Information you’ve gathered thus far will be useful whether you’re hiring a general contractor and an architect or trying to tackle various parts of the job yourself. But before you begin exploring design solutions, consider realities that will have an impact on your plans.
Consult a licensed general contractor (GC) about construction costs, especially before asking an architect to generate a lot of design options, called schematic drawings. An experienced contractor can cite construction costs per square foot in your region but may be reluctant to do so without qualifying those estimates. Such qualifiers will be well founded because every renovation is different, and there’s no way of knowing what surprises a job holds till you open up walls and floors. Most contractors won’t charge for a brief exploratory meeting, they’re courting a client, after all; but if consultations drag on, be prepared to pay consulting time. Fair’s fair.
In this initial meeting, you’re trying to get ballpark figures so you can see if your plans are realistic. Typically a contractor will offer costs per square foot for “vanilla” space such as bedrooms or living rooms as well as for more complicated spaces such as kitchens and bathrooms. Armed with those preliminary numbers, be prepared to modify and trim the scope of your project so you can stay within your budget when you proceed with detailed designs. Try not to proceed with plans you can’t presently afford, unless you are prepared to complete the work in phases, which could mean living with an unfinished renovation, perhaps for years.
CONSTRAINTS FROM PLANNING DEPARTMENTS
Once you’ve mapped the house, but before you sketch any proposed solutions, visit the planning department in your community to learn the ground rules for remodeling. Additions or other expansions of the physical envelope of your house need to be checked against regulations governing setbacks, lot coverage, height limits, parking requirements, and so on. An addition may also be subject to a design review, and you may need to apply for a variance, depending on the scope of the project. A variance may require that you obtain the approval of neighbors. Thus an early visit to local authorities could prevent your falling too deeply in love with a design you won’t be allowed to build.
As you renovate, respect what’s already there. Design is tricky stuff to articulate, but a building’s integrity comes from the proportion of its windows to walls, the width and contour of its trim, the slope of its roof—in short, from its parts, just as we humans are distinctive by the color of our hair, the set of our eyes, and the shape of our nose.
Each historical period has its distinctive architectural elements, and generally you’re better off not mixing them. When you must change something, be guided by what’s there. If your house has been modified by earlier owners and you question their judgment, walk around the neighborhood with your camera looking for other houses of the same period. Often, nearby houses will have been built from similar plans or even by the same builder. Here, digital photographs are useful because, once you load them into your computer, you can readily modify them with a software program, such as PhotoShop™.
