See It Before You Build It.

It is not often that I get to see my design projects when they come to completion. So, it is nice when I get progress pictures sent from the homeowners.

I just received some pictures emailed to me of a house that I worked on sometime throughout 2010.

This house is being built in Wilmington, North Carolina.

They broke ground sometime over the Winter months.

Below are three images.

The foundation under the main house (taken in January 2011).

This is my conceptual computer generated rendering from June 2010.

This is a photo of the front of the house as it is now - from about the same angle as my rendering.

There are more trees in the photo than my rendering, and the bay behind the house isn't as much of an open water-way as I have in the rendering - but the house looks nice. :)

Over all, the process of design can be lengthy. But, if you are able to work out your design "kinks" and issues before the first nail is hammered, before the first block is laid, before the first hole is dug...even before your building permit, you will save yourself time, money, and problems later. Certainly, changes can happen along the way - there are always unexpected things to come up - but the overall process of design will return the favor "in the field".

And, it is always exciting to see the project unfold in reality.