Custom Design Process

The design process begins with you, and involves you most of the way through. If you are good at communicating what you would like and are comfortable with computers, then please send us an email to request our Custom Design Questionnaire which is available free of charge to our customers - those who have already purchased something directly from us such as The Sun-Inspired House book. (Just state briefly in the email when you purchased it from us.) For others, please first pay $40 for our Custom Design Questionnaire through our custom payment link on the shopping cart. (We usually send a list of references too.) The questionnaire further explains the process and fees, which average $3.00 per s.f. under roof (this includes living areas on all floors as well as porches and at least parts of garages and daylight basements) and includes 6 sets of blueprints/construction drawings with specs. Our minimum fee for a custom home is $6500.

We break the payment down into phases, and you are not obligated to the entire fee should you change your mind somewhere along the way. We know that you will be satisfied with the design of the floor plan and exterior elevations, or we will keep designing until you are happy! (Extra charges for excessive changes or services may apply.)

We'll first need detailed info from you on your site, the completed Custom Design Questionnaire, and photos or sketches of what type of exterior style you like (no need to send a floor plan;we'll create one for you). You must send the initial review and consulting payment of $495 with this information (sometimes this can be more if you request more than average consulting initially).

After the first consulting and review service is completed, we begin the sketches if we both agree that we are a good architect-client match. (Sorry, but we cannot guarantee the offer of custom design services until after we review your information and worst case is that you would still have received our review and consulting on your ideas and information.) You would then send a minimum of at least $1000 more for sketches (larger or more complex homes may be higher). We include at least one sketch of each floor plan and front elevation.

To the right is a sample Custom Design Sketch...want to see more? ] [sample sketch #2]. (We can also include a quick 3d exterior image at this stage.)

After the sketch stage, we may be able to prepare a proposal. If you accept it, we begin preparing the design on the computer and can then include changes you have requested from the sketches. You are involved as much or as little as you would like. We usually send bits and pieces of drawings throughout for your review and approval all the way through construction drawings. 3D services (inside and out) are included as a standard part of our design. See example of a 5mb pdf example of the fixed images. We also provide rotating models that you can view with free software. You can receive our basic service such as seen in this example, or a more detailed level which included photo and land matching as well as a more detailed interior. Our minimum fee for a custom home including the 3D is $7500.

(We do maintain the ownership of the design, which allows us to reuse the design if we choose and to post the house plans for sale on our web site. Since we are a small company and only average the sale of one house plan every two years, and have very high marketing and advertising costs, we currently do not have profit-sharing with the original customer and know of no other house plan company that does. Most of our house plans on the web site started out as custom homes.)

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