Drawn Twice, Measured Twice, Built Once
You got a quote, and now someone is telling you there’s a design phase before the real work starts. Is that a real step, or just a fee with a nice name?
In this post, you’ll learn what the design phase covers, what the discovery call decides, why we scan your Oconomowoc home twice, how your plans get drawn and approved, and why our trades don’t price your job until you’ve signed off on the drawings.
What Happens During the Design Phase of a Remodel?
The design phase turns your idea into a plan a crew can build from.
With Build It Right Remodeling, it runs 3 weeks to 2 months and moves in order: a discovery call, an on-site walkthrough with a preliminary scan, a signed design agreement, a hard-depth scan of your space, as-built and proposed 2D floor plans, 3D renderings and elevations, your approval, then a trade walkthrough that prices the work before you ever see a proposal.
What the Design Phase Actually Covers
Design is everything between your first phone call and the first swing of a hammer.
It ends with a document set and a number, not a vibe.
Here’s what you get in the Plans and Proposal Package:
- 2D drawings and layout plans.
- 3D digital renderings built in Chief Architect.
- Elevation views and cabinet layouts.
- An electrical plan with lighting placement.
- A detailed proposal with material selections and allowances.
The design fee is 3% of the high end of your estimated project budget. For most of our projects, that works out to somewhere between $800 and $8,000.”
Most of it takes 3 weeks to 2 months.
A bathroom refresh doesn’t take as long as a main level where walls are coming out.
The Discovery Call and What It Decides
The 30-minute discovery call determines whether your project and our shop are a good fit before either of us spends an afternoon standing in your kitchen.
Before it, you receive an automated email with a 60-second video of Brian, the owner, explaining what to expect, a welcome PDF outlining our process, and a calendar link to choose a time.
On the call itself, we qualify on scope, timeline, location, budget range, whether a designer is involved, and whether your home value and your project line up.
Same day, you get a recap email with next steps and a link to book the on-site meeting.
Why We Scan Your Space Twice
We scan your space the first time to narrow the initial budget range, and again to give us the measurements we need to create accurate drawings and renderings for the design phase.
The first one happens at that on-site walkthrough.
We run a preliminary scan with RENDR to gauge scope, which is what lets us tighten a wide budget range into a real one while we’re standing in the room with you.
The second one happens after you sign the design agreement, and it’s the one the drawings get built from.
We come back and run a hard-depth scan of the space to 1/8 inch.
The as-built and proposed 2D plans are generated in Chief Architect before any rendering work starts.
From 2D Floor Plans to a Room You Can Walk Through.
Your plans get drawn in a fixed order.
First, the as-built 2D plan: what’s there right now, to the eighth of an inch.
Then the proposed 2D plan: what we’re suggesting instead, walls moved, island in, peninsula gone.
Then, 3D renderings and elevations for the key areas, so you’re looking at cabinet heights and sightlines instead of lines on paper.
On certain projects, Brian builds a walkthrough rendering in Chief Architect so you can move through the space before it exists.
You can see where those plans led in our lake home kitchen remodel in Oconomowoc.
How Many Rounds of Revisions Do You Get
You get as many rounds of revisions as you need.
We go back and forth on the details together until it’s right.
The reason we can work that way is that Brian is the one drawing.
There’s no design department to route a change through and no separate drafter to re-brief, so a revision costs time and nothing else.
We want to get it right during design because moving a kitchen island in Chief Architect is a Tuesday. Moving it after the drywall is up is a change order with a whole process around it.
That is why we move walls on a screen first when you plan an Oconomowoc kitchen remodel.
The Trade Walkthrough That Happens Before Pricing
Your job is priced by the people who’ll actually do the work, based on plans you already approved.
While you’re out making selections, the plumber, the electrician, the HVAC guy, and the demo crew walk through your house together.
They provide pricing based on the approved drawings.
Then we write the proposal with your selections, your allowances, and a rough construction timeline.
Two things come out of this walk:
- They catch each other’s scheduling conflicts while the calendar is still easy to move, instead of during construction when it isn’t.
- They give us real numbers instead of estimates, which is what lets us write a fixed contract rather than a range.
The exception to the locked price is changes you ask for after signing. Those typically run 10 to 15% above the base contract, and we’ll tell you what one costs before you decide.
What to Ask a Remodeler About Their Design Process
Ask these 5 questions, whether you’re talking to us or to somebody in Delafield:
- Who draws the plans, and will that same person be on site during the build?
- When do your trades price the job, before I sign or after?
- Do my material selections get reflected in the construction drawings, or are the drawings done before I choose?
Who draws the plans, and will that same person be on site during the build?
Brian does both.
He sits at your kitchen table for the first conversation, runs the scan, and builds your floor plans, elevations, and 3D renderings himself in Chief Architect.
He’s also on-site nearly every day to make sure what’s being built is according to plan.
The other way: you meet a salesperson, a drafter you never meet draws the plans, and a project manager who wasn’t in either room builds it. Every intention behind a drawing has to survive two handoffs to reach the carpenter. What doesn’t survive shows up as a change order, or as a finished detail that isn’t what you pictured and nobody can explain why.
When do your trades price the job, before I sign or after?
Our trades price the job before you sign, and from plans you’ve already approved.
Once your design is done, the plumber, the electrician, the HVAC crew, and the demo team walk your house together and price the actual drawings. Then we write the final proposal with your selections, allowances, and a construction timeline.
You see a real number before you sign anything.
The other way: the contractor prices from a walkthrough, you sign, and the trades see your house for the first time on the day they start. Now their numbers come in, and they don’t match. That gap becomes your change order.
Do my material selections get reflected in the construction drawings, or are the drawings done before I choose?
You approve the layout before you pick a single finish.
Then Brian sends those plans to the supply houses, so when you walk in they already know your countertop square footage, where the backsplash goes, and what the trades are working from.
The other way: you spec cabinets and a countertop off a rough measurement, then the layout shifts and the order no longer fits the room.
The Plan You Approve Is the Plan We Build | Build It Right Remodeling
The short version: the design phase is when your layout is finalized, real numbers are settled, and none of it is guesswork once the plans are approved. You’ll know what your remodel will look like and how much it will cost before anyone opens a wall.
If you’re thinking through a kitchen, a first floor, or a basement project, fill out our contact form or give us a call today.
