| My Design/Build Coach Articles for Remodleing and Design/Build Professionals | |||
| Managing The Unknowns | |||
| One of my favorite movies of all time is Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse. It's an old black and white Cary Grant and Myrna Loy film about an inner city family's decision to buy a "fixer-upper" in the country and all of their trials and tribulations that occur due to fate, rosy colored glasses and poor planning. If you are not familiar with it, rent it and see if any of the situations ring true today. As the project and the costs mushroom out of control, we laugh along at the comedic undoing of our hero and his family. In fact, Cary Grant is ready to sell the house just as it is nearly complete! I maintain that one of Mr. Blandings biggest mistakes is not involving the architect with the builder in the planning phase. After all the two biggest unknowns in any remodeling job (or new construction for that matter) are how much it will cost and what it will look like. COST: The contractor brings construction experience to the project and is expert in the areas of cost estimating, labor issues and moving the project from demolition to completion. He knows the market and can provide a realistic estimate for the project. Unfortunately, many contractors decide to become their own designer even though it is not their area of expertise. The result can be projects that don't always hit the mark. You've probably seen them yourselves such as the addition that is just a bit too obvious or the roof lines that create drainage issues. LOOKS: Some of the most talented architects and designers have wonderfully creative minds that open up tremendous possibilities for homeowners. Their years of experience and training equip them with the necessary tools for design, but unfortunately fall short in practical matters of cost. They may provide the client with a ballpark figure as to how much the design will cost to construct. But the problem is that they are operating in a vacuum and do not have any idea of a contractor's real costs. What about the intangibles a contractor has to cover such as marketing, liability insurance, overhead, office administration and oh yes, profit? By working together from inception, both designer and contractor can facilitate a better outcome for the homeowner. In fact, in our current culture of one stop shopping, we can offer the time strapped consumer a seamless and timely way to get results. The designer can actually help the builder manage the clients' ideas and budget by using drawings as communication tools. In design meetings that I have attended with homeowners and contractors in the past we have been able to discard impractical design ideas and offer more "bang for the buck" given a client's budget. Now I know that there are still plenty of clients out there for whom time and money are no object, but they are still in the minority. One of the ironies of using the design/build system is that homeowner's think they are not getting the best deal because they lack three bids. But in reality, the original plans that they hired a designer for may end up being useless because they are not cost effective and/or practical. Conversely, the plans that their builder designs and builds may lack ingenuity or imagination because he is trying to design something that is expedient not necessarily aesthetically pleasing. Now back to Mr. Blanings…There is a happy ending, after all it is a production of Hollywood, not your neighborhood. Cary and Myrna reconcile their differences, the children become docile darlings (far from their original depiction), and they are in love with their new house. At the end we hear that all of the cost overruns, time delays, and hassles were worth it because it is their dreamhouse. Would they have a much better time of it had they used design/build? Of course. But it would make one dull movie. |
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MANAGING THE UNKNOWNS By Joseph Dellanno Remodeling News |
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