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VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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Posted by tinycastles (My Page) on Fri, Nov 6, 09 at 11:46
| jenswren had posted a thread asking how people when about choosing their house plan. This is a great question I have been asking myself as well. It is certainly frustrating and stressful. If only I could find a plan that already had everything I've dreamed of. Not likely to happen. I know we can hire an architect and pay $$$ for a truly custom plan (which is probably what we'll have to do). Naively I was hoping to save a little money by finding a stock plan that came close to what we wanted and going from there. So my vent is this: why do all the plans out there seem to have no real concept of what people really need, and want? Layouts that are functional for the family? Garages that are actually deep enough to pull in an SUV?
Every stock plan I find that has the more "luxurious" upgrades is well over 4,000 sq. ft., which is out of the question for our family of 3 (or hopefully 4 someday.) We want a somewhat smaller house, but one with lots of gingerbread. Usually the smaller plans (and by smaller I mean under 2,500 sq. ft.) have average size Master suites, no other suites, tiny laundry/mudroom or no mudroom, kitchen in the middle of the house with 3 appliances in the island (grrrr....pet peeve of mine).
I guess most designers automatically assume people who can afford upgrades like private bathrooms, a big kitchen, lots of custom windows, 10 ft. ceilings and 8 ft. doors want a McMansion. We want a nice house but one we're not a slave to. My husband and I moved from a very nice 4,000+ sq. ft. house across from the golf course because it felt like so much wasted space (and money) for how we live. We know what we want, and how much room we need. We want a practical layout first and foremost. Maybe I'm just asking being unrealistic and asking too much:( |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| I really think you need an architect. You have a list of very specific wants and needs and that will be the best way to get you in a home that incorporates everything. |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| Post a thread stating your needs, wants, and 'druthers. Let forum members suggest plans they may know of that meet or come close to meeting your requirements. You may get lucky, and it can't hurt......unless you have unrealistic expectations. In that case, you may get some tough love. |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| "So my vent is this: why do all the plans out there seem to have no real concept of what people really need, and want?" They DO have a concept of what people want... but that is not what YOU want.
Big difference. You are architect material.... |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| The home we are almost finished building will be somewhere between 2400-2500 sq feet. We found a stock floor plan and made alot of changes to it to make it right for us. We made the kitchen much larger, changed from 8' to 9' ceilings on 1st floor (10' in great room only bc it doesn't have 2nd floor above it) made room for a laundry room on 2nd floor, put lots of storage in mud room/drop zone (2 closets, coat hook/shoe cubbies, cabinet with drawers and pda organizer on countertop, etc) a walk-in tiled shower in master, over-sized the 3 car garage, etc etc. Basically we added about 300 square feet total to the interior to make the house ours. We made the changes ourselves by sketching a new floor plan then took it to 2 builders. They both had them made into blueprints with no committments to build with them, it was nice to see what they each did with our plan bc while they were very similar there were some differences and they gave us more ideas of what to do with the plan. Hope you can come up with something you love! |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| I found most of the stock plans available, of any size, were at best gilded hovels that would be downright uncomfortable to live in. Just like every tract house around here. Most online stock plans have never been built, so it's the buyer who gets to be the guinea pig. It's much harder to design an attractive, efficient home than a rambling monster. So if you are looking at plans online and searching for square footage hogs like multiple suites, you're bound to hit mostly garbage. That said, there are some fine architect-designed homes available as stock plans. Most tend to be larger homes because that's usually who can afford to hire an architect. If you find a stock plan you like but isn't right for some reason, checkout the architect's web site. Sometimes they have more plans available. And if you think the floor plan IS right, check the web site anyway. Photos, even of other homes, will give you a better idea of the architect's style and if it suits you in 3D. |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| We had a similar experience in looking at stock floorplans, in that very few met all of our requirements. We did what hoosiermom suggested though and found a plan with the bones of what we wanted and sketched a LOT of alterations. It was very time consuming--many nights spent with graph paper and rulers, sketching and drawing and re-drawing. The end product looks completely different than the original, but we were glad we had the original to use as inspiration/guideline. Good luck! |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| I searched and searched also. I narrowed down a few exteriors that I liked, a few interiors that I liked, and took those and my list of things we wanted to the draft lady at the lumber yard. It was X amount per square foot but only once we had a set we were happy with. We were allowed 5 major changes before we would have gone to a cost per hour charge. We ended up with a completely custom plan to fit our needs for a little over $500. We are in central Missouri. |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| Everyone who has responded so far seems to have had good luck with modifying a stock plan and/or using a stock plan(s) as an inspiration. IF a person chooses to do this option do you literally say, I like this exterior with this interior, or is it more complicated than that? Does the professional work from the detailed construction specs of the inspiration homes, in which case you are paying for vellum, pdf, CAD, etc.? Some seem to have success just showing pics of what they like and getting an end result that looks very similar. I want a house that looks like the older homes you see in charming neighborhoods in my region...when I lived in Minneapolis I loved driving through certain areas to look at the adorable houses (even though I ended up buying a modern loft style condo.) The stone and brick cottage type houses with really neat details, the details that are often overlooked now. They're usually 1 1/2 stories. Unfortunately most have detached garages or carriage houses (we need an attached garage for sure). Some have turrets, or bay windows, or lots of arched doors and curved walls. I don't even know the official name of the architectural style. THAT is what I want, only a bit bigger and with a more open floorplan. I don't want a manor, or a big house that screams "look at me!". I just want a charming house that is the perfect size for my little family. |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| Drive around and take pictures of houses you like, or just elements of houses. Get online and do the same. Collect floorplans and parts of floorplans you like, and visit new homes being constructed and the Parade of Homes and compare actual interiors to their floor plans. If you go to the library, they often have old issues of architectural magazines and popular home books like the Not So Big House series that you can also farm for ideas. After you have a big pile, weed through it. Start looking for common elements, but don't worry if there's something you really like that's uncommon. Think about how you use rooms and how you want them to relate to each other; even draw bubble diagrams. When you get it down to a reasonably sized collection, you are ready to show it to a pro as examples of what you like. If you hire a pro they will NOT copy a house line for line with modest changes. For that, you need to buy a license to build and modify the originals. |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| Hi Sarah! You are preaching to the choir!!! I go through the same thing almost daily even though we have a while to go before we build. I stumbled upon a thread here that mentioned planfactory.com. The person that mentioned it said that they found 4 plans that they liked (from planfactory) and the architects drew up a custom floor plan. (It is .65 x total living square footage for the changes.) I actually found a plan close to what we want and emailed the company asking for pictures of completed houses. They quickly sent the pictures and were very customer friendly. I hope this helps you some!
Necia |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| How about these for a starting point? These are just a start to pull details from http://www.architecturaldesigns.com/tudor-house-plan-59913nd.asp http://www.architecturaldesigns.com/tudor-house-plan-11603gc.asp |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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I made a collection of pictures of things I like then we went through those pics and used what we could (couldn't use everything bc somethings just didn't work together stylewise). We changed the roof lines a bit, they look similar to the original in the front but much different in the back. A good architect will have no trouble with these sorts of things, after spending hours pouring over blueprints, measurements, etc even I have a pretty good understanding of it (although I can barely use CAD, I can do some pretty good sketches!). Anyway, you should check out the plans on southern living's website, they might have something you like.
http://www.slhouseplans.com/ I saw the SL Tucker Bayou Idea House in 2007, it was great!
http://www.slhouseplans.com/exec/action/plans/browsemode/details/filter/attid.113/page/1/planid/24685/planname/sl1408?pvs=tot.49 |
RE: VENT: What people really want (and need) in a houseplan
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| We ended up with an architect. Initially we weren't sure if we could afford to build the plan we spent all that money on, so started looking into alternatives. Happily, we ended up using our plan - but I found a lot of nice plans on this particular site and went so far as to speak with them about one option. They will adjust for you, without full architects' fees. I got tired of seeing the same plans over and over on different websites. This guy is a local architect/Chicago area (not our architect): http://www.tailoredtrends.com/Default.aspx |
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