The first meeting is important. The purpose of the meeting is to determine the feasibility of your project, define a general scope of work, identify a realistic budget, and determine if Expert Design & Construction is the right firm for you and your project.
One of the first questions you will be asked is, “How long do you plan on living in your home?” Everything hinges on this. If you say five years, then every bit of advice will revolve around resale value, whether it’s the materials you choose, or the extent of the project, with five years or less, it’s all about maximizing resale. If it’s ten years or more, then we start looking at more personalized selections and realize that the timeline allows you to recoup more of your investment.
Next, we discuss your project as you currently see it. You don’t have to have all the details worked out. At this point you are teaching us about your priorities. Do you need more space? A more efficient kitchen? A shower that doesn’t leak? More storage? We need to create a wish list in order of priority.
Then we start to work on higher level solutions. We need a general layout for the kitchen, not the stain color of the cabinets. We can determine where the shower might go, not choose the shower head.
Finally, having created a general scope of work, the estimator will give you a realistic budget range. You can go back and forth on how to get the number to a comfortable neighborhood, but you must find a budget that you are willing to commit to, or you can’t start the formal design process. The first question the designer will ask is, “What budget would you like me to use?” so the first meeting with the estimator should help prepare you to answer that question.
The first meeting is exciting, a little scary, and contains tons of information. Usually, it starts several conversations between the homeowners and launches an armada of ideas. The next step is more tedious, in that you have to choose which firm you are to use, but hopefully the first meeting prepared you for that decision.
