Well...Worthy should be along soon. :-)

I know I get a little nervous when my client is building their own home; I never really know their capabilities. Usually I know the builder or the potential builders and know their limits. There may be a need for highly detailed drawings. Sometimes I wear a hardhat during the production of the construction documents.

The homes I've built as a licensed builder were based on subdivision floorplans and elevations, so architects never entered the picture. Just used architectural technologists, a specialty evidently unknown in the US.

I'm currently using an architectural firm for a "from scratch" project to create the floorplans and elevations. I will supervise the actual construction. However, the firm would have overseen every aspect of the build, including interior design, if I had wanted them to. From the couple moneysaving trade references they have so far given me, this firm clearly knows the market, not just the art of design. But that's not always the case.

Many people who self-build have no idea what they're getting into. They often figure because they're entrepreneurs or managers or, worst of all, multi-degreed "professionals", that building is a simple matter. "What can't I do that these blue-collars schleps can?"

Good luck to you!

Thanks for the feedback. We appointed a company that does turnkey projects which includes construction, finding vendors/suppliers and they come with an outsourced artchitrctural firm. Our research before appointing showed that they are an established and reputable company. We are now on the 4th edit of the architects plans before we go into costing and selecting kitchen suppliers etc. I found though that the actual structural design of the house was 90% driven by our ideas with the architect putting our thoughts on paper and doing the elevations. My expectation was that he would have more input into design and take our ideas a step further. As this is our first project I was curious to know what value others experienced from the architect they appointed.

Thanks for the feedback. We appointed a company that does turnkey projects which includes construction, finding vendors/suppliers and they come with an outsourced artchitrctural firm. Our research before appointing showed that they are an established and reputable company. We are now on the 4th edit of the architects plans before we go into costing and selecting kitchen suppliers etc. I found though that the actual structural design of the house was 90% driven by our ideas with the architect putting our thoughts on paper and doing the elevations. My expectation was that he would have more input into design and take our ideas a step further. As this is our first project I was curious to know what value others experienced from the architect they appointed.

Are you sure you are working with an actual architect and not a draftsman? Your description of the process sounds like you are working with a draftsman.

@denita he's actually a senior architect, we met the team and they have draughtsman working for them. Maybe I just used the wrong terminology.

Is he a licensed architect?

And he is not working for you he is working for the turn-key builder, big differernce. The signature on the bottom of HIS check is the one he answers to.

Here is a pic of the OP's Master Suite:

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/master-bedroom-dilemma-dsvw-vd~5516870

I take it this project is not going to be constructed in the US.

The disconnect you are sensing lies within Millworkman's comment.

The construction company has created a reputable reputation by creating a fairly workable/linear/repeatable process.

The architect likewise wants to please you simultaneously with continuing to please the contractor. I don't see anything wrong with any of this, but it doesn't lend to the creative side of the process. At every point that a more creative expansion of your ideas unfolded it would run the risks of higher costs to the contractor and unhappiness on your part.

If I were you, I bet you could communicate your concerns to both the architect and the contractor. Most architects would much prefer to be given more creativity even if it means slightly less profit. It might be a harder sell for the contractor, but I bet they'll agree to more creativity if they are really as well-respected as you've said (often times with contractors they push back against things they haven't done prior (because it will mean they have to think through things more and likely will cost more), but once they've actually done it those are the images that show up front and center on their websites).

Good luck!

We did ours last year. Architect designed custom home, my DH was the GC. We gave the architect no previous plans or layouts. He walked our site, toured our existing home and made note of what we liked and didn't like about the current house, toured the neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods to get a sense of what style of homes we liked. We gave him a list of 'must haves'. Ex. mudroom with access to the backyard, open layout, master on 1st floor, lots of south facing windows, etc. He did the rest. Really only went through 3 major iterations of the design, and then about 6 months worth of smaller iterations after that tweaking things like fireplace location, kitchen layout, door swings and sizes, porch size, etc.

He gave us a detailed set of construction docs that were fully dimensioned, electrical plan, foundation plan (that we subsequently had a structural engineer look at also and create a more detailed plan), roof plan, all elevations that called out material choices and sizes (ex, trim), and a site plan. That was all we needed for permitting and for the construction crews. He came out twice during the build to answer one question we had and the second just to view progress on his own. We did not rely on him much during construction at all, but that was by choice. He gave us a 'friend' price, so we didn't want to over extend unless absolutely necessary. And honestly, his drawings pretty much covered everything. My DH is also fairly experienced with home renovations and builds and we knew a lot of the subs before entering the project so it wasn't as daunting.

We had a neighbor do a custom house a couple of years earlier and their architect was involved from the beginning to picking out furnishings. So a much more involved process on their end.