So, as you can imagine MUCH goes into house building before any building takes place. First of all you've got to decide if you want 2 story or ranch and how many bedrooms/bathrooms you want where. We knew we wanted a ranch since that's what we had lived in for the last 7 years and loved it. [[Helpful hint: 2 story houses are cheaper to build because there is less foundation and roofing, which are the spendy parts of the house.]] We knew we wanted 3 bedrooms on the main floor and at least 2 bathrooms, ideally a 1/2 bath for guests. We wanted a split plan so the kids bedrooms were on one end of the house and ours was on the other. You can then start searching till your eyes pop out of your head. We have literally spent years combing house plan after house plan. You've got to find one that is close to want you want and your builder can make changes and re draw it to your liking.
Things to look for/my advice:
-Avoid a front entry that opens right into the living room. Even a tiny foyer makes a big difference. Our last house opened right into the living room -- hated it.
-Watch closet space. I kept looking at plans thinking "where on earth will I store my vacuum?" Things like that can be easy to overlook, but you're going to want and need plenty of storage.
-Bedroom sizes/number--I was surprised by the sizes of most bedrooms in the plans I saw. The kids' bedrooms at our other house were so tiny we were looking forward to having bigger bedrooms for them. We also knew the boys where going to share: which seems to surprise people. They are 19 months apart...why would they need their own room? Plus, the square footage that each kid having their own room would create would pretty much deplete any other living space. So, we ended up finding a plan that would allow us to add some extra space onto the bedrooms.
-Sinks: I know the whole 2 sink thing is a huge deal right now and that was originally in our plan for the kids bathroom. I couldn't imagine 2 (or more) of our kids using an actual sink at the same time. So we opted for 1 sink and more counter & closet space. In the master we did do 2 separate vanities...but that's just so I can prove that Seth is the messier one :) Anyway, something to consider...just because it seems to be the thing to do doesn't mean it's what'll work best for your family.
-Best use of space: our original plan had a fairly large covered patio on the end of the living rom. Being that space still required foundation and roof...seemed like a waste. So we enclosed it to be part of the house which made the living room very long but we then added in some custom shelving & columns so it should work out nicely. And we'll still have a deck so I'm good with that.
-We were also a little concerned the dinning room might be tight so we bumped it out into a bay window shape to give a little more room. Cheap fix.
We knew early on we loved the craftsman look and ran with that. Thanks to Pinterest & Houzz we've gotten so many ideas! Truth be told: we have a friend who was/is an interior decorator & she is amazing. We give her our general ideas, she narrows things down, approves/disapproves, gives new ideas, etc. and has made decision making SOOO easy for us. We've got everything picked out already except 2 lights and 3 ceiling fans. Even furniture! Not bad, eh? It has been a lot of fun for us. We don't argue about anything--we each kind of have a couple areas we are passionate about being a certain way and we respect that. I also respect that this is Seth's area of expertise and I let him do his thing. Despite popular belief, there are a lot of things I just don't get too worked up about. Paint colors, flooring, etc...I don't like certain things and beyond that -- I'm pretty flexible.
So...here's a glimpse and what (we hope) the house will look like :) Keep posted to see the end result...
