From Inspiration to Finished Design

It’s sometimes believed that the custom home design process begins with browsing a few plans and ends with choosing one. However, for many people, the search starts well before looking at actual plans. For them, simple admiration of houses in a magazine turns into a scrapbook of dream homes. Still another type of person will have no idea what they want until they start. There is no set path on the road of inspiration to your timber frame home design. However, there are some helpful mile markers along the way.

The Search for Inspiration

Whether it is a dog-eared page in a magazine, a daydream drawn on a napkin, or a drive past a home that always catches your eye, the search for inspiration for your dream home design could be over in an instant. Conversely, it could take months, or consume decades of daydreams. You might immediately know whether a layout is the one for you. At the opposite end of this, you might enjoy a relaxed process of collecting plans, photos, and considering needed spaces, finally resulting in your ideal home vision. Whichever way you arrive at your dream home design, you now have to find someone who brings it to life.

Choosing a Company

Reviewing companies that have the ability, experience, and integrity to bring your home’s design to life can take months. It can also happen with the first company you come across. When you conduct your research, you are looking at company websites for both plans and an understanding of how the company’s process works. Some companies may utilize draftsmen while others have architects. Some will offer a large portfolio of design concepts from which to choose, while others may have a more selected grouping. In the end, it is important to find a company that you feel comfortable working with.

The Design Timeline

After you’ve searched through companies, the design process used by the company you choose further impacts the timeline of your project. For example, if you choose an “as-is” plan from the company, or only have very minor changes to make, then it will take less time to receive your finished design. But, perhaps there are some major changes you would like to make? If so, your time frame gets longer, but your design will also be more tailored to your specific needs and the inspiration behind them. You also have the option of taking extra time and creating a fully custom design—resulting in a unique home that is completely designed to reflect your style.

Other Contributing Factors to Timelines

When in the midst of the design phase, there are additional factors that can affect your timeline. If building on a slope, for example, the architect will need extra time to adapt the design to that location. Or, if your conceptual drawings have complex attributes like more than typical numbers of corners, angles, or pitches, it will take longer to complete the construction drawings. Even when conceptual and construction drawings are in production, review boards responsible for the site can affect the timeline. This is because of ongoing meetings and the possibility of changes to the drawings.

Follow the link to learn about Riverbend’s three design pathways.