Your building project is your brain child. You conceive the idea, you talk to professionals and you work withe them to evaluate the idea for its feasibility. You determine how much is it going to cost, how is it going to be financed, if executed what would be the return on your investment, you study the market for it. You study whether the timing is right. You investigate potential locations. You iterate on evaluating the building's feasibility, its location, its cost, its benefits, the potential risks, and so forth. Then the decision maker in you decides whether to proceed with the project.

It is no different if you plan to build your dream house. It is a family decision -- what type of house, how big the house, where to build the house, how much you can afford to spend on the house, and on and on. You talk to professionals about your home ... you discuss with the architect your ideas about the house, your needs, your vision, your likes and dislikes. Schematics are prepared -- you study the features, you look at the styles, you look at how it suits your needs, your views, your likes and dislikes. You select one of the schematics -- from that a preliminary design is prepared. Now you see more details, you get a better idea of how the house will look like, how much the house will cost. You make adjustments, you do some fine tuning, you bring the cost estimate closer to your budget cost. Things are beginning to fall in place.

Your dream project is now ready for detailed design. A network of professionals prepares the design documents, right materials. equipment, processes, fixtures and accessories are specified. Cost estimate per detailed drawings is prepared. Some fine tuning is done again to ensure that the detailed design cost estimate is consistent with your budget cost.

Building permit is obtained. Project manager breaks the project into various packages, bids are obtained from suppliers and subs for various packages, costs and schedules are negotiated.