Stephanie A. Wascha's Blog

Check out this great article on building a home with minimal space by Mike Cahill showcasing not only advice from Wascha Studios, but other architects as well.

Building a house from the ground up can be a difficult but extremely rewarding task. Having the ability to design everything to your exact specifications is one of the biggest draws for most people when deciding to build or not. However, sometimes design plans are hindered by a lack of space to work with. When building on a small plot of land it’s difficult to ensure that you are getting the most out of your home and your property. That’s why we’ve reached out to the experts in home design from Sacramento to New York to provide you with ways to optimize the design and layout of your home when working with limited space.

Read the whole article

I’m a big fan of “Rules of thumb(s),” and contractors I work with usually state it is about 1 month of construction time for each $75k dollars spent on a home construction project. Obviously, this can vary wildly, but let’s do some math. Let’s say you want to build a 1500 square foot home. If you use 1500sf x $400 per SF (base starting price per square foot for construction in Seattle, WA used for reference), that is $600k. Let’s say you have $50k of earthwork needed, because you usually don’t just go plop a house down on a piece of property without driveways, sewers, etc. Your construction budget is therefore $650k. Divide that by $75k and you have about 8.5 months of construction time. This isn’t an exact science and can vary depending on your project obviously, but this will allow you to start planning ahead on your project. Don’t forget, you could be looking at that same amount of time in the design and permitting phases as well.

The most common issue homeowners encounter during a construction project is not agreeing with one another on things both large and small. It’s okay. You can get through it with a little pre-planning.

You must determine a way to deal with decisions when you come to an impasse. It is stressful making hundreds of decisions that affect future decisions and cost a lot of money to boot. In addition, going back and forth on where to place a window takes time, and time is money. The ability to quickly make decisions to keep the project moving is a critical piece to the puzzle.

I recommend using bargaining chips as a solution for indecision. Each party starts with 5 chips (if you have too many, it won’t work because you can keep one-upping each other and get nowhere). Instead of pulling your partner’s hair out, you can use one of your chips to override your partner and conclude an issue you just can’t seem to resolve. If you really want the range oven in the island, and your partner wants it on the wall, you can use a chip to resolve the dilemma. Just be aware that you might have to succumb to the 4-burner range instead of that 6-burner beauty you had your eye on if your partner uses his or her chips to knock yours off the table. You may determine other tricks that work better for you, but agree in advance on how to resolve these types of impasses. Setting some ground rules on how to get past challenging circumstances will help you both keep all of your hair and make the process a lot more fun.

Check out my BOOK to learn more, and feel free to leave a question or comment. I will respond!

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The short answer is you will need an architect to properly design your new home to get accurate pricing from contractors. However, doing some early number crunching to get you into the right ballpark (or at least in the right universe) before you bring in the professionals will save you loads of time and money. Begin this process by putting away the free drafting software you just downloaded. Instead, I want you to become familiar with your “Total Project Costs.” I’m not talking about your construction costs, but yes, that’s definitely a good chunk of it. I’m referring to hard-costs, soft-costs, and a contingency. The hard-costs are the construction costs, and the soft-costs are essentially everything else (permit fee, architectural fees, structural fees, etc.) less the contingency.

A good rule of thumb is the 75/25 rule where the hard-costs are about 75 percent of the Total Project Costs, and the soft-costs are the remaining 25 percent. Let’s say that you were hoping your remodel would cost you $500k. Does that mean you were hoping everything was $500k or just the construction costs? If that number was supposed to be the all-inclusive, final number, then our trusty calculator will prove the following:

Hard-costs: 75% x $500k = $375k

Soft-costs: 25% x $500k = $125k. Shocking. I know. You’ll thank me later.

This means that your construction budget is $375,000, but I need to throw one more curve ball at you. You need a contingency set aside for surprises, usually in the amount of 10 percent. In this example then, we need to save $37,500 for surprises, so our construction budget is actually $337,500. Make sense? There is a big difference between telling your architect to design a $500,000 remodel and a $337,500 remodel. If you neglect to inform your architect of the reality of your construction costs, you could end up paying for additional architectural fees instead of fun wish list items. Obviously, every project is different, but this will get you to stop spinning in circles and allow you to start thinking about real numbers. These numbers are what your architect will ultimately use to ensure he or she is designing something you can afford.

Check out my BOOK to learn more, and feel free to leave a question or comment. I will respond!

Thank you! Your email is safe with me.

The most important thing in reconciling your remodel dreams with your budget is a list of priorities, noted in order of importance. When preparing for a project, I always recommend that each party involved put together a list of priorities separate from one another. Don’t forget, they must be listed in order of importance. Then, get together and share your lists. Discuss what is important to each person and why. The WHY is very important, so leave ample time for discussions, and make sure you open those ears and listen to one another. The final step is to collectively create ONE list that everyone agrees on… yes, you guessed it… in order of importance. The order of importance in which things are listed is useful when forced to cut wish list items due to budget constraints. You obviously cut things that are lower on the list first, and you already know that everyone agrees because of the homework you did in advance. However, it is never fun to cut wish list items when surprises arise, so it is extraordinarily important to have a contingency set aside (I recommend 10 percent of the construction cost, but it can vary, so get your architect’s opinion). Having money set aside for surprises ensures you won’t have to give up your dreamy soaking tub when you find rot in your wall.

Check out my list of top questions to ask yourself before building to get you started.

Check out my BOOK to learn more, and feel free to leave a question or comment. I will respond!

Thank you! Your email is safe with me.

The best team you can have is one that actually operates like a holistic team. Everyone needs to mesh and communicate well with one another. Even if your architect recommends a particular contractor, you need to meet him/her before signing on the dotted line. Also,make sure to meet the person who will be your superintendent (the one on site everyday) … not just the boss who is interviewing for your project. That same advice applies to interviewing architects. You need to meet the architect with whom you will have your daily communication about walls, windows, and cabinets, if it isn’t the person at the initial interview.

Everyone involved should then get together to discuss the project to determine if there is a good vibe and mutual respect, because your team will be in your life and your home for months, if not years. Ask hard questions about their experience and what they do if something goes wrong… then trust your gut if your inner red flag goes up. If someone isn’t right for you, it is okay to move on to someone else. You also need to realize that you are just as important a team member as your architect or contractor. You must understand what your responsibilities are as the homeowner and hold yourself to those, so as not to hold up the process or unknowingly cost yourself added fees. Those homeowner duties will be readily available in your contracts with your architect and contractor and are great topics of conversation in those early meetings to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Check out my BOOK to learn more, and feel free to leave a question or comment. I will respond!

See also HOW TO SELECT AN ARCHITECT and HOW TO SELECT A CONTRACTOR

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• What is your initial perception of your site a home?

• What is the desired perception of your site and home?

• What do you see as the major disadvantages of your home?

• What do you see as the major advantages of your home?

• What impressions would you like to create as you enter the site and home?

• Which activities or rooms would you directly relate to morning, afternoon, or evening sun and why?

• Which activities or rooms would you directly relate to exterior spaces, and are exterior spaces important to you?

• In a few words, what statement would you want your home and site to make to both you and your visitors?

• Describe what your ideal home might look and feel like. Is it welcoming, informal/formal, active, relaxing, etc.?

• What types of spaces/uses do you need that are currently lacking or not functioning well?

• Do you cook and/or entertain often, and if so, for how many?

• Who will ultimately live in the house and for how long? Do you see a change in the family structure in the next 5-10+ years (ex. children, parents moving in, more pets)?

• Does anyone intending to live in the house require any special physical accommodations either currently or in the future?

• What daily rituals do you have that have space requirements, and what are those requirements (exercising, meditation, etc.)? Be as specific as possible.

• Do you watch television as a family, and if so, where would you ideally like to do that? Is your TV preferably a focal point in your main living room or tucked away so it is less visible?

• What is the primary goal of your remodel project?

• Do you have specific health concerns, such as allergies, that we should consider in your design? Be specific about how a space might need to be configured to contend with your health concerns. This could include no forced air, the use of low or no VOC materials, etc.

• Are there green building strategies you feel passionate about and would like to incorporate into your home?

• What time constraints do you have for this project? Holiday travel? Kid’s school year starting/stopping?

• What is your budget?

• Do you plan on living in your home/condo while it is under construction?

Write them down and share them with your architect!

Check out my BOOK to help you prepare, and feel free to leave questions or comments. I will respond!

Thank you! Your email is safe with me.

Below I’ve broken out the 6 phases of the process, so you know what to expect from your architect and yourself within each.

Pre-Design: This can include site analysis, code research, measuring your existing house, drafting your existing house, programming, goal setting, etc. This will encompass about 10 percent of the total architectural fees you will pay during the whole process and can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months to complete. This is when your architect will need to gain a strong grasp of your goals, wish lists, project scope, etc. As a result, he or she will spend loads of time asking you questions. Some provide questionnaires for you to fill out or have other means of drawing information from your brain. Be armed with your Pinterest pages, lists of priorities, and budget. Please read Chapter 6 in my book if you are unsure of how to prepare what you need for this phase.

Schematic Design: This includes designing options for your review, which could comprise plans, elevations, 3D models, renderings, or basically anything your architect needs to get his or her ideas across. You will have some big decisions to make once you see your schematic designs, so be ready for a few long (but exciting!) meetings with your architect. This is one of the most gratifying stages for homeowners (as you get your first glimpse of your future home), so remember your enthusiasm for this phase later when you want to pull your (or your partner’s) hair out. About 25 percent of the total architectural fee is eaten up during the schematic design phase and can take anywhere from a few months to, well… many many months to design. I’ve had large projects (or projects with homeowners who need to brush up on their decision-making skills) where it took over a year to complete this phase. I mention that so you understand that you partially drive the schedule here. I hate to be so vague, but this really depends on the project scope, the architect, the architect’s current workload, and you.

Design Development: This phase includes modifying the schematic design, so you can finalize the scope of the project and get initial pricing feedback from contractors. Your architect will utilize your feedback from the schematic design meetings to create one final design concept moving forward. You should expect more questions and another meeting or two during this phase to ensure the big picture is nailed down. Around 12 percent of the total architectural fees will be applied to this phase, and it should last a few weeks to a few months… Again, it’s partially dependent upon you, and how well you’ve honed your decision-making abilities.

Permit and Contract Documents: This includes drafting the actual documents used to get your building permit, to finalize construction estimates, and to build your home. This is where we disappear for multiple months at a time while you, without really knowing what we are up to, receive large invoices in the mail. We know this part sucks for you. Sorry. It is necessary though. Expect a whopping 35 percent of the total architectural fee to be billed to you for this phase.

Bidding and Negotiating: This includes helping owners navigate the estimates and contracts received by contractors. Don’t skimp on this service to try and save a little fee. The information can sound like a foreign language. Many times the estimates vary wildly, so you aren’t comparing apples to apples, and there is a lot of money at stake. It is worth every penny to have a trained professional help you review estimates and contracts you receive from competing contractors. About 3 percent of the architectural fee should be spent reviewing this information with you. You will be tasked with actually reading and understanding the contracts, so get out your highlighter and make note of your questions… of which there will be many. Please also read my blog How To Protect Yourself From Crappy Contractors before starting this phase, in which I provide you with an awesome cheat-sheet for these contracts.

Construction Administration: This includes any time spent on the project during construction answering questions, reviewing submittals from contractors and subcontractors, quality control, reviewing payment requests by the contractor, obtaining closeout documents, etc. This isn’t always included in the original estimates that you will receive from architects, because it is extremely difficult to guess how many surprises/questions will arise during construction. If it isn’t in the original estimate (and you should verify if it is unclear), then you need to include money in your budget for these architectural fees. The amount may vary, as more difficult projects may require weekly site meetings for all or part of the construction process which can push these fees way up. To ensure my percentages in this article add up to an orderly 100, I’ll inform you that the average industry standard fee for this phase is 15 percent. However, I have seen this upwards of 25 percent. It all depends on how many surprises you have, how complicated your project is, and how detailed your drawings are. Typically, more time spent in the drawing phase means less time spent in this phase, but as usual, it all depends.

Conclusion: When you are interviewing architects, please make sure to ask each of them how long they think their process might take, and if they would anticipate a more or less expensive construction administration phase based on your scope of work. This will help you determine your budget for architectural fees, nail down your schedule for the next year or so, and make you sound like a fancy pants who knows your stuff.

Please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question. I will respond!

Check out my book for critical information to help you prepare for your construction project

If you own a home, then chances are you have a million different project ideas rolling around in your head making your brain hurt. I did when I bought my home, and all of my clients do as well, so you are definitely not alone. You are probably uncertain of how much the various ideas cost individually and/or combined, if they are feasible, and maybe you are even planning on tackling a few of them on your own. Everyone starts chipping away at some of the smaller projects they can wrap their brains around without thinking of the big picture, because no one’s brain can fold and wrap that much without some help. Sometimes that includes cleaning out a large closet, a Bathroom remodel or maybe even a new Kitchen. However, if you don’t have a road map of ALL of the projects you hope to accomplish, you could be headed for major pitfalls. This road map is your Master Plan, and every home owner with home improvement projects on the brain should have one.

When you finally call an architect to help you sort through the jumbled mess of project ideas lodged in your brain, you will want to combine all of your priorities, and ideally, all or most of your wish list items into one comprehensive Master Plan. If you need to phase your Master Plan into manageable parts, that’s fine. Read my blog about phasing, and also the one about determining your priorities, just for good measure. These are all tied together, as you can imagine.

The benefit of a Master Plan is that it allows you to see how everything ties together. If there are certain efficiencies in grouping certain projects, you will know ahead of time and plan accordingly. Alternately, if you don’t think ahead, you could miss effective groupings that should have been combined but weren’t. I had clients who were initially interviewing architects to redesign their Kitchen and add a large Great Room for their family. During the interview I casually asked, “I realize you called me to talk about the Main Floor, but do you by any chance have some future project upstairs floating around in the back of your mind? It can sometimes affect what we might do on your Main Floor so I wanted to check.” They were in fact planning on remodeling their Master Suite at a later date (which happened to be located directly above the Kitchen), but didn’t mention it, thinking it had nothing to do with the Main Floor remodel. I explained to them that if later they try to move plumbing fixtures upstairs (the ones in the Bathroom floor (which also happens to be the Kitchen ceiling)), that there is a high likelihood they will need to rip open part of their new Kitchen ceiling (or cabinets) to do it. Alternately, if they get stuck in a corner not wanting to rip open their new Kitchen, they risk being very hindered with what they can change upstairs at a later date. They couldn’t afford to do both projects at the same time, so I recommended that they allow me to design the layout for the Master Bathroom with the rest of the Main Floor to create a Master Plan. If we know where the future toilets, sinks, showers and cabinets will be, we can install whatever plumbing, electrical, etc. might be needed for the future Bathroom project, while we have the Main Floor walls opened up during this phase of construction. That way, when they eventually demolish the Master Bathroom, all of the plumbing and wires will be right there in their necessary locations waiting for them. It only slightly increased the cost of the initial phase and saved them thousands of dollars in the long run. Please, oh please tell your architect if you plan on doing other projects later as your cash flow allows! Create a Master Plan. Seeing everything together really helps put things into perspective and allows you to compare and contrast ideas. You may even end up foregoing something you were about to take a hammer to, when you realize that in the grand scheme of things, it isn’t a priority. It just happened to be the one thing you could wrap your brain around. You might see the Master Plan and realize it isn’t as big and scary as originally anticipated, and decide to do it in one go. Even if you don’t do everything at once, you will inevitably see groups of things that either could be done together to save money or HAVE to be done together to avoid catastrophe. I just don’t want to see you painfully destroy your shiny new sparkly remodel to access something you could have accessed before said remodel was finished. Create a Master Plan, save money and avoid avoidable mistakes.

Feel free to leave a comment or question. I will respond!

Check out my book for tips on preparing for your construction project

Don't worry; I won't sell or give out your email. I appreciate your interest and look forward to sharing fun and useful information with you! Feel free to email me if you have a topic you would like to learn more about!

Below I’ve broken out the 6 phases of the process, so you know what to expect from your architect and yourself within each.

Pre-Design: This can include site analysis, code research, measuring your existing house, drafting your existing house, programming, goal setting, etc. This will encompass about 10 percent of the total architectural fees you will pay during the whole process and can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months to complete. This is when your architect will need to gain a strong grasp of your goals, wish lists, project scope, etc. As a result, he or she will spend loads of time asking you questions. Some provide questionnaires for you to fill out or have other means of drawing information from your brain. Be armed with your Pinterest pages, lists of priorities, and budget. Please read Chapter 6 in my book if you are unsure of how to prepare what you need for this phase.

Schematic Design: This includes designing options for your review, which could comprise plans, elevations, 3D models, renderings, or basically anything your architect needs to get his or her ideas across. You will have some big decisions to make once you see your schematic designs, so be ready for a few long (but exciting!) meetings with your architect. This is one of the most gratifying stages for homeowners (as you get your first glimpse of your future home), so remember your enthusiasm for this phase later when you want to pull your (or your partner’s) hair out. About 25 percent of the total architectural fee is eaten up during the schematic design phase and can take anywhere from a few months to, well… many many months to design. I’ve had large projects (or projects with homeowners who need to brush up on their decision-making skills) where it took over a year to complete this phase. I mention that so you understand that you partially drive the schedule here. I hate to be so vague, but this really depends on the project scope, the architect, the architect’s current workload, and you.

Design Development: This phase includes modifying the schematic design, so you can finalize the scope of the project and get initial pricing feedback from contractors. Your architect will utilize your feedback from the schematic design meetings to create one final design concept moving forward. You should expect more questions and another meeting or two during this phase to ensure the big picture is nailed down. Around 12 percent of the total architectural fees will be applied to this phase, and it should last a few weeks to a few months… Again, it’s partially dependent upon you, and how well you’ve honed your decision-making abilities.

Permit and Contract Documents: This includes drafting the actual documents used to get your building permit, to finalize construction estimates, and to build your home. This is where we disappear for multiple months at a time while you, without really knowing what we are up to, receive large invoices in the mail. We know this part sucks for you. Sorry. It is necessary though. Expect a whopping 35 percent of the total architectural fee to be billed to you for this phase.

Bidding and Negotiating: This includes helping owners navigate the estimates and contracts received by contractors. Don’t skimp on this service to try and save a little fee. The information can sound like a foreign language. Many times the estimates vary wildly, so you aren’t comparing apples to apples, and there is a lot of money at stake. It is worth every penny to have a trained professional help you review estimates and contracts you receive from competing contractors. About 3 percent of the architectural fee should be spent reviewing this information with you. You will be tasked with actually reading and understanding the contracts, so get out your highlighter and make note of your questions… of which there will be many. Please also read my blog How To Protect Yourself From Crappy Contractors before starting this phase, in which I provide you with an awesome cheat-sheet for these contracts.

Construction Administration: This includes any time spent on the project during construction answering questions, reviewing submittals from contractors and subcontractors, quality control, reviewing payment requests by the contractor, obtaining closeout documents, etc. This isn’t always included in the original estimates that you will receive from architects, because it is extremely difficult to guess how many surprises/questions will arise during construction. If it isn’t in the original estimate (and you should verify if it is unclear), then you need to include money in your budget for these architectural fees. The amount may vary, as more difficult projects may require weekly site meetings for all or part of the construction process which can push these fees way up. To ensure my percentages in this article add up to an orderly 100, I’ll inform you that the average industry standard fee for this phase is 15 percent. However, I have seen this upwards of 25 percent. It all depends on how many surprises you have, how complicated your project is, and how detailed your drawings are. Typically, more time spent in the drawing phase means less time spent in this phase, but as usual, it all depends.

Conclusion: When you are interviewing architects, please make sure to ask each of them how long they think their process might take, and if they would anticipate a more or less expensive construction administration phase based on your scope of work. This will help you determine your budget for architectural fees, nail down your schedule for the next year or so, and make you sound like a fancy pants who knows your stuff.