Working With Clients

Are you interested in hiring me? Here is my process for working with clients, and prospective clients:

Step 1: Making Contact

Please send me a note via one of my blog posts. I will respond and set up a time for us to talk by phone. Tell me something about why you want to talk to me.

I will be happy to talk to you, and to hear about your project and your hopes.

If you describe a simple project and you know what you want, I may suggest you hire a competent contractor instead of an architect. Sometimes I simply walk you through the process, and then say, "I think you can do this. Good luck!"

If you do want to work with an architect, I will ask you lots of questions, and take notes.

• You might say that you need new space, better space, but you are not sure how to go about an addition or a renovation. 
• You may have lots of ideas, some of which conflict, and talking to contractors hasn't helped. 
• Maybe you want help thinking through your options.
• Perhaps you want your project to look right. 

We will discuss on the phone what that means to you, and I will ask you to find some words/pictures to help describe 'right' when I meet with you. I will ask each person in your family - each person involved - to make a wish list. The lists need not agree.

I am sure you have a budget and need to spend your money carefully. That is good, and needs to be part of the conversation because we do not want to design something you cannot build. However, at the beginning when we are considering what to build, what to repair or change, we are only setting priorities.

Step 2: Our First Meeting

I will want to come in daylight so I can see your house inside and out. I may drive around your neighborhood before we meet, check it out on a Google map (although I trust my eye more than Google's). I want to understand why you don't just move - it's often easier than remodeling and restoration.

I will ask you to show me your house, or at least the parts you want me to consider. I will probably want to look at the framing in your basement, the way your attic is put together. I will wear sturdy footware so I can easily take an outside tour around your house. I will encourage you to show me what you like, what you don't, what you hope will be there instead. I will ask questions and be looking at - absorbing - your house, listening to you.

I will have asked you not to clean up for my visit. If there are 6 projects on the kitchen table, I need to see them. If the projects have migrated to the living room, or taken over the bedroom, the garage, let them be. How can I know that the mudroom is too tight if all the sports equipment has temporarily been moved to the basement? I know how to step around Legos, dog beds, walkers, messy stacks of medical journals.

After our tour we usually sit at the kitchen table, review what we've seen, what it means to you. We fill out the form I call " Existing Conditions". Then we discuss options, choices, solutions, how you want to proceed -and how I suggest you proceed. I usually sketch choices on tracing paper, crumpling up bad ideas, setting mediocre ones aside so you can see where we've been. I want you to see the process. I do not come in and magically solve things - or at least not usually.

This is your project. I can help, probably make it better - usually much better! I can at least make your choices clearer to you and your contractor, and your Town Building Inspector. But you will be living here when my work is done, not me.

Step 3: Existing Conditions

I make a list to create an overview of your house in regards to the work you want done. This will help us set priorities, and get a good overview of the job.


Maybe you want a new wing that will open out to your back yard, and another bedroom and bath.

Your septic system's placement will determine where you can add on - you will not want large trucks driving over it during construction. And if the field should be expanded, now is the time to consider that. Is this an opportunity to connect to your town's septic system? That work and expense should be included in the job.

But remember - despite making this list, when we renovate houses we find unexpected things. For instance, I remember the excavation of unknown septic systems at two different jobs. Both were disconnected (we checked to be sure!) but one still needed to pumped.

Step 4: Money

I am happy to meet briefly with you at your house for an initial consultation, without charge. I am also happy to talk with you by phone.

For a more serious initial consultation (2-3 hours), I charge $400 to be paid at the time of my visit.

If after the initial consultation you decide to work with me, I will ask for a $1200 retainer, to be paid before I continue. I charge $150.00 per hour for consulting, drafting and/or designing. I do not differentiate between the tasks because I often do two at once, and sometimes all three. So $1200 is my investment of 8 hours in your project, and a commitment on your part. It also gives me time to develop ideas and research options.

We will then discuss what to do first, and when to meet again. I will keep you informed as we use up the 8 hours.

After that we will discuss how big the job is, how much and what kind of help you will need, how we might proceed.

At $150 per hour, total cost for my work runs between 3% and 8% of the cost of the construction.
Simple jobs - for example: drawings of a garage for a building permit for a contractor - run about 3%.
A complex job - for example: one requiring custom vintage molding and reworked framing - can run to 8%.

I will meet with you regularly to review/discuss/redesign the work, and when you receive a bill, you will know what it is for because we will have talked about it.

I do not want to design something you cannot afford to build. I hate billing for work you cannot use. It is a waste of my time and your money. I do expect to be paid promptly, and delivery of drawings is contingent on payment.

Step 5: Working with Contractors

Or, How the Client, Architect and Contractor work together.