Rivera-Petrotta Residence

2,132

Overlooking the majestic Cascade Mountains to the East, as well as Puget Sound, this home’s beauty is complimented by its surroundings. This 2,000 square foot residence is located in Freeland, WA nea...

We believe that every element of a custom home should reflect the way you live...

This belief allows you the freedom to make the choices that will define your home and your lifestyle. If it's your goal to achieve this in your home design, then we invite you to team up with us to develop the home of your dreams.

 

Here at Yonkman Construction we offer a complete home design solution for new homes. By combining our construction expertise with cutting edge Computer Aided Design Software, we provide a dynamic design / build option for developing customized home plans. This powerful combination decreases design cost and increases efficiency during construction - even with highly detailed or customized plans. The result is an outstanding home tailored to fit you and your lifestyle.

 

The first step in custom home design is exploring design concepts and choosing what basic elements will define your custom home. Many times there are property features, budget considerations and personal tastes that will dictate a design concept. Putting together a basic sketch of the rooms and spaces you need and the architectural features you like will begin to form the framework of your custom design. Perhaps you know of an existing home that has features you like - take pictures of it. Many of our clients spend years simply collecting pictures, ideas, and concepts prior to even beginning an actual design. Here are some ideas to help you collect the basic concepts elements of a custom design.

 

 

Getting these items accomplished will be a good start on a custom home design. Typically our clients do have these items together before ever coming to us to formalize their design. This concept process can take some time, but it is worth the effort. Since a custom home should reflect you and your lifestyle, this process is crucial. If during this time you need help or advice, we are more than happy to meet with you and recommend ideas.

 

Once you have your design concept laid out, it is ready to be developed into a working design. At this point we would meet with you and get a feel of your concepts and design goals. More than likely the basic design you've created will need some tweaking as we work out the practical details of room locations, window and door locations, interior fixture locations, stairways, and general roof line design. This process will also take into account the structure from a construction standpoint, streamlining the design for typical truss layouts, window sizes, door sizes and interior fixture layouts to make efficient use of space and money in preparation for actual construction. We call this the Preliminary Design Phase. On average this phase will take the design through several revisions cycles and give you the chance to approve any changes that need to be made in order to refine the design. At the end of the Preliminary Design Phase you should have:

 

 

Also during this time we will discuss project costs. Our goal is to provide you with a realistic estimate of construction costs the very first time we meet together. We feel that being upfront with the costs of construction from the beginning will keep the design on track to meet your budget and guide the design development process. As changes or revision happen during the Preliminary Design Phase, we will keep you updated on how the total cost is affected. This helps avoid having the design expand into an unaffordable project. Therefore, in an effort to present real construction costs, we typically do a preliminary estimate on your project when the Preliminary Plan is complete. This estimate takes into account the actual design towards a total budget that you can afford.

 

When the Preliminary Design Phase is completed the finer details of the project need to be defined. Based on the information we've gathered during the Preliminary Design Phase, we will compile a complete Project Specification for the design. This means defining every detail of the project right down to the color of the door handles. In our experience the more detail we have prior to construction, the quicker the project gets built. Usually this requires many decisions on your part, and some legwork to get out there and see what's available and choose what you want. We feel it is far better to document all of these choices now while there are no construction schedules pressuring your selection process and possibly causing dissatisfaction from hurried decisions.

 

This is a big task, but we have many recommendations, suppliers, outlets, and information to help you choose quality products. We also will monitor the total cost of the project as your "level of finish" becomes apparent through the choices you make during the Specification process. Since the level of finish is such a large part of the overall cost, we will strive to guide your selection process towards the budget goals you've set. Overall, the Specification Package will fill in all the necessary information and smaller details needed for construction but not drafted directly into the blueprints.

 

Once you approve the final Preliminary Design the plan is ready for the Technical Design Phase. This phase will further develop the Preliminary Design into a working drawing ready for permit submittal and construction. Our plans typically include a accurate site plan, foundation plan, foundation details, floor plans, floor and roof framing plans, wall details, multiple building sections, reflected ceiling plan, window and door schedules, soffit details, stair details, exterior elevations, engineering information, and a basic electrical layout. In Island County, we almost always have the plans previewed and approved by a licensed structural engineer. At this time the plan is also checked and double checked for completeness and compliance with building codes. When the Technical Phase is complete your design will be ready to submit for building permit.

 

At this point your custom home design concept has become a full fledged construction blueprint ready for construction. By this time we are very familiar with your plan and have a head start on the construction details. As you move towards actual construction of your home our design staff will work side by side with our Project Managers to make sure that every detail of your design is built just as you described it to us. We feel that the strength and advantage of our design / build services will give you the dream home you always wanted and allow you to save money in the process.

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