Design budgeting can be a difficult pill for clients to understand or swallow.  Sometimes it is easier to understand if you can correlate it to something in your personal life.  It would be like explaining the national budget as if it were your household budget.  Getting rid of all those zeros can make in more comprehensible.  Therefore, I will tell a personal design budgeting story.

I have been dreaming of a horse barn, arena and maybe less importantly a new home.  My house is three miles from where my horses live.  It sure would be nice to be near them and to have a real horse barn.  Several years ago I started planning a barn/home.  I thought I could kill two birds with one stone by living in a simple loft above the horse stalls.  Maybe that would fit within my budget.

I picked a company and they began the design work.  After we got a rough plan in place I began gathering quotes for the construction work.  This included electrical, water, concrete all the way to kitchen cabinets.  Once I got some rough ball park numbers I realized it was beyond my budget.  I asked the company to help value engineer and reduce.  They spent all their allotted design hours on the original design.  I would have to pay more to have more design work done.  Hours equal dollars.  So, I paid to have it redesigned.  I eliminated a basement and many other things.  I budgeted again and I was still not within my budget.  Unfortunately, I decided to put the project on hold.  I added and improved some fencing instead.  I still have the horses to enjoy and that’s what is important.

I am very passionate about horses.  I am also very passionate about Taylor Studios Inc.  I tend to invest my money back into the company instead of horse barns.  And, of course, paying vet bills for horses is more important than a really cozy stall when a lean to will do.

Our clients are very passionate about their stories.  They want to tell their stories in a grand way.  Often when cuts have to be made after they have seen something drawn on paper it causes them pain.  We are responsible for designing within a budget.  Yet we can’t know the fixed cost of something until we have enough detail for vendors to bid it.  Therefore, sometimes we have to eliminate the more expensive approach for a more cost effective one.  We always offer a cost effective solution that meets the success factors set up front.  Yet, it can be hard to swallow that in order to have horses you’ll have to settle for the lean to over the cozy barn.  Tough decisions have to be made during the design budgeting process.