Building a new home or remodeling an existing one is a big undertaking, no doubt about it. Homeowners can easily get overwhelmed with the amount of decisions involved, and are looking to the professionals involved to help guide them in making the right choices. As both an architect and a builder, I’ve seen the gamut of nerve-wracking scenarios that can be costly (or at least unsightly) if not dealt with correctly. A typical new home involves roughly 2,000 decisions–large and small­–and a good architect and interior designer will make about 1,990 of them for you. If questions are left unanswered in the construction drawings, you leave it up to the subcontractors to make the decisions, and they typically don’t have a grasp of the bigger design picture that could be affected. Good construction plans should have a system for all the details–from stucco color to wood floor choices, types of interior doors, woodwork design and finishes, lighting, countertop surfaces, etc.–that provides the homeowner some peace of mind that every decision has been well though out by a professional who has designed hundreds or thousands of homes. No one loves a good subcontractor or supplier more than me, but don’t let him make your design decisions.