CA for future home builder/owner

[RMorrison]

Regarding costs, an oldie but goodie: http://www.chieftalk.com/showthread.php?26333 I have a post at #90 that states my opinion regarding architects and costs. However, the whole thread, long as it is, has lots of good information and opinions, and represents this board at its finest.

To Keith. Yes, there are lots of talented architects & designers on this forum. However, the OP was proposing to design the whole thing first, and THEN take it to an architect & engineer. The reason to be discouraging about this is that the OP will end up with something far less wonderful, and likely far less valuable, for the same price than if they had gone to a good professional to start with. This notion that ANYBODY can design well with absolutely no training, just because they have a copy of Chief Architect, carries as much validity as saying that anybody can do accurate medical diagnoses if they have a copy of the The Merck Manuals, or win a legal trial by owning a copy of the Witkin Treatises. Actually, what they can do with Chief Architect is make amateurish mistakes far faster than they ever could before, and then have their neighbors live with the results of their hubris for a very long time.

This is not to suggest that clients shouldn't be actively involved in their projects, but straightening out a client's dysfunctional rat maze after they've slaved over it for a couple of years is extremely difficult. (In fact, one of the big hurdles that beginning architectural students have to get over is the "preciousness" of their first design attempts. Some do this better than others.) Yes, Americans may have the legal right to build an ugly rat maze of their own design, but counseling a complete novice to just "go for it" is ill-advised, IMO.