At Architect Office Hours: Mixed Era Houses, Fireplace Style Quandaries and Tackling Big Layout Changes

70 min readReady to Remodel students have the chance to get questions answered – live – every month during our Architect Office Hours. And once in a while, I open up the opportunity to a wider group!

Movies love to show architects creating away at a drafting table or sitting picturesquely at a cafe, sketchbook in hand. It’s romantic, this vision of a endlessly creative mind conjuring beautiful buildings from some eternal, internal well.  But *SPOILER ALERT* no one uses a drafting table anymore (except throwbacks and nostalgia lovers). In fact, I do all my sketching on a tablet.

There is another major element of architecture that is seldom shown in the movies…

An architect spends A LOT of time answering questions.

I answer questions emailed in by my clients almost daily. I answer questions from students in Ready to Remodel every month at office hours. I pick up a few queries from my instagram DMs every week.

And once in a while I hop into a zoom and hold an open office hours for anyone with a question. I held an open office hours just this week…and the questions were fabulous! So, I’m sharing it with you!

Want even more … here’s a snippet of one of my student only calls from several years ago!

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Your remodel should not be a surprise.

21 min readA surprise reveal is a mainstay of remodeling TV shows and it’s basically a jumpscare. Your ideal remodel should include few to no surprises.

Nothing about the final outcome of your remodel should surprise you.

Read that twice.

Now, I do hope that as you live in your transformed home that it is a delight for you and your family. Maybe the changes will have an even greater effect on your life than you expected. That’s great. But the remodel itself … should not be a surprise. 

Why HGTV loves the “surprise reveal.”

Surprise reveals are a mainstay of home and garden media like HGTV because they create drama and suspense.

They allow the designers to build to a big conclusion and show a happy client. Surprises are not good for MCM homeowners in the same way trends are not our friends. 

Continue reading “Your remodel should not be a surprise.”