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6 Easy Steps to building your own home |
Home: 6 Steps: STEP 3 - Home Style and Plan
Define Your Requirements
Depending on the number of floors you decided on, your next task is to identify the rooms that will make-up each floor. Obviously you will have a kitchen, dining room, master bedroom, laundry room, etc. Have you considered adding a breakfast nook or a sunroom? The following questions are the kind that any architect or builder would ask when designing a home building plan. Think how you would answer these questions. It will help you decide the rooms and layout in the next exercise:
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- What room is most important to you and your family?
- Do you have children? What are their ages and will your children's needs change as they grow older?
- Will your home be a focal point for neighbourhood children or teenage parties?
- Do you entertain regularly? What kind of entertainment, formal or informal?
- Do you provide care or soon-to-provide care for an elderly parent or other in your home?
- Do you frequently entertain guests overnight? Do you require a guest bathroom?
- Do you need a home office or work area that is separate from the rest of the house? What kind of equipment will you need? What kind of work do you do?
- Do you need a room for sewing, crafts, exercise, etc.? What are your hobbies?
- Do you need a separate, formal living room?
- Do you need any extra or special storage capacity?
- Do you need an attached garage?
- How many cars do you have?
- Do you have any recreational vehicles?
- Do you need storage capacity in your garage?
- Do you need a basement? What kind, cellar type or walk-out?
- Are you a private person? Do you require a place to escape?
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Start by defining your home style:
- Note the type and style you want for your home
- Your style will help to define the number of floors
- Will there be a basement?
- What are the ceiling heights on each floor?
- What type of closets you want for each bedroom and throughout the house
Arranging your rooms
Identify your primary adjacencies — rooms that must be adjacent:
- Master bedroom and master bathroom
- Kitchen and dining room
- Mud room and garage or outside entry etc.
Identify those rooms that should not be adjacent:
- Master bedroom and child's room
- Kitchen and den / library
- Bathroom and foyer
Identify the rooms that lead to secondary adjacencies that basically connect the whole floor:
- Living room and dining room
- Master bathroom and laundry room
- Kitchen and sun room
Drawing a bubble diagram can help illustrate adjacencies. We will use the main floor plan for illustration:
- Start with primary adjacencies
- Then define non-adjacent rooms
- Connect everything with secondary adjacencies
Determine the size of the rooms
Once you have defined the number and kind of rooms in your house, the next step is to calculate the size and dimension for each room.
- List the rooms in your house and estimate the dimensions that you would like for each room.
- Calculate dimensions for the interior and exterior area.
- These size dimensions allow the architect to customize or find a house plan that meets your dimension specifications
- Calculate the square footage for each room by multiplying the width by the length and total your calculated square footage for each area.
- Note that for the interior finished area, you will need to add 20% to your subtotal for circulation secondary areas (for wiring, plumbing, venting, etc.)
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