Recommendations for Home inspector and architect/designer?

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

Hi All,

I will search the archives/tags too, but i don't recall seeing anything go by recently. I find myself in the position of having placed an offer on a house and having it been accepted (yay! and scary!). Now I need to find an inspector. Any recommendations on someone who is thorough? What type of cost should I expect?

I also would like to contact an architect or designer about some remodeling work that will need to be done immediately after closing (if everything goes well, of course). I have no idea where to begin with finding someone who can help design a plan for knocking out several internal walls on the first floor. Any recommendations on people to contact? where to start? what to expect?

Thanks in advance, i'm a total newbie at this. Also, this is in North Cambridge, though I don't think that should effect recommendations...

Comments

[library-sexy.livejournal.com]

I know that Greg Rapp Architecture specializes in residential work:

Greg Rapp Website (http://www.rapparchitecture.com/profile/)

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

Do you need a designer or just a guy to knock out the walls? A general contractor would be fine for that and he/she would use their engineer to make sure things are done safely. This can be very expensive for load bearing walls, very cheap otherwise. We got a quote of $4k to remove one wall that's about 10' (but is thick and includes a chimney and a few other messy things). I think that quote is a bit high though and we haven't sought out another yet. If you hire a designer, they are going to sub out the contracting work and take a cut in the cost, making it more expensive (but you might end up with better results/more professional supervision, etc.)

Our inspector was good and cost about $275 I think. I think he's from Somerville, or works there a lot at least:

Frank Marinello
marinellohomeinspection.com
781 956-0125

That will not include a pest inspection or a radon test if you want to go that route.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

This is a question I wonder about (designer vs. just contractor). I think we'll continue to research on that front. Some of the walls are not load bearing, but at least one is. I think we would keep part of it as a column, but basically want to open up the whole first floor into one big room, because it's sort of oddly laid out and cramped seeming as is....

thanks for the recommendations!

[clevernonsense.livejournal.com]

I certainly won't recommend this without researching it on your own first, but a friend of mine had a non-load bearing wall that she tore down herself (with my help!) hauled the waste away, and then paid a general contractor a very small amount to "finish" things up.

[greyling.livejournal.com]

I used a contractor whom I definitely would not recommend (Steve Walsh at Center Line Construction) to knock out a load-bearing wall in a very similar situation. I made it very clear when I wanted the work done (just after closing, for which I had a specific date). He did a solid job on the big heavy-duty frame stuff, but was not up-front and very shoddy about finishing up. I don't trust the man. He also took forever to finish the job, much longer than the timeline he'd estimated earlier.

It cost me about $6k to knock out this central, load-bearing wall in my house, install a kitchen island (I paid for the island separately), and replace a part of the sewage pipe.

If I did this again, I would probably ask Junior at J Construction to do it: jconstructions@hotmail.com - I've been very happy with his communication.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

thank you for the anti recommendation and also for the price estimate info. That's really helpful.

did they leave a column or somehow replace the load bearing wall? one suggestion we've heard is to have a beam run across the entire ceiling in replacement of the load bearing wall.

oh the possibilities, limited only by the imagination and the pocketbook! :)

[greyling.livejournal.com]

They ran a beam of reinforced lumber across the ceiling. It's significant; it's probably 1.5 feet or so deep, in that it sticks out 1.5 feet from the ceiling.

I had originally envisioned some miraculous solution in which there'd be no visible room-divider left, but I'm happy with the beam. It gives me a great place to hang pots and pans from.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

i was wondering about that myself. If you felt inclined or were able to send pictures, I would love to see what it turned out looking like. if you would like, you can email to moodindg (at) gmail

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

also, did you have an architect design it, or did the contractor draw up the plans? was he able to stamp them? (i'm being told plans would need to be stamped)

Thanks!

[greyling.livejournal.com]

Uhm. Plans? ;)

[greyling.livejournal.com]

Which is to say, the contractor told me what he wanted to do, and I agreed, and he did it - I don't think I ever saw anything drawn out.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

I can highly recommend Harold Pop at Mt Vernon Inspection Associates, (617) 548-5002, and www.myhouseinspector.com. He was very thorough with our inspection. We paid somewhere in the $400-500 range, but that was including termite inspection and radon test.

You may also want a real estate lawyer to look over your paperwork, and for that I recommend Chris Burt:
Christine Burt (Attny)
564 Main Street
Suite 301
Waltham, MA 02452
(781)894-9200
I spend hours with her on the phone going over the bits of legalese that I didn't understand, and she was very patient with me. You should know that she has a very deep voice, so don't be alarmed if you think you've accidentally phoned a man.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[unferth.livejournal.com]

I also used Harold Popp and was happy with the results.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation, we are going with Harold. If anyone is interested, i'll update this post to reflect how we thought it went after we do the walk through on Wednesday.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

returning to add we were incredibly happy with Harold's inspection. With Angie's List membership, we got the radon testing for free, and paid $450 for inspection plus pest and radon testing. Well worth the money.

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

we've been working with David King at David L King architects, but your job may be too small for him to take.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

thanks, i just contacted him yesterday and he will at least discuss my plans/goals and we'll see if we can go from there.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

wondering if you could give me more feed back about using David? we can go offline, if you would like. I'm trying to get a sense of what a general price range for his services might be, for creating the schematic drawings for redoing one floor (no changing of house envelope, moving windows, etc, just knocking out two walls).... is your project comparable?

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

we've used him for designing rather more extensive work -- total reno of a basement, including cutting a new door into the foundation and adding a patio, laying out a new kitchen, and a total gut and rebuild of a second floor, including ripping the roof off and adding dormers. I think we paid around $1000 for the basement/kitchen job (laid out simultaneously) because it also included electrical design work, and about $500 for the second floor job because it was less detailed (just placing the walls, the detailed construction drawing will come later when we start the project). If you know what you want in terms of placement, King may be too expensive.

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

I'll give an anti-recommendation for Tiger Home Inspection.

And a ++for Architect to David Whitney (http://www.davidwhitney.com/) who came up with a nice plan for building my basement space out into legal dwelling space (had been a sketchy in-law when I bought my place)

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

can you tell me more about your experience with Tiger Home Inspection? that is one that was recommended by friends of ours, and who inspected our condo when we bought 12 years ago (but we were young and stupid then!).

[vibrantabyss.livejournal.com]

The failed to flag a number of items, which ran me between 5 and 8 grand. I also know someone who briefly worked for them, about five years after I bought my home, and he quit because he said there was pressure just to rush rush rush through each job, hence opening space for lots of errors.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

I had a good experience with Tiger. It might depend on which inspector they send.

[dahdahdahdancer.livejournal.com]

If you do need an architect, Joe at JFF Design (jffdesign.com) is a good resource. Nice guy, knowledgeable, honest.

Alistair Lucks

[secretlyironic.livejournal.com]

For architecture and design, I've worked with Alistair Lucks on some very small projects, but he's got a more extensive portfolio of work as well-- http://www.alistairlucks.com/

One thing I like about him is that he has really good taste, and in a situation where I was basically asking "what should I do with this space?" he was able to help me narrow down the choices to something which was both affordable and tasteful.

[ron_newman]

I added three tags, though I'm not sure this exact subject has come up before.

Harold Popp

[springhill02143.livejournal.com]

It's great to see people on here using and recommending Harold Popp. I've known and worked with him for 15+ years and had great experience myself. Have also had many, many friends and colleagues who have had the same experience. I keep hoping he doesn't retire before I purchase my next home.