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House plan modification example

16 years ago

I've had a lot of our visitors to our house ask how we modified our house plan. I decided to just write it up on a blog. I'll be adding more examples since we completely rearranged our interior floorplan from the architect's orginal layout. Hope this is helpful here, too.

PS...I'm not in the business at all. I'm just retired from my career in a software company and still hooked on technology and writing white papers!

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: modifying a room on the house plan

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Comments (9)

pinktoes
16 years ago
Very interesting. And interesting that you couldn't get what you wanted designed by your architect. We had the same problem. Just had to keep sending it back and say "Draw this and do it this way and here's WHY...."
DYH
Original Author
16 years ago
The current example of the garden room is simple. The complex one is coming...I've now located all of my kitchen drawings from my old computer and will be posting that info on the blog soon.

We eliminated the breakfast room, a coat closet and a small office to make a big kitchen. I drew out the layout that I wanted and gave it to both the architect and the cabinet maker. I made concept drawings of what the cabinets and island should look like. So, I'll be able to post my concepts and then real photos of how it turned out. It's really interesting to go back in retrospect and document this for others.

The link I provided above is to examples, but my blogging about the experience is on the "How we defined our home" blog link on the top of the sidebar of that page.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: the main blog link
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BTW I don't know how you'll be able to easily get large furniture into the master the way the entry is. I understand the need for it, but you need to make sure you can get a king size mattress in there or a wide dresser etc. without having to try to do it through a window. The same goes for the boy bedroom. The way the entry to that area is along with the linen closet and the door placement it seems like it would be hard to get furniture in there. At least the first part you can lift over the railing, but then that turn around the linen closet is awkward. You could straighten it out and have more space in the room with something similar to this. I'd still try to find a better spot for the linen closet or use a cabinet there with cabinet doors instead, or just make each kid have their stuff for the bath/sheets in their closets.
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If you think about it, remodeling your average tract house is literally "modifying a stock plan," so by that standard, it is entirely possible, and millions of people have done it, including me. At present, I am in the process of building from the same plan that I happen to be living in, with a few changes such as a master on the main. So that's do-able as well. One thing, however. Universal design is a big topic, with a lot of decisions and tradeoffs along the way. For example, are you talking about using a wheelchair, eyesight issues, strength issues, or general cognitive decline? Are you making any provision for live-in help? Will you be able to afford a housekeeper, handyman, and landscape service? IMO, cognitive decline is one of the most difficult issues to plan for, because it's not just an engineering/architectural issue. There are many stages of decline, from intermittent forfetfulness, to full blown Alzheimer's, and one may not be fully aware of the decline as it is happening. In other words, we may be less and less able than we think we are, and the rate of deterioration can accelerate, without our noticing. I see this in older relatives-- they don't realize that they shouldn't be driving a car anymore, or listening to the nice young quack pill merchant, or getting on the tall ladder to wash second story windows! The most dangerous thing is the older person living alone, with no one to check up. There's also the danger of losing money management skills, failing to pay bills, getting caught in scams, losing inhibitions about spending, or various forms of hoarding behavior. This is why so many people end up in some form of assisted living. So it's not just a design issue, it's multi-faceted: social, financial, legal, etc. I would strongly advise you to research the topic before you plunge in, so you can figure out what you want, based on most likely health scenarios, and your budget-- leaving a very generous sum of money for the last few years of life.
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Thanks everyone. We decided to hold off on the half wall and just live with it for a while. I will still tell the construction manager our plans and take a look at what is going behind the drywall before they close it up. As for removing it all together, I know complete open concept is the trend, but we actually like a little separation. You can’t tell it from this picture, but that back room is completely open to the eating and kitchen area which is all the openness we need or want! We are still pushing for the master bath change, but worst case are going to keep the design simple and can change it later. The reason we did not push these harder before signing is because we negotiated a very large discount thanks in part to the Holiday timing, and felt that this large discount was more important than these design changes. Lastly, per a couple of the comments about the quality of the builder apparent in the pictures, you are right, we went with a lower-end builder to get a whole lot more for our money and intend to add some of the special design touches on our own later, i.e. millwork. This is a second home for us and budget is limited. I appreciate the feedback.
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Mark, thanks for the comments. I previously read the threads describing the work that ArchitectRunnerGuy did with his Florida client (apologies as I don't remember his user name). Reading through those was very enlightening for me. It really helped me better understand my frustrations when reviewing stock plans and brought me to the realization that there were other, often much better, options available. In my mind, local means someone within a reasonable driving distance to the site who can visit/walk the site and is available for in person meetings. I've been mentally debating this option versus what I consider a more long distance working relationship where an in person visit might be possible but would require plane tickets or a long car ride. Given electronic communication options, a face to face meeting might not even be necessary but this is just how I set up the mental debate. Reading about what ArchitectRunnerGuy is able to do without being local to the site (again using my definition of local here) helped me to see that we didn't have to be limited by the expertise available in an 100 radius of our land. However, I still imagine there are some benefits to working with someone closer, provided a suitable match can be found. Here I'm considering some of the pros as personal knowledge of the climate, local culture, codes, permitting, local builders and subs, real estate market, etc. But then again, I also imagine the right builder can help bridge any gaps that might exist in the other option.
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allison0704
16 years ago
That's great you can put it down in a blog, Cameron. I would have no idea how to even begin!

We did the same thing with our house plan - lots of changes to the main level and I ended up drawing the lower level to send to the architect when his first rendering was nothing like we wanted. We made about a dozen changes/additions to our main level alone, making it more livable...and our architect is nationally known.
DYH
Original Author
16 years ago
Allison,

Remember when I was so excited about retiring...well,
I'm having second thoughts about having retired last year! The weather is too hot for the outdoors and I've got cabin fever! I'm missing the technology, so I'm using the web and software tools for my technology fix. I'm missing my job as a process conultant and the writing of the technology white papers! I'm trying to remain retired and keep my brain occupied so that I don't do something silly like go back to work! :-)

BTW, DS1 comes home from London in mid-September with his MA in archaeology...I've missed the kid (23 years old now).

Cameron
allison0704
16 years ago
I knew you wouldn't handle retirement well. ;)

That's great. I know you have missed him. DH is out in CA visiting DD1 now. Did I tell you she moved to SoCal? Loves it so much more than San Francisco. She was sick of the weather after 3yrs. (She turns 24 on Sunday and DS will be 22 in two weeks. Time flies - I can't believe my baby is 19. In a few months, I won't have any more teenagers!)
DYH
Original Author
16 years ago
FOLKS -- today, someone out in web land hacked my blogs and put up inappropriate content ads. I scrambled to debug and remove the code and have reported the incident to Google who provides the blogspot space.

My apologies to anyone who might have visited my blogs during that time. I must have happened in the last few hours.

Cameron
allison0704
16 years ago
Pox on him! :P That's terrible. Hope you get it straightened out soon.
DYH
Original Author
16 years ago
the blogs have been cleaned and I put up a new posting on the gallery side. The new post shows my concept drawings of the kitchen cabinets and what they ended up looking like in reality.

Thanks
DYH
Original Author
16 years ago
Turns out it wasn't a hacker. The ads were from Spike TV, so they didn't get filtered out. A lot of bloggers who got hit by the ads also found the photo offensive and assumed hacking had happened. So, that's good and bad. Good=no hacker. Bad=offensive ads got spread across the domain.

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