So in the last blog post we covered the basic framework within which your renovation work will be designed & built.
And as a refresher here is the Renovation Journey:
And if you haven’t gone through the first part of this blog series then you can go here to read that first: Home Renovation Journey Part 1
It’ll give you an overview of what we are going to discuss here.
If you’ve already read it then you may remember that the Creative Phase is mostly concerned with the design of your renovation and the Organised Phase is all about the planning & construction of your renovation.
In this blog post we’re going to take a deep dive into the Creative Phase of your project.
We’ll cover what needs to happen in each step and I’ll show you what you need to avoid at each stage too.
Ok, let’s get going!
Action Stage
You can’t improve your home unless you take action in the first place and put the wheels in motion so this stage is where you take the first step and take action on improving your home.
It is vital that you take the time to analyse you & your family’s current lifestyle and see where you need to make the improvements to your home.
Now we’ve made this bit easy for you as we have a blog post that goes into detail on how to do this easily & without much fuss. That blog post is found here.
Make sure you don’t skip this step as it is this stage where you will get the biggest bang from your buck if you do know what you want from improving your home.
It sets up how the rest of the project will go.
And it doesn’t matter whether you are completely refurbishing your home or putting a basement under it or any other type of extension.
You must do this step and to be honest it’s quite enjoyable to empty your brain on to paper with all your ideas.
Rip Off Fact No. 1:
Not taking the time in determining what exactly you require from your renovation means you start your project by ripping off yourself.
If you don’t have a clear vision on what you want your home to look like, how can you expect someone else to help you get it?!
This will cost you in money terms and in suitability terms when the whole thing is finished.
Listen, I know you take this stuff seriously don’t you?
The famous philosopher Socrates once said: a life left unexamined probably isn’t worth living, well a house left unexamined is probably not worth living in either!
Please don’t make this mistake with your home…
Approve
Ok we’re moving on to Stage 2 of the Creative Phase.
We’re now on to the Approve Stage where you get your home professionally designed.
Architects are the people that will turn your initial ideas from the last step into something that will work even better for you & your family.
And please the planners and the building regulations which you must satisfy when modifying your home.
Look, I know quite a lot of people think they can design their own home but the fact is I’ve yet to see one turn out for want of a better word – nice.
Architects train for 5 years in university to design buildings properly, and when they come to work with us here in Bespoke Home Design they have to have at least an additional 10 years experience in designing people’s homes just to qualify to work with us.
That’s a lot of time and when you compare that to someone who doesn’t have any training or experience in designing a house – it doesn’t bode well no matter how many books or magazine that are read.
Now: Never underestimate what an architect can do for you, their help here is priceless and the quality of home they can provide for you is worth far more than ten times what you’ll pay them.
That said you do have to choose your architect carefully.
Few of them specialise in any particular type of building.
They generally try and design anything they can, offices, apartments, hotels, etc
Few specialise in a particular type of project such as renovations which is a specialist subject in of itself.
There is a massive difference for example between hotel design vs home refurbishment design vs office building design.
Listen: It’s A bit like the difference between a heart surgeon vs orthopaedic surgeon vs brain surgeon.
And if your Architect is not a specialist in home refurbishments you will just have to accept that that they will miss some of the things that are specific to house refurbishments simply because they won’t have the relevant experience.
Unfortunately this only manifests itself once the building work has already commenced.
And that’s not all.
When an architectural practise works on several types of project, the larger jobs get priority.
So if your refurb is down the list of jobs sizes they are currently working on then you go down in the pecking order of priority.
Plus: home renovation jobs are generally seen as the type of project that get used for the graduates to cut their teeth with.
This applies to engineering & interior design companies too.
Wouldn’t you prefer the design on your home to be carried out by someone who has done it many times before rather your home being used someone’s first design?
Look at it this way – if you required heart surgery who would you prefer doing the op?
An experience surgeon or someone doing it for the first time?
Now: Make sure you address all these items with any prospective architect before you hire them.
Also watch out for architects that quote you a flat rate per square foot or square metre or even any kind of fee over the phone without meeting you first, seeing your property or even getting a feel for what you want to do with the place.
This screams crappy service and you can be sure that they will provide you with the minimum they can and justify that you’re getting what you paid for.
Once you find one you like and hire them, you then brief them on what it is you need and want from improving your home and they will start coming up with a few initial scheme designs for you to look at.
There needs to be a lot of collaboration between you & your architect to get that perfect design for you & your family so be prepared to put the time in.
This is the most time intensive stage for you on the whole project, but isn’t this time well spent if it means a far superior home for you & your family to live in?
The design will develop until it’s apparent it’s the right one for you and what you want to achieve with your property modifications.
Once your Architect has come up with a design you are happy with it, they then develop it into a set of drawings for your planning application.
As a note aside: When it comes to the drawings for your home they evolve over 3 to 4 stages with the drawings becoming more detailed with each step.
First are the scheme drawings which are pretty basic and the purpose of those is to show you the basic layout of your home after the building work is done.
Next are the planning drawings which will only be slightly more advanced and have extras views and elevations on them – these drawings are to give the planners an idea of what the finished building will look like.
Next are the tender drawings which will have a lot more detail on them and are provided to prospective builders to base their quote on.
And finally are the construction drawings which are more detailed again to facilitate the final construction of your home.
Discover the 3 Simple Ways to Find Out
How Much Your Loft Conversion Will Cost
Get an accurate cost for your potential loft conversion
in 5 minutes or less, yes it’s really that fast!
Click Here Now
Rip Off Fact No. 2:
Architects are often more interested in what they think will look good for their portfolio and what they think you should do rather than what’s right for you & your family.
If you let them you will end up with a perfect house… for them!
Imagine building something completely unsuitable to start with?!
What a waste of your time & cash.
If you just follow what I’ve shared here and the previous Action Stage then you will be just fine when you start working with an Architect.
Apply
The last stage in the Creative Phase is the Apply Stage and this happens once your Architect has come up with a scheme you are happy with it so they then develop it into your planning application.
Look: Even If you don’t require planning permission there is an important point here so stay tuned.
If you do require planning permission, your Architect submits the drawings as well as any other items to your local planning authority to grant you planning permission and to building control who check that the design complies with the current building regulations.
This is generally straight forward unless what you are building in a restricted area such as a conservation area or your scheme is really out there and sticks out like a sore thumb in your neighbourhood.
A good litmus test of what you will get away with is to look around your neighbours and see what extensions and changes they made to their properties.
Also make sure you inform your immediate neighbours (or anyone that lives nearby that will be affected by your building work) before they get the letter from the planners Informing them of what you intend to do – hell hath no fury like a neighbour scorned!
Even if you don’t require planning permission, if your building work is going to impact on your neighbours in any way make sure you tell them well in advance.
Rip Off Fact No. 3:
Your neighbours can make your life hell if you rub them up the wrong way.
They can force you to pay for expensive consultants especially for them and these guys are rip off merchants of the highest order believe me, I still have the scars!
Your neighbours can be constantly complaining about the building work and that’s assuming they don’t get your project rejected by the planners in the first place!
Wouldn’t it be good for you to avoid all this?
We have a step by step action plan on how to handle all this here at Bespoke Home Design and we have provided you with this plan in this blog post.
Ok that concludes this blog post and in Part 3 of this Renovation Journey we’ll start looking at the Organised Phase of your project.
Thanks for checking our Home Renovation Journey Part 2 post! If you have any questions then just pop them into the comments section below.
Need Financing To Get That Much Needed Extra Space In Your Home?
Pretty much most of our clients require financing to get the badly needed work done to their homes and start enjoying that extra space sooner rather than later.
So we’ve reached out and partnered with Norton Finance to help you get the best deals & loan rates when raising the cash to get the work done to your home.
Let’s face it, it ain’t cheap especially in London.
So if you would like to see what our friends at Norton can do for you then simply click on the link below.
You’ll get brought to our affiliate page where you simply fill out your details, what kind of loan you want and for how much and they’ll let you know what funds you can.
It’s a completely free quote with no strings attached.
Now to be completely transparent we do get a commission if you raise financing through Norton.
That said we’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years now and we only promote what we see as quality products & services to our readers and subscribers.
We’re very careful who we partner with as we have a reputation to live up to and that means serving you at our very best all of the time.
So to find out more about your financing options all you have to do is click the link below:
Want To Know How Much Financing You Can Get
For Your Home Improvement Work?
Super low rates & no hidden fees on a range of secured loans,
homeowner loans, remortgages & consolidation loans…
Click Here Now
Home Renovations says
Thank you for sharing this post. Very informative! Especially the points about getting ripped off.
Landscaping York Region says
I really loved this post and all the helpful points you made. There are some great tips here that I will be using in my future purchases, which is awesome!
I love how informative your article was because there were so many useful takeaways from it for me moving forward- like what to be aware of when we go shop around for a renovation.
one two says
nice