Choosing The Right Plan.....

...It's not the easiest thing to do.

It's hard to tell how a floor plan will actually fit your lifestyle based on the little images that you have to start with. If you do not have a set of builder's plans or the priveledge of starting from scratch with an architect, then you are basically on your own to find a plan that you can work with.

There are only 98,450,934,709,376,921 to choose from!

This is NOT our floor plan, but this is a perfect example of a home plan with several features that would help narrow your options. This specific plan would require a rather wide lot that is also fairly deep. Most lots, at least those that are not out in the country somehwere, tend to be either too narrow or not deep enough.

So, the first thing you need to know when looking at plans is what your lot dimensions are.

It's actually a good thing to be restricted by lot dimensions when there are so many options.

This is the first home plan that I fell in love with.
From Architectural Designs.com

Of course it was much too wide. By about 20 feet and you can't exactly shave off 20 feet without cutting out the kitchen or some other room which is intended to make living in a home less like camping.

I don't like camping.
So this plan got cut.

My hope is to make the real house plan look like this one.

I will keep you posted on how I go about achieving this look with this general plan:

We do not start our real plans until June 25th and knowing me and how often I change my mind, we won't be finished with the plans until 2016. 

The second thing to narrow your home plan search is usually the square footage.

We have a square footage requirement to meet in our subdivision, and that led to a larger home plan than I would have usually been drawn to.
I am a smaller house kind of girl. They are easier to decorate and maintain.

For those of you that will come over to our new house and ultimately find it to be a little messy, I will just blame it on my retired parents who are very likely to come upstairs, make huge messes in the kitchen, throw laundry everywhere, and then go back downstairs to play video games and make snap chats like a bunch of lazy teenagers!

Floor plans are tricky though.
You might start browsing and find yourself looking at 5,000 square feet and not even realize it.
Then, after you fall in love with a plan you're like, "hmmm......I wonder how many square feet this is...doesn't look like too much....5,589!?! Pfff... I'm not cleaning no 5,589 square feet!"


thoughtful pause


"ohhhh.....I guess the real owners of this 5,589 square foot house don't really have to worry about cleaning"

That isn't us and I'm pretty sure I max out on cleaning right around 1500 square feet.
That means the rest is up to our five year old.

The third thing that will help narrow your home plan search will usually be the placement of the garage.

Are you front facing or side facing garage people?

We are side facing people because no one needs to drive down the street and see the contents of our garage. We work on stuff and it gets real in our garage. We don't mess around, but we don't need everyone to see that.

Let's face it, garage doors in general are just not that pretty. They can be cute and all, but in general, the front of the house is usually cuter and I don't like the garage trying to steal attention. 90% of the time it's just not worthy.

Plus, we needed room for an extra 2 car garage for my parents. Home plans that can accomdate that are NOT easy to find!

They keep their garage nice. I mean, they keep their garage nicer than we keep our house, so theirs can be in the back facing the street. We will also pretend that their garage is our garage when people ask and blame the messy garage on my parents. That's what they get for agreeing to live with us.


The last thing that might help narrow your plan search is the location of the kitchen and whether or not it is open to the areas that you wish.

I wanted a kitchen that is big and open to the breakfast area and the great room.
Like in one straight shot.

Like this:

In a straight line.

Straight lines are hard to find!

There are all kinds of L shaped kitchens that have a breakfast area that lead into the great room and then turn the corner to the dining room. BUT it's hard to find them all in a row.

I will post the real plans as they are made and describe why I chose certain things and how they work for us.


Next up I will talk about important, functional aspects of your home that you might forget to include in your home plan.
No joke.
Forgetting things like closets and important rooms like bathrooms really happens people!
I don't want it to happen to you!