yup im an architect and work mainly in the commercial sector , mainly do bigger industrial warehouses, commercial offices with glass and concrete panel facade these days. I have done several house designs usually up to Town Planning Stage and design development as clients like my design, then they subcontract it out to drafties at a cheaper rate to do the working drawings, and usually my client takes over the tender and management with the Builder to save cost.
What I'm asking in this thread is not an architectural question, but more of a contract dispute question and getting your opinions on my chances of debating and win with the Builder of a Display Home. I didnt measure the display home, nor do I have a working set of drawings to compare measurements to. Plus the Display home is not the same home I am building, I am building a smaller home, but trying to adopt the same facade style as that display home (as you can see the photo is mirror image, so only this part of the house is similar, the other side is a variation of the display facade. So we are not comparing apples to apples here.)
When I first told him it looks crap, he said he thinks it looks good, which means I was "picky"! After I posted here, after getting all your replies how bad it REALLY looked, I told him that it wasn't just me, but EVERYONE who looked at it thinks the same. Then he started to investigate it with his foreman.
As I'm not a builder, and certainly have never built a home based on "display home", so I don't know how close the builder is supposed to follow the Display home design up to every detail. How much room is there to judge the style, the design, the look? Hence the purpose of this thread and good to hear all your suggestions that I can push the Builder to match the display. We all know the Display home is a higher standard and pricier home with extras, therefore there could be room for the builder to go "Well this is a $xxxk display home. Yours is a different floor plan and smaller home trying to adopt this similar facade, of course it's going to be different etc".
If it were my design, I would have made sure the drawings are properly done, with all dimensions(measurements) shown and details. I would never go into a contract unless it was properly documented. But in this case for building a "Builder's Home", they said its standard practise to sign based on that drawings as "every customer is doing it", and I was rushed to sign the building contract by the Lender to get the loan approved as it was time to settle the land.
I have read the contract, but it has no clauses whatsoever about using the display home as a standard. It only says Facade: x style facade (that particular house X's facade, but mine is a different house trying to adopt that facade). But now, thinking back what constitutes that style? Is there a drawing somewhere saying "This is Style X Facade", as a standard? There are many variations to a style.That's my main worry. Therefore I need to see if anyone here has dealt with small home builders, and how close they are supposed to match displays usually? There are quite many things left open here with their standard contracts and specifications.
I did actually added a few clauses in the specification saying "interior finishes to match display home". For the facade, I assumed when they say ABC facade style, means you will get all the similar details with very little variations.
Eg for the windowhead, the Builder could argue that the elevation drawings shows x height to gutter, therefore comparing it to the display is irrelevant, since I signed the elevation drawing. Also bear in mind their contractual drawings are pretty simple, as they are done by drafties working for builders. So they never drew in the soldier bricks at the window head nor window sill, which were left open to debate.
My another architect friend designed a house once, with texture brick to the facade, the Builder completely screwed it. It came out looking really bad. He had a huge and long contractual dispute with the Builder, and in the end they had to render it and change the design. Eg the Builder blames inadequate notes in the documentation and blames the supplier, trying to drag it as long as they can.
That is what I don't want!
Well all we can do now is hope when they wash the facade it looks ok!
![IMG_4193markup[2]small.jpg](/data/attachments/2/2738-870d66885aab9ca29737c9b2f53ec4b7.jpg)
Was that a "George Costanza" moment??? 
