Flint Architects

To start, a little background about us: I am an insurance executive and my wife is a professor at a local university. The reason you need to know this is that we are honest and credible people who have proven our trustworthiness to get us in the positions we are in today. When we first started working with Flint he advertised himself like “Fixer Upper” where you give him a budget and he handles all aspects of the design and construction, “turn-key” as Flint called it. My wife and I had just gotten engaged and we were looking to put an addition on our house so we could start a family. From the beginning, we told Flint we were in no rush, we were worrying about a wedding and adjusting to married life, but we wanted to get the project going in a year or so. For these services, Flint was to make 10% of the total construction cost. It was verbally agreed upon not to exceed more than 150K, which would be a total cost to Flint for 15K. In the first part of the design process, Flint asked us to write a list of everything we wanted in a house, our “dream list” as he called it. The first meeting we went to, to see the design, we were told that the cost would be 250K (for our dream home). We asked Flint to readjust the drawing to get us to the 150K range. He did this over an eight month period. The new addition ended up being just adding a simple second floor with first floor renovation. Please also note that Flint said he was not a kitchen designer and referred us to have a kitchen expert come up with a design for us and he would add it to the existing plan so that everything was all together. We did this, hired another designer and gave the plans to Flint which he added to the drawing in front of us in about 10 minutes. To be clear, all we were asking for was a second story. While we were working on the drawings my family and I were working on redoing the existing 1st floor. We kept the same footprint just upgraded with updates where needed. Flint assured us the addition would be in right around 150K to complete so we asked him to move forward with the construction drawings. After all of this, Flint supplied us with “preliminary” construction drawings that we were to use to apply to the bank for a loan. Due to several unforeseen circumstances, we were not approved for our 150K loan. We informed Flint that we were not able to obtain financing, and to not do any more work on our drawings. Flint said he was sorry to hear that and he would stop. At that point, we had paid Flint just under 12K for his services. About two months later, we received an email from Flint stating that he received bids back on our project coming 250K to 285K. He indicated he was “cutting us a deal” and only requesting an additional 8K on top of the 12K we already paid him for a total of 20K. He was going to waive the additional 5K (based off of 10% of 250K we should have owed Flint 25K) to try and help us out given our financial situation. At that point, we never discussed the details of what we wanted (ex, floors, windows, furnishings,) and we never received completed, stamped, and approved by the county architectural drawings. Flint refused to answer the phone to discuss. We sent an email to him saying we did not owe that much on a project because we had stopped the process. He replied stated he was sorry about our situation but we still owed that amount of money. About 30 days after this we were served with a collection notice. At that point, we took the half completed drawing we had and tried to get some quotes from some local contractors to compare to what Flint came up with. We received one quote for 135K and another for 185K, the biggest difference in the pricing was due to the types of floors and windows. Also, the two contractors we approached said the drawing were too sloppy to give an accurate quote and the estimates might change. We ended up hiring a lawyer and going to trial on this with Flint. Ultimately, the judge ruled in favor of Flint and we had to pay him an additional 8K. The reasoning was that Flint’s contract was so tight we could not get out of it. For anyone still reading this, PLEASE learn from our mistakes. READ READ READ everything in the contract. Have a lawyer review as well so you are not taken advantage of. This was an expensive life lesson for my wife and me.

Steve Flint and his staff were completely professional through-out the entire process of design and over site of our house addition while it was being built. Steve was completely flexible during the design stage taking suggestions from both owners and general contractors who bid the job. By using an architect we knew upfront what we were getting from both a concept and cost standpoint. Finally, by using Steve we were able to get through the permit process and village inspections rather painlessly and prevented needless time consuming arguments with the contractors since their bids were based on detailed drawings. So if you want to have your project go about as smoothly as it can, use Flint Architects.

We interviewed a number of architects prior to choosing Flint Architects to design our Craftsman style home. We chose Steve, not only because he is a professional with an extensive background, but also because of his friendliness and easy manner. We knew that we would be working closely with him and his team for the better part of a year as our home was designed and built, and we wanted someone who would listen to our ideas and would work well with us and our builder. Steve not only accomplished all of that, he also worked to keep us within our budget, while making suggestions that would improved the overall quality of our home. His ideas were invaluable in creating a beautiful, comfortable home that we will enjoy for many years. We continuously receive compliments on the great curb appeal and beauty of our home. We are delighted to recommend Flint Architects.

Steve Flint and his team designed our new family room and dining room and we couldn't be happier! It looks beautiful! He is very professional, hands-on, open-minded, timely and friendly. It was a pleasure.

The team of Flint Architects, LLC recently provided services for the remodeling of our office space. Not only did they have great suggestions, but they handled every aspect of the project from inception through obtaining the occupancy permit. Steve Flint and his team were easily accessible, accommodating and nothing but professional. I would highly recommend Flint Architects, LLC