Q & A: How to Convey Your Ideas to Timber Frame Professionals

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Q: How will I convey my ideas to timber frame professionals?

A: First, organize your ideas. (If you’ve been compiling a notebook of pictures, samples and ideas, now’s the time to pull it out.) Next, evaluate your property and determine which rooms should face the best views, be given prominence or be tucked away for privacy.

Then, sketch your ideas out on a piece of graph paper and give them to your designer or architect. From your rough sketches, he or she will draw a set of preliminary plans that can be used to estimate how much your home will cost (including materials and labor).

At this stage, you’ll want to incorporate any design changes, especially if the plans need to be modified to fit your budget. (You’ll be better off making the changes now rather than during construction when changes can be costly, if not impossible.) Once the preliminary plans meet both your budget and your expectations, your designer drafts the final construction documents. These are the engineered drawings (also called blueprints) that show your timber producer, lender and general contractor how your home will be built.