Dadereni wrote, "... Back in architecture school I had a classmate who would always have a lot of ideas--many of them good--but due to lack of editing these would all be forced into one project...when some of them should have ended up on the floor or saved for the next project..." Excellent point! This is a major difference between good design and builder's "plop". If one scans through all of the illustrations on this thread one will immediately see that the stock plans and builder's houses have a wild mish-mash of forms, shapes, proportions, materials and details--all forced onto a single house! For example, there are multiple roof shapes and materials, multiple window shapes, sizes and types, and siding materials often look like a demonstration project for a half-dozen different manufacturers! One of my favorite examples of builder's frou-frou are the second floor window planter boxes shown on the house drawings. I wonder how many folks with have their potting soil, watering can, hand spades and cultivators in the bedrooms on the second floor to properly tend to those flowers! Don't forget that most annuals need to be changed out every 3-4 months or more often. Sure look good in the drawings, though! The well designed examples, however, can be quickly seen to have relatively few and well-integrated shapes, proportions, materials and details. The result is an authenticity lacking in the builder's designs--an overall harmonious unity of shape, proportion, materials and detailing. Roofs are simple and unified because the plans are simple; the proportions are pleasing and human scaled; the choice of materials and detailing is elegantly simple, but never plain! Good design does not need excess! Or mish-mash! Someone, earlier in the thread, said, "...well, we could just change the curved roof shapes (there are two "lonely" curved roof shapes in the referenced example), make some changes here and there and the design might be fine for us..." And it's true--one could make changes here and there, with a result that might be "fine" for them and their tastes. The point, however, is that one is starting with something that is poorly designed at the outset and trying to change some of the exterior decoration and, perhaps, move a few partitions around on the inside in order to make it "fine" and "acceptable". A sow's ear is a sow's ear, no matter how much one decorates or undecorates it! It's very difficult, time-consuming and questionable expense to start with a poor design and try to improve it. This is, of course, the challenge of starting with stock plans and builder's models. Many are simply mish-mash plop. Almost none of these plans are really designed for anyone's life style, family size, property conditions, local climate, local regulatory requirements, etc. These designs are generic and generalized--they attempt to include every feature and desirable material in their plan configurations, that is brought up in discussions such as this. The designs are a "library" of all of the currently trendy features from the builder's shows. They tend to be demonstration houses for materials manufacturers. By trying to design something for anyone and everyone, the result is that they really relate to no one! The result is that virtually everyone has to attempt to modify them and personalize them by starting from a poor and ill-fitting initial example. It's usually much better to start with and develop a "good" result, based on one's personalized needs and wants, whether we are talking about house design or anything else. Of course, everyone is different and good design may not be all that important, or, alternatively, one may think a lot of the mish-mash is good design. Everyone's mileage will vary and that's OK!

wow....a lot of reading for the mind and soul during insomnia. So many ideas and so many things to think of..... This post just reiterates more that we are all products of our "families" and our experiences. The bad comes with the good and we grow and we hope to make the best of it and for some....I suppose the main goal is to not repeat some things that have damaged us the most. Brings us to the OP and the reason for custom homes. We all have a dream of the way we want to live and how we want our dream home to be a part of that life. I understand that most downsize to below a 2000 sq ft ranch. That doesn't mean it has to be done that way. I'm not trying to sound ridiculous or anything, but is it more a modern thing for people to down size or is it regional? It seems I know very few who have done this. My Grandparents just closed off their cellar and upstairs and lived in the main-level. They made adjustments when needed to the bathroom. I suppose it must be more modern as farmers used to stay in there homes and their family would move in and care for them. Nowadays I know a lot of farmers who give the "home place" to their youngest and then build a new "retirement" place for themselves. Just wondering?!?! Anyway....I'm from rural, farm country and where most have large families and super extended families. Most of my friends and family were raised in ranch homes or simple 2 story homes. Average sq ft being 1800-2100, often with a semi-finished rec room in the basement. The trend with my parents, their friends and our family is that they usually stay in the home until they pass away or a few go into a nursing home. I can honestly say that all 10 Aunts/Uncles and many family friends have added onto their homes in their 50's or early 60's. Actually 1 moved instead:). They all wanted a larger "gathering" room and built on for that reason. Many (prior to building on) used the lower-level rec room for this and then just for reason of stairs, location to kitchen and bathrooms, aesthetic, etc had added on to accommodate. So, they were all adding onto their homes, when I suppose many would think they were getting closer to downsizing. They all now approaching mid 70's and some into their 80's and are still in their added on homes. We have just found over the years that when a hall or other place is rented out for a holiday, etc....our family loses it's closeness. All the cousins arrive, eat and leave. We have found it more inviting, relaxing, etc to have it in the home where we can hang, relax and gather for hours. So, if you don't want people for hours, rent a place with tables and folded chairs or go to a restaurant :-) My parents actually were the ones who built a new place 2 years ago. They had owned acreage/wooded for years. They originally built a cabin on it and found themselves spending so much time there, they decided to build. Oh, we were so against the idea, everyone was! Too far out, too far from hospitals, too much land, too much too much. My dad said everyone thinks we are crazy, but it is what WE WANT, do you think we really haven't thought about all these things.....we will sell and move again if and when it becomes too much. So, they did what they wanted and they are thrilled. It is a smallish ranch with an open floor plan and a guest bedroom for occasional grand kids sleep overs. However, they have a large family room that is very cozy most of the time. They have the furniture placed in a groupings with large walk-ways all around. For Christmas it takes 2 people to move their one couch to open the room up and make room for all. And there solution to host really large parties was a "finished garage." They finished the walls with drywall and had breadboard added all around below the chair rail. They added cabinets and a counter top with electrical (crockpots etc) and a refrigerator. They have ceiling fans, highly insulated, and a nice epoxy (???) floor. They have a half bath directly inside the house from the garage. It is party ready just by backing the cars out. Of course they have an out building for all the junk that most people would have in their garage. What they didn't know is that it is the younger grandchildrens favorite place. It works out lovey when the young ones are out there....we pull out some old cars and trucks and they go crazy and then the adults can converse and hear each other. So, just to mention a few ways that many others have actually added to their homes in order to manage growing families. Personally, in our new build....we added on a huge dining room with surrounding wrap around covered porch and hope to be able to entertain large numbers in this space for many years. OP...I do wish you the best with your new home and your family is lucky to have you and a wonderful place to spend with you!

P G wrote, "...my question to you, how would you handle it, if someone expresses their needs/wish list for a home and then shows u a plan, which they are not married or necessarily attached to?..." It's a good question, and a common one. Probably every practicing architect has faced this more than once. The challenge is the degree to which (or not) they "are or aren't married to" the stock plan or home-grown plan. The all too frequent reality is that after spending inordinate amounts of time looking on the Internet for the "perfect" plan, and especially spending eons of time doing one's on plan using a CAD system, most human beings ARE married to their plan in whole or in part. You can test this by asking your husband if he's willing to abandon his plan! Thus, an experienced and creative architect is going to have to spend additional time to review the stock plan with the consumer and gently suggest, "well, have you thought about this...?", and "have you considered that...?", attempting to demonstrate that there may be better and more appropriate directions and solutions. It's really so much easier and more fun to start with a clean sheet of paper, working closely together with the architect of your choosing. You will be able to tell a lot about your architectural technologist by how they respond to this plan and your husband's plan. If s/he simply say, "Sure, I can get this drafted up in just a few days...", you have a big problem. On the other hand, if they scratch their chin, and say, "Well, have you thought about this...?", you may have a keeper! I really don't know what a Canadian Architecture Technologist can do. There is no equivalent in the U.S. Their degree and training is less than an architect's, and they may be legally limited in the size and type of buildings they can design. My guess is that they fit somewhere between a draftsperson and an architect. I would think their technical knowledge and skill may be strong, but wonder if they have the true creative abilities of talented architects. If their past work looks appealing and they have good references, it's worth a go.

I am not crazy about the angled garage - the crazy angles in the pantry and mud room aren't very functional. I like the hall bath - but those bedroom closets are all wrong. As others explained above, the size you have specified for "walk-in" closets wastes a lot of space - you have 7 feet of hanging space, and waste 7'x3' (plus walls) of usable space in the bedroom. Not only that, you've basically blocked off a window with the closet in each bedroom. AND you are not gaining the great advantage of using the closets as a buffer between bedroom and public space. Make reach-in closets along the west wall in both bedrooms. Mind if I ask why you are so opposed to hiring an architect? As bry911 pointed out, there are a lot of inefficiencies in your plan. An architect could streamline the whole house, getting more function out of less space, which will not only make the house more pleasant to live in, but could trim the costs enough to pay for the architect. As cpartist said - you don't know what you don't know. I love playing around with house plans, just for fun, and I love analyzing plans. But I would no more design my own house than I would perform my own brain surgery - I want an experienced professional to perform such an important task. You clearly have a lot of ideas on how you want your house to function - like having the master bedroom separate from the kids (though in both your plans, the master suite behind the kitchen does feel like servant's quarters). If you take those ideas to a professional, you might be pleasantly surprised at the ways they could suggest fulfilling those ideas - ways that you would never think of, because that's not where your training and experience are focused.