This article starts you on the path of developing your "Project Program"
Remodeling - The Very Beginning
This is one of a series of articles intended to help you think about how to design the remodeling of your home. These articles will not remove the need to hire an architect, but they will help you organize your thoughts on your new remodeling project so that you can give your architect specific direction. These articles will also help you understand many the issues involved in the design process. This article starts you on the path of developing your project program.
Successfully designing a home remodel requires a synthesis of:
- personal vision
- needs and desires, and
- constraints
Everything you do while designing the remodel of your home involves integrating, balancing and compromising among these three parameters.
Personal Vision
This is your “big idea”. In a home remodel the first component of this vision is roughly defining the scope of the project. The scope of the project might be to remodel your kitchen. It might be to add a family room to the back of the house. It might be a second story addition to the house and it might be taking a small bungalow and tripling its size. This is quite different from designing a house from scratch where the scope of the project is a whole new house. The scope of a remodel is really the first constraint on your personal vision.
Having said that, even with a kitchen remodel, it’s important to have a big idea. It can be aesthetic or emotional and should be general. For example, I recently had a client whose vision was “To modernize their home – especially the exterior and master bath, and take better advantage of their view”. Another client’s vision was “To take a small bungalow and turn it into a family sized home that was good for entertaining and that maximizes their view”. This is very much like an organization’s mission statement. Architects talk about this as part of the “Project Program”.
When considering your own vision statement imagine all the different ways you think of home. Is home a quite retreat for relaxation and contemplation? Is home a place for entertaining friends and guests? Is home a place for raising a large family through all the cycles of family growth? Is home a place to last two or three years while your family is young? What are the things you think of fondly that you’d like to implement? Jot this stuff down on a piece of paper as you consider what you value.
Next consider the elements of style you’d like to emulate. Do you want to maintain and complement the existing stylistic elements of the house or do you want to change it. Is your preferred style craftsman, contemporary, Italianate? Are you imagining your little bungalow simply becoming a big bungalow or do you see a house that reflects a regional flavor? Do environmental conditions dictate some of the style such as a ski chalet? This can even take a negative form. I have a client that couldn’t articulate a preferred style but knew for sure what they didn’t want.
Are there specific conditions of the site that inform your vision? Perhaps there is a view you want to maximize. Perhaps a beautiful tree or trees that you want to preserve. Perhaps part of your vision involves developing urban wildlife habitat. Think of things associated with your site that might drive what you want to accomplish.
Once you’ve considered these things you probably have a list. The list may be good enough but you might consider distilling that list into a sentence or two. This will be the place you start and will be a tool to use to evaluate your success as the design process unfolds. Periodically through the process ask your self if the design to date reflects your vision. If the design isn’t accomplishing your vision it’s time to stop and realign the design.
Needs & Desires
This is a really big topic and in future articles we’ll have more to say about it in detail. In summary however this is a list of the specifics you want in the house. This makes up another part of what architects call the “Project Program”.
House Size
If you are adding on to your home, how big do you want the house to be? This is a parameter that is partially affected by constraints that we’ll discuss in a future article, such as lot size or construction budget. However it can be a useful starting place. Most people have some idea of how big they’d like their new home to be, if for no other reason than they can compare it to the where they live now and homes they’ve lived in in the past. Generally this is a very rough number and it actually becomes the sum of all of the room sizes.
Living Style
What’s the “living style” of the home? Is it a traditional house with formal and informal living spaces
separated from each other? A
typical
What rooms do you need?
What rooms are absolutely necessary in the house? Answering the “scope” and “living style” questions shake out some of that. If you are adding rooms, which rooms do you need? You’re still left to decide how many bedrooms you need, how many bathrooms and what other auxiliary rooms are necessary. Do you need a den or office? What kind of storage do you need? Are other rooms such as studios or children’s play areas needed?
Next you consider what rooms are not absolutely necessary but that you would still like to have if they can fit within the other controlling constraints. In other words, which rooms are negotiable? Negotiable rooms might be sewing or craft rooms, mud rooms, additional guest rooms, additional closet or storage spaces.
When considering rooms don’t forget outdoor spaces. A great deal of the livability of the house comes from how you use your outdoor space. Out door space can be as simple as a typical deck off a family room or dining room. It might be a covered section adjacent to the kitchen large enough to accommodate a barbecue or it might be a full blown covered room with an out door fireplace and space to eat or lounge and still be out of the weather. We’ll discuss outdoor spaces in greater detail in future articles.
How big are these rooms?
Again, if you’re adding or rearranging room you need to identify the preferred sizes of those rooms. An example could be, “The kids bedrooms should be 12’x12’ or roughly 150 square feet each”. This is your wish list. If every room in your house met these criteria you’d be ecstatic. This is the target that will be used when doing the initial layout.
Next identify the minimum room sizes you are willing to live with. An example could be “all bedrooms must have a minimum dimension of 10’ x12’”. In this step identify the minimum dimensions of each of these rooms. Some rooms might not have a minimum dimension, but most of them should. This will be the non-negotiable fall back position as you lay out the rooms.
It’s also helpful to have an idea of the maximum room sizes you want. Some times the best solution to a given design problem might result in some rooms being larger than your ideal. Knowing how big is too big can be a useful analytical tool.
How many levels?
The final consideration for this stage of the project program is deciding on the number of levels in the house. Are you adding a single story addition to a “rambler” or do you see it as a multi story home. Often the site constraints inform or drive this decision, but it’s a good idea to know what you want.
This is just the beginning stage of the project program. In later articles we’ll consider it room by room and make more specific decisions about what the rooms contain, how they’re configured and what their relationships to each other are.
Constraints
There are three fundamental constraints on the design of a home remodel: budget, the existing structure and the site. The budgetary constraints are obvious and affect some projects more than others. The configuration of the existing structure can drive many of the design decisions. The site constraints have to do with what is possible to actually build on the parcel of land you own. While we’re at it, we’ll assume the laws of physics as constraints as well.
Budget
There are many different ways to ameliorate and manipulate this constraint. We’ll touch on those in detail in a future article. At this point we’ll keep it simpler than it actually is. For most people their principal budgetary issue is how much of a mortgage they can afford, or how much of a mortgage are they willing to pay. So we’ll work backwards from there. For the time being we’ll assume that you have $250,000 to work with which we’ll call your total budget.
The Known Knowns
The purpose for the budget we are developing is to be able to guide design decisions about the house itself, we’ll call this the design budget. Therefore we’ll need to subtract from that total budget all costs not directly related to the design of the home. First subtract the soft costs. In a remodel this is mostly costs associated with getting a construction loan and new mortgage. Some people use the term “soft cost” to refer to things like appliances, floor coverings etc, this is not how I’m using the term. Next subtract the cost of any known assessments. This is especially the case if these costs are large and known. If you have a $20,000 sewer assessment fee that is paid at the time of permit issuance, here’s the place to subtract it from the budget.
The Known Unknowns
Here you have things like consulting fees (architect, engineer etc), and permit fees. Next subtract all costs related to developing the lot. That would include the cost of extensive clearing and grading, costs of demolition, fees associated with utility abandonment and hook ups, septic system design and installation. You should also include something here for unanticipated site costs such as poor soil conditions or problems caused by bad weather. Also include general liability insurance.
What’s left?
What’s left is what you have to spend to pay a contractor to build your house. This should include their profit, overhead and any sales tax. Don’t forget about the sales tax! I’ve seen budgets discussed many times and then had them change because sales tax was not included in the estimating. So if everything above cost 25% of the total budget you have a design budget of $190,000 to remodel the house. In 2008 dollars you should anticipate that it will cost between $100 and $200 per square foot to build a home. The difference between these two numbers is complexity and quality. If you anticipate a budget of $100 per square foot then the design should be very simple and the finishes and fixtures selected should be inexpensive. If you anticipate a complex design with high quality finishes then expect less square footage for your design budget. Lately I’ve been suggesting that clients plan on $135 per square foot. Of course in 2008-2009 there are some real bargains out there and you can probably get more for less.
The Existing Structure
The affect of this constraint actually varies widely depending on the scope of the remodel. Obviously, the less you change the existing structure, the less expensive your remodel is.
Structural Considerations
If you’re adding a simple addition to the side of your house, chances are the adequacy of the existing structure will have little impact on the design. If you open up a large section of previously exterior wall into the addition it will likely require beams or other supports to replace the exterior bearing wall and may require upgrading adjacent walls to support the house in case of an earthquake.
If your plan is to build a 2nd story addition it’s necessary to extend structural support through the first floor into the foundation. The foundation may not be capable of supporting the additional story and may need to be reinforced. There may be existing walls on the 1st floor that could serve as bearing walls, which might be a reason for not eliminating them in the remodel.
Work Demarcation Considerations
There may be significant elements in the existing structure that would be hard to match or replace that might drive some design decisions. For example, an old hardwood floor might be difficult to match so it may make sense to leave walls in place adjacent to the flooring so as to avoid a clear demarcation between new flooring and old. This same sort of thing can be true for distinctive and unique moldings, stone veneers and other finishes worth preserving. If your remodel design involves significant removal of existing walls sometimes the least expensive option is to remove all of the finishes in the house (plaster, sheetrock, flooring) and refinish it from scratch.
Site Constraints
The constraints that a site places on a
map vary widely.
A flat 5 acre parcel that has been fallow pasture land may
have no real constraints at all.
You can add on to your house any where you want
(within setback limits) and perhaps any old design that
meets the program will work.
Although on a parcel like this it’s quite common that
the location of the septic system will exclude some design
options. On the
other hand if you have a 4000 square foot steeply sloping
lot in
In later articles we’ll discuss in detail siting issues using real world examples but for the time being we’ll talk in generalities and assume a typical suburban or in-city infill lot.
Zoning
The first set of constraints you’ll face are
regulatory, that is the zoning (or land use) code’s rules for developing
lots in your zone. These
generally take the form of restrictions on setbacks from property lines,
limitations on height and lot coverage, parking location restrictions
and sometimes limitations on impervious areas. Some municipalities have unique regulations you won’t see
anywhere else. The City of
ECA
Environmentally sensitive areas such as steep
slopes or wetlands (even in the vicinity although not on your property)
impose their own set of restrictions on where or what you can build. I recently designed a massive remodel of a home on a small site
in
Aesthetic
Another set of site constraints are aesthetic. Is there a view you want to take advantage of? How does the direction of that view relate to the street and which rooms should face the view? Perhaps on smaller lots there are privacy issues. Perhaps the neighboring property is unsightly and you don’t want to have to look at it. Perhaps your street is busy and you want to minimize its impact. All of these things go into deciding how to design your remodel.
Conclusion
By now you’re at the beginning stage of knowing everything you need to know to design the remodel of your home. You have a framework for proceeding with the next step of identifying the details of your program and design. You have your vision of the home, you’ve developed a list of your needs and desires, you have a sense of your budget and thus roughly how much house you can afford. You’ve examined your existing structure and your lot and determined how their particular characteristics will shape the design. The next step is to flesh out and add detail to that framework.
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