And the winner is an obvious: “Architect B” – Mike Blondino (www.blondinodesign.com). After meeting with Mike on Wednesday, we knew instantly that we wanted to work with him. Joel and I had a fantastic time the entire day and couldn’t imagine working with anyone better. There was a few key things that made us pick Mike over “Architect A”:

1. Mike toured our property on his own time before we even committed to working with him; Architect A said that they try not to do site visits. That bit of extra effort really goes a long way. And I feel that touring a home site is critically in creating a home that is going to fit well on your site.
2. Mike budgets for 7 revisions in the design process, Architect A said that typically they only do 1-2 revisions. There’s no way to get a home perfect in 1-2 revisions!
3. Mike’s fees were higher than Architect A, but the overall value in what we would be getting would be well worth the extra money spent.
4. The real winning factor is that we truly felt a great connection with Mike and feel that he’s genuinely interested in designing a home for us that is personally ours and will truly be a one-of-a-kind custom design for us.

On Thursday, July 25^th, Mike sent us a proposal which included details for the contract between us. This includes our basic home details (square footage, number of bedrooms, number of levels, etc), number of revisions, lengths of review times, and his proposed fee. Joel and I browsed through it quickly and over the next week we’ll spend some more time reviewing it and making any necessary changes. But, for the most part, we’re in agreement with the contract.

It feels great having met such a great person to work with and we’re very excited to have met Mike and fortunate to get the chance to work with him. Cheers!