Sunday, July 29, 2007

House plans almost finished!

We used a designer/architect (Ted Mengers, Pyranak Design Group) to design our house plans as opposed to ordering ready made plans online. It was a VERY long process (took almost 1 year), but it was very much worth the effort. We did this for several reasons:

1. We searched several hundreds of plans online and none fit our needs. I wanted a guest room downstairs and the rest of the bedrooms upstairs, including the master bedroom.
2. We tailored the plans to our lifestyle. I love to cook and entertain, but don't like to be apart from company, therefore we have an open layout (no walls and halls!).
3. We wanted a modern home that is unique. None of the plans simply did not fit our style.
4. We wanted a higher standard, energy & space efficient plan. We don't think bigger is better and we are building with energy efficient SIP walls/roof, so we needed plans that were designed green.

We just got word that our plans are just about finished, and we have to approve the electrical and acoustic plans. In the electrical plan, you decide where the light switches, electrical outlets, lights, ceiling fans, cable/dataports and phone lines go. Though we will do wireless, Jan thought it was good to always be able to plug into the network for stability reasons. He's a total computer geek, so I believe him :-). Here's a sample pic of how an electrical plan looks like:

The $ are light switches, the filled triangle is a phone connection, the empty triangle is a data port, the circle with 2 slashes is an electrical outlet, etc...

In the acoustic plan, you decide where you want extra sound insulation in your walls. In the following picture, it is denoted with squiggle lines on the walls:


Next, we have to get the Structural Engineer to finish the structural plans. This should only take 1-2 weeks and then it's time to submit for permit approvals and financing!!! Can't wait!!!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

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Room Dividers New York said...

Congratulations on having to finish your dream house plan.

Kevin Noel said...

In my opinion, when it comes to homes, it’s better to take inspiration only from other home plans and then create your own. I’ve always been fascinated with plans made for construction of homes and buildings. The home or building has a single structure, but it has a huge number of plans that are very different from one another. I have so much respect for people who can draft and read these plans because they do take a long time to create.

House Plans said...

Use online or computer software programs to create house plans on your computer and easily print them out for reference.