I have seen people plan for years, and some plan for days. To many people, houses, how they are constructed, and finishes simply are not that important. I think 'most' people I've met, however, take about a year. Maybe 6 months or so just kind of familiarizing themselves with the idea and some general knowledge, than another 6 getting into more detail about specifics.

Might depend on the area. Where I used to live there were many firms that provided the kind of service your work friend described. I actually looked for that kind of service here. I did extensive research looking but evidently they don't do it that way here. Too bad...because its a good compromise.

We tried to gain as much knowledge as possible. We had our land for 2 years before we decided what to build on it. Took us a coupleonths to select the architect.

Good luck!

"... I wonder if anybody became a PhD in every aspect of home building. :)...?"

That would be an architect! :-)

I hear architects do not think about cost of construction and practicality. From the new buildings going up I believe it. Too many breaks in wall and windows, too many windows and doors, too much wasted space... Makes one wonder.

We're moving at warp speed, IMO, considering we're doing a custom home, and by that I don't mean choosing finishes. But I think we're the exception and came into this process with the PhD in MOST aspects of home building since my husband is an engineer and his business has been residential engineering, construction, remodeling and repair for 25 years. We do research new materials and talk to others in the industry but we have those connections already and follow the leads from people we know and trust.

We interviewed the architect we're working with on May 11th and although we did interview 2 others we knew from that initial meeting we'd 'found our guy' but we hadn't closed on the property yet. When we did, we met at the property and had our first design meeting June 24th. Just came from an impromptu meeting and we'll have papers to submit for permits in a few days, so under 3 months from bubbles to prints. We had the big elements of our floor plan and design nailed down within a few weeks and have been fine tuning ever since but compared to design process horror stories I've read here, this seems pretty quick to me. But then we spend our evenings tweaking the plan on our own, my husband draws up foundation details, we go to the site to measure and stake corners, driveway curves, etc then email everything to our architect. I check with him to make sure we're not *those clients* who are a PITA and that we're not overstepping - it feels like a dream team.

I posted a typical process of mine here a few months back. Not my first post in this thread but the one 11 down with all the photos. http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/3178541/question-for-architectrunnerguy-or-others?n=24

From the initial design meeting (pictured) it was 37 days from a blank sheet of paper and zero design to completed permit and construction docs.

Your friend is buying a new house, that is very different from building a custom home.

We're intentionally moving slowly -- don't plan on breaking ground until next summer at the earliest and probably spring of 2017. So we're still preconstruction. Right now working with architect, hope to have some revised plans tomorrow morning. We were very pleased with the 1st set of preliminary plans, but not so much the second set of revisions. Part of this is that we're not local yet and sent him a detailed set of revisions (both in a numbered narrative and in a marked up plan), mostly in the important tweak category -- I.e. Enlarge a six ft wide walk-in to at least 7' to allow hanging on both sides, move a bathroom door, etc. there were probably about 20 revisions at this level and about four larger revisions larger revisions. He nailed the big stuff although in so doing lost (unnecessarily) parts we liked (he is in the process of fixing that), but it was as if we had never mentioned many of the smaller issues. I still like him very much, but I think his style is better suited for sitting across the table because when we did meet with him this week all of the tweaks seemed workable to him -- now he just has to go back and do it -- this could have been avoided had he read and studied the revision list.

Other than that, we have a couple of very preliminary interviews with contractors set for tomorrow and have begun sourcing materials.

One fun thing I am doing is starting a "Hope Chest" for the new house. So far I've been picking up kitchen stuff along -like Le Crueset pieces and cookware, RH bath towels, kitchen aid mixer, even little stuff like tea towels and cookie sheets (Iwill move very little of my tired stuff). As soon as we get a bit further in the process, I'll probably start adding things like a chandelier and the more special light fixtures.

We just passed the 13th month mark since we officially started the process, meaning the first meeting with the architect. Before that there was a lot of thinking and list making of desires, wants and have to's.

We are supposed to be finished Spring 2016.

I think it can go as quickly or as slowly as you'd like! We chose our builder in April, and it's September and we haven't broken ground yet. While we could have just chosen one of the "out of the box" homes the builder offered, we looked at building as an opportunity to create our perfect home and have spent a lot (and I mean a LOT) of time pouring over the original plan and adjusting it to meet our needs and wants. We thought about what our main priorities are or will be in the future (kids, family gatherings, entertaining friends) and started altering the original plan from there. If we would have just picked the model we liked and left it as is, we probably would have started digging in July after buying our lot. However, we have taken our time to make sure we do our due diligence since we hope to make this our forever home. We're just now putting the finishing touches on after around four iterations, and are very excited to dig in October. Our home should be finished in April and we'll be able to sleep easy knowing we took a lot of time to plan it out and think about all aspects of the design in relation to our lifestyle. In the grand scheme of things, a few months is totally worth the wait. It's a process for sure! You can check out our home building adventures thus far here on my blog: https://loeschhomestead.wordpress.com/.

A house can go up pretty fast, especially developers' houses, where the crews build the same house over and over. Some builders offer 'customized plans' -- a few tweaks here and there. A developer often has a small range of possible tiles, carpeting, fixtures, paint etc. The less expensive choices may be included in the price of the house; others may be available for an upcharge. This kind of building is mostly 'off the rack' buying...easy.

I'd say that Bri's project is about as far to the opposite end of this scale as you can go! (Enjoyed reading about the 'unwed woman' who previously owned the site. Odd phrasing, avoiding the normal "spinster" or even older use, "relict".)

Haha chisue, my husband found a couple of listings that labeled women as "spinsters." Such a different time! Yes, we are probably an exception. We went about as custom as you can go with a builder who isn't specifically a custom builder. They have been so wonderful and accommodating! Our sales rep hardly flinches when we pitch our latest and greatest. :) It definitely would have been easier, faster and less expensive to go the out-of-the-box route, but... what's the fun in that! We've put a lot of thought into every detail since we plan to spend a lot of time in this home, hope to raise a family there, and love to entertain.

A lot depends upon the project. We bought our land in 2006, and spent about 5-6 years planning and designing. We have a unique property, and did all of the designing and construction ourselves. Here, some 9 years later, we are wrapping up construction! By contrast, friends of ours bought a lot, and are having a stock modular put on it. Probably 3-4 months, total.

Ours is our first and last (hopefully) new house, and is completely custom. I had the luxury of living on-site in the barn for a year before orienting the house just so. Now in our 60's, I refer to this as our 'last great adventure'. We are paying for everything out of pocket, so every dollar has to count. Our method certainly isn't efficient, but it is something I have wanted to do my whole life.

Oh I beg to differ, mushcreek. I think what you're doing is very efficient. It may not be fast, but it is an efficient use of financial resources, talents and materials.

Of course this is not an unbiased opinion because we are about to embark on a similar journey and fulfill my husbands life long goal of building.

It's funny how some people have these life-long goals they carry around. I once told a friend that I was going to build a decorative bridge, and he positively LIT UP! He had a book on bridge building, and couldn't get enough of it. He hadn't (and still hasn't) built his bridge yet, but I believe he will some day.

So nice to hear different stories and approaches along with the reasoning behind the decisions. Thanks for sharing!

I think the time table for planning depends a lot on the amount of customization. the more you learn the more new cool stuff you incorporate into your new home, or see different ways to do it that appeal to you so you take the time to research it so you get it done right. Or you just pick option A or B and trust them to do it their way- which is much faster.

If I ever get the chance I'm gonna research like crazy and build it how I want it built but..... in our city you have ONE way of purchasing a new built home, and yep I said buying not building. Step 1 pick your neighborhood, there are about 8 going up right now two with shared driveways and I think all but 3 with HOAs, Step 2 pick your floor plan which can also be picking your elevation (out of 3) if you aren't picky on which lot you get, Step 3 make your finish selections from a single page of options, Step 4 get in line for your phase to get built out. All these home are between 2500 and 4000 sqft and on lots from 6000 to 10000 sqft and range from 400K to 800K and mostly code minimum built, you get no changes to the plan at all i.e. want custom closets? you have to wait til closing, rip out the stuff they put in and have them installed, want a tile backsplash vs. the 4 inch granite? rip out and redo.

They are perfect for first time buyers who have no idea of their wants or needs but for anyone else they are a series of compromises not in your favor.

For my husband and I we started looking at older homes in the area last Sept., took only a few weeks to realize we wanted to build new, another few months to figure out that we're not the type that can just go with the typical spec home. We chose a design-build firm in November, met with an architect in December to modify a plan that we sort of liked, and closed on a lot in Jan.

Then we made all our tentative selections for allowance items and had them priced out, which added about $30k to the contract price.It took about 3 months to get enough of an idea of allowances that we felt comfortable signing our contract (during this time I also redesigned the front elevation and the kitchen layout). That said, I probably spent 40 hrs a week doing research and planning our house during that time. Most of this was finding the things we had in our heads, trying to find/draw pictures for subs, and doing historical research, as we wanted to give the house a fairly authentic early 1800's feel, while not losing all of the things we love about new builds, and keeping the project remotely affordable. I've done pretty much all the design work since we just went with a design/build firm. They're one of the more detail-oriented in the area, but not enough so for us. Next time we would probably just hire an architect to manage the entire project. It would be a lot less stressful.

We've also changed quite a bit as the build has progressed, and we get a more coherent vision of the house, and a better idea of standard specs in the midwest (we're not from around here and that has made things interesting). That added another $30k or so to the project, but we easily could have added another $100+. Most of these changes were on non-allowance items, like mouldings...actually pretty much all of them were architectural details. That seems to be the expensive stuff: detail and anything not made of plastic or mdf. Combine a love of well-proportioned details and natural material, and costs jump up pretty quickly. Be prepared.

I found that a lot of our subs didn't want to get into much detail with us until there was a hole in the ground. And I think with good reason. There are some things you just can't fully plan until you're almost ready for them to go in. And some things, no matter how much planning you do, won't go the way you want. Word of advice: don't feel bad about changing your mind! After all, you're the one funding the project.

One of the most helpful questions for our subs was "If we do it this way, how hard is it to change it to another way in the future, and how will doing it this way limit our choices?" We were really surprised sometimes at how easy some things were to add or change later, and what things really needed to happen at build time for them to be worth doing.

We're in the home stretch now as flooring is in and cabinets are being installed. Just picked out our slabs of marble for our countertops today. We don't really expect anything new from here on out. We also are leaving a few things to do later on, like finishing landscaping and closet shelving, so we have a better idea of what we want. Now I stop by the house a few times a week, just to see how things are going, but mostly to just jump up and down and be excited.

All this being said, I'm the kind of monster that will spend an entire day drafting 15 scale drawings of potential kitchen cabinet layouts so my husband and I can choose one when he gets home from work and send it to our carpenter. We're also really decisive people who already had a pretty clear idea of what we like, how we live, and our priorities. The hardest part was finding what we wanted given our resources.

I think for most people, if you really want to be able to specify all the little details and don't have an architect that can do that for you, you'll want to give yourself a lot of time and really think hard about how you live, and how you want your home to feel. On the other hand, if you don't really care about the little things, you might not need much time to plan things out at all. Like your friend, you could make all your choices for finishings in a week and be done with it. It took us over a month just to find tile that we liked. Either way, do go into it having thought about your home enough that you know where you fall on that spectrum.

Also, sorry for the essay.