The First Bill
I'd love to see the look on Clinton's and Matthew's faces as they realize that I'm writing about their first invoice... Just read right through, guys, and things will be ok.
When one starts talking about building or renovating a house, one's friends, family, acquaintances, and hangers-on get very interested in the financial side of it. How much is your budget? Are you borrowing money to do it? What rate did you get? Once people find out we hired an architect they ask things like - Isn't that expensive? I thought you guys were on a tight budget?
Well, we got the first invoice from our architects about two weeks ago. And we happily wrote the cheque on the weekend. Why do I say happily?
Those of you who know me know that I'm cheap. I don't really like to pay for things we don't need - heck, I don't even like paying for some things we do need! Do we really need orange juice? Some would say that we then fit the profile of people who would go down the road of the generic design build - thought to be the cheap solution for a new house. The problem is, I don't think that's the best financial decision. Vancouver is full of evidence that it's not the right design decision - there's no shortage of half-baked design-build houses littering our streets. But financially, it's a more complicated story. Why do we have to build a cookie-cutter, inefficient, mediocre house just because we're on a budget? Why not pay somebody smart (Measured) to create a cost-effective design (to reduce construction costs), an energy efficient design (to reduce operating costs), and a livable, beautiful design (so we never want/need to move)? It seems to me that building is complicated and the best time to bring in people who understand design, building construction, and building science, is up front in the process.
My expectation - yes, I have high expectations for this house - is that Clinton, Matthew, and their crew are going to give us a great house that fits inside our budget. Are we willing to make compromises to do this? Absolutely. I'm much more comfortable paying someone a bit up front to give us the tools to keep construction and operating costs to a minimum. In return, we're looking forward to an interesting building with a great interior plan that is as easy on the planet as we can make it. It can be done, we're going to do it, and yes, it means we have to pay for it. And that's ok with us.
