Home design and floor plans

[Seven Severn]

I freakin' love to draw floor plans. Obsessive, even. I use 1/4" graph paper, pencils, and a straight edge. I've never tried Sketchup or any other CAD (can it be used on a laptop with a trackpad?). Most of my plans are original, but I've adapted Stickley designs for modern living with good results (I think ).

 

Does anyone else do this or am I a lone wolf?

[thekate]

Not a lone wolf. Recently mine have been scale drawings of my (real) house though. I cut out and color scale pieces of furniture and rearrange rooms on paper before I do it in real life.

[ILoveJellybeans]

OMG I FINALLY HAVE SOMEONE WHO SHARES THIS STRANGE HOBBY OF MINE!!!!!!

I thought I was the only one!

I love making floor plans. I always make floor plans for the main setting of whatever story I am writing. Last year I designed a floor plan for a super awesome mansion that my family could live in if we became rich, even looking through furniture catalogs for all of the stuff we could have in it. Ive also created the house from my daydreams about future me, where I live with my imaginary girlfriend and our imaginary 10 kids and worked out where everything will be kept and stuff.

I now need to buy graph paper, I draw mine on plain paper with a ruler but I always end up making it a bit wonky

[heidi]

I like to draw floor plans as well. And maps. I love to draw maps for the world I created. Over the course of last summer I drew a series of 10 maps charting the rise and fall of nations and civilizations in my created world. My husband thought I was crazy, but I had a ball.

When I draw floor plans I like to translate them into Sims houses. I have the Sims 2 and very much enjoy decorating and building houses. I draw my plans on graph paper first--one grid on the paper corresponding to one square in the game.

[thekate]

When I draw floor plans I like to translate them into Sims houses. I have the Sims 2 and very much enjoy decorating and building houses. I draw my plans on graph paper first--one grid on the paper corresponding to one square in the game.

This! I plan on getting Sims 3 at some point though...I've heard the architecture is much better.

[heidi]

This! I plan on getting Sims 3 at some point though...I've heard the architecture is much better.

I'd love to have the Sims 3, but my poor computer just couldn't handle it. I want to build my own computer some time within the next year or so, and I'll definitely build it so that I can play Sims 3!

[Rita]

I love drawing rooms - every time I move, I make a floor plan and pieces of paper furniture to move around. Roommates always find it weird, but, really, it's too much fun to listen to them. (What's their problem, anyway?) Does anyone else redo their friends' houses on napkins?

[Rowan]

I don't draw floor plans, but I love looking at them! Unfortunately they are usually for apartments rather than houses. But they're fascinating all the same to me. :)

[ILoveJellybeans]

Yay, I am moving house this week! I got the keys today, and the first thing I bought with me was a pencil, measuring tape and some squared paper, and I drew a floor plan for it! :D

Now to measure all my furniture and see where to fit it.

I am so happy :D

[sansan]

I love to draw floor plans especially on graph paper. I am very interested in tiny houses and how to make them highly functional on the inside. If we are ever gonna have a second home somewhere it will have to be tiny.

[47of74]

When I was in Junior High I went and took an architecture class for 7th hour, and that was the basics of drawing floor plans - doing things such as trying to economize on using space.  One of the activities was drawing a floor plan for a cabin which I really enjoyed.  I used to get the catalogs of floor plans because I enjoyed looking at those so much.

Back when I had my own house I went and made a scale drawing of the place with some floor plan software so I could see what options I might want to explore for expanding the house if I ever had the resources to do so.  It had a good sized yard so I think there would've been some options there for expanding out another ten feet or so.  Nothing ever came of that and I haven't had that house for about 12 years now.

I recently downloaded some home plan software for my MacBook Air and work on my dream home from time to time.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Catalogs of floor plans? They exist? Where can I find one?

[clueliss]

try the magazine rack at a bookstore with a good magazine section.  

Which I might know because I used to love floor plans as a teen.  

[47of74]

When I was growing up you could find them in the magazine sections of area grocery stores and department stores.

I think catalog might be the closest description to what these books were, they had the basic plans shown but in order to actually build the place you had to order the full set of plans, which included things like elevations, mirror reverse of the plan, electrical plans, construction details and so on.  I think those were a few hundred dollars.

The local paper where I live usually showcases a plan once a week on Sundays, with a description of the house along with what the finished exterior would look like, and they also include instructions on how to order the full set of plans.

[halcionne]

Catalogs of floor plans? They exist? Where can I find one?

Nowdays there are websites, too. http://www.coolhouseplans.com/ is the one I look at the most, but I'm sure there are others.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Yaaaaaay! This is so awesome!

[salex]

I spend too much time looking at floor plans---it is a hobby I got from my mom, who loved it too.  I go on line and run different scenarios. 

[ILoveJellybeans]

My latest thing at the moment is to pick a floor plan from the website above, draw it out to scale and then add furniture and stuff for a family that lives there-large houses, small houses, 2 kids each with their own rooms, 10 kids sharing 2 rooms in a tiny house with bunk beds in a row, a large house with a Duggar sized family, multiple generations living in the same house, rich families, 2 families in a poly relationship sharing a house with their combined 5 kids...anything I can think of really.

 

Ive turned extra rooms into all sorts too-playrooms for kids (and one for ten cats), a reptile room specifically for housing the family's whole bunch of pet snakes and lizards, a prayer closet etc.

[AlysonRR]

I used to love looking at house plans. I could spend hours doing it!

Then, about 8 years ago, my husband and I built our dream house. We had lived several other places, so we knew what worked and didn't work. I put all that experience, plus the knowledge I gained from viewing multiple plans over decades, into this house and I absolutely love it.

Now the only plans I view are tiny house plans - I could totally see a couple tiny houses on our property, to use as rentals or for our kids as they transition into adulthood.

[church_of_dog]

When I began the superinsulation remodel project that is just wrapping up (no pun intended ) on my house, I found a really basic website called floorplanner.com.  I'm really, really bad at visualizing things, so when I had an idea, I had to be able to see it in order to assess it.  Floorplanner lets you draw your house in 2D, pretty much to scale (although there were plenty of things I wished they had but didn't, and plenty of "oh well that will be good enough"s) and then you can view it in 3D, which is way cool.  And I was only using the free version of the software, so maybe it's even slicker if you choose a pay option.  So I started by drawing a floorplan for my house as it was.  Then I began to change things as I factored in various parts of the project  And now, even though there's still a few items left to complete on my project (like window trim, and an exterior cold-air intake for the wood stove, etc), my house now looks more-or-less like my drawing!  Very fun!

[AuntCloud]

I know, I know, Houzz and many other places have design forums to answer any dilemma that comes to mind, from the best placement for wine cellars to lightbulb ideas for under the stairs. But you're my peeps, so I hope you understand. 

We're actively house-hunting, and one house ticks all the boxes and then some, but has one giant sticking point and another small one. 

The big issue is the layout. It's a bi-level (or raised ranch, in US-speak) - from the front door you can go up half a level to the main living area, or down half a level to the basement. The house has been built in 1960 and retained some of its Mad Men character, which is very cool. The main level has an open living/dining/kitchen area, and three small bedrooms with small closets. One small bedroom was originally the master bedroom and has a tiny en-suite powder room - there's another full bathroom on the main floor. Downstairs is a giant (20' X 12') master bedroom, with a spacious walk-in closet and a nice, large, newly renovated master bath. There's also a big rec room which can fit in a TV area, home office and a home gym. 

My question is - how big of a deal is having a master bedroom in a (raised) basement? There are windows and the ceiling is not too low. The other options are: (a) have one of the teens move down there, so the three small upstairs bedrooms can be used by us, teen #2, and a guest room, or (b) use only the (tiny) upstairs bedrooms as permanent bedrooms, and use the ginormous downstairs bedroom with the big walk-in closet and the nicest bathroom in the house as a guest room. We do need a spare bedroom as all our family lives far, far away and visit for weeks at a time. Does anyone have experience with setting up a master suite in the bedroom? A minor issue I just thought about was the only bathroom downstairs being an en-suite. If the kids and their friends are hanging out in the basement, as teens are sometimes rumoured to do, I don't want them using my bathroom. 

The second sticking point is the kitchen. It's gorgeous, nice and new, with the House Hunters holy trifecta (hardwood floors/stainless steel appliances/granite countertops), but I don't care for the style or colour (traditional, dark cherry/mahogany, dark granite countertop). How big of a deal is painting kitchen cabinets?

Thanks!

 

[AmazonGrace]

If it was my house I wouldn't put one of the teens in the big bedroom because it seems a bit unfair if other siblings have a tiny room. Perhaps your kids are different but mine would complain. 

[PennySycamore]

I can't speak to the bedroom dilemma but I can talk about cupboards.

It's not necessarily a big deal to paint the kitchen cupboards, but you want to make sure you read up on doing it right.  It may pay to have it done professionally. A pro paint job would almost certainly be cheaper than new cabinets and vintage cabs are likely better made than any stock cabinets that you could find nowadays. You can always swap out the hardware.  You can also learn the right way to paint the cabs yourself.  One thing you will want to do, no matter if you DIY or have a pro handle the painting, is give the cabinets a good washing.  The paint will adhere better to a clean surface.

We have to renovate our mid-60s kitchen this year and I'm think about keeping our uppers and getting them re-painted and re-worked a bit.  I'd like to raise the bottom shelf a bit, maybe add an appliance garage and add glass front doors. Oh, and swap out the hardware!  The hardware is vintage though.

This link may or may not be useful. RetroRenovation is a great site for this of us with mid-century homes. Whether mid-Century Modern or mid-Century Modest, there is something to love about our elderly homes.

http://retrorenovation.com/category/kitchen/cabinet-recommendations/

 

[AuntCloud]

2 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

If it was my house I wouldn't put one of the teens in the big bedroom because it seems a bit unfair if other siblings have a tiny room. Perhaps your kids are different but mine would complain. 

Mine would complain from here to Antarctica and back. I totally agree about fairness issues. OTOH, what do you do when there is simply no other option? My friend's house has two other bedrooms besides the master, and one bedroom is literally twice as large as the other. She has boy-girl twins, and the girl got the large bedroom - thankfully, her boy is very easy-going.

 

3 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

I can't speak to the bedroom dilemma but I can talk about cupboards.

It's not necessarily a big deal to paint the kitchen cupboards, but you want to make sure you read up on doing it right.  It may pay to have it done professionally. A pro paint job would almost certainly be cheaper than new cabinets and vintage cabs are likely better made than any stock cabinets that you could find nowadays. You can always swap out the hardware.  You can also learn the right way to paint the cabs yourself.  One thing you will want to do, no matter if you DIY or have a pro handle the painting, is give the cabinets a good washing.  The paint will adhere better to a clean surface.

We have to renovate our mid-60s kitchen this year and I'm think about keeping our uppers and getting them re-painted and re-worked a bit.  I'd like to raise the bottom shelf a bit, maybe add an appliance garage and add glass front doors. Oh, and swap out the hardware!  The hardware is vintage though.

This link may or may not be useful. RetroRenovation is a great site for this of us with mid-century homes. Whether mid-Century Modern or mid-Century Modest, there is something to love about our elderly homes.

http://retrorenovation.com/category/kitchen/cabinet-recommendations/

 

Thanks, @PennySycamore! I have a pretty steady hand, but i don't DIY that often and I'm not *that* good. These are new cabinets and there are quite a lot of them, and the last thing I want is a bad DIY smack dab in the middle of the main living area.

[AmazonGrace]

Quote

Mine would complain from here to Antarctica and back. I totally agree about fairness issues. OTOH, what do you do when there is simply no other option? My friend's house has two other bedrooms besides the master, and one bedroom is literally twice as large as the other. She has boy-girl twins, and the girl got the large bedroom - thankfully, her boy is very easy-going.

I guess one could decorate neutrally and the kids could change rooms on odd years or something