Looking for the plan: ready-to-wear or designer?

From the start, like many other couples looking to build their home by getting up to par on the building industry, we consulted professional trade magazines and online catalogs. Snowy sleepy Sunday afternoons and long winter evenings seemed the appropriate time to go through house plans as we devoured online catalogs. After several weeks of tête-à-tête consultation, we had unearthed the plans of a house from a company that seemed to meet our needs albeit with some modifications. The formula seemed simple. We call upon the architectural technologist who is a franchisee of the company's plans, we submit the plan number and we make changes to custom fit the design to our specific needs. In principle, it should work. We surmised that by talking with the technologist, one would arrive at a stunning design of our house. Again, I say in principle.

 
At the first appointment with the technologist, the meeting was cheerful; however, it was like pulling teeth when specific requests were addressed. The technologist responded to questions but did not elaborate or provide additional information. Our conversation was punctuated by silences that were louder than the question marks hovering over our perplexed looks. Nevertheless, full of good will, we submitted our wish list for the necessary changes with the understanding that at the next meeting in a few weeks, we would have custom plans to the extent of our needs. Leaving the office, I was excited, because after an hour, the technologist had finally managed to offer some innovative design ideas. This is what we wanted. We did not want the ready-to-wear, copied and pasted genre. As a consumer, if you purchase their already made plans without any modifications, you are ahead of the game. These companies make their money by customizing the plans. We did not want to spend a fortune on ours thinking that the money we would save by getting plans on the cheap would give us extra budget to play with when building the house. We were not out of the woods yet. The learning curve was just beginning.

While waiting for the technologist to call back, I continued to make virtual models and Pierre researched products we had seen at the numerous home shows. It was while doing all this leg work that we realized that we wanted a greener home. Not only did we want it to be energy efficient but it also had to be environmentally friendly. These two components added to the complexity of our plans because of the rigor that green building requires. We transmitted this vital data to the technologist who seemed to be in the know on green building and interested in our discussion. The company's website had mentioned components in this area as well. It was reassuring.

The famous meeting finally came. We had set the bar high; however, our expectations were realistic. Arriving at the office, the technologist welcomed us with his good humor and sketches spread out before us. Our eyes followed faithfully his index finger as it roamed from one room to another while we visited the house on the plans. No 3D stuff here. Very low tech. Just fingers and paper. At first sight, there were great ideas on the river-side to maximize the view. He had shifted the three main rooms facing the river each giving them 90 degree corner windows. It was the same for the open plan and great room. Sometimes his index finger stopped in some parts to indicate how the space had been maximized, other times how the volume added to the drama or the wow factor when we entered the house. Despite all the details that had escaped us initially, we realized that there were major problems in the proposed design. Our impression of that meeting was that we had just attended a sales pitch. He was trying to sell us ready to wear plans and force fit us into a design that was not even near what we had requested. This was someone else's house. Needless to say, we were disappointed. We thanked him, paid his fees, walked out and never went back.

This was our first lesson. No need to be bitter about it, but you learn quickly when the chaching meter is running. We set the plans on the dining room table and in a puzzled silence, revisited the house. We were in a state that wavered between shock and a light coma. The question marks of a few hours earlier brought us back to reality. What we had before us was first a house that had evolved without meeting our needs. It was obvious when we returned to consult other plans of the company on the site; this house had been mixed from one plan to another in the plan bank and according to the vision of the architectural technologist. It was essentially a copy-pasted tight fit. Some of our wishes were respected, but the rest did not fit our requirements or our imagination. There were some strong points, but the rest was a huge disappointment. We had tediously explained our need to reduce the area because we did not want to have big houses like we had in the past. The house he had designed had almost 4,000 square feet. I will spare you the litany of shortcomings, it goes without saying that our next foray for house plans would be better or so we thought.

They say you do not make mistakes, you are simply acquiring experience. The lessons drawn helped us take the next steps. It was obvious that the biggest obstacle was communication and how it is interpreted on both sides of the drawing board. The ability to read the designer's mind to see if he or she has read yours correctly is definitely an asset. The budget is not rocket science. It's a simple formula that seems to be ignored. We must emphasize the actual limits of the budget and our patience; otherwise you are just talking to yourself and wasting everyone's time. So we tidied up our collection of plan catalogs and went back to square one: Pierre's initial plans drawn on graph paper with pencil.

Preconceived plans work for many people. We have friends who have built their homes in Les Domaines du Ruisseau-Jureux and it is beautiful. It is also the ideal solution for a self-builder who can make the changes on the fly and cope with the list of materials prepared by the technologist. What we liked least was the fact that every change we wanted to make to the plan is tariffed. This is reasonable since the company would be at the mercy of customers who keep changing their minds. In our case, there were so many changes to the plans that it was not worth the trouble to pay for each individual change until the plans resembled our house. In addition, we become more and more green and what this company offered was very limited in that scope.

The moral of the story: Sometimes we want to cut spending on an important phase believing in huge savings, but if you want to get value for your money, do not skimp on the most important phase, the design of the house. After all, this home will tell your story to the world as it becomes a part of our daily happiness.