Two checkpoints, before anyone draws a permit set
Between hiring an architect and getting a design you can actually build, there are two moments that decide most of the outcome. The program sets up conceptual design — the guidelines you give the architect before they've drawn anything, the input the whole concept gets built from. The "things to avoid" review happens once schematic design comes back — the first real drawing set, still rough enough to change cheaply. Skip the first and the architect interprets vague intentions, which produces a house that's beautiful and unsellable. Skip the second and the same mistake gets caught on site instead of on paper — where it costs a redesign instead of an eraser.
That's the whole reason this review happens at the schematic stage and not later: it is dramatically cheaper to fix a design on paper than to fix the same problem once it's framed, poured, or drywalled. Every phase after schematic design locks more of the house in place.
Writing the program: the brief before the drawings
The program is the document — even a rough one — that tells your architect what you're building, who it's for, and what success looks like. It comes before the first sketch.
Home type and scale. Single-story or two-story, or a mix. A target range of square footage, not a single number — architects design better against a range. Bedroom and bathroom count, including whether any bedrooms share a bathroom or each gets its own. Architectural style. Any featured rooms, fireplaces, or special spaces that matter to how the home shows.
Does the design fit the market you're actually building into, not the one you wish existed? A handful of questions settle this faster than instinct does:
- What's actually selling in this neighborhood right now — style, size, price?
- What do the demographics living here prioritize?
- What kind of vehicles do residents drive? A luxury neighborhood full of low-profile cars needs different garage clearances than a family neighborhood full of trucks and SUVs.
- Will this design stand out in a way that helps it sell, or in a way that flags it as overbuilt for the block?
- Will it create difficulty at city plan check?
If you're building spec, you're competing with every active listing in the area — not an abstract standard, the actual houses a buyer will cross-shop against yours. The program should say which side of each of these you're playing:
| Category | The question to settle |
|---|---|
| Appliances | What brands and tier are competing listings using? |
| Garage | Does the market expect 2-car or 3-car? |
| Flooring | Hardwood, tile, marble, or polished concrete — and what tier within each? |
| Countertops | Quartz, Caesarstone, or natural stone? |
| Exterior finish | Stucco, fiber cement, real stone, or precast? |
| Plumbing | Copper or PEX? |
| Window treatments | Precast surrounds and casing details, or plainer trim? |
Play it safe on the program. Markets shift on a timeline longer than a build cycle, and the riskiest design is the one that only sells in a hot market.
Reviewing preliminary designs: reading concept drawings like a developer
When the architect comes back with concept drawings, read them as a developer first and a homeowner second: efficient to build, easy to permit, competitive to sell.
Site plan. Does the design use the buildable area fully, or leave square footage on the table? Are setbacks respected with real margin, or pushed to the limit? How does the building relate to slope, access, views, and privacy from neighboring lots? Is the driveway approach realistic — width, turning radius, fire department compliance — or does it just look fine on paper?
Floor plan. Proportion reads very differently on paper than in a walked space. A 10'×10' bedroom reads as small in person; below that, it reads as cramped. A family room past 25' in any direction stops feeling grand and starts feeling cavernous — most tract homes land closer to 19'×18'. A kitchen island needs a minimum of 3'×6', with real counter overhang, before you're forced into a cantilever to make it work. Check the kitchen workflow specifically — fridge, sink, and stove should form a short, sensible triangle, not a hike. In bedrooms, confirm the relationship between the bed wall, the closet, and the bathroom actually makes sense for how someone moves through the room each morning. On a luxury spec build, a powder room can run 5' by 5'6" — generous enough for a real sink and counter space guests will actually use — though most projects won't have room for one that large. Whatever the footprint, prioritize sink and counter space over floor space nobody will notice.
Elevation and curb appeal. What's the first impression from the street? Does the architectural style match the neighborhood without being indistinguishable from it? Are window proportions consistent across every elevation, not just the front?
Driveway and garage — give them more attention than feels warranted. You use them daily, and so does every future buyer; a beautiful dining room used four times a year matters less than a driveway that's awkward to back out of every morning. Confirm the turning radius from street to garage works for an actual car, not just the architect's drawing. A two-car garage wants at least 20'×20' to fit two cars tightly, 20'×22' to 22'×24' for comfortable everyday use, and closer to 24'×24' for full-size SUVs, trucks, or side storage — call it 10'–12' of width per bay at minimum, verified against the vehicles your target buyer actually drives.
Roofline. Simplicity here is underrated and directly economic: each sheet of plywood runs roughly $20 installed once you count cuts and waste, and a roofline full of circles, octagons, and unusual valleys eats material on corners that add nothing to resale. A flat roof adds drainage and warping risk on top of the wasted cost.
Things to avoid outright, independent of the specific design
These recur often enough across real projects that they're worth a standing list, not a case-by-case judgment call:
- Patios built over living space below — the leak is eventually inevitable, and the repair is invasive.
- Rounded staircases with glass — expensive to build, hard to repair, and dated quickly.
- Flat roofs.
- Basements, when the lot allows an alternative — waterproofing risk and cost rarely pencil against the resale value they add.
- Heavy precast detailing — high upfront cost, dates fast, and hard to source matching replacements years later.
- Heavy crown molding — reads as dated within a few years, adds labor cost disproportionate to the visual return, and rarely matches how the competing listings in the same price range are actually finished.
- A run of windows with no structural break between them — every window plane needs one for support; skipping it isn't a style choice, it's a structural gap.
- Not reserving space for HVAC ductwork and return registers — this has to be planned into the design, not discovered once framing is underway.
- Excessive French doors — security, weatherproofing, and energy-code compliance all get harder with every one you add.
Where this fits in the sequence
Writing the program and reviewing the design are phases 3 and 4 of seven — Construction 101 has the full sequence. Once the design is approved, the next real decision point is the team executing it: who you actually need to hire and what each consultant is contractually on the hook for. Want a second opinion on a program or a concept set before you approve it? Schedule a consultation.