Professional advice and guidance will help turn your dream into reality

DESIGNING a home should be a project that will give you years of fulfilment when your dream is realized. The best way to make sure this happens most successfully ( and most cost effectively) is to bring an architect into the actual design process.

Your part of the design is knowing what you want. The architect’s part is helping you make your design goals work, and steering you around design traps.

SKETCH OUT A ROUGH PLAN

This will help you take your ideas from concept to concrete. For (very simple) example, let’s say you want 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, an open kitchen and a “great room,” for both dining and entertainment.

Start by blocking out basic areas—for example, on the right side of the house, 2 bedrooms on one side of a hallway, with an adjoining bath, and the 3rd bedroom on the other side, with a master bath. In the middle, the entry way opening onto the great room. And on the left side, the kitchen, laundry room, and access to the garage.

You might find this process more fun and flexible if you make cut-outs of the various rooms, and then move them around till you find a layout that works for you.

Armed with this basic layout idea, consider the box that will surround it. Craftsman-style houses have certain conventions, as do split-levels, colonials, and geodesic domes. A floor plan that works in a craftsman home will probably not feel so cozy in a dome.

CREATE A FLOOR PLAN

For this, there is software available that will let you place rooms, walls, windows, etc. to create a professional-looking design. However, software and vision will only take you so far.

To create a truly workable design that takes in not just splendid design ideas, but considers such practical considerations as structural integrity, flood planes, drainage, slope, and all the other little details, it’s important to work with an architect.

Mistakes made in the vision phase cost nothing. Mistakes made in the design phase cost you time. But carry those mistakes through to the building phase and they could cost you more than your budget.

Knowing when to hire the pros is what will take designing your own home from a dream to a reality. Let the steady hand of an experienced designer take over the process of finalizing your plans. S/he’ll work with the architect and your general contractor to turn your dreams into reality.

You’ve created the concept, you’ve driven the dream. You’ve done all the legwork, found the property, focused your design goals, and know exactly what you want. Now, you have more important duties involved in managing the construction of your dream home.