Bridging the gap between custom home design and construction is a challenge we have faced in our business since day one.
Traditionally, the design and build teams are disparate and segmented. Architectural design, interiors, landscape, and even engineering are essential professional services required to design and build a custom home. Yet, these professionals often move within different silos resulting in varied time frames, goals and agendas.
Including a general contractor (builder) late in the custom home construction process is also problematic for homeowners who want to design a particular home within their style and budget.
Often, the design team, client, and builder are on very different pages, moving at different paces, and compensated in various ways.
At Reynard Custom Homes, we set out to consolidate a team of design and construction professionals into a custom home project from the start.
There are three key reasons we do this (and our reasons why)...
Design as a Team
Create and Stick to a Budget
Mitigate Costly Delays
Design As a Team
Our design team comprises a Lead Architectural Designer, Interior Designer, Landscape Designer, Structural Engineer, Pre-Construction Consultant, and the Client. Including our client as part of the design team is unique to our process. Consequently, we have an opportunity to work closely with each client to ensure we capture the ideas pertaining to each aspect of their custom home. We include architecture, landscape, and interiors as part of our design approach, so we can reach across design practices and take a cohesive design approach. Our design team also includes a licensed general contractor who can give us real-time cost analysis on designs as they unfold. This approach dramatically reduces the number of revisions and change orders.
Create and Stick to a Budget
To stay within budget from Day One, it takes a team of professionals working with their expertise to understand needs, wants, and allowances. One of the first things we want to know from our clients is a target construction budget and building requirements. At Reynard Custom Homes, we begin designing by understanding these variables and providing input on what is possible within their parameters. We do not want to design homes outside our clients' budget, so we specify as much as possible during the design phases to keep costs where they need to be.
Mitigate Costly Delays
As with any project, we want each completed as quickly as possible. We also know the quickest way is the right way. At the same time, few things in life go as planned, and deadlines shift due to economic and personal factors that are, like the weather, outside of our control. To mitigate delays as effectively as possible, we use our team to identify each deliverable required to build a home. We assign each deliverable to the right player on the team and hold the team member accountable for deadlines, due dates, and status updates.
Ownership of tasks, a delegation of duties, and open and frequent communication are all measurable ways to keep slowdowns from occurring as a design/build process unfolds. For example, by including a licensed general contractor on our design project and pairing them with the architectural and interior design team, construction questions can be asked and answered early and often rather than wasting time on construction sites going back and forth with engineers.
If you would like to speak with us about how to begin the custom home design process you can do one of two things.
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