How to Prepare for your First Meeting with your Architect

I have learned so much since the beginning of our home project. So much so that if I had to do it all over again, I would probably do it all differently. Here are a few tips to help you prepare for your first meeting with your technologist or architect.

1 - Create a moodboard to determine the style of your home

We presented a document to our architectural technologist with beautiful Pinterest photos to guide her toward the desired style for our home. This moodboard also served as a reference for our interior designers, as well as being very helpful in clarifying my ideas. As I like many different styles, it's very easy for me to mix genres that don't necessarily work well together. A little advice: take the time to specify what you like (or don't like!) on your moodboard photos.

I used Indesign to create my moodboard. It's quite a complex software, but there are plenty of other tools to make moodboards easily and efficiently, for example, canva or Powerpoint.

Here is an example of a template canva template to create a moodboard.

2 - Determine your needs before the meeting

Being well organized will help limit mistakes and changes along the way. Remember that any changes may result in additional costs! We had five changes made to the preliminary plans, and only two rounds of corrections were included in the price of the plans. In order to avoid the same mistakes happening to you and to help you determine your needs before you meet with your technologist or architect, I have prepared a checklist to go through for your house and each individual room:

The house in general :

• The total square footage of the house

• The budget for the complete house

• Would you like a single storey, garden level or two storey house?

• With or without basement?

• With or without a mudroom? If there is no mudroom, do you need a walk-in closet in the entrance?

• Hardwood, engineered or other flooring?

• Cathedral roof?

• Exposed beams?

• 8, 9 or 10 ft. ceilings

• Would you like heated floors? If so, in which rooms?

• Single, double or no garage

• Single or double entrance door? Do you intend to enter through this door, or will it be for guests only? Do you need a spacious entrance?

• The mechanical needs of the building: central or wall-mounted air conditioning?

• Heating with radiant floors, heat pumps or electric baseboards?

• Your storage needs: do you have a lot of sports equipment? Do you need easy access to this equipment? Are you a handyman? Do you need space for your tools?

• Do you like to live outside? Would you like to have a 3-season screened veranda?

• Do you work from home? Would you like to have an office?

• Do you have workout equipment?

The rooms :

• The number of rooms

• Do you need them to be large or small?

• Would you like large or small wardrobes?

• If you want a walk-in closet in your room, will it be big enough to put a bench in the middle, for example, or just big enough to get in? Do you need to have your own side of the wardrobe?

Bathrooms, powder room and laundry room:

• The number of complete bathrooms

• What role does a bath play in your life? Is it purely functional or is it a space for relaxation you regularly need?

• Do you want a private bathroom attached to the master bedroom? Do you want it to be accessible through the walk-in closet or not?

• Would you like a large countertop? One or two sinks?

• What did you have in mind for the size of the shower?

• Do you need a linen closet inside or outside the bathroom?

• The number of bathrooms

• Do you want a laundry room? If so, do you want an adjoining shower room?

The kitchen:

• Kitchen design, know approximately what you would like (with or without island)

• What is your lifestyle? Do you entertain often? Do you need a large dining room and a communal kitchen or do you eat out more often?

• Do you need a walk-in pantry? If so, is it big enough for a second fridge? A coffee corner? Or just big enough to store groceries?

The living room :

• How important is television in your life? Do you watch it often or only occasionally? Would you like to have enough wall space for a TV of a particular size?

• Would you like to have a fireplace? Gas or wood burning? Do you prefer 1, 2, 3 or 4 sides?

• What kind of sofa would you like to have?

• Would you like a large or small living area?
  

This is pretty comprehensive, but if you have any special requests, now is the time to think about them and add them to your list! You will also need to provide your architect with the certificate of location of the land.

3 - Take pictures of the land

Zermatt already loves his new home!

A photo of the field in the summer

Any architectural professional should consider your land and its orientation when creating your building plans. We visited our lot with our technologist so she could evaluate it with her own eyes, and I highly recommend it. If your architectural professional won't come out to see your lot, document, document, document!

Take photos in the morning, at lunchtime, in the evening, and make a short video of the environment! The more you have, the better! Your house will be in harmony with nature and light, and that's important.

4- Prepare your budget

Let's be honest, building a house is expensive. It's practically the purchase of a lifetime, so there's nothing better than calculating your expenses to make sure you don't get into something you can't afford! Here are some important things to consider when you're setting your budget:

• Cost of land

• Welcome taxes

• Construction cost (add 20% for extras!!)

• Technologist fees

• Designer fees

• Notary and other costs

• Furniture

• Insurance

For the next step, I suggest you add your monthly budget (if you have one of course!), to make sure you can live with these expenses. Sam and I budget the following every month: gas, car, insurance, house, security system, internet, health products, maintenance, electricity, expenses for Zermatt, travel, gifts, groceries, and restaurants. We could talk more about this in a future article.

On that note, have a wonderful first meeting! When we came out of that first meeting with our technologist, we were ecstatic! It's so exciting and it makes the project even more tangible!