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Realistic vs. Wishful Thinking
People's ideas of what design is range far and wide. So it makes sense
that ideas about designing your own home or becoming a house designer
range as well. Here is a short
discussion. (Also the book's
Introduction has more to say).
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The dictionary defines 'design' as "A plan (with more or less detail) for the structure and functions of an
artifact, building or system. A pattern, as an element of a work
of art or architecture. The composition of a work of art. Intention
or plot. ….. The shape or appearance given to an object, especially one
that is intended to make it more attractive."
Since our book cannot cover even a majority of this definition,
let's briefly mention again what the book is all about. Look
at the last item of the definition. Now say good bye to it.
Appearance is not something this book will deal with. To me
appearance means style of houses, decorating and much of interior design.
These will not be considered. For the remainder of the definition
the book's focus is on aspects of each. Ideas, concepts,
relationships, how to go about design, problems and opportunities; these
all get press time. In short, anything helpful in you achieving a
better house is 'fair game' as long as it does not involve 'personal
taste'. Also, the 'perfection' involved in any art is not
something house design is good at (a subject by itself) unless done by
very expensive professionals. So the book will not get anywhere near the
'art' of architecture either. Still there is much to cover. This paragraph
is my being realistic rather than wishful.
What
about your 'realistic vs. wishful thinking'? The point here is
you the reader should ask yourself some questions. These are important if
you are to have a rewarding experience.
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Are
you a
person needing 'to be the person in charge' for
purely the personal satisfaction of your ego? If you do not
have the vast majority of the necessary skills to design a house you are committing 'wishful thinking'.
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Do you have a few of the necessary
skills, can share authority and participate in solving problems in a
give and take manner? You are thinking realistically.
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Do you are want to design your home
because you have little money to hire an architect or designer? If you
also have
little design experience or other necessary skills you are 'wishful
thinking'.
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Are you financially well off with no
desire to do hands on design, but can not work flexibly with others?
You
too are wishful thinking.
I hope that gives you some idea of the
self analysis I am suggesting is important for anyone to get involved
substantially in design. Stated another way; house design from
beginning to end is a long process requiring many participants and
differing personalities. If you are not 'cut out' for participating in
design you will have a difficult problem ridden experience. For you there
maybe another choice and this chapter will attempt to talk about it.
Tools
And Skills
Full authorship? partial? adviser?
observer?
Where you fall in this range depends on
one thing; your skills. And your choice should not have 'wishful
thinking' involved. Here are the skills necessary for full
authorship in designing
a house. Full authorship in this case means you design it and do all
the drafting right thru construction drawings.
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Freehand Sketching
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Visualizing In 3d
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Creativity
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Cad (Computer Aided Drafting) or Hand
Drafting.
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Geometry and Arithmetic
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Technical Knowledge
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Verbal Communication
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Management (well organized)
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Supervision (gets along with people)
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Flexible Problem Solving (when to
compromise)
If you have all of these skills, wow!
Take your pick of the design role you want. You might even choose residential
design or architecture as a career. However if you are weak here
and there, well, then it is either back to school or someone else
has to do them for you. Doing one or the other is very important if you are to get through the 1 to 2 years it takes
to design and build a house.
Let me use myself as an example. I have
all the skills but two. I do not get along with certain people and
communication with them is difficult. As a result a client that does not
need all my skills and who also does not get along with people would be a
poor match. Or as a second example someone who needs only one of my skills
(such as CAD) and wants to do everything else would be a poor match (and
a waste of money). 
If you do decide to polish your skills or
desire the challenge of jumping the entire way even into construction
drawings there are books and manuals out there that can help. Try these
two for example. Our Bookstore and Product Review section has others as
well.
Still, you might want help after all so read on.
The Help And How To Work
With Them
Creative people are notoriously hard to
deal with. We all know this. House design requires a good dose of the
creative for numerous reasons left to another book altogether.
We already established that being too
personal was another item usually found in designing a house especially if
it is your house. And being too personal makes design difficult. So now we
have two negatives in the field of home design; the creative
personality and the personal. The bottom line is care should be
taken to hire the correct help for your 'realistic' situation.
Following are some 'what if' scenarios and the help you might
consider getting.
Tip: there is
one thing essential and common to all of these scenarios. Any plan devised
by you (unless you are already an experienced designer) should be reviewed
by a professional designer and the builder for build ability as well as
cost.
You can do
everything including Construction Drawings (CDs), you only need a builder
.
You have all the skills
necessary to design and you want and can do all the sketches, all the
drafting, and all the give and take necessary. All you need is the Builder.
Home builders come in a couple of flavors which usually depend on their
backgrounds and the type/ size of company.
The Larger Production House Builder
These folks come from many places and
circumstances. Since they are set up to re produce the same floor plans they would not be a likely source to build your
personally designed plan.
The Custom House Builder (CB)
They are medium to small in size, regional
and can be national. They usually specialize in doing the large more
complex houses. The owners might be the sons and daughters of a mom and
pop builder who built the company up or they are a more ambitious mature
builder who has grown. They are probably the best bet for a plan you
have designed assuming they take you. Keep in mind they build for
architects, developers and wealthy clients who often have selected one of
the builder's modified plans. They will be expensive and probably
interview you before committing. You often must do things their way
although they usually have experienced project managers who work well with
clients.
The Mom and Pop Builder (MP)
These small, more local business' are
where you find the cost savings and flexibility to do your home grown
plan. Most often these people started as carpenters or other trades
people in house building. They vary widely in expertise,
temperament, cost and productivity. They should be interviewed extensively
to make sure they fit with the way you want to be involved in the job as
well as when and how much. Here is where your 'people' skills will
come in during your hands on involvement.
Ok so now you and your builder can be off
on your adventure. What about those who do not have a full skill set?
You Have Design Skill; You Need Help on the Technical and Drafting
end. .
Let's say you cannot do the
drafting but can and want to do much of the rest. Your people skills
are so so. In your case your choices are either the Custom Builder
above or a local Residential Designer (RD). The M&P builder is hit and
miss and would probably just go to the RD designer themselves for
the drafting.
TIP:
if you design your house
you should be talking directly to
the person doing the drafting. Letting a builder handle this
is not recommended
although it is important to have a builder periodically review the
drawings.
Who to Hire?
The Residential Designer (RD),
The Professional RD (PRD),
or
The Residential Technician (RT).
Here you have 3 basic choices;
someone who has for numerous reasons learned CAD and something about
houses and offers their serves (usually to builders) is the RT.
These are really CAD operators with little design experience or talent. An
RD on the other hand has acquired some design ability as well.
Next, is
the person who has gone to school and studied residential construction and other
skill sets, as well as gotten some experience preferably in house construction and
design. They should also have joined their professional organization.
These are then are called PRDs.
(They are not registered Architects or Engineers though).
So, the
people for you depends on the level of design sophistication you
desire.
Who's next?
You Have Some Design Interest, No Technical Ability and are So So with
People
Custom Plan Books & PRD
Companies
Here you need the custom residential plan
book company or a larger PRD (Professional Residential Designer). Both
parties often have a licensed architect on staff to provide
that extra design help you may need. Both are adept and priced to make
modifications to existing plans or put parts of plans together. The choice likely depends on how much hand holding you
need (the Larger PRD), how unusual your design ideas are (the Larger PRD),
and just plain availability.
And almost last?
You are only an 'Ideas' Person, and Financially Well Off
Consider an Architect
We architects are a notorious breed. There
are reasons for that and these reasons get our pride and egos into
problems! Understand that a licensed architect requires serious
education and training. Then experience on top of that. Also an
architect suffers from the creative personality 'syndrome' and probably
was an idealist when he / she started out. They might even be rather smart
(but no promise). Beware to the client looking just for a technician, CAD
person or draftsman. Beware also to the client who is not flexible and
capable of sharing design authorship. No self respecting architect will
work in the above conditions. If you try you may be sorry.
And last.
You
Have Ideas, No Technical Ability, Little Money & Are Not Good with
People
You are in a difficult place. Certainly the
Architect, Large PRD and Custom Builder is not going to be fruitful nor
affordable. In your case you
must find the smaller builder or RD/RT combined with an Engineer (PE). Or
a Plan Book with little custom service. Your
search may be difficult but eventually you will find someone. The
PE is what will do the trick. Here's why.
The Professional Engineer (PE)
As availability drives you further into
the world of the inexperienced RD and small builder you can use the PE as
your safety net. The concern with the small Builder and the RD is
their structural experience. Not your cup of tea either is it? In this
case, you go as far as possible along the path of your design with the MPB or RD then take it to the PE to be reviewed and engineered. This
person can check for code problems and any civil or structural conditions
needing attention. They often charge by the hour and only need a few hours
to turn your un buildable plan buildable. Also, they may have some
reasonably priced CAD services available. Never hurts to ask. Just remember,
most engineers are not sensitive to 'design'.
Cad
Software
see
the complete book for this topic but here is a link to products we know
of.
Top Ten CAD
Reviews
Normal Costs Of Help & the Recommended Way
see
the complete book for this topic.
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