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 Our First Meeting
The process we use begins with you and your ideas. When you are ready, we meet with you, listen to your needs, wants and desires. We understand that most clients want to be an architect in some way, and they appreciate the chance to work with someone who will treat them as a true partner in the design of their own home.
Pre-Design
We start by giving you a complimentary Design Binder. The Design Binder is meant to be a tool that you can use to help you organize ideas, drawings, correspondence, and notes related to the design and construction of your renovation or addition project. This renovation toolkit also includes:
- A complimentary architectural scale.
- Important articles and information.
- 3 Questionnaires that will help us design your renovation:
- Sleeves for holding CD’s containing electronic and digital information.
- Business cards of contractors and suppliers that we enjoy working with.
- Sample Contracts and Opinion of Probable Cost worksheets.
- Our Drawing List that we use with you and your builder to customize your set of drawings.
- A Specifications Workbook (on request)
While you are working on the questionnaires, we’ll be measuring, photographing and drawing the existing conditions. Depending on the scope of your project, we may measure just one room or we’ll measure the whole house and produce plans and a basic 3D computer model. It is important that we get accurate information when drawing the existing conditions and on whole house renovations we need to understand the underlying structure so that we know which walls are load bearing.
Selecting the Builder
If you don’t already have a builder in mind, we usually refer you to two or three builders we feel may be appropriate for your project. We think it is important to select the builder early so that we can all get feedback early. Rather than basing your decision on the lowest cost builder, we recommend basing your decision on information learned through interviews, references, attitude, and qualifications.
 Schematic Design
Once the questionnaires have been completed and the Existing Conditions are drawn, we develop a schematic, or conceptual design that meets your needs. We organize the relevant drawings along with our Opinion of Probable Cost and meet with you again to carefully go through everything. Your feedback is helpful in establishing a design direction and preliminary budget. From here the design is further developed so that detailed construction drawings can be drawn.
Interior Design
Interior design can make or break a project, yet this step is often overlooked or undervalued. Whether you do it yourself, B4&After does it, or you use another professional, having all the interior specifications early in the process greatly helps construction, budgeting, and scheduling. A thoughtful interior design plan is essential.
 The Story of a House
Once the building permit has been obtained, construction can begin. Going from B4 to After now becomes a reality. During construction of major remodels we work with the builder to create an Owners Manual for your home. This simply involves documenting the location of wires and pipes through photographs keyed to locations on the floor plan and a comprehensive organization of as-built plans, maintenance instructions, appliance and equipment manuals, building permits and more.
All’s well that ends well...finally!
The process by which a project gets renovated is key to its success. We can help you design it right and work with your builder to make sure they have all the information they need to build it right and within your budget.
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