Need to purchase house plans for starter home...

last year

My son (and my husband and myself) will be building his first home! We've been looking at various single-story, 1,600-1,800 sq ft house plans and it's overwhelming. Wondering if there are any companies that really stand out for doing a good design, have good quality plans that are easy to work with? And maybe who NOT to use? While the cost of plans is a small percentage of the whole cost to build, we don't have a few thousand to make a mistake by using the wrong company! Will be building in north Florida. Thanks much for any advice!

Featured Answer

cpartist

last year

When looking for a good house plan, use this list as a guideline on what works best.

The best houses orient the public rooms towards the south for the best passive solar heating and cooling

The best houses are L, U, T, H, or I shaped.

The best houses are only one to two rooms deep. And covered lanai, porches, garages, etc count as rooms in this case.

The best houses make sure kitchens have natural light, meaning windows so one doesn't have to have lighting 24/7 to use the kitchen. (And no, dining areas with windows 10' or more from the kitchen will not allow for natural light.)

The best houses make sure all public rooms and bedrooms have windows on at least two walls.

The best houses do not if possible put mechanical rooms, pantries or closets on outside walls

The best houses do not have diagonal interior walls making for odd spaces.

The best houses keep public and private spaces separate. (Meaning you're not walking into the bedroom directly from a public room)

The best houses do not have you walk through the work zone of the kitchen to bring laundry to the laundry room.

The best houses do not have the mudroom go through any of the work zones of the kitchen.

The best houses do not use the kitchen as a hallway to any other rooms.

The best houses do not put toilets or toilet rooms up against bedroom walls or public areas.

The best houses do not have walk in closets too small to stand inside. (One needs 2' for hanging space and 32"-36" for walking space. Ideally the 36")

The best houses have separation, such as closets, between bedrooms and between bedrooms and public rooms.

The best houses do not have roofs that are overly large, and dominate the exterior of the house.

The best houses do not have stick on exterior materials only on the front façade.

The best houses have an organizing “spine” so it’s easy to determine how to get from room to room in the house and what makes sense. Meaning they don’t have meandering circulation paths.

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Comments (16)

PRO
PPF.
last year
My son (and my husband and myself) will be building his first home!

Since the home is for your son, why not point him here and let him ask his own questions?

To answer your questions, most any plan site will sell buildable plans, and any decent builder will be able to build from them, even if they are not perfect.

The real issue is in the design. Plan sites sell generic plans -- plans that are designed to sell, but may not be optimum for your son or the building site.

Many here will say hire an architect and not waste your money on pre made plans, and while that may be ideal, in the real world, it's rare, and as long as someone has a good eye, a stock plan can work just fine.
worthy
last year
There are many reputable companies that offer house plans, and choosing one that meets your specific needs may depend on your budget, design preferences, and local building codes. Here are a few recommendations to consider:
- Popular design companies: companies like Houseplans.com, Architectural Designs, and HomePlans.com offer a wide range of single-story plans in the 1,600-1,800 sq ft range.
- Custom home builders: local custom home builders in North Florida may also offer house plan options that are designed for the specific climate and building codes in the area.
- Local architects: hiring a local architect can be more expensive, but they can provide customized plans that take into account your specific needs and the local building codes.
When choosing a company, be sure to review their portfolio, check their customer reviews, and ask for references from past clients to ensure they have a good track record of delivering quality plans and good customer service. Additionally, you may want to consider working with a builder or contractor to review the plans and ensure they are buildable and meet local building codes.
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PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
last year
How do you, or your son, define "good design"? Is it something that meets your needs well or someone else's well?

How do you define "good quality plans that are easy to work with"? All the dimensions add up? Only four corners?

Best designs are created not found.
PRO
Virgil Carter Fine Art
last year
What is your budget? What is your timeline? What sort of site do you have? Is passive solar design important? Does your son like to cook? How many bedrooms does your son need? Does he have a large truck? Pet(s)?

These are the sorts of questions for which answers are needed before beginning to design, much less look for stock plans.

Have you and your son gone through all of this and have all the answers worked into a program or summary of needs? Needs are not the same thing as wants...Be sure you understand and separate the two.

Good luck
Debbie Williams
Original Author
last year
Thank you for all the helpful feedback! My concerns over the plans are from our own past experience: poor plan design that we lived with for many years, done by an architect! Then we built our retirement home..."plans" were a step up from being drawn on a napkin but that is all that is required here! But with (much) careful oversight the design and build came out ok. Yes, we have done extensive renovations ourselves in the past, and will probably act as bank and GC to help our son get established. He knows what he wants and can afford, and with our help we think he can get a livable shell and be under roof for a reasonable amount, and then do finishes over time. He will invest a lot of sweat equity, but we will have trades do the big-ticket items. We'll look at the sites that were recommended, then next step is to talk to a builder and get some quotes! I will direct him to this site--there is a lot of good info and helpful folks here!
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
last year
" "plans" were a step up from being drawn on a napkin but that is all that is required here!"

That is a plan destine for failure, and it did. It is your failure, not the architect's. This time get construction documents produced that address your special needs. Do not build a house from rough sketches. Learn from your past mistake.
cpartist
last year
Is there an actual reason you're building a house for your son versus finding an already built house? Maybe a fixer upper as a first house?
Debbie Williams
Original Author
last year
Bought rural acreage with a house on it...but the house has a bad foundation (built in the 40's) and too many issues to make it worthwhile to renovate. Too much HGTV makes it look like there isn't anything you can't fix, but that's not quite true. Finding nice acreage in a decent area that was somewhat affordable was quite a challenge in this market. He's already done a lot of work on the land and is living in a camper while he gets plans, permits, quotes, etc. ready for Phase II. He'll end up with a very nice home, at a price he can afford, eventually. And we've already got RV hook-ups for our coach, so we can be snowbirds and visit in the future. Already have a large RV/storage barn done. He wasn't interested in a subdivision house and any nicer older home that would have been OK with renovations was priced high and sold for over list! Don't know how younger folks are affording a starter home these days, especially if they don't have any skills at all to fix/repair anything. So we'll salvage some of the older wood and 40's sink (!) from the old place and whatever vintage materials we can re-use...but the house will be a tear down.
Keen B
last year
@Debbie Williams Everything everyone has said so far is just and wise. I expect what you are asking for is advice on a houseplan site that offers more than just snapshots of the elevations and floor plans. I've seen some sites that sell only that. There are others that sell the elevations/floorplan along with basic roof and very basic electric plans.

What you need, however, are the plans that show pretty much everything, side views of interior walls, with stud and beam placement, plumbing/electric plan, intricate roof lines. Even a few sites offer plans that will show where to lay HVAC vents, etc. so you don't end up with nowhere to place all that. But know, the wise thing is to get an electrician, a plumber and an HVAC expert to review your plans and help with design before you get it all into a building department.

When you begin perusing plan sites, ask these companies to detail explicitly what is included with purchase price--like if they say, electric plans, ask to see a sample to know if its worth anything. Also ask to see pictures of homes that were built with those plans. (Many architecture firms sell their old plans for already-built homes for far less than they charged first owner. But some plan sites sell essentially art that has never been built or reviewed by an engineer. So you have no idea if they work IRL. I've seen online plans that literally have nowhere to put water heater or heat exchange, etc.)

Depending on where you live in N. Fla (after Hurricane Michael) you may need an engineer's stamp on anything you submit, but you can still buy pre-set plans and get an engineer's draftsman to review them or add and subtract from them before you send to planning.

Building yourselves, keep it simple. Look for rectangles or squares only-four base walls. four exterior corners. Choose an area of land that is already as flat as can be so you do not need odd supporting/retaining walls. (N. Fla can be surprisingly hilly.) Choose a simple roof line that isn't overly steep. Find a plan where the rooms with plumbing come as close together as possible, so plumbing the walls is simpler. And Good Luck. See you on the building a home threads.
Debbie Williams thanked Keen B
cpartist
last year
Also because you're in Fl, look for a hip roof plan. Insurance is less expensive with a hip roof for some reason.
Debbie Williams thanked cpartist
Debbie Williams
Original Author
last year
Thanks! Insurance is definitely going to be a big part of his budget, and he'll have to scale back a little so he can afford his insurance. The market in Florida is crazy...we left FL due to skyrocketing costs. Even with a 21% bump on our policy this year, it is still HALF of what we were paying 3 years ago in FL. Anything we can do to save on insurance will be helpful.
Laurel C
last year
@cpartist If I were to hazard a guess as to why that's the case, hip roofs take wind loads much more easily that gabled roofs. Because all of the roof surfaces are angled with a hip, the lateral load is far less and air flows over it more easily.
Debbie Williams thanked Laurel C
PRO
Virgil Carter Fine Art
last year
Less uplift forces...!
Debbie Williams thanked Virgil Carter Fine Art
PRO
Mark Bischak, Architect
last year
I have see designs posted here on Houzz that I would not call "uplifting". I digress.
PRO
Virgil Carter Fine Art
last year
I can loan you some shoes which are uplifting...!

Need to purchase house plans for starter home...

cpartist

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PPF.

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