Basement Theater/Game Room [Finished!]

Main > Everything Else

<< < (23/57) > >>

Firebat138:
As an architect, or at least one who works for architects... We hear this all the time. Did she not design what YOU wanted? It is YOUR prerogative to tell her NO, do it another way. But if the design is really cool and you cant live with anything lesser than that... Is it REALLY over budget, or did you just not expect the costs to be so high. But that much over budget seems outrageous on her end... Keep us posted...

camper

DirtyDachshunds:
She should have told them up front that her alternative designs would be over budget. If I hire a contractor and give him/her a budget and they provide me plans without saying anything. I would think they made them with my budget in mind. It's wrong of her come decision time to then say oh by the way it's another 100k. That seems wrong.

and javeryh, I hate to say it, but I would pull the plug on this. Paying $25k to DECREASE your garage size on top of the cost of the addition, which wouldn't even be the addition you really want????

Why not look for another bigger development close to where you live?

javeryh:

--- Quote from: Firebat138 on January 13, 2011, 03:30:07 pm ---As an architect, or at least one who works for architects... We hear this all the time. Did she not design what YOU wanted? It is YOUR prerogative to tell her NO, do it another way. But if the design is really cool and you cant live with anything lesser than that... Is it REALLY over budget, or did you just not expect the costs to be so high. But that much over budget seems outrageous on her end... Keep us posted...
--- End quote ---

She asked us to provide a "hopeful" budget and then a "drop-dead-do-not-go-over-by-one-cent" budget so we did and she came back with 2 designs - one that sucked and would be "probably" within our budget and one that we really really like that is WAY over budget. Based on another addition in the neighborhood on a house exactly like ours we thought we were in the ball park with our max budget (ours budget was almost double what our neighbors paid) so her estimates are quite a shock to us.

--- Quote from: DirtyDachshunds on January 13, 2011, 04:24:07 pm ---She should have told them up front that her alternative designs would be over budget. If I hire a contractor and give him/her a budget and they provide me plans without saying anything. I would think they made them with my budget in mind. It's wrong of her come decision time to then say oh by the way it's another 100k. That seems wrong.
--- End quote ---

That's what we thought - I assumed that after providing her a budget she would design within the budget we gave her. Makes sense to me. Now, I can understand if she thought it would be 10-15% over and we'd have to stretch but she was almost off by 50%. It's not a matter of not wanting to spend the money at that point - we just don't have it.

--- Quote from: DirtyDachshunds on January 13, 2011, 04:24:07 pm ---and javeryh, I hate to say it, but I would pull the plug on this. Paying $25k to DECREASE your garage size on top of the cost of the addition, which wouldn't even be the addition you really want????

Why not look for another bigger development close to where you live?

--- End quote ---

yeah... I am going to see what she says tomorrow after she gets some feedback from contractors but there's no way we are going to pay for something we don't absolutely want. We can't relocate in town due to the high prices of houses in my area and we live here specifically for the schools. We can sell high but we'd have to buy high too - believe me, I'm on realtor.com all the time looking around for something with no luck yet. :(

Gray_Area:
I read a story about a famous author who had a house designed, and built, and when he finally sat down in his new office, he looked around and thought, '.....this seems a lot bigger than the plans....' He called the architect, who said, 'You said you wanted this, but you really needed this. Does it feel right?' The author admitted it did.

Fordman:
javeryh,

Be happy with the design / cost you have to live with it and pay for it.

As far as an architect goes, bypass them and just do it on your own.

Go to a Vocational school/college and have one of the class students design something for you. Doesnt cost anything to make changes and their time is free and its their grade!

Go to a Home Depot/Lowes/ building center and see what materials will cost on a retail level. That way you know if your being over charged for materials.

Do some of the work yourself: like painting, after construction clean up & materials purchasing.

Some of the above things will save you $$$$$$$

I wouldnt worry too much about what the other homes in your neighborhood are selling for. All homes in the U.S.A. are worth less today than 3 years ago. Banks/Investment groups propped up prices to get you to pay more. You see where that got them! I have never looked at my home as an investment. I look at it as the box I live in, so Im gonna make it comfortable for my family and I.

My $.02
Fordman

Navigation

 Message Index

Go to full version