Budget Checkpoints Revealed: How the 3-Step Design Process Keeps You in Control So You Can Actually Build or Remodel Your Home

William Reid: [: 00:00:00

Most recently, I've covered many design professionals, beginning with architects, interior designers, and so on. We're going to skip out of that area for a minute and talk about the design process—your roadmap. And what you could expect, or should expect, I should say, when it's time to begin designing your project with a design professional.

in one form or another. And [: 00:01:00

So today we're going to hop into the shop studio. Me and my mobile studio here, and we're going to talk about the introduction to the design process. See you there.

take to get from that point [: 00:02:00

I think it's really important that we share that with you so that you can get in their head, so you can understand what they're looking for, what you need to know so that you can convey everything that you want—your wishes and your dreams—and then set those expectations for each one of those steps.

I wrote a story, actually a fictional story in my book, in the prologue and epilogue, but it's really like a true story. And it articulates what people go through—two different scenarios, two kind of real-life scenarios that can happen and that have happened in a variety of ways.

[: 00:03:00

[00:04:00] So we're going to fast forward 18 months. Here we are with Ben and Jane trudging through the mud in rain boots, staring at what looks like a scene from a horror movie—a dark, windowless structure with no workers in sight. Windows were delayed because they hadn't been ordered. The roof was missing because they hadn't selected it in time, and their architect was long gone because they thought they could handle everything themselves.

Meanwhile, just down the hill, the McMillans are celebrating in their beautiful, completed home, clinking wine glasses as they enjoyed their housewarming. Both couples started on the same day, but the McMillans finished six months earlier and stayed on budget while Ben and Jane's project spiraled into a nightmare. The difference? The McMillans understood and followed the design process from day one.

ve a link in the notes here. [: 00:05:00

What caused a lot of this is because Ben and Jane didn't really go through the discovery period like I've talked about in the book and in the podcast, and then they just leapfrogged all the way through the design process and ultimately created the nightmare all on their own. So when you hear about all these people saying, "Ah, it was miserable, it was a nightmare," and all the finger pointing going around, a lot of it is because as a homeowner, you didn't really know what you needed to do in order to protect the experience. And here we go with my three principles, my three guiding principles: enlighten, empower, and protect. And that's today—we're going to keep on that mission. We're not going to let that go. And this is a big part of the enlightening process that we're going to cover today.

So the design [: 00:06:00

So think about this: the design process is kind of like a stepping stone process. This is where your Pinterest boards come to life. Your architect takes [00:07:00] all of your discovery work that we talked about in the beginning of this podcast and the beginning of the book, and they create concepts based on your input that you've taken the time to do. If you've skipped that process and just picked up a phone, this is where—this is the beginning of your Ben and Jane nightmare—because you have not articulated your dreams and visions and your budget to an architect or an interior designer, or even a kitchen and bath designer, depending on the project that you're doing.

Step one in this three stepping stone approach—visualize a nice slow-moving stream with three stepping stones to get to the other side. There's a space in between each one of those. We're going to take our first leap onto stepping stone number one, which is the schematic design process.

So the [: 00:08:00

[00:09:00] And what I mean by that is the schematic design process is the most organic, free-flowing process and can be one of the most fun ones too. Let's use an example. So in a remodel example, you may say to an architect, "I would love to have a new kitchen. I need to remodel my bathrooms. And I really need a new primary bedroom, an additional primary bedroom and bathroom for the home, because our family's growing. We like this mountain modern style. And we have these particular lifestyle things that go on—that we like to mountain bike and we travel a lot and one of us works at home." You're getting the idea here—you're sharing your lifestyle with your architect, which you've thought about in that discovery stage, and you're conveying that to them and you're sending them the images and the pictures of the styles that you [00:10:00] like, and they are getting—they're starting to get you, they're starting to learn about you and your family, and the more you can do this, the better the output that you're going to get.

So if you start sending an architect or a designer on a wild goose chase trying to figure you out and proposing design ideas that are not even close to what your style is, there's a couple of reasons why that happens. One is it happens because the architect and the designers weren't given enough direction, but the other side is some designers are really stuck in their ways and only can figure out how to do the Mediterranean style, for example, rather than your mountain modern style or your farmhouse style, or your modern contemporary style, if you get my drift.

y'll develop design ideas in [: 00:11:00

Step two is often called design development, and what that means is this is where you start to get serious about the details of your project. You've probably by now made a decision on the option that you want. So your architect during the schematic design process may have offered you two or three ideas, whether it's a new home construction or remodel. Let's look at an option with the kitchen on the back of the home now instead of the front, let's look at an upstairs suite versus an addition on the backyard, things like that.

So the design [: 00:12:00

You'll also start to see your full design team come together. And what I mean by that is if you've hired an architect, you've probably engaged with one person the whole time, but there's going to be other people that get involved in the project, like you may have learned in the previous episodes, such as an interior designer, a structural engineer, a civil engineer, et cetera. So you'll start to see a team develop, and that's a big part of the architect's job.

want, the style of the home, [: 00:13:00

The third step, as you bounce across the stream, is called construction documents, or sometimes it's called construction drawings. What I mean by that is you have now made all of the decisions that you've been guided by your architect, your designer, and they now have a job to do, and that is to begin getting the plans ready to submit to the city or county for a building permit. There's a lot of detail work behind the scenes that you're not even aware of that are required to obtain a building permit and also, and maybe more importantly, to convey the scope of work and the specifications of the [00:15:00] project to a general contractor, home builder, remodeling contractor, so that they can estimate the cost of the project accurately so that we don't have any of those infamous surprises.

So during these three steps, there are different pause points, right? So when you hop onto the first stone and you stand there and you work with your architect, your designers, there's a pause point there before you hop onto the next one. And that is, you start thinking about, "Am I satisfied with the communication, the engagement with my designer? Can I visualize my project? Have they provided the tools and the solutions for me to be able to see what I'm getting? Have we talked about cost and budget yet before we go too far?" These are some of the key things to think about before you move on with a designer.

A lot of [: 00:16:00

Okay, so in the design process, what we've talked about now is we have a three-step process. We have the schematic design, we have the design development, and we have the construction documents. These [00:17:00] are the three core elements of the design process when you're working with a professional design team. There's two peripheral ones on the beginning and the end. In the very beginning, there might be some early discovery period with an architect to decide if you even want to purchase the lot or just some high-level conversations before you actually hire them and engage with them. And then on the backside of the design process, once the construction documents are done, there's construction administration, and that's where the architect helps you manage the project from obtaining costs and budgets all the way through to deploying construction and keeping an eye on the construction as that goes on.

this, and I call them budget [: 00:18:00

Now, when you get to the end of schematic design and you've looked at three or four different options for your new home or your remodel project, somebody's got to say, "How much do we think this is going to cost?" We're still at the stage of getting the cart before the horse a little bit, where it's very difficult to price [00:19:00] out a project before it's completely designed, but it's a lot easier to evaluate, or I should say a lot more dependable to evaluate a project cost with some type of data rather than no data.

So a lot of clientele in the past that I've dealt with have walked in the door with a quote-unquote budget in mind. And after talking with people, the budget really is just a number that they feel comfortable with or that they heard it might cost from their neighbors or they've just gone through some high-level thought processes and really had nothing to do with the design of the project or the details, right? It's just, "I think I want to spend $200,000, and by the way, here's the big long list of everything that I want." Very common issue.

." And [: 00:20:00

Almost always, there's a list of contractors that architects will provide you that will be people that you can contact and open up a dialogue—very early stage, but this is the type of person that you want to engage with at the early stage to decide if the project that you've gone through in step one and the schematic design is even worth pursuing.

o take the drawings from the [: 00:21:00

Now, you can also request that they do a preliminary cost estimate. You can't really hold them down to it, but it's, again, it's a lot better than the neighbor yelling over the fence, bragging about how much they spent and deluding you on the expectation there. So the [00:22:00] obvious benefit here is that you've already engaged with a contractor and you're starting to qualify these contractors for your project.

Don't be afraid to engage with the architect as well on that and have them participate in a kind of a prelim budget meeting. So you've already set investment goals we've talked about in the past. You think you're comfortable investing this dollar amount into the project. You maybe have even, hopefully you've even told the architect that, right? So they're not designing some massive project that's outside your scope. Now you're drilling in further and you're getting a prelim budget off of some real data—still very high level, not a lot of detail there, but they know we're adding 500 square feet, we're remodeling 800 square feet of the kitchen, we're raising the ceilings, we're putting a new roof on. You get the idea—they've got something to sink their teeth into.

. And the builder says to [: 00:23:00

What could that be? That could be that you decide to do the master suite later. That could be you go out and find more money. It could be a variety of reasons. This is a very personalized business, both from a design aspect and a financial aspect. Nobody can really read your mind, so we're trying to help you get to that point. But ultimately, you have to [00:24:00] share a reality with your designers and your builders. And then you guys can craft the project together. This is a step that's missed a lot and people just keep plowing through.

I've actually experienced this myself. I hate to admit it, but I've had projects where the momentum just gets going so fast that we—not that we destroyed the project, but we had to back way up, break things out into different phases, reduce some quality selections down, and just created a lot more work for everybody and delayed the start of the project.

k occurs. You are specifying [: 00:25:00

So the idea here with step two at the end of design development is to now go back to your builder, or reach out to more than one builder and explain to them that "we are deep into the design process. We have 90% of the material specified. Would you be open to providing a cost estimate for the project?"

going to ask is "do you have [: 00:26:00

Now you can make another decision point here where you can say, "Okay. Designer, go ahead and complete step three, the construction documents." Or you might say, "I really am going to option out the master suite because now I've got a hard cost. Let's not complete the drawings for that part of the project. Let's just focus on the interior remodel." Or if you're building a custom home, you may say, "Let's not build the shop now, let's leave the basement out of it." Even though you may have engineered that basement into the project, you still haven't built it yet. You've spent some money on design, [00:27:00] but you haven't built it yet and got into trouble with over-budget situations. So that's not the best-case scenario, but it's way better than going deeper in developing the construction documents and even getting the permit for that. So you can see that there's a range there of level of intensity when it comes to the type of project and the type of options and variables that you have.

hat question is really good. [: 00:28:00

So you can see what's happening here is you're getting empowered to make decisions. You're protecting your experience so that you don't get into construction and realize that there's a lot of things that were not included in the preliminary price. Even if you got a preliminary price, you could go all the way through step one, step two, step three, have a beautiful set of plans that looks like a big, thick fire log. That is ready to go to the building department, and sometimes people even go to the building department to get the permits and pay the fees while their contractor is pricing out the project for the first time.

blem. This is why people get [: 00:29:00

Some of the biggest mistakes that homeowners make, and you can probably already figure them out, and what I just said—the ones that come to mind are trying to skip the steps, right? Some people will justify that. They'll say "I just want a simple kitchen remodel. I don't really need to go through all those steps. I'm comfortable with how much I want to invest, and it'll probably cost that much." As long as you're okay with it costing a lot [00:30:00] more, because it probably will.

I have yet to hear in 35 years where people said to me, "Oh, is that how is that all? Is that—I didn't, I thought it'd be a lot more than that." So it doesn't happen. It's usually the other case because it's human nature to gravitate towards that lower number. When people tell you, "Oh, it's going to be $200 to $500 per square foot to build my home," and you have a 3,000 square foot home, people instantly go to the $200 per square foot number, which is a bunch of baloney anyway, when it's really going to cost you $500 or maybe even more. So that's the human nature of it that gets you into trouble.

other and says no. So there [: 00:31:00

Another mistake that I'll say is homeowners don't necessarily understand their role in the whole process. A lot of times they think they're just handing over—once they hire somebody that it's all on them, that they're going to figure it all out regardless of the input that you've provided them. That's one of the biggest mistakes and that adds to a lot of problems. One extensive design process that doesn't need to be delays in design. Cost escalations in design. Inadequate plans and details because what's getting delivered to you is not exactly what you want, and if you haven't engaged enough, you haven't spotted those. You want to participate in the project. I know it sounds funny to say, but it's true and the—I've thought a lot about this, the clientele that have participated the most in the design process, and what I mean by that is [00:32:00] being available, attending meetings, initiating meetings, saying to an architect, "I really would like to meet with you and go over some of these details," researching materials on their own and colors, even though they have design professionals.

to be installed in a week or [: 00:33:00

And then it cost $20,000 because of the one they like and they budgeted $3,000. This is a classic situation and a real one where people then homeowners say, "Oh my God, I've blown my budget. I can't believe it. What happened? How come my designer and my builder did this to me?" That's not always the case. There are some unscrupulous contractors out there that try to charge clientele for things that shouldn't be. But a lot of it is because it's going to cost what it's going to cost. Nobody figured it out in time. And eventually it comes out. So why not be in the driver's seat during the design process to make sure that you can't afford the $20,000 front door? And if you can't pick out a different one then so that you don't have to get up against a wall later. We don't want to [00:34:00] rush through these pause points. That's mistake number three. It's taking the time.

If you have done a really good job on the discovery stage of your project, and here's the book, I'm showing it to you in case you're just listening—this book here in the discovery. Part one of the book is all called Discovery and this, it's not that much to read, trust me. Or you can listen to it as an audio book. That was my little plug. But if you've done a really good job on your discovery stage, the effectiveness, the productivity of the designer is going to be 10 times better, which means you should have enough time to pause, do your budgeting, do your contractor research, pull together a team to figure out the budget so that you can then progress forward.

sponding with what you want, [: 00:35:00

And then what's really cool is if you've done a really good job yourself and your design team knows that, "Wow, these people are serious and they really want to understand the design. They want to understand the cost during steps of the design." What's going to happen is when you go to break ground on your project, the experience is going to be a lot better. A contractor and builder is going to see early on that you got your act together, that they're going to be able to implement the construction of the project and you're going to be able to sit back. You'll still have a few little decisions to make guaranteed, but your experience is [00:36:00] going to be a lot better. You shouldn't get pummeled with change orders like you hear about because you've already figured it all out early on.

All right, so here's a tip. When you're interviewing your architects or designers, ask them to walk you through their process. If they can't clearly explain these three steps and what happens in each one of them, you may want to look elsewhere. Because you want to make sure that people have some sort of methodology. Now, it may look a little bit different than what I'm talking about today, but the odds are it's going to look really similar. When you're just in your very first interviewing process, ask them that question and they're going to give you hopefully the answers that you want to hear. And then that will usually lead into more questions that you have on each one of those steps. Alright?

esign schematic, locking the [: 00:37:00

So if you're planning a project, start thinking about which phase of design would be the most challenging for you. Begin developing questions to ask potential architects about the process. Consider how you'll handle the visualization challenge. What tools will help you see your future space and start preparing for those pause [00:38:00] points? They're your decision moments. Are you happy with your design experience, with your design professional? Have you been able to engage with a builder or contractor? Have you visited the budget? Those are the three components of that pause point.

So in our next episode, we're going to dive deep into that first step, schematic design. We'll talk about how to prepare for that big reveal meeting with your architect, what questions to ask, and how to provide feedback that keeps your project moving forward. We'll also discuss the difference between designing a remodel versus a new home, because the process does definitely vary. But that's just the beginning of our design process series.

nd insider tips I've learned [: 00:39:00

I hate to keep saying that, but it really is about the planning. And you do hear that a lot and proper planning, thorough planning, but you don't—there's not a lot behind those statements. So this is we're going to build a little roadmap for you as you start thinking about doing a project. Or maybe you're in the middle of interviewing architects, or maybe you're already under construction and that's okay, because you can start to think about the things that you forgot.

manager of your project, you [: 00:40:00

If today's episode helped clarify the design process for you a little bit, I'd love to hear about it. Send me an email. It's in the show notes and let me know what resonated most with you. And if you're working with an architect right now, ask them to explain their three-step process and see how it aligns with what we talked about today. And don't forget to visit the awakened homeowner website. You can also look at my Build Quest co—buildquest.co website where you can see me talking about the application that I'm developing that will help you do a lot of this. You won't have to think too much. That's the idea. You just dive in and live in that little world and you'll be able to accomplish all of this there.

e have. I'm Bill Reid, and I [: 00:41:00