Your on a budget and have never done this scope of remodeling before. You've done some work on your home, but it's only been handy man type stuff. You know what you like, but have absolutely no idea how to go about doing it. Let me help you here, with a few ideas and you will see the benefits of hiring a professional team.

This is where a professional design build contractor comes into play. In a design build process, you will be working with a team of professionals who will work with your budget, listen to what it is you are looking for in your renovation. This team will consist of a design team who will work closely with the permit specialist, estimators, managers and all other professionals involved. This team of professionals will keep the project on target and on time. We start with a set of drawings designed for your renovation. That is specific to your ideas and dreams of what you want.

The process has four stages: Schematic Design starts with the physical conditions of your house, your goals, needs and the development the design while working closely with you. The computer generated design is also part of this phase. When your approval has been given on the design and the cost then the next is the design development.

If done successfully, design build remodeling allows for cost effective custom designs with shorter project durations than that of the typical general contracting approach. This generally translates into a cost savings for clients; sometimes significant ones.

Many of today's design build firms complement their construction with full service design departments. Whether done completely in house or portions subcontracted out, this concept puts clients at ease since the design build firm is totally in charge managing the entire process.

If they ever sign-up again for a large, complicated construction project, most do it very differently the second or third time around. Some don't ever do one again, going out of there way to avoid needing to, which I wish wasn't so, as it hurts all of us in the industry. For those of you out there trying to sell existing homes in great condition during this difficult national real estate market, this probably works at least a little bit to your advantage. Since I occasionally sell a house, but work on them every day for a living, you can see why I'm sad about people having this kind of experience.