| My Plan Is This... |
[Jul. 29th, 2008|11:02 pm]
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My latest idea for the house to be built on the land is to make it a copy of a wonderful old schoolhouse that I lived in about ten years ago. The schoolhouse is still there. It's a plain one-story rectangular building. It's about 100 years old, so there should be no architectural infringement problems.
Who can I hire to do the drawings? Would I need to pay an architect to draw up the plans or could the builder do it?
Any thoughts? |
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| Comments: |
An engineer is probably better and cheaper for that kind of job. Architects design. Engineers execute.
Given the state of the housing industry, I'd expect builders to be fallling over themselves offering you opportunities.
Most larger companies have arrangements with architects. I opt for the architect largely because I'm married to an engineer and I know what the execution would look like if left to an engineer. [grin] The most commonly heard phrase would be: but that's so cool!
You'd have fiber optics, surround sound, and one bathroom.
OTOH, the problem with architects is that sometimes they get too involved with form over substance. But it looks GOOD!
Except that the housing industry down here is booming. Probably the only place it is.
First look at your city building code (or ask.) Some cities require architect, some an engineer, some both, to have signed off on the plans.
You can sometimes get away with "canned plans" available from companies that supply plans that meet standard building codes. Most cities will accept these plans, and builders will build from them--house plans cost (or used to) in the range of $100-$500, and offered the builder and subcontractors all the information they needed to do the work.
What you're talking about is a custom house (no matter how simple) and that's always more pricey. Any modification to a standard plan will add more to the cost than you think.
When we were considering buying land way out (we thought we'd make more money, obviously) and were looking for house designs and found tons online and in large bookstores where you could look at plans and then order a set of actual plans of the one you wanted.
You might have some luck if you contact the Architecture Dept. at UT. A brand new grad might be very happy to draw up plans for a copy of an existing building. Then I'd get an engineer to review the plans to make sure the kid didn't forget a beam or something, but the first thing they learn is how to accurately draw "existing conditions," which, in your case, is all that you want. Will you be able to get access to the old house? And wasn't there only one bedroom and one bath? Maybe you just need 2 of the same building. | |
