Pick the Right Architect
For Your Dream House

Question: We just bought seven acres of land and are looking for an architect. We've interviewed three, and the one we both feel we could work with is a semi-retired gentleman whose experience is primarily with designing churches and public buildings. He has walked our property with us and given us a slide presentation of his work. We love what he's done with churches -- hardwood floors with alternating cherry, walnut and oak planks and some unique majestic windows. We really like this man, but don't want to just hire a nice guy to design our dream home.

One of the other people we interviewed is a busy local architect with experience in residential and Mediterranean-style architecture. He runs a big office and builds 6,000- to 10,000-square-foot houses, so we're afraid that our 3,200-square-foot project would get little attention from him. How important is it to have an architect with lots of residential experience? We have ideas about what we want, but are we barking up the wrong tree? Should we go with someone who has designed lots of homes similar to what we want, even if we don't care for him personally?

Larry: Your situation isn't all that uncommon. In fact, I've been there myself. I went with the commercial architect. The design was beautiful, but the architect also renders the plans, and the plans were up to commercial, not residential, standards. For example, the bolts that hold the mudsill to the foundation in a home often are two to three feet apart. In my home, the plans called for them to be oversize and six inches apart. The builder ignored the unusual requirement, and installed them the old-fashioned way, which was strong enough. But when the building inspector saw that the plans weren't followed to the letter, he closed our site down and insisted that the foundation be re-poured to accommodate the closer bolts. Needless to say, costs skyrocketed.

If you hire the commercial architect, have the plans checked by an architect and engineer familiar with residential building. The initial outlay will be higher, but down the road this could save you a bundle.

Mr. Irwin has more than 25 years' experience as a Los Angeles-area real-estate broker. He is the author of more than two dozen books about real estate and is recognized as one of the most knowledgeable writers in the real-estate field. Mr. Irwin's most recent book is "Tips and Traps When Building Your Own Home," (McGraw-Hill, 2000).

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Larry, Ojai, Calif.

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