Modifications
Making Your Dreams A Reality!
Have you found a Donald A. Gardner Architects home plan that you would like to make your own and customize? If so, our modifications team can help. The designers can make customization's to your precise specifications, so the home built is your exact dream home!
Modifying A Home Plan
Our modification team has decades of experience and will guide you through the entire process making it easy and convenient. Options to make a home plan uniquely yours are endless. Discover below how you can take any of our home plans and turn them into your custom home plan.
How the Modification Process Works
Custom home plans can be created to meet your specific needs. Here's how the process of creating home plan modifications works:
Find Your Plan
Browse through more than 1,000 different portfolio home plans on our website and select the one that most closely fits your needs. Our website allows you to search and compare plans based on a variety of desires. Once you select your almost perfect plan and have your customizations in mind, you are ready to submit a request for a one-hour virtual modification consultation.
Start The Request
You may start a modification request by clicking on the “Request a Virtual Modification Consultation" button on this page. This will allow you to purchase and schedule a one-hour virtual modification consultation.
Virtual Modification Consultation
Once you schedule a virtual modification consultation, our team will review your submission and confirm your appointment. We can meet via Microsoft Teams or Zoom if you have a preference. During our one-hour session we will help you understand the design process, review any customizations you would like to make, and get all the information necessary to provide you with an estimate to make the design changes.
Cost Estimate
Within one business day of your virtual modification consultation, we will email you a full cost estimate for your customized home plans. This email will contain the total cost for the modifications, your plan package pricing, and a detailed list of your requested plan changes. The quote you receive will be valid for 15 days.
Review the Email
Review the modification cost email, confirm your requested changes, and then just reply to let us know that you are ready to move forward. We will then send you an agreement to sign and return, as well as collect the plan package fee and a 50 percent deposit of the modification fee. The minimum modification fee is $3,000.
Project Review
When we receive your signed agreement and fees, your project will be placed on our schedule. As soon as we start the modifications to your home plans, we will send you an email letting you know. We then revise every detail on the original plan affected by your requested changes, yielding a complete set of working drawings unique to you. This complete coordinated set reduces the risk of construction errors during the building process. It is also a vital link between the owner and contractor if any disputable issues arise when building from custom home plans.
Modification in Progress
The process of customizing home plans is very interactive. While your modifications are underway, we will communicate with you through email, by phone, and/or through virtual meetings. You will have an opportunity to see drawings of your requested changes and the opportunity to have them refined if needed before the final working drawings are completed. Additional plan modifications may sometimes be needed for code compliance and require additional fees. Some necessary services may be required from local professionals. If you aren't sure, building departments typically have a handout listing all the items they require to submit to obtain a building permit. In the unlikely event that work beyond the original agreement is requested or required, you will receive a change order with the explanation and cost for your approval.
Modification Completion
Lastly, electronic documents are emailed based on your choice of plan package. We encourage you to correspond with us about your home's progress and send photos during construction and after completion.
Benefits of Using Donald A. Gardner Design Services
Why choose Donald A. Gardner Design Services, LLC for your home plan modifications? Three reasons: experience, continuity of design, and technical support. The Donald A. Gardner Design Services, LLC team has offered home plan modification since 1998, and who better to tailor a plan to suit your needs than someone who knows the Don Gardner portfolio in and out? By maintaining the integrity of the design and assuring all changes are made to the highest standards, Donald A. Gardner Design Services designers ensure that a modified plan set is just as complete and accurate as the original plan set. Best of all, our designers work closely with you through the modification process and listen attentively to your needs and desires so they can be translated effectively into the finished custom home plans. We can take your needs and desires and blend them with our experience to create exactly what you are asking for in the final plan. We will answer all your questions and provide support while modifications are being made, and throughout the construction process.
Common Modifications
At Donald A. Gardner Architects, we customize home plans regularly for our clients. These and many other modifications can be made to nearly every Donald A. Gardner Architects plan.
- Moving the garage door location from the front to side or vice-versa
- Adding a third garage bay
- Changing a hip roof to a gable or vice-versa
- Adding/removing brick or stone on the exterior
- Adding a screen porch or sunroom
- Completely changing the exterior facade to a different style
- Adding a walk-out or finished in-ground basement
- Stretching a plan either in width or depth to make various interior spaces larger
- Reducing the width of a plan to fit on a specific lot
- Flooring over a two-story or vaulted room to create more living space on the second level
- Adding extra bedrooms and/or bathrooms in unfinished space such as a bonus room or unfinished second floor, or expanding the plan to accommodate more rooms
- Adding space for an elevator
- Changing interior ceiling heights
We can also customize home plans to embrace a particular architectural style that you love, while including the elements you need from the plan you choose.
