Daniel Boardman Residential Design

My husband Steve and I purchased a three acre lot in Spicewood to design our second custom home with Daniel Boardman. We just completed the plans and are about to start construction. The builder we are using has built several custom homes for Daniel's clients and he definitely stood out among the other builders we interviewed.

It went well. Ours was a remodel project, with constraints imposed by the land, the existing dwelling and budgetary considerations. These constraints mentioned made the problem quite challenging. Daniel appropriately divided up the project into 2 phases with the first construction phase in progress now. He is an excellent communicator, knowledgeable, patient and sincere. Our discussions with him provided us the necessary perspective and detail to enable us to confidently proceed.

Daniel met with us and spent a couple hours discussing our existing house and yard layout and our ideas for the future. He pointed out a few possibilities in our house that we hadn't considered before and gave us some good things to consider as we continued planning, and he referred us to a general contractor he trusted as well. In the end, we deferred the entire project because of some extenuating circumstances, but we appreciated Daniel's input and responsiveness, and we would go back to him if we continue the project in the future.

Perfect design. Daniel developed a contemporary design that is efficient and highly livable, and is breathtaking to look at and live in. He selected a lot that provided excellent views, and then situated the house on the lot perfectly. My electric bill for July 2016 was only $203 despite having 40 windows, 3,400 square feet, black exterior stucco and many 100 degree days. June 2016 bill was only $166. Simply amazing.

Everything came out perfect. Daniel designed a contemporary home that is functional and highly usable, while also breathtaking to look at and live in. The house is placed perfectly on the lot to take advantage of views and to reduce cooling costs. You would think a 3,400 square foot home with over 40 windows, zero blinds, and black colored stucco would be expensive to cool. Now the amazing part- despite many 100 degree days, July 2016 electric bill was only $203 and June 2016 was only $166. How does it get any better than that?

Perfectly. Daniel has the ability to design a comtemporary house that is functional and highy usable, as well as breath-taking. And the coup-degras? A 3,400 square foot home with 40 windows that has very low electric consumption. we painted our exterior black and have zero blinds. Despite many 100 degree days, our July 2016 electric bill was only $203. June 2016 was $166. Amazing!!!!! The house is superb.

Daniel was great to work with, he was very easy to communicate with, he made us feel like were his only client, and he is very knowledgeable on green building construction. He was very thorough in explaining how to design our home so that it opens up to our pool and our views of the Texas Hill Country. We designed a home that achieved interior and exterior sight lines to the beautiful hills on both sides of our home, and has excellent flow by thinking about the furniture placement in the open space. We did computer models (renderings) of the interior and exterior to see what the home looks like before we built it. This helped us understand the furniture & appliance placement, visualize our interior & exterior spaces, as well as the materials and colors. The renderings were also very helpful in getting approval from the HOA. The construction drawings were also very well put together and the builder was impressed. Our home defines great architecture and our friends and family love it. Everyone is always very happy here when they visit and we love to entertain. The design of the home is very accommodating to everyone as the kitchen is the heart of the home and connects so well to the other interior spaces and the outdoor entertaining area around the pool and outdoor kitchen. We couldn?t be happier and we recommend Daniel every chance we get!

We love him, he's been great and punctual. He really listens to what you say and gives you professional advice. We highly recommend him.

He did an excellent job. The cost was reasonable and I found him on Angie's List. He came up with some good ideas and I liked him.

I have worked with quite a few Architects over the years and Daniel Boardman was extremely accommodating. He is concerned with your ideas and wants not HIS ideas about what you should do. He stayed within budget, made fantastic recommendations for designs, and was available for all kinds of questions about resources & materials. He is punctual, professional, and was a pleasure to deal with throughout the design and construction process. Even when completed, he is the type to always be available for questions and to help you work through resolutions, whatever the issue might be. I would strongly recommend him and his firm to anyone looking for architectural design or construction services. This was my second time employing Daniel and I have recommended him to many of my friends. My builder, who has worked with many Architects, said he was the easiest Architect he has ever worked with and has done a few jobs with him since. If you are looking for someone to work with you and for you, Daniel is the guy!

We had a difficult and unusual situation, and Daniel was very helpful. The original contractor took out a wall and added a master suite, without any drawings and without pulling any permits; then he left the job incomplete. In order to complete it, we needed permits, and in order to get permits we needed someone who could draw the building as it stood, so we could explain to the city what happened. Enter Daniel, who helped us navigate all the city requirements. Daniel's drawings were great, and he did spend time for us going to the city to make sure he understood what they needed in order for us to get the permits. Daniel was very easy to work with, and usually available when we needed to speak with him. He was always professional, and his price was MORE than fair. The only issue we had with Daniel was the timing. We originally met with him on 5/28, and verbally he told us it would take a month to 6 weeks to get the drawings done. We even asked if it could happen any quicker than that, but he said that he could not do it any quicker because of other work he had. But we did not receive his final drawings and invoice until 10/22.

We couldn’t be happier with the finished product! A home addition is a daunting task and there are a lot of unknowns but Daniel seemed to have answers to all of our questions, he made us feel very comfortable through the entire designing, permitting, and building process. He did a very good job of listening to us, being responsive, communicating, and helping is to visualize our home addition. He was even able to do some 3-D models of our home and kitchen. We were very impressed with how well he was able to help use pull our ideas together and bring our project to life. We also look at our home as an investment, especially living in Austin where the market is so hot, Daniel emphasized this from the beginning. He helped us focus on making the right decisions that would give us the most bang for our buck and return if we ever decided to resale. Altogether we spent $100,000 on our remodeling project, but my realtor told us she could sell the home today for $150,000 more than she would have before our addition. We love our home and our friends constantly complement us on the flow and design. Thank you Daniel!

He had all kinds of ideas, but he couldn't get it down on paper very good. He didn't do us any good. We finally fired him after about six months. He had some good ideas, but the last that we heard from him, he wanted to do bring a contractor in to look at it, and draw some more money through the contractor. I don't know if he didn't know how to finish it up what he had in his mind, or what the problem was. But in that time we just said that he should try to get a design and try to get bids. Actually the cost went up. After all this time I hope the man got better in that area. So we just scrapped the plan altogether and paid him close to $2000. We got an outside design, we didn't get a finalized one, he said it would take another 20 hours, and he charged about $75 an hour, to finish the plan. I think his price was probably fair enough for if he was an architect. What he did for us, wasn't too bad, it just did not get finalized. His responsiveness was really bad.

Dan was easy to work with. He allowed us to make changes and worked with us to make sure that we got what we wanted. He had previously worked with our builder which enabled them to work together during the design phase to help control costs for the overall project. Dan did a great job with the design of our elevations an really helped us navigate the intricacies of building a custom home from the ground up. His process for determining the size and scope of your project during the initial meetings really helped us understand what was realistic and what was not. I felt like he was very in tune with construction side of things as well, even though that is not his primary focus. He understands what you can and cannot do from an engineering standpoint and what structural items will devour a budget and what will not. All in all, I would recommend Dan and would look to use him again on our next project.

My wife and I had never built our own house. We both had different ideas about what we would like in our “forever home” along with some similar features, as well, and we had no idea how to bring all of our various ideas together. Our first meeting with Daniel was at our property. We walked around the area, and within a few minutes he already had several ideas to discuss. We talked about the important features we wanted to incorporate both inside and outside our home-to-be. When our first meeting was over, we both felt that Daniel would be a great architect to work with. Because we live out of town, we communicated with one another over the phone and via email. When significant design decisions needed to be made, we would then get together in person over lunch. Daniel had a design process, and outlined all the steps we would work through. He was very open to our suggestions and when there was something that didn’t fit the design, he didn’t hesitate to explain the shortcomings. The result was a fantastic design that was much more than we had ever dreamed. We had a tight budget to work with, and Daniel delivered not only in the overall design, but also in making the most out of every dollar. Once the designs were completed, Daniel helped us locate a suitable builder. He took time to weed out builders who would not be a good fit or who would be too expensive for us. Once we settled on a builder, Daniel stayed in touch with us as to the progress of the home and communicated with the builder regarding any questions that would arise throughout the build process. All of his building plans were thorough and very accurate for both the builder and tradesmen. The final result was absolutely fantastic! As the build process developed, the contractors and even the delivery guys all commented on what a great, unique house this was. Daniel was truly an awesome find for us! With his vast experience and professional work ethic, he is undoubtedly an extremely talented architect, and we are more than happy to offer this recommendation on his behalf.

First and foremost, Sarah and I absolutely love our house. Building our custom home was an amazing experience for us. Daniel Boardman really listens to his clients. Daniel is also very detail oriented which helps with design and construction. He spends a good amount of time studying the land and the views the property provides to ensure that the views are well framed and incorporated into each room. He pays very close attention to the flow of the home and how the furniture layout will coordinate with the open design and the connection to the outside. We have had many house guests since we moved in and they have all expressed their amazement at the simple beauty of Daniel’s design. Even more important is the less tangible and hard to articulate sense of peace that our house conveys. We could not be more pleased with our home and the work preformed by this company!

Recently my husband and I moved into my father's1962 Allandale home to care for him and my father-in-law. A remodel was necessary to create more rooms, improve arrangements, and update appliances and systems for efficiency. My past experiences with several architects from previous home and business remodels were marginally satisfactory, and reason to start with Daniel Boardman a job to design an existing master bathroom. Daniel's ideas and space arrangement were excellent. When the contractor completed the project, my husband and I were very pleased with the results. We knew we wanted Daniel to continue with us for a major remodel of our home. Daniel was easy to talk to, listened to our desires, and came up with great ideas in design and space. Also he was sensitive to the neighborhood atmosphere, knowledgeable of city codes, and encouraged green design and materials. The general contractor agreed the blueprints were well designed with exact measurements. The general contractor and Daniel worked very well together. The design of the front of the house and the new kitchen were beyond our expectations, not to mention the new bedroom and bathroom, new garage work area, and living area. The high grade Daniel is getting is not just to be nice but simply he earned it and I have no complaints about Daniel's work because the results were outstanding.

Daniel Boardman did an amazing job designing our custom home! He listened to us and helped us filter through our vast array of design ideas to develop a home with style and detail that perfectly fits our lot. He offers a high level of service at a very affordable price that was well below other architecture firms that we looked into. He thoroughly educated us on green building, the building science of home construction, and current building techniques that saved us tons on our monthly energy bills. When we finished the design, he helped us find a trustworthy & qualified green builder to bring his highly detailed house plans to reality. We felt very comfortable working with him because he intelligently addressed every concern we had from design to permitting, and even the construction. The process of building a custom home can be a daunting, but he worked with us closely and made each step enjoyable. We felt very much at ease through the entire process, this guy really knows what he is doing!