Planning your new home
It is best to plan a home from the inside out as opposed to compromising by fitting into an existing design.
“Build the interior rooms around the people and furniture, then put the exterior walls around the rooms.”
Ron Cole, President, Les Maisons Roco
Some simple steps to calculate the size of the home you want:
Measure your current house for reference. Measure your rooms to find the size. What size would you make them if you could remake them? What rooms do you want?
-
Kitchen: how many, and what type of appliances? Shape: U-shape. G-shape, galley, island, lunch counter? The finalized kitchen plan should be made before the final house plan is made.
-
Dining room. Measure dining table.
-
Master bedroom.
-
Bedrooms. How many?
-
Bathrooms (two, three, four piece rooms?). Bathroom fixture choices: combo bath/showers or separate showers, tiled or acrylic, rectangular or corner. Baths: enclosed, stand alone or tiled surround; size 5ft – 6ft; corner or standard; standard or whirlpool. Sinks: vanity or pedestal; double or single.
-
Living room: fireplace gas or wood.
-
Entry: open or enclosed vestibule? Separate service entrance, mudroom
-
Basement: 2nd living room, bedrooms, hobby room, exercise room, storage, mechanical room. Direct entry from outside?
-
Closets.
-
Home office
-
Media room
-
Laundry room
-
Is the house to be used full-time or a vacation residence?
-
How many people will use the house?
-
What is the land's orientation to the sun and the views?
-
What is the lay of the land? Flat? Sloped? Steep?
-
What is the exterior style you like?
-
What is the interior style you like? Ceiling heights, vaulted ceilings?
-
One floor or more? Mezzanine? Cathedral ceilings?
Following our “inside-out” method, based on the questions above, determine rooms required and their sizes. Secondly, place the rooms on your plan to suit you and your land. Once the rooms are placed you will be able to determine the windows and finally, the exterior dimensions of the building.
Tip:
Using graph paper cut out 1 foot = 1 square figures to represent your furniture. Then place them on a fresh graph paper the way you imagined them when you purchased them.
Once you have placed your furniture draw a line representing the room. Count the squares and you have your required room size in square feet.
Do the same for your dream kitchen, master bedroom and bathrooms.
Don't forget to leave enough space for the halls, closets, stairs and doors.