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[quote=Anonymous]OP here--a few other details from the early stage of the process.  Besides the builder (more on finding them later), we needed an architect and an engineer.

We found an architect concurrently at the time we found the lot.  And the architect gave us recommendations on engineers (builders are also a good source of recommendations on engineers).

We love our architect and discovered her because we went to an open house for a new build, and while the home itself was larger than we wanted, we immediately liked the design and overall flow of the house.

The firm is Upton architecture and Margaret (the owner) runs it out of her home (no fancy office space, meaning less overhead), and she employs a team of architects that specialize in different areas 'as needed'.  As mentioned, we wanted a design to accommodate a disabled family member, and she was fantastic on this.  She also designed with an eye on our overall budget.  I cannot overstate how important it has turned out that everyone is in alignment on budget.  There are a lot of choices that can increase or lower the cost of the build that are inherent in the plans themselves.

Architects will generally bill as a flat fee, percentage of the project, OR will bill by the hour. Upton will do either. We chose hourly--which works well in the following situations:

1.  Homeowner not necessarily starting the design from 'nothing' (we used the floorplan she'd already designed as our jumping off point and had been researching for a while and knew what we wanted) Ours was 2,000 sq feet smaller, but a very similar layout.

2. Homeowner is decisive and after the 'upfront' investment in time of meeting with the architect is done and the plans are substantially finished, doesn't make a hundred additional changes. I'd estimate we met about 5-6 times in person, for 30 min-1 hour each time.  After that, changes made were small and/or part of the permitting process and were achieved via emails or short phone calls.

For a set of architectural plans, as well as the additional plans for lighting, electrical ,etc, and including multiple sets for the permitting process, cost for the architect was 18K.  **This can and will go up (a bit) by the time the home is done by having the architect weigh in on the 'guts' of the house, like our roof trusses.  Our architect can do more, like taking care of everything from lighting fixtures to tile selections, though we're choosing to work mainly with vendors our builder recommends on these.

Next up, I'll talk engineering and permitting.  We ran into issues at this stage--it was quite a stupid process.  Y'all will have to take my word that I'm a civic minded, law-abiding person.  And by the time we were through, it had me wondering who I needed to bribe, or kill, to get it all done. Will  check in, in a few weeks with the next installment.[/quote]

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