Designing homes has long been a passion and hobby. Many of you know that I have been designing houses since I was a teenager. My first real experience designing a constructed home from scratch was our current house in Central Lonsdale, and I have been so proud of the result. After my initial drawings I passed my photoshop files to an Architect who completed the submission drawings. 

Perhaps the most validating affirmation of my ability and talent came when one afternoon a couple rang our gate bell one day to ask who had designed our house. I had told them that I did to which they immediately then asked if I would design a home for them! After working with my new clients, I teamed up with a friend who was an architecture student at the time to finalize the drawings and the stunning home in North Vancouver was completed in 2019. 

When it came time to design our new home, I naturally wanted to take the lead. But this time I made the bold move to take it one step further and learn professional architectural drafting software. With the support of our incredible builders at Naikoon meant this mean that we would not need to use an architect, instead the structural engineers would take on the role of being the certified professional of record. 

My brother had used Chief Architect for many years, so it seemed like the best tool. He was incredible supportive in teaching me the basics, and there were many late night video calls with him showing me how to do things. 

Chief Architect is not cheap and has a HUGE learning curve, but it is a professional grade CAD program that creates construction ready drawings, as well as all the 3D renderings that you’ll see here on the site. 

It was a huge achievement (again with the support of our builders) to be able to create submission and construction ready architectural drawings on December 15th without the need to engage an Architect or Draftsperson.