Where the design process ends, the construction process begins. Then finally, life in your new home begins. The quality of life within your new home depends a great deal on the quality of the design, as well as quality of construction. Therefore, it is important that no shortcuts are taken during the design process, and that you help us to fully understand your desires, lifestyle, budget, and future plans. Furthermore, bringing a competent and respected contractor into the design process early on will help to ensure success of the project, as well as improve the overall experience throughout the design and construction phases.

The design process, up through obtaining a permit, is summarized and broken down into phases within the following sections. For a remodel or addition, the steps will be the same, however, in some cases more abbreviated than with a complete home.

The first step is to get together and discuss your objectives and your budget, and for all of us to determine if working together is a good fit. If you’re going to shop around, we encourage you to shop based on value and common ideals... not on price! You may find someone cheaper, but do they offer the same level of service? Are their visions and ideals aligned with yours? Alternatively, someone priced higher may be providing more than you need. We will always try to determine an acceptable level of service for our client’s needs, and not sell them any more than necessary.

Once we understand your objectives, we will provide you with a fee proposal, which will include a detailed scope of work. Depending on the nature of the work, it could be based on an hourly rate, a fixed price, or a combination of the two. The more specific you are about your objectives, the easier it will be for us to provide a fixed price.

This is where we gather information on you and your family, as well as your desires, lifestyle, future plans, budget, and any other pertinent information. This will involve completing questionnaires, interview meetings, as well as one or more site visits. This phase ultimately ends with a project specification, AKA “program,” that defines the project.

You may already have the majority of this figured out, which will greatly reduce our effort, and save you some time and money.

This is also the best time to interview and select other team members such as a contractor, interior designer, landscape designer, etc., so they are in place for the following phases. Before making final decisions on the team members, we recommend you review our Partners section, as well as consult with us. It’s important that there’s synergy - not friction - between the team members!

Here we take the information collected during the programming phase, as well as the site context, and any other constraints and/or requirements, and process it into spatial relationships that define “how the house works.” Once these relationships are reviewed, understood, and agreed upon, we develop preliminary floor plans and 3D conceptual computer models for review.

Throughout this phase we also address other issues that affect the design, such as environmental design strategies, materials, special site requirements, HOA restrictions, and budget.

It is important that the other team members be involved in this phase to ensure that the design is addressed as a whole, rather than isolated elements. Therefore, it is critical that the team be selected before beginning this phase.

This is where the design concepts evolve into a refined design. Conceptual ideas and strategies are transformed into specifics, structural systems are identified and developed, and budgets are further evaluated.

This is likely the phase where most decisions are made with respect to design details, materials, trade-offs, etc. It’s important to be prepared for the possibility that not everything conceived in the schematic phase will work, and that adjustments may be required to address physical or budgetary constraints.

As with schematic design, other team members will be integral to the process, and be developing their designs, as well as responding to any necessary changes.

In this phase, the designs are arranged and presented in the format of construction drawings and specifications. Drawings are annotated as required to meet city or county code requirements, as well as to clearly communicate design intent.

It is important to understand that, unless specifically requested to do so, RD Design Services does not write detailed specifications. We provide details and critical specifications on the drawings necessary to clearly communicate design intent. Therefore, it is up to the owner to work directly with the contractor, as well as other design professionals, to specify finish materials, fixtures, colors, etc. This is yet another reason that the design team and contractor should be involved from the beginning of the project - it ensures they understand the vision and intended outcome, and will help to specify materials with that vision in mind.

RD Design Services offers this as an optional service. In some cases your contractor may opt to do this step. Regardless, we will always make the corrections requested by the city or county necessary to get the plans approved, and a permit issued.

If you chose to have us do this step, we will typically bill for actual time & materials, as it is difficult to predict the amount of time required to complete this step.