It was an ambitious house and the leaded glass windows of the living room faced north.  So keeping its temperature at a comfortable point in winter was an added difficulty.  The sunny southwestern exposure, being at the back, was given over to kitchen and servants’ quarters.  Lastly, the one pleasing prospect, a friendly little valley with a meandering brook, could only be seen to advantage from the garage.  The architect’s fee had been saved but when, a little later, the owner wanted to sell, it took several years to find a buyer and then only at a price of half the money invested.  The new owner consulted an architect with a gift for rearranging and so succeeded in mitigating the worst features and in taking advantage of the cheerful aspects inherent with the site.  Like a good doctor or lawyer, an able architect can usually get you out of trouble; but the ancient slogan, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” fits admirably here.

Do not, however, engage an architect as lightly as you would select a cravat.  To him you are intrusting the task of putting your chaotic and half-expressed thoughts and desires into a set of plans that will guide and control masons, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and painters in their work.  As your professional adviser, it will be his job to bridge the gap between the date of purchase and the happy occasion when your household goods are deposited in a home embodying your ideas and wishes.

Obviously he must be in sympathy with those ideas.  If you are building a new house on old lines or remodeling an existing structure with a century or more to its credit, don’t select a man to advise you who can see nothing but the newest and most modernistic types of architecture.  Don’t be afraid to ask for evidences of past performances.  Since no architect discards his plans and renderings, he will be glad to show you a few of them.  Also in this initial conference, names of clients for whom he has executed commissions within the fairly recent past may be mentioned.  It is sensible to consult two or three of these.  If he has pleased them, he is probably fitted to undertake your problems.  For solving them and knowing how to get desired results, you will pay him a fee that ranges from six to ten per cent of the total cost of the work undertaken.  For special cases that involve unusual work, it may be slightly higher.  The amount of the fee, as well as the dates at which portions of it become payable, will be settled in your initial interview.

There are occasional men, however, calling themselves architects who are not qualified.  They have no degree from a recognized school; cannot qualify for registration in states where architects, like doctors, lawyers, teachers and other professional people, must have a state license to practice.  Like other charlatans, such men are glib talkers but it takes real ability and thorough training to prepare practical plans and specifications.  Here is where the dabster betrays himself.  A little independent investigation may prevent you from putting your building problems into the hands of such an incompetent man.