Here are my thoughts on a motto. Some of it comes from the Baord Of Architecture and what in means to earn the title of Architect.

I solemnly swear I am a person of good moral character. I am am a licensed Architect professionally educated for five or six years by an accredited university or college. I  have completed  three years of training under a licensed architect. I have passed the professional exam leading to the title of Architect.

I am licensed by the state I provide service in. I will uphold the laws of the state, county, municipally or community I serve in.

I pledge to use good judgment in our service to clients and to our community in whole. I will work to ensure the health, safety and protection of property.

My decisions are based on my  education, training and practice.

I will work to the highest levels of integrity, judgment, business, artistic and technical ability.

I will use professional judgment and be unprejudiced in my decisions.

I will provide service that leads to the creation of the built environment for use and beauty of individuals, families and the greater community.

I will continue to learn and educate myself in poser vice to my clrot shear

I pledge to share my skills and knowledge with my peers and to help further the education of my clients, builders, and trade partners in persuit of a better built environment.

I pledge to be a good stewart of this worlds natural resources and to work towards a sustainable environment.

Don,

Here are some stream of conscious thoughts on home building in no special order.  They may help you or someone spare a headache.  Generally we would change < 1% and thoroughly loved our experience.

Russel the home owner acted as his own GC. and HVAC contractor. His back ground is land development and this was his first experience building anything other than  neighborhoods. He has been in his house 8 months now. This type of feed back is first in my career. What have you all experienced?

Insulate interior walls with foam or cellulose for sound deadening

Don’t nail boxes in baseboard for rooms with wainscoting or paneling – Trim guy should set final location

Install Christmas light switch turn centrally turn on/off candles

limit windows opened during construction.  Workers will DAMAGE / BREAK

Protect door thresholds and limit access

Security panel should NOT be under the main stair

Wire for generator on panel (welding 220 outlet)

LED outdoor lighting

Iris Reading lights over master bed

4way switch MBR ½ hot outlets

3way secondary bedroom ½ hot outlets at bed and doors (turn lamps off from bed)

Locate lights on plan AND field mark ahead of contractor

Wire CAT 6 all bedrooms, TV’s etc.  Minimum 4 in Office

Cut Floor outlets after furniture is in place.

Block baseboard outlets 1 2×4 up from sub floor.

Hide subwoofer in wall media room

Fantech bath fans

Plan for art lighting (ceiling pinhole lights best)

Plan upstairs areas for noise below ie exercise should NOT be over master bedroom.

Review coffer layout for room on plans to understand door symmetry.

Locate a safe in the house

Set house elevation for drainage.

Ensure no water at front drive / walkway

Frame pockets for vents and outlets to center

Know trim width to set switches (minimum 3 studs blocking)

Block for towel, toilet paper, curtains etc

Extend closets to eaves (if you have clipped ceilings)

Set pocket doors (probably 1”)  “high” to match adjacent doors trim heights. Set from HW floor NOT Sub floor.

Plumb for gas starters all fires

Dig irrigation well

Take more digital pics than you think you need.  Deliberately photograph plumbing, electrical, insulation etc.

MBA – bench should have ankle recess for comfort

Decide opening side of shower to relate to Steam / light on off.

Make 2×6 wall for major plumbing side

Remove low flow plugs from rain head

Don’t slope ceiling in steam shower

HVAC

Use wall returns sparingly and decorative woodgrills

Have ERV on HVAC system

Seriously consider geothermal HVAC

After only being active for about 3 or 4 days, our ArCH website is on Page 2 of Google for our CEUs for Licensed Architects page, just above the AIA of NYC.  How about that?

I just punched up a few SEO things, so my guess is that will continue to rise, until we are on page 1.  The AIA is #1.

The difference is: those that we list are Free and mainly online.

ok-think I am onboard!

Friend, co-founder of ArCH, and licensed architect Perry Cofield has recently been working with Job Corps across the USA.  He evaluates existing Job Corps facilities along with a team of engineers and inputs that information into the Job Corps facilities software, to help them assess conditions and evaluate future improvements.

Perry explained that the Job Corps was established by Sargent Shriver.  His son, Mark Shriver, congratulated recent Job Corps graduates on August 24, 2012 in Washington, D.C. on National Job Corp Commencement Day.  The program acquired portions of old military bases, unoccupied seminaries and other facilities decades ago, in the Lyndon Johnson era.  The purpose is to house vocational students in dormitories and have classrooms and cafeterias and other facilities available to help train America’s youth to become what they want to be, in a vocational context.

For more information on the US Department of Labor’s Job Corps, see:
US Job Corps

Congratulations on your good work there, Perry!  America thanks you!

Just one more example of the kind of professionals we have among our ArCH membership.

Check out this good news from Barclays:

This means, that by 2015, the USA economy could be cranking back up again.  Yay!

Hello ArCH Folks,

I’ve not seen anybody else posting anything yet, or making comments, which tells me that the interface might need tweaking.  As our website programmers have explained it to me, it is:

You are now welcome to register as a Subscriber to this blog, then Log-in to begin leaving comments to other’s posts. You can immediately become a Subscriber, allowing you to make comments, however Admin needs to recognize you as a full member before upgrading your blog status to Contributor, so that might take a few hours, depending on where Admin is. Once you are recognized as a Contributor, you can then begin creating your own new topics and Posting them here (called Posts on WordPress sites, which this is).