Most people assume construction starts two weeks after they meet their architect.

At Studio Meld, the first week is usually spent signing the contract.

This used to frustrate clients. It still occasionally does. But after watching too many farmhouses go over budget, stall mid-construction, or arrive at completion looking nothing like what the owner imagined — I have stopped apologizing for it.

What happens when you start before you are ready

I had a client who pushed hard to begin. Drawings were released as the site needed them because waiting felt like wasting time. No full tender set. No Bill of Quantities. No complete specification sheet.

By the time the last room was done, he had spent significantly past his original budget. The contractor did not cheat him. The budget did not lie. Starting before the design was complete did.

Every decision made on the fly during construction costs more than the same decision made on paper. A change to a wall position before the slab costs nothing. After the slab, it costs time, material, and contractor patience. After the walls are up, it can compromise the structure.

The 11 weeks we spend before a single brick is placed are not delay. They are the cheapest part of the project.

What Stage 00 actually looks like

Before we draw anything, we ask questions that have nothing to do with the building.

What time do you wake up? Do you read in bed or move to a chair? How do you spend a Sunday morning? Do you eat outside, or do you always end up back in the kitchen? How do you entertain — a few close friends or a crowd? What kind of light do you want in your study? Do you have a dog, and where does it go when guests arrive?

A couple came to us wanting a farmhouse — three bedrooms, a courtyard, fairly open brief. By the time we finished Stage 00, we knew which room needed to face east, why the kitchen had to be visible from the gate, and how they actually move through space on a typical day. The brief went from vague to specific before they even realised it was happening.

Then we asked: are you planning to list this on Airbnb?

They had not thought about it. Most farmhouse clients have not, at that stage. And that one question changes the brief more than almost anything else. Bedroom count, entry sequence, outdoor access, kitchen layout — all of it shifts. Catching it before the slab is poured costs nothing. After, it costs a great deal.

Stages 00 through 04

The pre-construction process runs across five stages, each with a sign-off before we move to the next.

Stage 00: Discovery. Understanding how you live, what the property needs to do, and who else will use it. We ask about the 280 days you will not be there, not just the weekends you will.

Stage 01: Site Analysis. We visit the site — more than once, and at different times of day. We are reading the breeze direction, the sun angle, the natural drainage, the views worth capturing and the ones worth blocking. We do not send a junior. We go.

Stage 02: Preliminary Drawings. The first sketches, built on everything we have learned. Not renders. Not concepts. Actual spatial thinking based on your life and your land.

Stage 03: Visualization. This is where you see what you are building before it exists. We work through the space with you until the decisions feel right.

Stage 04: Working Drawings and BOQ. Every dimension, every material, every fixture — documented to the point where a contractor can price it accurately and build it without calling us for clarification on things that should have been specified in advance.

What a proper tender set does

Our contractors take longer to quote now than they used to. They read everything before sending a number. A few have called to say thank you — because detailed drawings mean fewer surprises and fewer escalation arguments mid-project.

When a contractor quotes against a complete BOQ and a specification sheet that lists every item under the slab rate separately, the number they give you is defensible. When they quote against a rough sketch and a per-square-foot rate, the number is a guess that will be revised the moment ground conditions, material prices, or scope clarity shifts.

I sat in a meeting with a client and a contractor in Hyderabad. The contractor had quoted thin. I said so, with the client in the room. During construction, he tried to reduce the ceiling height from the specified 11'6" to 10 feet. He said the windows were too large. Both were in the drawings he had received before quoting.

We got back in the room. Went through the drawings together. Where he had genuinely underquoted on something that was not clear in the original documents, I told the client plainly — this is fair, pay it. Where the specification was unambiguous and he was trying to recover margin, I said that too. The client paid what was reasonable. The contractor finished the job. The building exists.

A proper tender set is what makes that conversation possible. Without it, you are arguing about what was agreed based on memory, not documents.

The transparency problem

One thing a mentor pointed out early on: clients can go quiet during the technical drawing stages, not because they have disengaged but because we already have what we need and the design work becomes internal. Clients were left wondering if anything was moving.

We now run a live Google Sheet for every project. Every drawing, its status, and when it was last updated. One look and you know exactly where your project stands. It is a small thing. It matters.