Designing Your New Home

In my last post I talked about the very first steps of building a custom home. Today we're going to get to some really fun stuff - design! Once our clients have gathered together all their photos and ideas, we sit down  and go over their needs and wants. We bring plenty of paper to these meetings and start sketching quick layouts. Do the clients want a Master Bedroom near the other bedrooms or away? How should the family entrance be laid out? Butler's Pantry? Outdoor living space? And what about a fireplace?

At this meeting we try to get as much information as possible so that once I get back in the office, I can start designing. Looking at blueprints and being able to understand how a room will look is difficult for most people. Using a CAD/Rendering program such as Chief Architect or SoftPlan has really helped our clients envision their finished project. I begin with the layout, using the design details picked up from the client. Knowing the property is vital at this point as it helps with the orientation of the rooms - is there a view to consider? When planning a lake cottage at least all the public rooms and master bedroom should have lake views. Are there neighbors nearby? Place a closet on that wall.

Once the basic layout is formed, I like to arrange the bathroom fixtures since there are very specific code requirements for those rooms. Then I work on the bedrooms, the living room, dining room and finally the kitchen. Considering the style of the home, I then start placing the windows and doors.

This is where it really gets fun - the renderings! Using the client's preferences, I go through the home, choosing materials and styles for all the surfaces. Of course at this point everything is subject to change, these 3D renderings are such a big help when it comes to designing the home WITH the client rather than FOR the client.

Because we use computer modeling, our clients can easily request to see ceilings raised, colors changed and walls moved before we're even ready to estimate the project. This saves both time and money!

Once I'm happy with the amount of detail in a project, the clients receive an email with their proposed layout and renderings. Sometimes the design stays the same and sometimes a project will go through three or four revisions before we're ready for the next step: estimating.

Be sure to follow real time progress of this project over at The House That Mim Built!

Building a Custom Home - Where to Start?

 

When clients come to us ready to explore a new project, whether it be a custom home or just a small remodel, there are always a lot of questions. And there should be - there are a lot of steps to the process. But questions are good! We ask a lot of questions of our clients as well. It's through this period of question and answer that we begin to lay the groundwork for the project. Discovering not only what the clients need, but also what they want is one of the most important parts of our job and it begins well in advance of any site work.

When embarking on a major remodel or custom home build, we encourage our clients to gather as much media together as possible. Pinterest has been absolutely wonderful in this regard! Because most people don't spend their days studying architectural terms and blueprints, providing us with photos of spaces which appeal to them is greatly helpful. What one person refers to as Traditional, another person might find Transitional. By getting a vision of what our clients like, we begin to steer the ship in the right direction. We can introduce products and finishes which fit their personal aesthetic and in such a way, we plot our course.

The process of building a new home usually begins before the builder is even contacted. People make the decision and then spend some time looking at floor plans and elevations. Usually when clients come to us, they've found a handful of plans they like. If they haven't we encourage them to go out to sites like Architectural Designs or Eplans to get started. It's then our job to sit down with them and go over what they like about each plan, what their property (and zoning) will allow, and what parts of the plans they don't enjoy. We may go through 30 plans before we come up with a Frankensteined patchwork quilt of ideas. Some clients have very specific ideas but no plans picked out - in those cases we start from scratch, sketching and mocking up different ideas until we find a winner.

For example - The House that Mim Built is a custom design borne of a premade plan. We spent a few months looking at floor plans, taking ideas from here and there. The plan above appealed in many ways, but needed a lot of work to become just the right home for my mom.

The original plan is a two-story, 3400 SF executive home - not exactly what Mim was looking for. But she liked the open concept, so it gave us a good starting point. We ended up keeping only the kitchen/dining room/great room layout as well as the angled garage - everything else became custom designed space. Soon I'll share the final build plans and you'll see just how different Mim's house will be.

Next I'll share how we bring together all the different design ideas using computer modeling. This allows the clients to not only see wall colors and furniture placement, but also to envision adding windows, moving walls and more! It's a very useful tool for developing the plans.

Follow PCW design/build on Pinterest for project photos, inspiration and ideas!

 

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The House That Mim Built

We're getting ready to start a very fun project. Well, all of our projects are pretty fun - we get to transform spaces every day! But this project is a just little more special because we're building a new home for my mom. Our kids call her Mim, and she's decided to blog about the progress, too. You can follow her at The House That Mim Built.
We were part of the first house my mom built over 10 years ago. She loved that house and she really loved the building process. So when it became apparent that she was ready to move, the decision was a little bittersweet. She had to say goodbye to her perfect cottage, but was looking forward to planning and building her new home.
Serendipity played a hand in the process - I posted her home for sale on facebook when it went on the market, a friend from school saw it, made an appointment to see it the next day and put in an offer! The first person who saw it, bought it! And it's just a perfect home for her family, too.
So with that step out of the way, Mim located an undeveloped parcel of land in a great neighborhood. At just over an acre, her new property is nestled behind a row of mature evergreens - totally a secret garden!
Over the last few months we've been planning, designing, altering, scouting, sourcing and we've finally settled on a plan (stay tuned for photos!) that amplifies everything she loved about her last house and alters the things that didn't work well. It has a large screened room and deck for outside living. The kitchen, dining room and living room are all open, allowing for large family gatherings at the holidays. I'm so excited to share the plans as well as the palette of finishes she's selected. It's going to be just lovely and completely reflective of her personality.
The lot is being cleared this week and then the house will be sited and staked and the permits finalized. Digging can begin after that.
We're all very excited for this process and am glad to share it with you. From design to reality, join us as we track The House that Mim Built!

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