Six stages, in order. Each one ends in a drawing you can hand to the next person.
I start with your constraints: the site, the budget, who lives there, and what the building department allows. I write the brief down, and we come back to it at every step. The first thing I draw is the existing-conditions plan, so we both know what is really there before we change anything.
ProducesExisting-conditions plan
I measure the space myself and record what is actually there, with photographs and the property survey where it matters. The whole set leans on these numbers. Get the survey honest and the drawings hold up. Get it wrong, and everything after it is wrong too.
ProducesSite plan and setbacks
I sketch the options on trace and in SketchUp, testing the layout and the way you move through the space against the brief. You get two or three real choices, and I tell you the trade-off behind each one. We settle the plan before I spend any time on a rendering.
ProducesTwo or three real options
This is the long part. In Revit and AutoCAD I draw the plans, elevations, sections, and details the way the contractor needs to read them: cabinet legends, the electrical and mechanical sheets, the material list. By the end it is a set someone can actually build from.
ProducesA set you can build from
I check the set against the code and the local jurisdiction before it goes in, from building and residential to accessibility and energy. When a project needs a stamping firm, a structural engineer, or a Title 24 consultant, I bring them in and keep their sheets in step with mine.
ProducesAn approvable set
Once it is under construction I stay on it. I answer the contractor's questions the same day, and I update the drawings as things change in the field. This is the part where you find out whether the drawings were right, in the actual room.
ProducesAs-built drawings