Questions and answers

We talk about the house, how you use it and what you hope will change. We say plainly whether we are the right firm. If we are, we propose a design agreement. Nothing is signed or charged at the first conversation.

Because they are two different pieces of work. The design agreement has its own scope and its own fee, and it ends with drawings and specifications. The build agreement is written afterward, from those finished drawings, with a price, a schedule and allowances you can read line by line. You can stop between the two.

No. At the end of design you hold the full set of drawings and specifications for your house, and any builder you choose can price them. Most clients stay with us because the people who drew the house are the people who build it, but that is a choice you make with the drawings in your hands.

The design agreement is a fee for a defined scope, agreed in writing before design begins. The build agreement is priced from finished drawings and states the price, the allowances for things you haven't chosen yet and the schedule. We don't give a build price from a conversation or a sketch, because it would be a guess.

Yes. Kamala Choudhury leads the design team, and a licensed architect signs and seals the drawings where Connecticut law requires it. Her license is listed on the licenses page.

Longer than most people expect and shorter than it feels. A kitchen is a matter of weeks. A whole house or an addition is a matter of months, because it includes a survey, concept options, engineering and the drawings the town reviews. We give you the design schedule in the design agreement.

We prepare the drawings and the application, and we deal with the building department. You sign where the town requires the owner's signature. Near the water, or in a historic district, other reviews can apply, and we tell you which during design.

It depends on the work. A kitchen or a bath can usually be built with the house lived in, behind dust walls and a protected route. A whole-house renovation often can't. We plan this during design, so the decision is made on paper, not in week one.

Yes. Federal rules for homes built before 1978 require a renovation firm to be EPA certified and to use lead-safe work practices wherever paint will be disturbed. Our certificate is listed on the licenses page, and we give you the EPA's renovation pamphlet before work begins. Minor repairs under 6 square feet inside or 20 square feet outside are exempt, but window replacement and demolition are always covered.

Your project lead, named in the build agreement. The site superintendent is in the house every working day, and a weekly meeting with you covers what has been decided and what is coming.

It is written down before it is built. A change has a page that says what changes, what it does to the schedule and what it does to the price, and work on it starts once you have signed.

Yes, across Fairfield County and in the Litchfield County hill towns, for homeowners and for second-home owners. The full list is on the service area page. We work in Connecticut only.