by Phil Thibault

So, you want to start your project, be it minor remodel, major renovation, or new construction.

Most residential clients’ first question is “where do we start.” This is often followed by the statement of ”never having worked with an architect before.” I dare say that most people have never collaborated with an architect before. It should be pleasant and pleasurable. Who else can you discuss your dreams and future life with that wants you to achieve success?

The American Institute of Architects, a professional organization established by architects, provides information and pamphlets for the public on residential projects. One is “25 Questions to Ask an Architect”. There are publications that refer to a list of questions an architect will ask you about your project. I have asked them. There is one question that is not on any list for architects, that I ask most perspective clients. Clients do not know how to answer this one question. It is probably because they have never asked themselves the question.

“Is this an investment or a lifestyle?”

This is a question that I heard from a financial advisor regarding the purchase of real estate. He went on further to state that all real estate is only an investment.

I can relate to that. My father’s home was his castle. Nothing could pry him from his beloved home. He built it, raised his family there, grew old there with my mother, and as life would have it, he passed away there, in the comfort of his family and friends. This was his lifestyle choice. When my mother passed it became an investment choice for the three children they left behind.

Sure, there are a host of questions that work around the periphery. What is your budget? What types of materials do you wish to use? Are you interested in green building? Are you growing a family or aging in place? Etc., etc., etc.… All legitimate questions to be answered.

“Is this a lifestyle or an investment?” gets to the heart of why you are undertaking this project.

I explain the difference to the client as the investment is a business transaction. If someone offers you more than the value of your current home to convince you to move out, do you sell it? My father’s answer was no. If your answer is no, you have a lifestyle. The next question should be are you living as you really want.

A client who comes to me with a summer cottage project, a second home, will most often want all the trappings of luxury they can add to the new home: full walk-in shower, full walk-in closets, theater style family rooms, and gourmet kitchens.

Compare this to their current home: smaller eat in kitchen, smaller bathroom with tub, standard reach in closets. We lead ourselves to believe that our primary homes are less important than our vacation houses. Nothing should be further from the truth. When the economy gets rough, which one will you sell first.

Our primary homes should be designed as a lifestyle if that is the answer we gave. The predominance of our time privately, with family, and publicly will be spent in these homes. This is where we need happiness, joy, and contentment in a structure that enhances those same feelings.

Let’s not confuse our choice of lifestyle as being an opulent expensive choice either. Simple choices of materials that are affordable to the client can still achieve the comforts granted to a lifestyle.

I have seen too many clients that are house poor by their choices. The purchase of a house as a status symbol, too large for their use. So large in fact that there are empty rooms void of furniture. Why buy space to grow into when we should be building the space to live in. The future will have its time and it can be dealt with then. A lifestyle can and should design itself to what you need.

An architect is there to guide you through your thoughts and build them in realty. I would add them to the list of people you should never lie to. Theirs is an expertise to achieve the near impossible and whenever the impossible.

To my father, a masonry contractor, who always kidded me that an architect is someone who tries to put twenty pounds of crap in a five-pound bag, I would always respond;

“That’s what I get paid to do, and I can usually get it to fit.”