The Design-Build Process

Step One: Pre-Design

Pre-Design is the thorough and systematic evaluation of the interrelated values, goals, facts, and needs of your family and the layout, design and “feel” of your home. A well-conceived pre-design leads to high-quality set of plans.

Pre-Design is when you’ll meet with the team to discuss all your needs and desires for your new home. During pre-design, the build team will gather information on your unique home ideas. At this time, you as the owner along with the build team and architect will begin to form a cohesive relationship and a shared concept for the final build. Here, the scope, features, purpose, and functionality of your home is defined. Together with the build team and architect, you develop and refine a “vision” for the project. You and the team go through a pre-design meeting to help you explore the needs of those who will live, work or play in the space you create.

You will be asked to consider what you want both aesthetically and functionally of your home. What are the indoor and outdoor space requirements or the likely movements and interactions of those who will be living and visiting your home? The answers to these and other questions will provide insight into uses and living conditions; insights you and the team will use to design a home created specifically for you and your lifestyle.

This is also where the budget for your project will be developed even more thoroughly based on the design choices. It is helpful for you to understand the costs of constructing a custom home can vary depending on the variables of site, size, structure, and specifications.

Step 2: Design 

Once the requirements of the project are determined via the pre-design process, the design phase begins. Your architect gives shape to your vision through drawings. Then the architect provides a preliminary version of the design which helps establish a schedule of construction values. From there additional budget revisions are developed in the pre-design phase and the architect prepares schematic design drawings illustrating the project to review with you and the build team. The designs lay out the proposed plan on the site and address schedule and construction budget requirements. Your input into this phase is vital, as you get the first glimpses, and then a more defined look at how your home will take shape. It is important to establish a clear decision-making process with you and the team during this phase. As you move through the design phase the home becomes more and more defined in scope and scale. Once plans are approved by you, drawings at this stage are usually sufficient to initiate any neighborhood review process. At this point in the process, you will discuss loan costs again with BOC based on the more accurate estimate of construction cost. It would be prudent to start the appraisal based on plans and specs

Step 3: Design Development 

The final design development (DD) is a logical progression of the design with ACC input, selections of finishes (as much as possible) and budgeting. In this phase the architect will translate the final design of a project from the realm of ideas to full set of floorplans ready to be submitted for engineering. DD tasks build on the approved design to reach a level of completeness that allows the project to be built. The design is overlaid with more detailed information obtained from consultants and team members (electrical plans, engineering, cross sections, door and window schedule etc). Throughout DD, it is important to evaluate how systems, material selection, preliminary structure, and detailing reflect the design concept. The design/build team works out engineering issues, while enhancing the project, so that major revisions are not needed during construction documentation or, worse, during construction. At this point,  the team will prepare to scale floor plans and building elevations for initial review and approval. This is an exciting part of the process where dreams get fleshed out into the three-dimensional form of your home. Although your involvement will take time and numerous decisions must be made, working with your build team will be a fun and rewarding experience. You are encouraged to review your plans—to virtually live in them—at different times of day (rings from your coffee mug or wine glass on the plans are welcome). Spending considerable time contemplating your design now, during the early stages of the process, will save time and potential expensive changes later.

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Step 4: Construction Drawings

Continuing the design process, the architect and build team prepares drawings suitable for permit submittal and actual construction which are referred to as construction drawings (CDs). These drawings are an instrument of communicating the project to those who will be involved in the construction of your home; the CDs set the parameters for the building process CDs are produced on a larger scale and describe, in detail, the components of your home that need to be fabricated and assembled for it to be built. Tasks include developing the remaining elevations and finalizing structural analysis as it relates to the architecture. During this phase the build team will interface with consultants (engineering, interior design, plumbing, electrical, lighting, HVAC, etc.) ensuring a complete coordinated set for construction. The design process is a creative problem-solving endeavor that transforms ideas and visions into the 3-dimensional reality of your home; it is an exciting journey.

Step Five: Building your Dream Home

Once the design process is complete and you finalize your loan and close on your new home lot. THEN......You will then be ready to begin building your home! The build team of course will be there throughout the build process managing the construction and after closing for any warranty work. Working with Bellisimo is fun and involves open communication and collaboration between you and the build team.