When we bought this house, we knew that it needed a huge overhaul to help get it into the 21st century. We also knew we would need help doing this. Which meant finding architectural or structural engineering help. Doing this we had some misses, unfortunately. This is why we’re now 18 months into living here, where we (somewhat optimistically, I’ll admit) had expected to be done with the renovation, and it’s still the same as when we first moved here.
Our renovation wishes
Once we had reached an agreement to buy the house, we were in the phase of waiting until the moment we could move into the new home. We wanted to hit the ground running, so at this time we went searching for an architect to help us envision the new house. We had a few demands:
- Adding an extension to the house to connect the main building with the garage
- Creating a bathroom upstairs
- Adjusting the steepness of the stairs
- If possible: keeping three bedrooms upstairs
- If possible: keeping a fireplace
- Isolating everything, bringing the house up to energy label B
- Going as energy neutral as possible
- Making the kitchen larger
- Creating a better view of the back exterior
Current floor plan
Currently, the house has a typical Dutch thirties floor plan. A house where the toilet and a washroom have been added to the house in later times. Usually, they just added an extension at ground level and placed these amenities in there. And that’s exactly what was done here, an extension was added to the back of the house solely for the ground level. The amenities were given a space and the rest was turned into a kitchen. When they built this extension, however, they built it at a different ground height, which means that we have to take a couple of steps down to get into the kitchen. The extended part was stuccoed white, as opposed to the rest of the house, which is in red brick. The exterior as seen from the back looks atrocious.
Heating
Now, the way this place is heated is ancient. You see, there’s a mother hearth in the living room running on gas. Originally that was the only source of heat. In later times, radiators were installed in all rooms, and this system was attached to the hearth. This was not done correctly, however, which means that in winter it’s hard to heat the whole house. Not even taking the non-existent isolation into account. All this means, we decided to use the extra room on the ground floor as our bedroom. Basically, we’re living on the ground floor.
Round 1: the architect
The first architect we interviewed, we decided to continue using, even though Pat didn’t click with him. This was in the first half-year of our relationship, so for me, it was a learning point not to do this, even with him saying, ‘let’s continue with him’.
But we did, we had our first talk with him in May or such, and due to the number of projects and the summer holidays in between, we didn’t get a first concept drawing of the current situation until September or October. Okay, that’s understandable.
Then at the end of December, we got some impressions of the new situation, which were not what we were expecting or envisioned. At this point we were both frustrated with the amount of time it had cost and the results, so we decided to go a different route.
Round 2: the contractor
Meanwhile, we had been living in the new home for about 6 months. We had met the neighbors, two families who lived in newly built houses and one family living in an old house. They told us of their contractor, a local person, so we decided to talk to him. He came around and our ideas didn’t translate well from talking about it, so the advice was to get an impression drawing of the new situation.
Which we did next. We enlisted our neighbor to help us create an impression of what we wanted. She even gave us some new ideas for the layout of the ground floor, which we loved. With those ideas, we went back to the contractor and the structural engineer.
It took a long time before we could schedule a meeting with them. This was around May again. During this meeting, it turned out that what we wanted would exceed our budget. Also, there was some back-and-forth about maybe it would be cheaper to demolish the house and create something new. Not an option for us. They promised to give us an estimate by September. Due to the amount of work they still had to do, they wouldn’t have time before that. We received this estimate last month, January.
Round 3: the engineering agency
In September we decided, well I decided, to go a different route. I wanted someone to help advise us about different options, especially when it comes to energy neutrality. Also, because it had become clear we probably wouldn’t be able to incorporate all our wishes in one go because of budget constraints, I wanted someone who could help us plan everything in phases. I wanted to prevent a situation where we would close up a window space in the future location of a door into the extension. Someone who would create the necessary drawings with all elements the contractors can use for a pricing.
During our talk with the environment agency of ‘Bommelerwaard’, they had suggested a few engineering agencies that they had great experiences with, so I emailed all of them. The tally?
- No answer: 1
- We’re too busy: 1
- We’ll get back to you next week: 1. Which they subsequently did.
We went to that last one to meet and it felt right. Currently, the floor plan of the house as-is needs to be checked in-situ when it comes to the measurements. However, due to covid, the plans to do this had to be canceled. But I expect to make arrangements for this in the coming week.
Learning points
In the end, I’m happy where we are now and I feel confident in the current approach. I did learn a few things during this process. Of course, there’s the general tip of getting more than one offer. For us, it’s also important to interact with the interested parties. Everyone has those specific things that get under your skin. If you know this, try to find out if they do this.
For me specifically: I like to be advised of our options, including all in pros and cons. So that we can then make an informed decision. I do not like being told what I need to do according to them, especially not without them being able to provide a good explanation.
In the future, we’ll need to find a contractor to do the work. I’ll get offers from several, but we will also interact with all of them to note how communicative they are. How fast they respond. if they respond when saying they will respond. If they are advisory without being pushy.
What would you take into account when choosing a party to work with?