Jenny Slingerland

1. How do you handle changes to the spec book? Do you keep it all digital or print? If/ when changes occur I’m just always worried that everyone is going off the most recent plans.

A: We’ll cover this in the coming weeks, but short answer is DIGITAL it’s the only way I share our drawings and documents.

2. Do you specify sanded or epoxy grout? Or does the installer suggest what is best for each application?

A: Tile installer will select. If there’s a problem with your color selection and the type of grout they need to use, they will usually reach out and tell you what brand you need to reselect a grout from for that application. Hasn’t happened to me yet, but I’m sure one day it will.

3. Do you meet clients in showrooms such as plumbing and lighting and make selections together with a rep?

A: I never take clients to tile, lighting or plumbing showrooms, it’s like taking a kid to a candy shop, there are too many options and it’s overwhelming for them. I always make all the selections and present my selections during the presentation. If I take a client to a showroom it’s for two reasons: 1. they want to be involved in selecting the slabs 2. they want to go to the cabinet shop showroom, but that’s it. Also, if your client wants to be at all the showrooms and be involved in the selection process you need to charge hourly. It will take 3x longer with them involved.

4. How do you format the scope of work in your contract?

A: I hide the columns that show my hours and associated fees, only leaving my list of selections and then export it into a pdf and attach it to the contract as “Addendum A.”

5. In your Scope of Work list – do you also explain which items you will be responsible for Procurement, too? Or just the materials to get the house built?

A: If you’re procuring items (we talked about the general dangers of this in week 1 and I’ll probably mention it again next week) you can put in the “notes” column of the finish schedule “To be purchased by xyz design firm.” For wallpaper I put, “can be purchased through black ink interiors.” Builders usually always ask us to buy it because they don’t have and don’t want to waste time setting up accounts with Schumacher, Kravet, etc

6. Do you mind sharing your spreadsheet with hours per item? Or an example of?

A:I don’t share the spreadsheet with the class but the last pages of this week’s slides provide a list of the materials I have in my spreadsheet, so that will help you create yours. There may be things I’ve forgotten, so definitely add to it!

7. Is the template you use for scope and calculating something you share with us?
*answered in #6

8. Do you show the client the detail of # of hours and rates for each person on your team involved?

A: Nope, only the list of selections, a line item for the finish schedule and one for drawings (per room). Refer to the last few pages of this week’s slides, that is what the client sees.
If you’re doing hourly you can put an estimate range at the bottom of your scope of work that states “design fee estimate $60,000 – $75,000” or whatever yours adds up to. If you’re doing flat fee you would not include this.

Q: How can the designer ensure that the selections made align with the builder’s preferences?
A: We touched on this in class, but you may have asked before that. As long as you know the budget and any specific trade vendors/showrooms he prefers to work, with he builder doesn’t care about the selections you put in the home. Modern, Coastal, Traditional, he’ll put in whatever you specify.

Q: How do you ensure that the electrical plan aligns with the builder’s needs?
A: I will start by reiterating what I said in class, if you do not know how to do a reflected ceiling plan, do not do one. Tell the architect that you want “three pendants over the island instead of two,” or “two sconces instead of an overhead in the powder bathroom.” Keep it as simple as you can until you become more experienced and comfortable with lighting. Like the question above, the builder does not care what lights you put in, so there’s nothing really that you are “aligning” with. There are codes for lights on exterior doors, on stair landings, etc. things that he will know he needs to follow, but those lights will have been put in by the architect, so unless you are redoing every recessed light in the whole home, not just a few rooms, you’ll be okay.

Q: How often should a lighting expert be involved in creating a lighting plan?
A: We talked about lighting experts in class briefly, I personally don’t think they’re necessary unless the house is like an art gallery requiring specialty lighting throughout. Obviously they can be brought on to a project but remember your client would then be paying 1. the architect to do the lighting plan 2. You’ve been paid to review the lighting plan and now we’re bringing a 3rd person in to review the lighting plan. So that’s three people working on the same thing, most clients would say no, but like I said, if the house requires it, by all means have them hire one! But they should be paid directly by the homeowner, not you. If something goes sideways with them, they can come after you.

Q: What should be included in the finished schedule regarding specialty LED lighting?
A: We talked about this in class. I don’t put anything LED related in my finish schedule, I may put in the finish schedule a line item and in the NOTES section say, “Use diffuser on all LED lighting,” but that’s about it. I let the A/V guys, electricians or cabinet company specify what they know will work best. I do indicate in my floor plans and elevations the locations I want the LED lighting, I just don’t know enough about the latest and greatest in the world of LED lighting to tell the experts what they should be using.

How should the electrical plan be integrated with the architect’s drawings? See #2 answer above for more information. If in this case you are comfortable with editing the architects RCP, you can send him your cad file once you’ve made your edits and he can upload it into his plans.

**** I really want to make sure that everyone knows that 9 times out of 10 you will not need to edit the placement of the architect’s recessed lighting in the RCP. You may just need to let the architect know in an email to “switch from one overhead sconce to two sconces flanking the mirror in all bathrooms.” You could also say, “There isn’t a decorative lighting fixture in the laundry room, could you add one to the center of the room.” You’re done, you did your job, moving on to the next stage of the design. PLEASE DO NOT edit the plans unless you are 100% confident in what you are doing. I will also note here that if you are asking the architect to make edits, do it in ONE email. Gather all your redlines and list them in an email. Do not send an email to her/him every time you happen to think of something you want to change. 1. he/she will get overwhelmed and mad 2. things will get lost, they won’t get changed and then your plan view and elevations won’t match his. We will discuss elevations and drawings in week 4 so stay tuned for more info. ****

Great question! After the project is complete I print the finish schedule and the care and cleaning document we create for the materials in the home and the furnishings and give it to them with their house warming gift. This provides a way for them to be able to care for the things in the home and the finish schedule allows them to have a list all the selections, materials, paint colors, etc. that are in their home in case they need to get something replaced, paint touch-up, etc.

I don’t print a book for the builder, all files are via dropbox. We’ll talk more about that in Week 5. 🙂

@Natalie Thanks for the question! For material selections working of a PDF is fine. When we get to creating the elevations and tagging the elevations, you will want a .dwg (cad file) so that you can edit and tag the elevations. Some people use SketchUp, I’m not familiar with that program, but it may be an easier learning curve than cad if you are wanting to do them on your own. I hire out my cad so that I can spend my time on the designs and selections and let someone who is experienced and fast in cad do the elevations. I always account for their time when I charge a flat fee and I charge their fee + a mark up for their time if I’m charging hourly. For example the person that I work with for cad is $65/hr, I bill her out at $150. You can find people who are less, but I have worked with her for a couple years now and I’m happy to pay more for someone with the experience and speed that she brings to the table. Does that help?

10. Q: When you give the 15-25% for change orders, is that of the overall budget for that iem – ie all plumbing budget, or is that percentage of the cost of particular item item that is over budget?
A: I do not give the change order fees, the builder/GC does that. It’s up to them how they charge that if it’s per item or on the total amount they are over.

11. Q: Do you use software like Materio with QR codes for selections to place onsite?
A: Great question, we discuss this week 5!

12. Q: Have you ever handled procurement for contractor and contractor pays you a fee from the trade discounts they get?
A: I would never do this. In my opinion it’s a way for them to put all the work, time and liability on you. They should never ask you to do that. They get paid for running the job and they should not ask you to handle one of the largest parts of the job, ordering, procurement, tracking, delivery, handling damages, etc. Our job is to design the home, create a spec book and move on to the next project (and paycheck), not get weighed down in orders or to take on the liability of the materials getting damaged or walking off the jobsite. I would be very leery of working with a contractor that does that.

13. Q: I’ve heard Brad Leavitt talk about “Design Book” – is that the same as a “Spec Book”? He’s probably referring to what you created! A: Yes! Same thing! Maybe I should call it the Design Book now. 😉

14. Q: Will we see an example of the detailed drawings you include in the spec book?
A: Absolutely! Week 4.

15. Q: Where is most affordable place in town (I’m in Scottsdale) to have architect’s plans printed? A: If you ask the architect for a set of plans they will usually provide those for you at no cost. 🙂 Happy to have a fellow Arizonian in the class!

4. Q: How do you discuss your fees at this meeting? Per sq/ft or hourly rate?
* I responded to this question thinking it was in reference to a client meeting. After further thought I think you may be referring to the meeting with the builder, when you are meeting them and showing them your spec book. The answer, although now directed for the builder meeting, not for the client, is still relevant and can be discussed in the same way.

A: My process: In general our fees have been discussed in our Discovery Call, when a client first reaches out and we let them know how we price. I ALWAYS price by the hour for remodels because there are so many unknowns. For a build I do a flat fee based on the hybrid of the square foot & time estimate. Once the plans are finalized I prepare my spreadsheet with all the rooms and all the selections that need to be made for those rooms. I also have a column to estimate how long I think it will take me to select those items and a column that multiplies the amount of time by our hourly rate . I will go more into that in a future class.

So to sum it up I would tell the builder, “For remodels we charge $x per hour. For new builds we charge a flat fee based on the scope of work for the home. Once we have floor plans for the project we carefully develop a scope of work based on each room including the design, selections, drawings and documentation required for each space to help determine the flat fee.”

Hopefully that helps.

5. Q: Do you track the budget on client’s behalf and report on update calls?

*I misread the question AGAIN! But that’s okay, both answers will be helpful.
A: Tracking budget for client: I do not do this. It’s impossible for us to track a budget because we don’t know the cost of labor, drywall, nails, lumbar, etc., we know the prices of the things we select for the home, but that’s it. Also, we may be in budget when we select the items but if it takes 18 months to get to the point they are ordering an installing the item, the prices will likely have gone up, so best to let the builder handle the budgets.

Answer for what I thought it was asking about tracking time for the client (don’t ask me how I got there!) 😉
A: If you are doing a flat fee, the time tracking is for you so that you can run the report of hours at the end of the project to make sure your estimate was accurate and you charged enough and were profitable.

If you are charging hourly, in Timely you can export your hours into a PDF and send that off as your invoice. If you want to record all your hours (to run reports at the end of the project) but don’t want client to see the entries for time you’re not charging for, you can export only “billable hours.” You have the option to make entries “not billable,” which means you can still have an accurate accounting of your time at the end of the project but the client doesn’t see and isn’t charged for the extra hour you spent at the lighting showroom meeting your rep and learning about their products and finishes.

*This is like we discussed in class that as you’re starting out it may take you longer to select items, but you don’t want to charge the clients for the time you’re spending learning more about materials, that’s time you are investing in your education, not necessarily billable. Hopefully that makes sense.

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@carol.borowski I am so happy you found the class helpful! That’s the best feedback I can ever hope for! Good lucking as you take your spec book to the next level!
You’re correct, we typically don’t print them to scale, instead using the dimensions for reference. I found that the books were getting so thick when we printed them at 1/2″ scale, you almost needed a page per elevation. Some people will do it to scale, so totally up to you!