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Using Chief Architect to create 3D renderings of your home is an invaluable tool in the decision-making process. It allows you to visualize your ideas in a realistic setting, helping you understand how different elements—like layouts, materials, and color schemes—will work together before making any commitments. With the ability to explore various design options and see them come to life in a virtual space, you can make more informed choices, avoid costly mistakes, and feel confident in the final design of your home. If you’d like to learn more about our 3D rendering services for a room or your entire home, contact us below. One of the key areas where Chief Architect provided significant assistance was in the lighting design. You can spend about $5,000 to hire a lighting designer but from my experience, it’s not worth it. Especially if they cannot provide you with the 3D renderings to really validate that their lighting design aligns well with your vision. We used Chief Architect to help us place precisely where we wanted each type of lighting fixture to go. One of the issues that arose during the build was that our builder had vaguely listed ’50 recessed lights’ in our specifications sheet. We later found out that this actually referred to wafer lights, which are not the same as traditional recessed lights. We had to carefully consider whether it was worth the cost and effort to challenge the builder, especially since every prior issue had been a struggle. The wafer Read more…

Ah, home style – that elusive concept that’s as personal as your playlist and as unique as your thumbprint. It’s the silent statement about who you are, often expressed through a blend of your own preferences and your partner’s, creating a harmonious mix of architectural styles that tells your shared story. Discovering your home style is not just about finding the right look but it’s about finding what feels like home. For us, this phase took a while. For illustrative purposes, the first image is where we started and the second is where we ended up.

I had always heard that building a custom home is stressful, and my experience unfortunately confirmed this. I did not underestimate the complexities involved in building a custom home and did extensive research on every little aspect of the process, but unfortunately, I still experienced overwhelming amounts of anxiety throughout the project. Despite my efforts to be prepared, unexpected issues kept cropping up, causing delays and added expenses. Even with a reputable builder and draftsman, there were moments when communication broke down and misunderstandings occurred. Through this blog, I hope to share my journey in a way that provides insights and maybe even a few laughs for anyone going through a similar experience. I’ll be sharing our emails and texts from the entire build process, offering a unique perspective that is both transparent and unfiltered—something you don’t often find elsewhere. There was a house in the neighboring community that I fell in love with after driving by it countless times. Eventually, I decided to leave a note in the mailbox asking about their builder. That’s how we ended up choosing the builder we ultimately hired. We later found out that the homeowner, a very nice lady, had minimal interactions with the builder herself. She had hired a design firm to handle every detail, a route we weren’t interested in taking because I had envisioned the design process for so long. It was something I felt confident I could do well and was eager to try myself. Builder: William E. Goode Read more…