The truth?  Their house plans, their house.  Your house plans, your house.  So how much do you really know about house plan design and house plan drafting?  AG 2004

To all who pass this way, please know that what's to follow is harvested from life experience consulting on, designing, and drafting one of a kind house plans. 

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We design one of a kind house plans and, rarely, one of a kind house plan major remodels.  Our craft is now after the way better part of a collective century on the hard side of one of a kind house plan design and one of a kind house building - doing it ourselves.  Our clients are not just anybodies.  There's a sense we've developed for a good client right from the start, and for the rest right from the start...usually. 

These 19 Deadly Sins are a part of our life story, based on one of a kind house design and building learned at the granite knee of experience.  This litany of prospect and client sinning is the basis for accepting roughly 1 or 2 in 20 prospects, working all the way through with 8 or 9 in 10 clients.

If any two* from the following list apply to a prospect or a real client, we say please do NOT contact Before The Architect anymore.  Go screw up someone else's business.  We're not right for you.  These lines may be sung a cappella to that oldie but goodie "Dolorous Dirge of the Dastardly Deadbeat" or "Don't You Dare Darken My Doorstep or Desktop (Again)" or "Deadbeats and Worse That We Wish We'd Never Known (and Did)"

1. I am taking care of this for another (who’s actually paying).  This'd be akin to "big hat, no cattle."
2. I have a tiny budget that I won't tell you about (or I'm just a loser on the loose), and I'll put up a big stink when you break over it or maybe even bill me at all.  (Variants: I know what this should cost  ['cause it's all I'm going to pay];  I know you’re cheaper,  right?; I'm much too important to pay the going rate; I expect to benefit from your intellectual property way more than you'll benefit from my paying your fee, indeed, if I pay at all; I'm gonna wait for your first invoice or another later on, and put it on you that I didn't specifically authorize the work you did; I'm scratching around for the best for beaucoups less than the least.)  This'd be akin to "no hat, no cattle."
3. I could do this, if I had the time (Variants: if it were up to me, I wouldn't have done it the way you did it; I'm slumming for the things that matter less to me; I have a degree in Architecture, so don't try anything funny, mister; I have more than one degree in Engineering so don't tell me what I already know which is  everything better than you ever will which is, in fact, about all there is to know, don't you know.)
4. Help me make the architect that I've hired listen to me. (Variation: we're so disappointed by the architects and house designers we've approached so far, because a) I make no sense, b) haven't a clue what I'm doing, c) they know me better than I know myself and I think they don't like what they know, d) my Mommy won't come with me.)
5. I am doing this because I’m told that I have to.  (A/k/a slam, bam, thank you ma'am, it isn't as though I'd appreciate your work; I am a victim, I am, I am.)
6. My relative is the general contractor (Variants: I built a house [or less, say, a deck] once upon a time, so I am an expert; you don't need to get specific, I'm very handy; my Dad was an architect and the acorn fell only a short distance from that mighty old oak by golly-gosh.)
7. You do just enough to get the permit ( a variant of which is, among others, I don't need elevations; another variant of which is - I need something to market the house, impress buyers, but not enough to even get a permit).
8. Help me, structural engineers run from my problem like their hair was on fire.  (Variant: Do you do weird houses?)
9. You settle this dispute (including, but not limited to, marital dispute, dispute with an architect, dispute with an inspector, etc.).
10. I've had this picture of my perfect house in my head for oh so long, and just never could get others to see it.  (Variant: let's you and two other groups work on prototypes for bubkes so that we can judge which of you gets the big enchilada.)
11. I waited too long, now I'm in a hurry.  (Variant:  I've dragged this out, taken too many turns and turns back, so let's move it along guy, wrap it up fast as you can go, OK?)
12. You can’t talk with my partner.
13. Send me the .dwg file.
14. Well, things aren't exactly the way I said the last time.  (Variants: That's not what a professional house designer would have done; That's not what I had hoped for; That's not what I expected - I expected miracles, mind-reading, magic for little or nothing, preferably nothing.)
15. Show me some of your work [having paid no attention to nearly 1,000 webpages of text and pics of all aspects of our work].
16. Gotta have a contract.  (Not once, since we started work in the '60s, have we formally contracted for work of any kind.  What we've experienced first-hand over and over – Doing business with an honest client, you don't need a contract.  Doing business with a dishonest client, a contract doesn't mean diddly-squat. )  Sometimes, this comes up with a plaintive "How about a ballpark figure so's I can compare it to the guy I just met at 7-11 who's bid to draw good for me?"
17. Do you hold checks?
18. Hi, I'm a real estate broker. (Variants: Hi, I'm a real estate speculative developer; Hi, I'm a building contractor; Hi, I'm a professional building tradesman; Hi, I'm a real estate lawyer.)  [This applies whether you're retired, the real deal, or a wannabe.] **
19. Hi, I'm a real estate broker. (Variants: Hi, I'm a real estate developer; Hi, I'm a contractor; Hi, I'm a professional building tradesman; Hi, I'm a real estate lawyer.) [This applies whether you're retired, the real deal, or a wannabe.] **

*Two acts of a single sin are equal to one act each of two different sins.

**For those slow with subtlety, these are two-fers right from the get-go:  real estate brokers, speculative real estate developers, building contractors, building tradesmen - all are categorically banned from our services.  You see, we have a conflict of interest with respect to this pack of professionals: we're interested in getting paid.  Note that sins 18 and 19 do not involve architects, house designers, engineers, and inspectors.