Instinctively, we know what we like when we see it. But, there always seems to be a few "somethings" about a plan that aren't quite right. So, after searching for a while, I realized "we" needed a method to our search.
The Designing Your Home article for this blog entry appears to be too large as a single posting (I lost 5 1/2 hours of work and now I'm trying a new tactic--shorter entries). I have not written the article as three separate parts:
Part 1 -- General Floorplan
Part 2 -- Kitchen Design
Part 3 -- Bathroom & Utilities Outlet Design (This article currently Under Construction.)
GENERAL FLOORPLAN
First we discussed and made a list our individual "must haves" and "wish we could haves" for the new house. Of course, the "wishes" dwindled quickly. It's fun to dream, though, isn't it?
We narrowed down our requirements list (in no particular order) to the following "must haves":
- Screened-in patio
- Whirlpool tub for Pam in master bathroom (hopefully with separate shower instead of combo tub & shower)
- 60-in shower in guest bath ([no tub] this will be Dave's bathroom--bathroom must be located so that Dave can easily get to the bathroom from the master bedroom)
- 36-in doors throughout house, for future wheelchair accessibility
- No steps into or out of the house, except those required by code (usually only one)
- Garage, preferably 2-car to give us ample storage for our "junk"
- Entry into the house from the garage needed to be near or into the kitchen
- Enough office space for each of us, and craft space for Pam (one large room for us to share would be great)
- Enough room in master bedroom for Dave to watch TV while sitting in a chair
- Laundry facilities inside the house (not in the garage)
- French doors leading to the patio
- Kitchen or dining area near the patio entrance
- Space to easily park our RV with access to RV utilities
- Ample kitchen countertop and storage (a pantry was a plus)
Now began the search.
Tomorrow's Homes, Inc. (THI) offers some great floorplans; but if you know me, you know I never order right off the menu. I always have substitutions and changes. So, I began my search for a floorplan by looking through Tomorrow's Homes plans and other plans available at online floorplan sites. In addition to our list above, we wanted to downsize considerably. Downsizing was for two reasons: less to clean, and less cost to build. Small, but comfy, was a huge criteria. We were trying to stay between 1000 to 1100 SF to keep our costs at a minimum. (We did end up increasing the house to 1225 SF due to financing considerations.)
Here are two of my favorite house plan sites:
CoolHousePlans.com/
HousePlans.com/
In order for me to make changes to available floorplans, I needed a software package to make these changes. I have used floorplan software, but for this process, it was not ideal. I found that copying a floorplan electronically into PowerPoint was easier. I set the size of the grid lines (dots) to a different pattern based upon what I was drawing. For big-picture floorplans and room sizes, I set the grid pattern to 1/10. A square of 10 dots across by 10 dots down gave me 100 square feet. This pattern is ideal for working with the entire house's floorplan. When I began detailed designing, such as for the kitchen cabinets, I changed the grid pattern to 1/12. I considered each dot spacing to be equal to 2 inches.
Next, I copied and pasted a chosen floorplan from a Website into my PowerPoint file. I sized the floorplan to match the grid. For example, if the floorplan had a room that was labeled 10x10, I would size the picture so that the 10x10 room would be the same size as one square in the grid (10 dots by 10 dots). As I developed layouts and made changes, I would just crop rooms or sections of the house and cut and paste as needed.
As I pondered each plan I would review our "menu" of must-haves to verify that a chosen plan would meet most of our criteria. Naturally, we would find areas that had to change. Some rooms might need a wall moved. Doors and windows might need to be repositioned, resized, added, or removed. Almost all doors in any floorplan we chose needed to be resized to 36-inches (for wheelchair accessibility, if ever needed). By changing a door size it might require closets to be resized or moved. You get the picture. It was quite a task to make it all work for us.
This process took us several months. I believe all-in-all, we settled on four plans, thinking each one was "it," before we finally chose our current plan.
During this process, Dave's cousin (Dorothy) and her daughter (Amy [a terrific mom of three]) would be my "external" counsel. Dave and I would agree on a plan with all its changes, and then I'd send Dorothy & Amy a copy. They would send back their ideas and opinions, which were a huge help to us during this process. It's always good to have the ideas of others to help you think of things we might have forgotten or never considered.
Here's a comparison of the floorplan and exterior design of the house that we started with as compared with our final plan and design.
Original Floorplan--1093 SF
Final Floorplan--1225 SF
At first, Dave and I enlarged the above floorplan to a total of 1130 SF. That's the size that we originally presented to Tomorrow's Homes and asked them to build for us. However, during the process, again because of financing considerations, we were asked to increase the square footage of the house to 1225 SF for a more favorable appraisal value. Tomorrow's Homes was extremely generous in helping us, financially, to add this square footage. I can tell you, most builders would never be as generous as they were to us during this planning and changing stage of the process.
Original Front Elevation
Final Front Elevation
The elevation design shown above is expensive to create because of the different roof lines. So, we simplified the roofline and came up with the following redesign.
The above diagram is a rendition I put together. Our final color choices for the exterior elements in the home are fairly represented. But, some of the design is not exactly accurate. The most notable differences between this exterior diagram and the final house exterior are as follows:
- The left window in our house is a double window
- The walkway into the front door in our house has no space between it and the garage wall
- The front door in our house is set back deeper into the house
The next step was to develop the kitchen layout and cabinet design. Go to the blog entry Designing Your Home - Part 2: Kitchen Design.
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