Well, we finally got the stamp of approval from the Design Review Committee to proceed with the final working drawings of our new home. We started the process a little over a year ago. While a year seems like a long time to get a floor plan put together and the exterior elevations completed, I highly recommend not rushing the process. Here are a few tips I learned along the way:
- Each visit to the architect means $$ leaving your wallet, so….
- Before you go see your architect and say “draw me a house”, think about the rooms that you want/need to have and the square footage you desire. If you like the size of the rooms you have in your current home, measure them, or, if you would like them bigger, how much bigger? Bring as much information as possible as well as inspirational photos from home and decorating magazines, other floor plans you’ve picked up along the way, or pictures from the internet.
- Once you get your first set of drawings, it’s very unlikely that it will be exactly what you want. Take them home and look at them very closely for a week or two before you go back with changes. We went through 13 minor design changes before we ended up with the final plan.
- Do some space planning & furniture placement with your drawings. Typically architects will give you drawings that are ¼” in scale. For example, if you are planning on using all the same furniture in your current living room, measure your pieces, then cut them out on graph paper (1 square = 1 foot). Place the cut out pieces on your drawings and see if everything fits where you want it to. If not, make a note to take back to your architect.
Here is a 3D rendering of our elevation. I will try and post the front view of it later. Of course you have to picture it with landscaping and color! Have a great day everyone!
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