I was standing upstairs in the demo'd house, staring at bare rooms next to my general contractor, trying to articulate to him what I wanted without plans, without blueprints, and we were miscommunicating. A very patient man, I could tell he was done. I was completely overwhelmed.
It was at that point that we put everything to a halt. The next week we were interviewing design firms. We were going to get a plan in place and execute this the right way.
I contacted three firms. The first firm was a local Portland mother/daughter team. The mother is a trained architect/designer and the daughter a designer. They office out of her home, which is a combination of everything I love. In fact, I noticed after walking into her house that I had clipped photos of her kitchen from a local magazine. We hit it off immediately, and I felt confident that we would work together. Our tastes couldn't have been more compatible. The only glitch is they wanted to see the project through every detail to the end, which meant a very large financial commitment.
The second firm was a young, hip, popular team that offices in a very trendy area. Their storefront is very fresh and though a bit modern for my tastes, really attractive. I got this overall sense that I was contemplating hanging out with the cool kids. They were extremely responsive and offered weekly meetings to keep things moving at a quick pace. The nice thing about them too was the possibility of me taking over the project and saving costs over time.
The last firm was a design/build firm. They had done some amazing projects throughout town and really seem to understand how to beautifully do period work in a very current way. The only thing is that they focus more on commercial projects. They didn't seem to open the door to regular meetings, and it was more of a hands off project on my part. In other words, I had to completely let go. And if there was a breakdown during the design process, would we still own the design?
We decided to go with the second firm. The idea of having control over our spending really sounded good to us, and after subsequent meetings, I lost the cool kid vibe from them (something I realized I was projecting). It became a very collaborative process.
Now I'm halfway through this project and what have I learned? If you are doing a simple remodel, a design firm will work. But a whole house design needs an architect. I relied on our friend Ken for major structural decisions. I have learned so much in this past 6 months. I have learned how to design custom windows down to the last detail. I have learned all about ratios and scale. I have learned that to get anything right the first time, you have to obsess. I've learned that if you have really strong opinions, a design firm works, but to save even more money, someone to draft the plans might even make more sense.
For me, it made sense to start with a plan and tweak it along the way.
My general contractor is back, and I'm testing his patience every step of the way (and he is soooooo patient). We have a plan, and I'm undoing it piece by piece. But I'm having fun and it's going to be exactly what I want! Wish me luck.
So proud of you.
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