TerraTectonics20080630

Residential Design Process
It's a very exciting and fun process to create something on your property
that you and your family can enjoy and make the Florida outdoor lifestyle
more appealing. Whether it's a new covered carport and garden trellis
structure for shading the car and providing a covered walkway to your
house, or creating a lush tropical paradise around a new pool in the
backyard, we can assist with those ideas and details.

A simple step-by step process gets you closer to the reality:

1. As the Owner you can put together some ideas of what it is you looking
to do, is it a new pool, spa or entertainment areas. Were you thinking of
water features, firepit, seating, lighting, new paving, kids playground area,
walkways? Perhaps a shade structure to facilitate a more enhanced outdoor
experience? We can show you some ideas and ways to solve those issues
that are unique to your site and needs.

2. Gather up a survey of your property, it was produced for the sale of the
house. It's a rest starting point for doing cost estimates based on square
footage…it also shows any easements, property lines and other things
needed.

3. Come to an understanding of what your construction budget will be for
what you want to do. This will determine the scope of what it is that we will
be working on. We can assist with budget planning and construction cost
estimates for your project.

4. We will prepare a design fee proposal based on the size of the project,
what you want to do and the services required of us to get it all done. Our
services can range from sketches and ideas to assist you, to a full set of
construction documents and bid preparation documents, finding bidders for
the project, reviewing construction contracts and then providing site
inspections during construction. Our service levels are flexible.

5. We will then begin the design process of sketches, concepts and work it
into your budget parameters. We will come to the site take pictures,
measure look at the surrounding properties to see how they might impact
the design decisions.

6. We will come back to the office and begin a series of design sketches to
explore the concepts we have discussed. We will then call you for a get
together presentation of the concepts for your approval. Upon approval we
will begin the Construction documents.

7. The Construction Documents (CD's) consist of the cad plans for the
contractor to bid on. This determines the details and scope of the work for
pricing and construction. It will contain notes details and information for
contractors to bid on to provide a competitive final price for the project. The
bid process, will usually save you our design fee, by getting competitive
bids, rather than hiring a design build contractor to do the job. You will also
have the benefit of having an experience licensed Landscape Architect
working directly for you rather than having a conflict of interests as a
designer/ contractor.

8. We will then take the plans and assist you in finding qualified contractors
to bid the job. We will compare the bid process and work with you to select
a contractor to build it. We can meet with the contractor and you for a kick
off meeting to make sure everyone is aware what the construction goals
are and answer questions before ground breaking.

9. During construction we can make periodic site visits to review the
progress, answer questions and provide a review to compare the
construction to the intent of the plans and contracts.

10. Then we come see it all when it's all done!