Investing in your property is a big commitment. Whether during a pandemic or not, your decisions will impact your family’s life and finances for the indefinite future. What remains constant is the importance of assembling a team that you trust to both exceed your project goals and educate you in making the right decisions along the way. Like many industries, ours has been challenged by temporary closures, financial uncertainty, and remote teamwork. In this new normal, we have relied on our standardized process to ensure our level of service and schedules remain unaffected. The medium may have changed, but our message remains the same; trust and quality stem from experience, communication and enthusiasm for challenging the status quo.
Here is how we have adapted our working process to be delivered remotely:
STEP 1: DO I QUALIFY?
As a first step, we offer a Free Property Review prepared remotely with only your address required. This accurately outlines your lot’s eligibility and approximates an as-of-right buildable area with no site visit required, and is delivered by email and/or phone call.
STEP 2: PRELIMINARY DESIGN
After discussing your project needs over the phone, we deliver a preliminary design document by online meeting. This ‘toes in the water’ package provides you with 3 site plan schemes, 3 resolved interior floor plans, a complete project pro-forma, and timeline information. It includes everything you need to understand your options and obligations when considering a laneway suite, allowing you to make an educated decision on how best to meet your project goals.
Most of our clients commission these to get a better understanding of what a laneway project entails before they commit to an architect or builder, and online meetings are working well for delivering and discussing the possibilities of a property. Check out our preliminary brochure for more detail on what the Preliminary Design phase entails.
STEP 3: APPROVALS AND CONSTRUCTION
Once you are confident in the physical and financial projections, we begin the design and approvals phase. Our templated process streamlines approvals while remaining flexible enough to account for the uniqueness of every project. Drawing from past experience, we can confidently proceed with design work and remain productive while awaiting responses from the city. The project is always moving forward ensuring our schedule is never at the mercy of city backlogs.
We have been able to remain collaborative by holding design reviews over web-chats and screen shares. Our process is built around 3D digital models for every project, so this platform allows us to share the model directly with our clients, making revisions and analyzing the implications of each decision in real-time.
In a time where we are all adapting to a new normal, our process remains largely unaltered – we have always been set up to communicate and collaborate under any circumstance. Even in the absence of handshakes and meetings around your dining room table, our projects continue to move forward and your laneway potential remains uncompromised.
Make the best of your time in self-isolation and start dreaming about living on your laneway while staying in your sweats. Send us your property address here to get started.