Who knew picking out a custom floor plan for a home would be so difficult?!
Actually, we thought we had it all figured out. As I shared with you in my first post, We Are Building A House, I thought we had it all figure out! My heart was set on the Abberley Lane Idea House from Southern Living. I’ve had this plan picked out FOREVER! It was my dream home! The inside was perfect and the outside was almost perfect.
Ok, so the only things I initially wanted to modify on the inside were:
Modification #1: The flow of the kitchen and family room.
In our current house, the kitchen is completely open to the breakfast room and family room. There are no walls, no barriers. I love it and it is one of the most complimented areas of our house. It’s perfect for entertaining, which we love to do! As much as I love it, this won’t work…
So that was our first “fix” that we thought would be easy. Open up the flow from the kitchen to the family room.
Modification #2: Move the garage and add porch space. We didn’t care for the location of the garage. We decided to move it around the the rear side of the house which allowed us to extend the front porch all the way around the front.
John did this drawing modification and at this point we weren’t sure exactly where the garage would go and we were thinking about possibly doing a detached garage. So the garage is missing in this drawing. But you can see the extended porch.
Modification #3: The layout of the upstairs. We knew exactly what we wanted upstairs. Two bedrooms with a Jack-and-Jill bathroom for the boys, another bedroom with a bathroom accessed from the hallway and a playroom with french door access. We also really wanted to have the space over the garage as an unfinished space that could be finished later on if we need it {which I’m sure we will}.
So we had to try to figure out how to put the playroom elsewhere in the second story. We didn’t really care much about the second story being open to the family room. I personally wanted it open in the front of the house rather than in the rear. This really helped us in being able to add the extra room without using space above the garage. This drawing was a modification was also done by my hubby so it was not structurally or logically correct.
Ok, so there were our problems. Seemed like an easy fix, right?
Or so we thought. This is where we handed it over to the professional. Once it came time to put it on paper, I started questioning myself. Freaking out! Why? Because this means it’s final. It’s not just someone else’s drawing. It’s not someone else’s home. It’s what is going to be our home! I want it to be perfect!
Fortunately we are lucky enough to have a friend doing the drawings for us. Our neighbor, Kattie is an architect. After being a stay-at-home-mom for almost five years, she has just start her own business, KC Home Designs. One of her first new projects, designing and drawing our house.
Over the past couple weeks she has taken the original floor plan and modified it based on our needs and wants. Let me note that she has been very patient listening to all my needs and wants! So here was the first draft, very rough, but just enough detail to show a basic layout. She opened up the space between the family room and kitchen and we decided to move the master suite to the other side of the house. A pantry and butler’s pantry were also added between the kitchen and dining room.
She also changed the location of the stairs because I wanted them up front rather than in the center of the house. This change caused a few problems with the layout of the upstairs.
A second draft with the addition of a mudroom/drop zone off the rear entry. Also a modified master suite. A basic layout of the upstairs was also started.
At this point we were at about 4.000 square feet which is a good bit larger than what we are going for. Ideally we’d like to keep it between 3,500 and 3,800. So we needed to look into removing some area. I really had NO need for the formal living space up front. I already have my craft room/office going in the other downstairs bedroom so this front sitting room was completely unnecessary. I went back to searching floor plans and found another Southern Living plan, The Wentworth Heights, that had a good front layout.
I really liked the placement of the stairs in this plan. I thought it was unique that it went up around the front door. This also created a wall which allowed us to move my craft room to what was the front sitting room but it will be closed off from the entry of the house. {This is a must because my craft room is an untidy disaster most of the time!}
Ok, so with those changes we kind of had to rearrange a lot of the layout. The master suite was changed (again) and since the other bedroom (my craft room) was moved from the left side to the rights side of the house, it left more room for our mudroom, laundry and powder room. The problem is that it all had to be reconfigured now.
So Kattie sent this one over and asked me to decide where I wanted the secondary entrance (on the side of house or rear off the porch) and mudroom. The upstairs was laid out but not finished in this drawing.
Whew! It’s a good bit different from the original, huh? But I was really starting to love it! Funny, I thought I loved the original so much! But it was finally all coming together just like we wanted!
I looked at a few more house plans to get some ideas for that secondary entry area and sent Kattie a few more ideas. Bless her for being so patient with me!
So here is the latest. Both downstairs and upstairs. This plan has the secondary entry at the side of the garage and I’m not completely sold on this. I think I would rather it be around the back, from the porch area. Plus I’m not crazy about the kitchen space taken away from the kitchen. There will also be a door entering from the garage. So that will be changed (again). God bless Kattie!
But the upstairs looks great! We have all the rooms arranged the way we want them!
So I think we are well on our way to completing the house plan! Hopefully after we meet with Kattie this weekend we can get that kitchen, mudroom, entrance figured out.
Now to find a builder! We have talked to a few so far and have been very impressed. Our top two, New Old Homes and Olde South Homes. Here we go again! Decisions, decisions! I’ll keep you posted!
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