In this snack-sized episode of Home: The Second Story, we explore the importance of engaging with an architect early in the planning process—before decisions are locked in and before the path feels fully formed. Too often, people delay reaching out, believing they need to have clarity before contacting us. But the reality is, the earlier we’re brought in, the more value we can offer. Whether it’s helping clients evaluate sites, interpret zoning regulations, or make sense of feasibility and investment, our input at the beginning can shape smarter outcomes.
We talk about how life transitions—empty nests, new additions to the family, or retirement—often trigger these conversations. And in those transitional phases, clarity and confusion frequently show up together. That’s where we step in—not just to design, but to listen and guide. Many clients feel embarrassed for not knowing where to start, but we make it clear that’s not a flaw—it’s the starting point. Whether the challenge is a modest remodel or a full new build, our job is to bring structure to the unknown and to offer options, not prescriptions.
We also walk through the less glamorous but essential early steps in project planning. Depending on where you live, these might include ordering a site survey, conducting a septic test, or navigating complex zoning and energy regulations. In cities like Boston, zoning is usually the first big challenge. In rural settings, it often begins with confirming if a site is even buildable. We stress that these aren't steps homeowners should face alone. Early involvement lets us identify risks before they become roadblocks.
The episode also tackles a sensitive but critical topic: budget. We understand people hesitate to talk money—they think their number is too low or too personal. But without a financial target, we can’t align expectations around scope or design. We’re not asking for their bank statements; we just need a ballpark to help guide the process. No matter the project size, everything hinges on shared goals, honest dialogue, and mutual trust.
Our core message in this episode is clear: Don’t wait until everything is figured out. Don’t shoulder the process alone. Reach out early—when your ideas are still unformed. That’s when we can be most useful. We’re not just here to design—we’re here to partner with you in making your home work better for your life.
Second Story Snack - Getting Started
Speakers: Sheri Scott, Marylin Moedinger, & Taylor Davis
[Music playing]
Voiceover (00:02):
Everyone says how horrible it'll be to renovate or build your house — we're here to say, it doesn't have to be that way.
Join three seasoned architects as they interview homeowners who recently completed a large project, and ask them one simple question: what do you know now that you wish you knew before you started?
Welcome to Home: The Second Story Podcast.
Sheri Scott (00:26):
Hi, and welcome to a snack-sized episode of Home: The Second Story. I'm Sheri Scott, from Springhouse Architects.
Marylin Moedinger (00:33):
I'm Marylin Moedinger, from Runcible Studios.
Taylor Davis (00:35):
And I am Taylor Davis from TPD Architect.
Sheri Scott (00:39):
Okay, let's dive in. So, today, our topic is going to be how to get started — how to get started on a construction project, something that you've been dreaming about or thinking about. And I thought it would be interesting for us to talk about how clients come to us, and then also talk about how we wish they might come to us.
Taylor Davis (01:02):
I've said it before that they come to me in the hand-waving stage (I suspect they come to Marylin in the hand-waving stage too), where they're walking around their house pointing at things and being like, “We could do this here, and we could do this here.” And at a certain point, that conversation gets overwhelming, and they pick up the phone.
Marylin Moedinger (01:19):
Yeah, I think that's basically it. They come to me through … so usually, they reach out through word of mouth. They'll reach out through my website or send me an email if they've been referred by a friend, and they just want to meet and talk about what they're thinking about.
So, we have an initial conversation, we see if it's a good fit for them, for us, whatever, and then we take it from there. I would say that I wish they would come to me earlier in their thinking. Most people have spent years even trying to figure out how to make the decision: “Do I stay and renovate? Do I move, do I build new, do I buy something big that's already finished? Do I buy a fixer-upper?” And they've spent years, and I just wish they'd call me sooner.
(Laughter)
Sheri Scott (02:08):
That’s interesting, especially because you're both talking about renovations specifically, right?
Marylin Moedinger (02:13):
Yes. For sure.
Sheri Scott (02:16):
And my case is a little bit different because we do mostly new builds. We are getting into more renovations, but with the new builds, people reach out to me in a number of ways. The best way that I would love for them to reach out is when (like you said, Marylin) they're early, thinking about it-
Marylin Moedinger (02:38):
Early.
Sheri Scott (02:40):
And I can give them some kind of guidelines and tips and things like that. Typically, though, people will come to me in two ways. One, they say, “Oh, we bought this site, and we want to put a house on it” (laughs).
Marylin Moedinger (02:55):
I know what you're going to say.
Sheri Scott (02:56):
And it's angled the wrong way, the sun doesn't come up where they want it to come up, and they have this dream of a light-filled home, and every window faces north, and all of those things that we can help with finding a site that's number one for us.
And secondly (I know we've talked about this before too), in my community, a lot of people look for the builder first before the architect. And so, if they do come to me (not through a builder), they have already talked to several builders.
Which is not terrible that they've had those conversations, but in that case, also, I think I could save them a lot of time and kind of guide them to someone that has the experience that they need for their level of project.
And then also, we have the projects where people come to me through the builders, which is just another branch of our business, and that usually works pretty well because we team up pretty quickly with the builder and work through it that way.
Taylor Davis (04:05):
A lot of the work we do here is word-of-mouth. Clearly, I grew up here, so it's a lot of friends and family, which is wonderful, and I'm so appreciative of that. So, the conversations can start as early as sitting on the sidelines of the kids' basketball game and somebody saying, “Hey, we just bought this house, or we really need to make a change. The kids are going to college, or there's new grandchildren.”
And so, while I appreciate very much the wanting people to come early, sometimes it takes a kind of catalyst, a life change. And we've talked about some on previous episodes, that it takes something to shift that gear. So, the conversation may have been happening for years, but there may be something that finally pushes them to the point where, “I really have to do something.”
So, I think one of the things we are all very well versed in, is what are those transition points? And we kind of have our antenna out for those sorts of things, a radar going on. We can sense if there's something on the horizon, and sometimes people can't even identify it. They know that there's a shift, their kids are getting older, they know that there's a change coming. They know that they want to have a family, and it's going to change the way they live in the house.
So, sometimes, it's calling us. (This sounds a little woo-woo, I think.) it's almost like they have a sense that the force is changing in their lives, and they want some help to try and address what they foresee as this change that could really impact the way they live in their home.
Marylin Moedinger (05:43):
I agree with that 100%. I also think that (and I wonder if this is the same for you guys, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on this) if people think that they need to have it figured out before they come to us, because they're coming to the architect to draw it up. And so they feel like they … I almost, I sense this like sense of failure or-
Taylor Davis (06:08):
Yeah, guilt.
Marylin Moedinger (06:10)
That they're not competent enough. They come to me, and they're like, “I don't know what to do. I've tried to think through, do I put an addition? Do I build a new house? I don't even know how it works, I don't know.” I'm like, “Yeah, I know. That's why I'm here.”
It's like going to the doctor and being like, “I'm so sorry, I can't diagnose myself. I don't know how to do that. Whoops!” And you're like, “Yeah, I know, that's my job. It's okay, come in here, bring all your symptoms, I will figure out what our game plan is with you.”
And I think that there's a sense that architects just “draw it up” or architects “cost a lot of money,” so you need to come with your ideas already figured out, and the opposite is true. And I wish I could post that in skywriting, “We're here to help.”
Taylor Davis (06:54):
So, I'll give a good example. We have a recent client who's an older couple. They knew that they had some physical challenges associated with a lake house property. And they called us in, and we went to the house, and they hadn't really procrastinated but had sort of like put it off a little bit. And we got to the house and where they had thought they were going to have to tear out the whole master suite, we were like, “No, you just need to widen this door and put some grab bars in this bathroom, and not worry about ripping out your shower.”
So, there is this kind of common perception that architects are going to walk in and immediately change and impact for the more expensive, the scope of work that needs to happen. Actually, our job is to really be creative and thoughtful about whatever space you have, and to do it in the way that best suits the way you live.
Marylin Moedinger (07:53):
You just saved them tens of thousands of dollars.
Taylor Davis (07:56):
I saved them tens of thousands of dollars in a 20-minute meeting. And so, I think that that perception of us as wanting to build the Taj Mahal every time we walk onto a site or into an existing house, it's just not true. That's not the way we do things.
Sheri Scott (08:18):
One of the ways I describe it to people when they come in is, instead of them telling me the solution, I ask them, “What works right now and what doesn't work right now? What brought you here? What are you struggling with?” And then we'll figure out two or three solutions.
There's always 30 ways to solve a problem, and the more we can talk about what works, what doesn't, what you like, what you don't like, show me 10 pictures, they don't all have to look the same, they don't all have to go together. You don't have to figure it out, just show me what you like.
Marylin Moedinger (08:53):
I was just doing a consult the other day where I was like, “Okay, what do you want to spend on this project?” And she was like, “Well, maybe this much, or maybe this much, or maybe $0.” And I was like, “$0, let's go.”
I can come up with … we're going to move your couch over to here, and it's going to be way better. We're going to repaint (okay, that's not $0, but almost). Like you can paint yourself (paint this room), but you can achieve a lot. I don't care. I don't care what the budget is, you just got to tell me.
But I also want to say that … we've been talking a lot about architects and how we're part of that process. There's a lot of other things that you have to do to get started. And I think it would be great to kind of highlight some of those things that aren't just us (laughs) about how you get started.
So, for example, getting a survey. That's really important. In my world where zoning is top of mind, we usually need to get a survey. So, owners are surprised, and I'm like, “Okay, well, I can't start right away with your project because I need a survey first, and the survey takes six or eight weeks or whatever from a surveyor.”
Do you guys have that as well? Like the sort of checklist, survey, other things that someone needs to have lined up?
Sheri Scott (10:04):
So, yeah, Marilyn, it's different for you in Boston versus me in Ohio.
Marylin Moedinger (10:09):
Very true.
Sheri Scott (10:10):
For us, zoning is very low on the list. We're doing, of course, new builds and usually, kind of out in a more rural setting or acreage. So, our first thing, we tell people they need to do, is testing for septic systems.
That's the very first thing that that will tell us where – sometimes it tells us where the house is going to go, it tells us if the land is viable. We've had people have already bought their plot, and then we test it and-
Marylin Moedinger (10:42):
It doesn't perk.
Sheri Scott (10:43):
Two-bedroom house. I mean, it's the limitation. Yeah, that's probably first on our list.
Taylor Davis (10:49):
So, I'd say for us it's a combination of both. Here in Birmingham, the work we do in the suburbs is pretty tightly regulated by zoning restrictions. Once we get out into more rural areas like Sheri, for lakehouses, farmhouses, those sorts of projects, we have a little more flexibility in terms of zoning.
But again, the physical pieces of the site are kind of what govern what you can build and what you can't build. So, doing some early studies (on whether we are in a tight zoning location or whether we have all of the acreage in the world, but the sun only comes up in one direction, and there are a bunch of trees on the adjacent property) can be a really critical part of getting started.
So, even if you've got the survey, if you've got the checklist accomplished, getting an architect or even a civil engineer or a surveyor to help sort of identify what kind of your particular parameters are going to be for that site, whether it's an existing house or acreage, and understanding those prior to entering into a design process, I think is really helpful.
Marylin Moedinger (12:07):
I'll just add, in the Boston area, obviously zoning is pretty much our top thing. So, we'll run into – like, Sheri, you were mentioning where people buy land, and it doesn't perk, or it's not a good site for a home.
The same thing for us in a Boston area, and also in urban areas, is people buy something because the realtor told them, “You can add onto this, or you can finish the basement, or you can do this or that.” And the truth is that you can't according to zoning.
The realtors say this kind of stuff all the time (not the good ones, but the ones who are maybe not as good or just untrained), and they don't know that a variance is not just something you walk in and get.
[Laughter]
Marylin Moedinger (12:50):
And it also depends on what town you're in. So, Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, Medford, wherever you are, the rules are completely different. So, the first thing we are looking at is if someone says, “Hey, I want to redo my condo, or I have this house like on a tight city lot, I want to add to it,” zoning, zoning, zoning.
And then the other thing that we are looking at in Massachusetts is energy code. In the last year and a half since they updated the energy codes, it has been an absolute game changer for what you can and can't do because of budgets, basically.
So, if you're over a certain threshold of size of addition or amount of work you're doing in a renovation, you have to make the entire house meet current energy codes. And by the way, Massachusetts is out in front on this of all the states, but every other state is moving in that direction, it just is.
Regardless of administrations and whatever, like that's the direction things are going, and we're just at the forefront of it in Massachusetts. And what it means is, suddenly, somebody wanted to spend $200,000 on something, and I'm like, “It's going to cost you $600,000 because if you do it this way, you're going to have to do all of these other things, even in spaces you weren't even touching.”
I also want to just step back and say those conversations that we have very early are really tough. I'm on a phone call with someone who's all excited, they finally called me. They're like, “Yay, we're getting ready to start.” And I'm like, “Zoning, building code.” I'm ready to rain on everyone's parade. So, I've learned how to hopefully have those conversations in a sensitive way.
But I also think it's important for people to understand that there's these realities out there and that it's really important to find people who are telling you (builders, architects, whoever) who are giving you the straight story, and not just telling you what you want to hear, like the realtor did to make the sale.
I am telling you this … if I was going to win the work in an unscrupulous manner, I would lowball you and then tell you later it was going to be three or four times.
Sheri Scott (14:58):
Which is how people come to us a lot of times, yes. And that leads me to the next thing that I think people need to put some thought into and know before, is their budget.
Marylin Moedinger (15:10):
Thank you, yes, 1000%.
Sheri Scott (15:13):
Sometimes it's what you can afford, but most of the time it's just what you want to invest in this property. I'm not going to ask you how you're qualified and get into your business (laughs). I feel like sometimes people are so guarded about budget.
And it's very deep because money is personal and homes are personal. And so, when those two things intersect, there's a lot of guarding that goes on around that. But we truly cannot guide you unless we know what target we're trying to hit.
Marylin Moedinger (15:50):
That’s right. And we don't care.
Taylor Davis (15:52):
And it's okay too if you want to go through an early exercise to establish what that target investment should be. Sometimes people come, and they say, “We don't know what we want to build, and we don't know how much we should invest in this property.” Well, we can help kind of determine some of those things.
If you have a trusted realtor, you can get comps for the neighborhood. You can understand what the going sale prices per square foot are so you can have an understanding. Now, I will say this, there's like a five-year window that I would trust that information. If you're planning on investing on a house that you're going to live in for the next 30 years, that's probably not the most relevant information to your decision-making process.
But that said, there are ways to begin to get at what that number should look like for you. It is, to a certain extent, how much you want to invest, but there has to be an alignment of how much you want to invest and what you want to get out of it.
Marylin Moedinger (16:50):
And your time horizon, that's the important thing you're saying.
Taylor Davis (16:52):
And your time horizon, right.
Marylin Moedinger (16:54):
Because if you're not selling it in the next five years – I don't know how many people I've talked to who say, “I only can put X dollars in because it's only worth X dollars.” And I'm like, “When are you selling? Are you trying to sell next year? Like okay, we got to really think about this.” And they're like, “No, I'm living here for 20 years.” I'm like, “Then it absolutely doesn't effing matter” (laughs).
Taylor Davis (17:12):
No.
Marylin Moedinger (17:13):
Are you in a good neighborhood? We don't know where the world's going to be in 20 years. I'm not saying to be foolhardy, but the point is that you have to think about your time horizon.
Taylor Davis (17:22):
I think that's 100% correct. But you can engage professionals to help you. Before you start designing, determine what that investment should look like and what the scope of work should look like that parallels that investment. And that's a really valuable exercise for a lot of people.
Because sometimes that can make them say, “Okay, I'm out, I'm going to sell, and I'm going to go buy a different house, or I'm going to go build somewhere else.” But that very early reconciliation between scope and investment, I think, is probably one of the most critical things you can do as you're starting out a project.
Marylin Moedinger (18:05):
Great note on which to end. We're here to help, I guess.
[Laughter]
Sheri Scott (18:09):
Thanks for joining us today on Home: The Second Story for a quick snack. Questions for us, or interested in being a guest, reach out at admin@htsspodcast.com. See you next time.
[Music playing]
Voiceover (18:23):
Thanks for listening to Home: The Second Story Podcast. Feel free to share this episode with a friend. Contact information for all three of our architects are in our show notes, and don't miss future episodes. Follow or subscribe to our show for free in Apple, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you're listening right now.