Benjamin Design Collabortive
Inez Smith
401 Clark Ave., Suite 200
Ames, IA 50010
January 15, 2006
Dear Ms. Smith,
This letter is in response to your recent letter regarding an overdue bill and to explain
why we have not paid the bill.
When we began working with John Lott on our remodel project, we were quite excited at
working with professional architects for the first time. At that time, we made it very clear
to Mr. Lott that we expected a good return on the significant investment of hiring an
architect. At that time, Mr. Lott estimated that the total charges would amount to around
$20,000. After careful deliberation, we signed the letter agreeing to work with Mr. Lott.
The next meeting occurred when Mr. Lott’s assistants came to the job site to assess the
project. At that point, we made it very clear to James and the other architect that their
focus was to be a plan for increasing the curb appeal of the building with a focus on
creating a foyer for the inside elbow of this L-shaped home.
The third meeting took place where James and the other architect showed us their ideas.
At this meeting, it was completely clear that James had not listened to my primary edict
about the face of the home. Significant time was spent changing my floor plan and the
proposed flow of the interior of the home. I had already spent several hundred hours, and
more than a few spirited discussions with my wife, creating a floor plan that we were
very happy with. You see, this is not our first turn around the remodel bend and
consequently, we have a very good understanding of floor plans. Even worse, James
proposed foyer was in a completely different area of the building. His proposed foyer not
only dramatically changed my floor plan, it failed to take into account a large red maple
tree that would virtually obscure the addition. Further, this red maple is not on our
property and can therefore not be removed. We completed this first meeting with
absolutely nothing we could use.
At the end of the meeting, I had resolved that we would pay our bill and no longer work
with Benjamin Design. At this point, our bill stood at $1240.00 and we are not so wealthy
that we can spend that kind of money and receive nothing for it. My wife, though
disappointed, was not completely ready to give up. We paid our bill in full and left. I then
came up with a shape and roof line for the foyer on the inside of the elbow that I felt
would work. My wife and I took this idea to James to see if he could come up with some
good ideas for windows and surface treatments. We made it clear to James that this was a
final audition for Benjamin Design. At this point, I asked James what the maximum cost
would be to get some ideas on paper. His response was $600-$800. I then stated that this
was the amount he had to work with--$800.
We soon had a final meeting where James showed us the results of his work. A few of the
designs had some appeal, but bear in mind that the building shape was my idea. However,
not long after the meeting, I realized that James had made several major errors in the
work. First, he had focused only on the foyer addition; very little attention was given to
the whole face of the building. Second, the window placements were too low and the wall
heights were too high. He had failed to account for the fact that soffits mean there is little
or no room for siding materials above windows on a single story structure. This is a basic
mistake a professional architect should never make and made a huge difference in the
effectiveness of his ideas. A short time later, we received the bill.
Imagine our shock at receiving a bill for $1705 when we had specifically told James that
we would spend no more than $800. This became the ultimate factor in our decision to
cease working with Benjamin Design or any other architect. I have meant to write this
letter for some time and regret it has taken me this long to state my position.
We are willing to pay the $800 we agreed to with James, but no more. Bear in mind that
this means that would have spent over $2000 and received absolutely nothing we could
use in return. We are certainly not willing to spend almost $3000 as you are requesting
for the same result. How would you feel in our position? $2000 or $3000 for a bag of
nothing based on poor listening skills and a lack of attention about home construction?
If you send us a revised bill of $800, it will be paid. However, if you choose to pursue
further action (as stated in your letter), we will look forward to the opportunity of
discussing this matter in front of a judge in small claims court.
Sincerely,
Michael Satterwhite &
Carla Weiner
Ames, Iowa, 50014