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Choosing a home with a floor plan that suits your family's needs
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So you're thinking of building a new house. There are lots of questions facing you. Careful thought should be given to several very important factors regarding the plan layout you choose. You may want to employ a designer to draw up a set of custom plans especially for your needs, or you might choose a plan from the many excellent stock plans available. Either way, there are factors to consider:
* What is your lot like, and what are the views and directions? You should always try to take full advantage of the best views. You'll also want to take into account the direction your house will be facing. A warm, sunlit breakfast area with the morning sun flooding in makes for a pleasant and inviting area for the family to gather. If your primary living space faces west, you must take measures to shield it from the hot afternoon sun. Porches or plantings or a good way to resolve such issues. Also, consider traffic. If your house will be at the end of a street where the headlights of approaching cars will shine onto the house, try to choose a layout that will not allow headlights to shine directly into a window. You can't imagine how annoying this sort of thing can be until you've experienced it.
*Do you have children? and what are their ages? If you have, or are expecting, a baby you will want a bedroom or other suitable room very near the master bedroom to use as a nursery. Some people use electronic baby monitors, but your child is more important than any other consideration. It's far better if you can have a nursery close by so that both you and your child will have a sense of safety and closeness. If you have older children, then by all means put them as far from you as possible. If they are into loud music I'd recommend locating them in another state. Ideally a "split bedroom" plan works well for older children. That is a plan in which the master bedroom is on one end of the house and the other bedrooms are on the opposite end. If the house is a two-story, older children can have upstairs bedrooms while the master bedroom is on the first floor. Just don't build a house with the children's bedrooms above the master suite unless you are deaf.
*Do you anticipate becoming physically challenged or having an elderly relative that may come to live with you in years ahead? If so, be sure that you have a bedroom on the first floor or an option to install an elevator or lift chair. An elevator is best, but they are very expensive. Your best solution is to simply plan ahead and choose a plan with at least one bedroom (preferably the master) on the first floor.
*How many parking spaces will you need? A good friend of mine had to pass up a beautiful home in one of the newer developments that has narrow streets and no on-street parking because he and his wife and both their teenaged children owned cars. The house only had a two-car garage and one guest parking space. That is a problem many people will face in some of the newer developments where the houses are closely spaced and there is little extra parking. If you have more than two cars you need to be sure there is plenty of room to safely park them. Three car garages are nice but generally come attached to pretty pricey homes. A modest home with a two-car garage will serve you very well so long as there is extra space provided to park children's vehicles. You will be most unhappy if you end up with your garage blocked so that cars have to be shuffled in order to get a vehicle in or out. An excellent solution for most average sized lots is a side-entry garage with a large paved turn-around area that can serve as extra parking space.
*Will you entertain a lot? If so, you'll most likely want to select (or have designed) a very open plan with a good flow. You'll also want an easily accessible kitchen with room for people to move around a bar or island where a buffet may be set up. A bar is nice, and even if you do not care for alcohol it can serve as a refreshment center and may add value to your home when you decide to sell it. You'll also want the breakfast and dining area open into to each other so that guests sitting in both areas will not feel isolated from each other. For those who entertain a lot a very open plan with the kitchen, breakfast area, dining room and living area all open to each other is an ideal choice.
With the recession easing and money becoming more easy to come by it is a good time to think about building a house. Just put plenty of thought into all the above areas before you start to so much as move a handful of dirt. If you plan well for your particular needs and choose your design wisely you will enjoy your new home for many happy years.
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