Choosing an architect is a bit like choosing a life partner. Without the dating.
It’s a weird sort of set up. You meet them once, or maybe twice, and then sign up to having them spend a pretty penny on your behalf. At least you get to live in the results, and hopefully they will be beautiful.
Since moving into our house two months ago we’ve had a conga line of tradies, architects, hot water people, curtain hawkers and general handymen traipse through. That’s what you get for buying an old place.
It’s exciting on one hand. On the other it’s leaving me with a slight headache and a racing heart from the panic of watching the bank balance diminish, and the lingering question of: “Are the choices we’re making now actually good, and will we be happy with them in a few years?”
Of course, the house was quite livable and could have been left as is, especially after the initial peeling back of the 60-year-old wallpaper and riddance of the acres of lace curtains and soft green paint.
But humans are creators. We like to fiddle. We just can’t help ourselves. It’s like a primary urge within us. As an agent told me this week, it’s a bit like a dog marking its territory. Crass? Yes. True? Probably yes as well.
Today’s challenge is clearing out the back corner of overgrown trees to fit the biggest water tank that we can. All 37,000 litres of it.
Sounds big but it’s not actually large enough to supply a whole house all year. We’d die of thirst midway through summer if we had to rely upon it solely, so the plan is to plumb it to the house and fit a pump that switches back to mains water supply when the tank level drops low enough.
The bank balance might be giving me a headache at night, but today it’s the roar of the chainsaws and the thunder of the tree chipper.
But I’m sure the remaining trees will be happy that they’ll now get a decent drink when water restrictions inevitably crank up again once we’re out of this rainy weather pattern.
But back to choosing architects, or other suppliers. You’re often told you should get at least three quotes. It couldn’t be more true.
Once you’ve been visited by the magic three, it’s easy to see who has the best knowledge, could be the nicest to deal with, or provide the better value for money.
Ian Agnew, a manager from the building advisory service Archicentre, which sells the work of architects, says the main thing to look for is someone you can work with.
A lot of people just go for someone whose work they like. “Equally important, if not more important, is their ability to interpret what the brief that you give them is, and … just like any personal relationship, their ability to understand the things that you want,” Agnew says.
“I guess it’s a personality thing, that’s what you’re working with. So there’s a certain element of creative freedom that a lot of architects want and it’s that fine line, isn’t it?”
Agnew has an architect on his list who asks clients all the things they don’t like. “That allows him to cut out all the things he might be thinking about that they actually hate,” he notes.
Agnew says there’s no scientific way to choose the right person for you. But if you like their work, they understood your brief and you feel that you could deal with the person, that’s a good start. “I think there’s a gut element to it,” says Agnew.
Money is an issue that often crops up in relation to architects. Agnew says you need to be open about your budget from the outset.
“Some people think, oh let’s not tell them, let’s see what comes up. Or they might low-ball the architect, saying ‘we’ve only got $100,000′, thinking ‘well it may well go over that, we’ve probably got $200,000 but we don’t want to tell him that because he’ll just spend all the money.'”
Wrong approach, says Agnew. “Let him know what he’s playing with. But also too, that the budget must include his fees.”
Just as dangerous is telling the architect that you have more money to spend than you actually do. That’s bound to end in tears too.
What are your tips for choosing an architect?
Story by Carolyn Boyd, www.domain.com.au