-5-liter-bottle-pendant-with-plug/ 

• Recently I used a remarkable high quality fabric for a client’s curtains and wall covering. The fabric is hand- made, hand dyed, 100% woven silk and is weaved in cooperatives in developing countries by master artisans, and addresses four aspects of sustainability: economic, cultural, environmental and social. What this company stands for is pretty amazing as is their remarkably beautiful fabric. http://www.lulan.com/store/lulan-home.html

• Another outstanding and affordable green option, in this case for sofas, comes from http://greensofas.com/501.html, where all aspects of the sofa from frame, springs, cushions, adhesives and fabrics are based on eco-friendly resources and techniques.

One thing I have learned in my experience working with green interior design is that there are several ways to have a comfortable, responsible and beautiful green home. Equally important is that these eco-friendly design options are available across all design styles from traditional to ultra modern.

Of course, many of the products I mention above are in my geographic area of Los Angeles, but I encourage you to investigate the available green alternatives in your community. Whether you choose recycled, sustainable, socially conscious, healthy and/or energy saving products, there are a multitude of choices than can be stunning, affordable, innovative and just perfect for your space.

Wouldn’t it be great if you got a book when you bought your house, telling you what home maintenance chores needed to be done each month, along with directions on how to do it or who to call? Unfortunately houses don’t come with a home maintenance book like you get when you buy a car … so too often, homeowners ignore problems until there’s significant damage like “it’s raining in the upstairs hallway” and repair costs are much larger than the preventative  maintenance would have been.

Running my handyman business, I’ve talked to hundreds of homeowners over the years and learned about a variety of home maintenance strategies. If you’re not ready to commit to twice or 4 times a year, routine maintenance … my goal is to have you pick any strategy as long as it’s not “waiting ’till it breaks”.

Event Driven Home Maintenance

We all live very busy lives, and tend to move from one family event to planning the next event like an annual Memorial Day picnic. Many home owners do the majority (anything except fixing what breaks and can’t be ignored any longer) of their home maintenance to prepare for a lifestyle event. The problems with waiting for these events, is you’re letting hidden problems get worse and the repairs will cost you more.

• Preparing your home for sale before you list your home, or after the buyer has their home inspection.
• Right after you move into your new home, generally for 6 months to a year, is when a majority of home maintenance and minor updates are made.
• When something breaks or you find a leak, i.e. stains on your ceiling or sparks coming from a light switch.
• Family events like a wedding, visitors from overseas or special company like meeting your future daughter-in-laws parents.

Schedule Driven Home Maintenance

My preferred approach to home maintenance is to set aside one weekend each quarter, to tackle home maintenance chores. It’s best to pick the task you are comfortable doing and have the tools/skills to get them done efficiently. You’ll save money and have more peace of mind if you find a reliable handyman to come onece or twice a year to handle the other items, so they get done but you don’t have to agonize over getting on a ladder, on the roof or whatever you’re not comfortable doing around your house.

• Quarterly, seasonal maintenance checklists are great because it lets you focus on exterior maintenance in the spring (cleaning up after winter storms) and fall (getting ready for winter) and interior home maintenance in winter (preparing for holiday gatherings) and summer.

Check out our seasonal checklists (Spring into Action Maintenance Checklist, Summer Home Maintenance Checklist, Fall Leaves and Home Maintenance, Home Maintenance to Stay Comfortable This Winter) to help you keep your home in good condition.

• Monthly checklists are a variation on the seasonal checklists, broken down to smaller lists, i.e. 1 day (not the entire weekend) each month versus dedicating a full weekend each quarter to home maintenance.
• Room-by-room checklists, i.e. attic when putting holiday decorations away, can be more rewarding for homeowners who like the visual feedback that one room is done and they can check it off their list until next year.

Project Driven Home Maintenance

Some homeowners know it’s important to set aside 1 to 2% of their home’s value each year, for maintenance and home upgrades. It’s far easier to deal with a roof that’s reached it’s end of life when you know you’ve got the money in the bank. It’s difficult hearing about a friend who’s 75 year old boiler fails in January, and risks more damage with frozen pipes, while searching for financing to pay for a new boiler.

A friend of mine tackles one big project each year – new windows to save heating and cooling costs, followed by new living/dining room flooring and she’s still planning her kitchen remodel. Knowing what her upcoming projects are helps her prioritize the smaller, routine maintenance chores. Here are other typical projects my handyman business has helped homeowners with:

• Painting 1-2 rooms each year (do-it-yourself homeowners), and replacing windows on the same schedule (my handyman technicians).
• Updating a bathroom which can be done all at once, or broken down into several smaller projects to fit the budget but create the master design first.
• Creating a new activity space, like a home office, is one of the most rewarding home projects so start dreaming, then prioritize and create that new space.

Mortgage lenders like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who back mortgages have declared war on condominiums. Instead of signing paperwork for our closing this morning, I got a message from GMAC yesterday saying today’s closing is delayed because underwriting declared we own a condo and that means we have to pay more fees! Lousy sales pitch too. The message said our rate won’t change, we just have to pay another half point origination fee, and that’s a really dumb idea so let me explain what’s going on and what your options are.

Note: This is my personal story. I’m sharing personal facts and what I’ve learned researching the problem and I’ve owned more than 10 homes.  My only involvement in real estate is as a homeowner.

I’ve watched the US financial industry rape America and been frustrated that Active Rain, a wonderful online community of 200,000 plus members involved in real estate, hasn’t spoken out more. Our government is slow to respond and seems hopelessly mired in political agendas controlled by corporate America, as they finance campaigns.

The Condo Financing Penalty

According to this Mortgage Rates Report article, Condo Mortgages Seen As “Risky” and Will Cost More April 1, 2009 (recommend you check for specifics for where you live, and the current year as things change constantly):

• If you are financing (buying or refinancing) a condominium with less than 25% equity, you will get hit with an “add-on penalty” simply because it’s a condo, and not a traditional, stand-alone home.
• Borrowing from a quote in the article above, “… some of the loan categories and credit risk combinations … default at four to eight times the rate of other mortgages … We have to manage these risks appropriately, and that means pricing them based on the probability of higher losses.”
• This risk-based pricing gets applied to condominiums because of the added layer of the Home Owners Association (HOA). With a condo, you own your unit and have the right to use common areas which are maintained by monthly condo fees paid to the Home Owners Association.

My condex is 2 units, and there are no condo fees … so no risk!
A simple solution would be put HOA fees into escrow with taxes and insurance!

The condo penalty is significant. If you were buying a $400,000 condominium, you’d have to put down 25% or $100,000 to avoid the penalty. Otherwise you could be hit with an extra fee at closing of .75% fee or … $2,250 for a $300,000 condo mortgage.

Avoiding the Condo Financing Penalty

So let’s go back to the message the GMAC salesperson left, and yes you need to understand these are sales people who want to process as many loans as possible because their pay is likely tied to performance. Scratching your head?

• My GMAC salesperson said essentially “… we can’t close tomorrow because the underwriters came back and said you have a condo so you’ll have to pay an extra half point at closing, but don’t worry, your mortgage rate isn’t changing.”
• A mortgage consultant would have said, the underwriters (Fannie or Freddie) have determined your home is a condo so there’s an extra half point required at closing. Let’s talk Monday as there are some options you might prefer!

When television came onto the market, there was one TV per household and now haw many TVs do you have in your home? At first we had one share computer per family. Now we’ve got 1 computer per family member and often, and often an extra shared computer. Combine computers with smart phones and other electronic “must have” devices and the numbers are staggering.

The average couple has 7 devices and a family of 4, 11 pieces of technology according to iYogi Insights, a consumer research group. As we focus on reducing tradition energy usage, it seems like it’s also time to explore the costs associated with our home based,  consumer technology.

Buyer Beware of Home Technology Costs

You focus on technology costs when you buy a new computer, printer or smart phone. In reality it’s the ongoing costs you don’t focus on that really add up. For manufacturers, it’s all about smart packaging and printers are a great example – their profit is in the ink!

You think you’re getting a great deal when you wait to buy your printer on sale. Prices range from $150 to $350, so saving a hundred dollars is a great deal. Not really. They should give away the printers because you’re going to pay 5, 10 or more times the printer cost with the price of ink cartridges.

Can you tell I’m not happy with my HP Photosmart C6180 All in One printer? It has 6 colors cartridges (magenta, pink, cyan, sky blue, yellow and black) and uses all of them even if I’m only printing black! We thought we’d save money only replacing one color at a time. Then we fell for the packaging and bought all the colors to save money, a really stupid decision but we’re learning. There are 4 sky blue cartridges and 2 pink ones sitting in my drawer, and the ridiculous thing now is I have to constantly override the printer telling me I’m using expired ink which negates my printer warranty … and did I forget to mention that one full set of cartridges can cost more than the printer?

Adding Up Home Technology Costs

Technology costs include both one time charges like the purchase of a computer, smart phone and applications and ongoing costs like connecting to the Internet and cloud services like Carbonite’s file backup services. The numbers are staggering and maybe it’s because we don’t look at the total cost but iYogi.com has done some detailed research into consumer spending on technology.

For now let’s just look at the typical technology costs for an average family that’s plugged in.

Consumer devices purchased can appear to be your biggest cost but I remember our first personal computer, and how the boxes kept arriving for months after with all sorts of software (before today’s downloads were so easy, you got your applications on disk and had to insert them the computer to install).

• Desktop computer
• Laptop computers
• Televisions because they’re not digital
• Tablets like the Apple iPad and eReaders, like Barnes & Noble’s Nook
• Electronic game hardware like the Xbox and Wii
• Smart phones or maybe you’ve still got basic cell phones
• … and let’s not forget the printers.

Running on these devices are all sorts of software and applications like the operating system, a browser, etc. While some of this software comes bundled with the device and lots more is available free, we ultimately pay for someone’s investment to create the software.

• Operating systems like Windows
• Home office software like Microsoft Office
• Specialty software like Adobe for photographers
• Entertainment software, i.e. games, books and music
• … and smart applications for your phone, i.e. love my GPS.

The funniest smart phone application I’ve heard of is “Sit or Squat” which helps you find the closest bathroom when you’re out and about. Too funny as they need to verify your age, so they ask “We need to confirm that you’ve been potty trained!”

Connecting your technology devices to the Internet is the real expense in your family’s budget because these are costs you pay month after month, forever.

• Cable television and we’re all subsidizing professional sports even if you don’t watch a game.
• Traditional land lines are now being replaced by cell phones, or regular phones connected by VOIP like Vonage.
• Cell phone plans + data + text + whatever they dream up next … and we could all write a book about trying to avoid these scams.
• Internet service providers (ISPs) which connect your home, office, restaurants and the world to the Internet.
• Subscription services like Carbonite to back up your files online, are fairly new but they will quickly add up to big bucks added to your household budget.

As people stay in their homes longer, you want to look for projects to update your home’s best features. You’ll enjoy your home more, your home will be more attractive when it’s time to sell and with the right research and budgeting, you can recoup part of your investment when selling so let’s look at window styles that give us more natural light, as any people are affected by sunlight (or the lack of natural light).

Window Design Creativity

Windows are a big decision when designing and building a house. It’s important to consider how different windows will look outside your home, i.e. so that each side of your home presents an integrated look and feel. This can be more challenging when adding an addition or changing just one room in your house but don’t despair.

At the same time, it’s perfectly okay to mix and match different window styles like the photo which shows 5 different window styles that all work together in this Victorian home. The windows on the first floor are wide with integrated grill work. The second floor has tall, narrow double hung windows and sitting above them are dormers with triangle windows.

Windows that Add More Natural Sunlight

Transom windows are windows that sit above the beam or crosspiece separating a door or window below it. Earlier transom windows could be opened to provide cross-ventilation before air conditioning became common. They were high and small enough to maintain  security and privacy in apartment buildings and office buildings. Transom windows are one of my favorite window styles because they let you catch more light as the sun rises or sets so if you have high ceilings and feel like your rooms are too dark, this is a great approach to bringing more light into your home.

The original picture has been around since the 1950s. The large, fixed pane “picture window” is still popular in living rooms and dining rooms. When creating a wall of glass, you can get creative in combining different types of glass doors and windows, some opening and others fixed pane to cut costs. When designing a wall like this, don’t forget to consider your window coverings as they can help integrate your various window choices to create a seamless design.

Skylights are a perfect solution to adding natural lighting to kitchens and bathrooms where there is very little wall space available for windows. The kitchen skylight here was added when the kitchen was updated, and a second skylight was added over the staircase near the front door. Velux, the leading skylight manufacturer, has created a smaller sun tunnel product for bathrooms which might be overpowered by a skylight.

The simple answer is working with a design-build company will save you time, money and stress! Most people will talk about the time or the money but I think the stress is more important, as homeowners don’t have a lot of experience building or remodeling homes, and like anything new and different, along with the excitement comes lots of stress.

Missing Door Openings So Please Don’t Tell!

We’d all like to live in a perfect world but we’re human and that means mistakes happen. The construction industry has it’s mistakes so if you don’t hold it against me, let me share a story.

The foundation without door openings (photo) could have been avoided with a design-build company, if the design work involved the architect and the builder. Following a traditional design process, the architect drew up the blueprints and the homeowner gave them to the builder. Only after the foundation was poured, did the homeowner question where the doors (3 planned) were and oops, only the garage door was on the blueprint.

This wasn’t a huge mistake but here’s what it took to correct the situation:

1. Delay while architect produced new drawings showing the doorways.
2. Waiting for the concrete company to cut away the door openings.
3. Someone had to pay for the concrete work, approximately $800.
4. … and don’t you think there was a bit of stress for everyone involved?

Benefits of Design-Build Companies

This story helps explain the difference between more traditional building and the newer, design-build method which saves homeowners time, money and stress. The biggest difference is how the building or remodeling team is structured. With jobs taking months or often more than a year, it’s really important to focus on building a strong partnership at the outset.

Tradition Building Puts Homeowners in the Drivers Seat!

• Homeowners collect ideas in a notebook, or now you can use Pinterest.
• Homeowners buy a set of house plans or … find an architect to draw up their plans. Having done both, experience says there are benefits and drawbacks to each approach but that’s for another story.
• Homeowners get bids from several builders or remodelers. This is when you learn working with an architect is worth their fees, as they know which builders deliver on their promise!
• Homeowners pick their remodeler and then the fun begins. The homeowner gets to act as the middleman between the architect (design) and builder who knows (and their bid assumed) how to build and where to cut costs. Often the homeowner is clueless and when you realize something is not according to your blueprints, you have to decide if you want to spend the time to negotiate a compromise … which increases time, cost and stress.

Design-Build Starts with ONE Team!

With the design-build process, the architect and the builder work for the same company. Your building project starts with planning meetings that include you, the homeowner, the person designing your home and the person building your house. You are a team from the beginning, with everyone learning together what priorities are important to preserve as the design comes together within the homeowners budget – the company assigns one person as the project owner, relieving the homeowner of this pressure.

So what happens differently with design-build?

• A cost-effective design gets created faster with collaboration among the team members.
• Construction moves faster with fewer questions and problems to slow things down.
• There’s one person responsible managing all problems and concerns and it’s not the homeowner! This includes building permits or inspections, pre-ordering materials with long lead times, scheduling specialty sub-contractors, job site issues, change orders, etc.

The timelines illustrate how one team working together from the start, gets the project done faster. When everyone works on the design together, quality improves and there are fewer change orders, so overall project costs are lower. All of this adds up to substantial savings for the homeowner.