My husband and I hired Mr. Snider to design our 'dream home.' When we hired him we said we wanted the plans in four months and would rely on his years of designing to let us know what would work and what wouldn't. We also said that the house would be built of Styrofoam block and concrete and we'd be using an on-demand water heater. We were told, 'no problem.' Six months later we got the plans and as he handed them to us he said, ""I designed it as a 'stick and brick.' If you want Styrofoam block and concrete, it'll take me just a little longer."" We were already two months behind starting our project! When we took the plans to our contractor he noticed that only half of the interior doors were the 3' doors I'd requested, Mr. Snider had left only three feet to pass by a kitchen island and other design flaws. After the foundation had been poured and framing had started, a study that was supposed to be 16'X16' had been changed by Mr.Snider to 11'X16'. This 11' was before bookcases went in which would give me a room 9'X16'--basically a large walk-in closet. No way could I fit any furniture in the study. He had changed the room dimensions on the plans without saying a word to me or my husband. My contractor redesigned the room by taking a few feet from a bathroom for the study and deleting a closet in a bedroom to give more room for the bathroom. Now instead of a 4 bedroom, three bath house, I have a 3 bedroom, 3 bath house with two studies since the other bedroom doesn't have a closet and is counted as a study. The plumber put in piping per the plans then said he'd put in twice as much plumbing as he had to since we were putting in an on-demand water heater instead of the traditional water heater that was shown in the plans. The list of changes that had to be made on the run goes on. Mr. Snider has either a poor work ethic or is too busy to do your job right.
Pros: His home office is easy to find.
Cons: Can't contact by phone, makes changes without informing the client, poor value for the money
more