Adapting architectural house plans to your needs
Hiring an Architect to design a one of a kind home for you can be a time consuming and expensive endeavor. The design process will take at least several months - maybe up to a year. And the fee can run from 8% to 12% of the construction cost or even higher. That being said I believe it is well worth it - but not everyone has that luxury of time and money. So what I want to do here is present you with an alternative approach that can work for many people. The basic concept is to purchase a set of plans "off the shelf" directly from an Architect, and then work with them to customize that plan to your specific needs and tastes. The two images below depict a house designed by Larson Brenner Architects in Stillwater , Minnesota. It is a beautiful Cape Cod design. The client loved the design inside and out. But the plan would not fit on their own lot configuration, the room arrangement did not satisfy 100% of their needs and their aesthetic tastes tended more towards the ...