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 Thank
you for your interest in our passive solar house plans. We have several levels
of service for our Custom Changes, and the architect is involved with them all.
If you have never worked with an architect before, you will most likely have
some initial apprehension. We hope we can put you at ease early in the process.
We think you will be pleased with our process, design style, and energy expertise.
Due to our work load with new Custom Design, and the fact that we are a small
company that likes to stay that way so that everyone gets personal attention,
we are not able to accept all Custom Changes projects to our pre-designed plans,
but the fall and early winter is a slower time so please inquire as to our work
load and a brief idea of your changes. Otherwise, please consider purchasing
our CAD files or Erasable Vellums to have changes made by your local design
professional. (For changes to a pre-designed plan, an architect is often not
needed.)
Please check back to the Custom
Design page for the status in case our work load lightens or we find more
qualified help. Thanks so much for your interest, patience, and understanding.
If you are uncomfortable with our Custom Changes process or schedule, we encourage
you to purchase our Erasable Vellums or CAD (computer-aided design) files and
have the changes made locally. If your local design professional makes the changes,
they will need our CAD files if they work on computer or Erasable Vellums if
they draw by hand. Both of those come with a copyright release to allow the
drawings to be modified which often entails tracing over or copying our work
either by hand or in the computer. We still prepare the Custom Energy Recommendations
for your area based on the particulars of each plan. We can simultaneously address
energy concerns that you may have in relation to your changes - we do not include
that with blueprint orders which are for those who do NOT plan on making changes
to the design.
Even without us actually making the changes for you, we can still provide some
Consulting Services about possible changes to a plan PRIOR to purchasing a set
of plans from us, please follow the Custom Changes Consulting and Review
process which begins with emailing
us to request the Custom Changes Questionnaire - a document that prompts
you to list the changes you are considering. See below for more info. We try
to begin the review and consulting portion of your proposed changes within two
weeks of receiving them, and then complete the review and consulting within
usually a week after that. The actual changes, should we mutually agree that
they are acceptable, would take at least another 6 weeks. If you know you want
us to make the changes, then we prefer that you hold off on the review until
our schedule allows us to continue on with the changes as otherwise we will
most likely have forgotten the review details and have to do it again - which
just runs up our fees.
Like other professionals, architects primarily sell services. The drawings
are the end result. The fees for services are based on time, which we want to
use wisely. Our time includes emails, information review, and phone calls as
well as drawings. Some clients require more time than others, and everyone is
different in their style of communication. We tailor communications to each
client. Because most clients desire an economical limited service, we have structured
our Custom Changes around this. If you want more service
than we typically provide, please ask.
Please review the passive solar information in our book The Sun-Inspired House
and web site. Other clients have indicated that the time spent reading our book
and on the web site looking at the photos, frequently asked questions, construction
costs, about us, etc. have made work with us simpler and answers many questions.
We know that it saves time during the consulting services that are a part of
our Custom services as we have less questions to answer by email and by phone.
That translates into design cost savings for you. Studying the Construction
Review Set should also save some time. It is a reduced set (11x17) of Construction
Drawings and its price is deducted from future orders of blueprint, erasable
vellums, or CAD files, and often even if you are requesting changes to a plan
other than the one of which you ordered a Construction Review Set. It comes
with the simpler, easy to read Study Plan too. (Although the Study Plans provide
some information, there is no construction information so is it harder to judge
structural implications for your local design professional.)
We work hard at meeting requested deadlines, but do not make guarantees. Simple
changes can be made quickly, but six weeks is typical. It is not uncommon for
changes to take longer, especially if you need more time to review our submittals.
Priority in our schedule is usually based upon when payment is made. We need
your trust that we are doing the best we can. While no set of plans is perfect,
we strive for a balance of speed and quality. Late winter to early spring is
our busiest time so be prepared for a longer wait time then.
Most of our work is Internet email based. Some clients like to respond by phone,
which is acceptable if not excessive. Regardless of the type of communication,
we like to be treated politely, and we will extend the same courtesy. If you
are unhappy with our speed, services, or communications, please express them
to us. We take our work very seriously and try very hard to please clients.
- Simple
Changes are straightforward,
require little interaction, and no drawing approval by client - Typical
Changes require an average amount of interaction and approval of drawings by you - Complex
Changes require extensive interaction with the architect and detailed reviews - Third
Party
Changes are made by your builder, architect, home designer, or engineer directly
from our CAD files or Erasable Vellums
Please send us an email to request
our Custom Changes Questionnaire, which we'll send at no charge. After you send
it back to us with your proposed changes, site information, and the $395 fee,
we perform a detailed consulting and review of your information with no further
obligation for you to have us make the changes. In the event that the Consulting
and Review takes less than $395, we have in the past credited the extra to the
purchase price of the CAD files or Erasable Vellums with which another design
professional could follow through on our ideas. The questionnaire further explains
the entire process and fees which average $1.00 per s.f. under roof (this includes
living areas on all floors as well as porches and garage) and includes 6 sets
of blueprints/construction drawings with specs. There is a $1000 minimum for
changes in addition to the price of the blueprints. Lately the changes have
been averaging about $3000 as most are fairly extensive. The fees are usually
about 1/3 the price of custom design, but still much less than the Realtors
fee should you buy an existing home. Once you submit your information for us
to review and the review fee, we can give you an estimate. Still though people
often have many more, "oh, by the ways, can you also…" once we begin the changes
and we are OK with that. It's one more reason we don't give fixed prices. About
1/3 come in under our estimates, 1/3 right on, and 1/3 go over.
One important note: We do NOT provide review and consulting on drawings from
changes made by other design professionals to our designs. There are just too
many things to check behind and it is easy to overlook things unless we do the
work ourselves, so if you would like some of our advice, please obtain it BEFORE
your design professional starts making changes.
The contents of this site are copyright © 2002-2008 Sun Plans Inc.
All Rights Reserved. This material may not be reproduced or redistributed
without prior written permission. Please contact us for permission to
use or modify our designs and information. Thanks!
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