This is the DIY history of the house that won’t get finished. Chapter links at bottom of the page.
Stories of the daily challenges of DIY home maintenance are in DIY projects.
Years ago I read about an architect being sentenced for “breaking into the office of a rival architect to steal client records…” Police found the perpetrating architect and another architect, presumably the theft victim, wrestling on the ground at 6:45 a.m. Now that’s passion for your work.
Does hiring an architect void any claim to do-it-yourself homebuilding? I don’t know, maybe. But I have consulted with a few architects, and hired a couple, and feel my DIY homebuilding has been the better for it.
There was a time in my life – maybe fourth grade – when I thought I’d like to be an architect. I occasionally labored over plans for additions to my parent’s house, which always included an amazingly large bedroom for me and a swimming pool.
The brick fort, the highlight of my architecture career. See My Architecture “Career.”
Our first plans
I scribbled the plans for first addition to This House on two sheets of graph paper, and it worked quite well. The addition was essentially a rectangular box, and the city building department was more relaxed in those days.
Architecture school “intern”
When it came time for the next phase addition, we realized that we could make or break the visual appeal of the house and the practicality of the two rooms we proposed to add. But we still didn’t have much money. So I discovered the University of Colorado’s architecture school hired out master’s students.
Not only did our “intern” do a good design job for a low price, but he had spent years as a ski bum, paying his way in the summer as a carpenter. So, he gave us the plans and we hired him to supervise the construction. He was willing to take me on as his only helper, which preserved my DIY pride, kind of, and further reduced the costs.
Working with an architect
We gave over the shell (just the shell!) of our third phase addition to a contractor who introduced us to a couple of what he described as “hungry” architects. This contractor insisted on coming to our first meeting with these architects to, as he put it, “make sure they don’t sell you on the idea of glass block walls or Greek god statues.”
So my final advice on architects is to have a pretty good idea what you want before you turn anything over. This gives the architect a sense of direction to match with your personality, budget, and practicality.