Hiring the professionals?

[moreace01]

Hi all - 

I'm a relatively new homeowner and have a bunch of things I need done in my house - but I honestly don't know who to hire. 

How do you decide if you need an Interior Designer, or a Contractor or...even when you need to bring in an Architect? 

Stuff I need done - 

• Janky area overlooking our basement level. Essentially - previous homeowners took out a room and opened up an area that looks down into the semi finished basement. It has a wall of mirrors... We need to rethink what is going on here, entirely. 
  
• If we get really fancy - floating stairs into basement level
• Solid core doors throughout home
• Possibly soundproofing in a basement office/music room
• Removal of wet bar in basement, new flooring and turning room into bedroom or workout room with a door
• Updated entryway flooring, overhead lighting and possibly paneling (we have a MCM house)

Pix below of janky basement overlook.

Anyway - I want this all to be cohesive, but would a contractor be able to pull all of this off or do we need a designer?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!








 

[dancingirl21]

That is something. Do you know what you want to do with the space? Close it back up entirely into a new room, or leave the overlook and close up the floor windows (why?)/get rid of mirrors?

If you know what you want to do, or have a general idea, a contractor should be fine. If you want to start from scratch, a designer might be best. Look for a design/build firm, where it’s an all-in-one place.

[momin2013]

Agree with PP - if you know what you want to do, a contractor should be able to do the job. From your list, my guess is you might want a designer for #1, probably contractor for the rest (unless you get a design/build firm that does both).

[moreace01]

Apr 25, 2023 11:45:42 GMT -5 dancingirl21 said:

That is something. Do you know what you want to do with the space? Close it back up entirely into a new room, or leave the overlook and close up the floor windows (why?)/get rid of mirrors?

Lol. It IS something! It's hard to describe exactly what's going on there, and the pictures are kind of confusing. I am sure there are codes against what they did as well. We definitely want the mirrors taken down, but then...not sure what to do next. I don't think we want to close it up. It's an MCM home so honestly, wood paneling is not the worst idea. And then there's this funny little ledge area that needs to be dealt with. Anyway. We're trying to track a few people down to talk to and get some ideas. 

[dancingirl21]

Apr 25, 2023 16:21:34 GMT -5 moreace01 said:

Apr 25, 2023 11:45:42 GMT -5 dancingirl21 said:

That is something. Do you know what you want to do with the space? Close it back up entirely into a new room, or leave the overlook and close up the floor windows (why?)/get rid of mirrors?

Lol. It IS something! It's hard to describe exactly what's going on there, and the pictures are kind of confusing. I am sure there are codes against what they did as well. We definitely want the mirrors taken down, but then...not sure what to do next. I don't think we want to close it up. It's an MCM home so honestly, wood paneling is not the worst idea. And then there's this funny little ledge area that needs to be dealt with. Anyway. We're trying to track a few people down to talk to and get some ideas. 

I get it. That’s a hard space to design. A contractor might be able to give you a few ideas. I’d probably try to meet with a contractor and a design/build firm to see the difference in ideas and cost. I design all of our spaces and my husband is a GC, but that one has me stumped. Good luck!

[Deleted]

If you want to demo walls at all, or reshape the structure an architect may be the way to go.

A general contractor will help pull together people to put the space together that the architect designed.

If you want to keep the interior structure the same but take down the mirror panels, pulling everything together cosmetically an interior designer may be the route.