When you’re planning for your home, one of the very first things you’ll have to consider is your floor plan. Among all other parts of your home, when you really come to think of it, your home isn’t a home without the floor plan. This is the foundation of everything else that’ll come into place in the creation of your home. All decisions will be made according to what the floor plan involves.
The floor plan is the layout of every single room in your home, how these rooms are positioned and what their sizes are, and what are the it’s going to include. Generally, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach in the creation of your floor plan. This is a decision that’ll depend on certain factors that are personal, according to the homeowner, and dependent upon the home’s size.
These things that you have to consider include:
1. Lifestyle
For starters, your floor plan should be representative of your lifestyle. It should meet your needs and everything else that you’re looking for to have in a home. Otherwise, if your floor plan doesn’t depict the room, size, and features that are parallel to your lifestyle, then this wouldn’t be effective. You’ll be building a home that isn’t even suitable to your needs.
First off, remember that this is your home. So, it has to be comfortable for you and your family, not someone else. It should provide the convenience that you prefer.
For example, you’re a family with very young children. This means that for many years to come, you’re going to be hosting gatherings at home for the kids’ birthday parties, among all other occasions. You may want to incorporate an island on your kitchen for easier food preparation when you’re hosting. Your living space, encompassing the dining and living room, will do well on an open plan, especially with young children.
2. Safety
Once you put in all the other features in your floor plan, don’t neglect the safety features as well. This means that your floor plan and flow should make for easy evacuation, in case of an emergency.
For instance, don’t just have one door on the first floor. Having multiple doors can ensure multiple exit points when an emergency comes. If you have a multiple-floor house, one feature that most floor plans forget to include is a fire exit. You may not think you don’t need this if you only have two floors anyway, but you never know if your main stairs can still be accessible. It’s always best to be this proactive when it comes to safety than to regret it later on.
3. Space Needs
Ask yourself the question, “How big does my home really need to be?” The size of your home is highly dependent on your needs. The bigger the family size, the bigger your home. This means more rooms, more extra spaces, and a bigger living space for the kids to move around.
When creating your floor plan, don’t just think about the short term. You’re going to regret it three years down if you only thought you needed two rooms, only to realize later on that you need two more with another baby on the way and with your parents visiting regularly on weekends for sleepovers. , but you’ll want to keep these as minimal as possible, given that these could also be costly.
The space you need is a personal preference, depending on the features that you also desire to have in your home. Some homeowners, for instance, will want to have added rooms, like a dedicated office or homeschooling room, a playroom, a walk-in closet, or a walk-through pantry.
4. Budget
Having a budget is utterly important when building a home. Surely, you wouldn’t want to build a home that you can’t afford not just to build, but also to maintain.
The equation is simple: the bigger the house, the costlier its maintenance and upkeep are going to be. Thus, always consider your budget.
Don’t get oversold to building a big house immediately at the moment if you don’t need it or see yourself needing that space even five years down the road. If your builder presents you with a floor plan that’s just too ambitious for your budget, then find out if there are ways to lower the cost. For example, you may want to make some room smaller, or that you may not need that basement entertainment den anyway.
5. Location
Your floor plan should match your location. Don’t just select a floor plan at random, thinking that you absolutely love it, and, then, later on finding out that it doesn’t match your location.
For instance, the floor plan you’re looking at involves floor-to-ceiling glass windows, well-suited for a property up in the mountains, where you don’t live nearby a neighbor. But, your property is currently located in a busy residential neighborhood where you’ve got next-door neighbors. As much as that floor-to-ceiling plan is lovely, it just won’t work well for your location.
6. Privacy
Going hand-in-hand with the factor on location above, privacy is also another important thing to consider when deciding on a floor plan. The need for privacy will differ, depending on where your property is locate and what your needs are.
With children, then . Surely, you wouldn’t want them to feel unsafe growing up, feeling like there’s always someone lurking around the corner, waiting for their next prey. So, in making your floor plan, take privacy into consideration.
This need for privacy can help address questions, like where the doors and windows will be positioned, how high the ceilings and the walls will be, and how big the windows will be, among many other things.
Conclusion
As you can see, creating your floor plan is indispensable. Every homeowner will have to go through this at least once in their life in the process of building their home. There are many things that can vary in your floor plan from that of another homeowner’s. But, the most important thing is that your floor plan executes what you desire to have in your home, the size of your property, and all other features that you deem are essential to have in a house.
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