New Construction Series, Part 4: Drafting the House Plans

This can take some time, depending on how decisive you are, and the speed at which your drafter is able to generate and update the plans. There’s a lot to consider at this stage. The slate is clean and the options are endless, if you’re building custom.

Creating and making decisions on the plans can feel like a really daunting task, so I’m going to list my top 3 recommendations when developing your house plans, including my opinion on the best place to start.

1: Have a vision.

If you dream of a farmhouse style but then don’t include a covered front porch, then you’re missing a key design element to the overall style you’re trying to capture.

For us, we love that cabin-like feel. Something you would find on a lake in southern Indiana or in the mountains of Colorado. So, we included some of the elements you would find in that style of home, such as a stone fireplace, wood details inside and outside, hardwood flooring, large covered back deck, natural stone, and matching color scheme.

Pinterest is a great place to find ideas. I created a Pinterest board and shared it with my husband, so that we could both save ideas to it.

This can give you tangible ideas and help reinforce what you’re envisioning. During the building process, if you become indecisive (which you will), reflect back on your vision and the elements you’ve already selected. Think about how that element is going to not just look in the house but how it’s going to feel.

Essentially, what are the vibes of that single item, and how does it play into the overall vibe you’re trying to create.

2: Design with function in mind.

I’m not just talking about the details in each individual space, but creating the spaces themselves. Plus, the configuration of these spaces together.

Consider the activities that you currently do in your home and wish to do in the future. Curate a space specifically for each of these activities, even if they will exist in the same room.

Key spaces we created in our home:

- Hidden pantry, where the entrance is integrated into the cabinetry

- Primary closet that is connected to the bathroom and the laundry room

- Home gym

- Boat storage

- Home offices on separate levels

- Another bedroom with an on-suite bathroom in the basement

- Golf simulator area

- Separate laundry room and mudrooms, neither of which you enter directly into from the garage

In each of these spaces, we considered:

- Location: basement or main floor

- Ceiling height, door opening dimensions, and clearance needs

- Windows and window locations

- Electrical or other wiring needs

- Access to or dependence on another space

- Symmetry

Where to start:

I think it’s easiest to start with the architectural style first (2-story, ranch, etc.) and then configure the inside of the home.

We love the look of 30-45 degree garage and a ranch style house. We knew we didn’t like the appearance of a multistory above ground home. Instead, we wanted a walkout basement. So, we searched for house plans that met these main requirements, and made changes or additions from there.

You can start completely from scratch on the plans but we looked for existing plans that met a lot of our criteria for the main floor. Again, Pinterest is an excellent place to start. You can search for house plans plus specific structural elements (like “walkout basement”). You’ll be surprised how many sites will share photos of the plans, which you can save and share with your draftsman to start from.

The walkout basement, we did configure ourselves but we had the outline of the main floor to start from.

I actually used excel to help us configure the basement layout and make changes before communicating it to the draftsman. I made the cells in excel the same length and height, then assigned a scale, such as 1 cell = 1 square foot. It’s rough but it gave us a good idea of what options we had, and allowed us to play around with the layout prior to spending the money for the plans to be made/updated.

3: Employ someone who is skilled at drafting plans and has experience.

Our plans were drawn by a local builder who charged a fraction of the price of an architect, but we got what we paid for. Our plans lack some details that other drafters would ordinarily include, such as electrical details and identification of structural beams. There were also design oversights, such as the depth of the landing for the stairs leading to the basement.

The landing was 32” in the plans, rather than the standard 36”. It’s not noticeable in person, but it is something we didn’t know or notice about the plans at the time they were drafted. We also weren’t able to change it during construction.

Another oversight is the logistics of the doorway leading from our primary bedroom to bathroom: the plans didn’t consider trim allowance and other spacing requirements, so we had to shrink the door width. Also, the door leading from the garage inside is normally 36”, while ours is 32”.

Just a few details to consider. Most experienced draftsmen will bake these into the plans without you having to ask for them.