Tips for Choosing a Floor Plan When Building a New Home

Few situations in life are as enthralling as getting the opportunity to design your own home. Whether you’ve been dreaming of this project since you were a child or the thought recently manifested in your mind, you are now on your way to having a customized house. Consider some tips for choosing the coolest floor plan.

Account for Future Plans

If you and your partner are designing a house together, you might initially opt for a two-bedroom plan with one bathroom or something similar. Think about your goals for the future though. For example, if the two of you are considering having children, a floor plan similar to ones from berkshomes.com with more than two bedrooms could be useful. Another possibility is that you’re expecting to host many large family gatherings, so you may want an additional guest room and bathroom to accommodate the crowd. Looking at new homes for sale in the area, particularly listings for family homes could give you inspiration for floor plans that are spacious enough to accommodate everyone.

Think of Accessibility

Having an accessible home is important for both yourself and your guests. If you are planning to live in the house for the rest of your life, make sure at least one bedroom and one bathroom are on the first floor. There may come a point in your life when going up and down the stairs is difficult, dangerous, or impossible. Also, ensure that the steps up into the house have a sturdy handrail in order to prevent serious trips or falls. If you’ve got space, you could even look into getting a wheelchair ramp (providing it meets the ADA wheelchair ramp requirements) installed to make getting up to the house even easier. 

Look at the Market

Of course, you are probably not thinking about selling your house since you haven’t even moved in yet. The fact of the matter is, however, that many people do move several times in their lives. A point may come when you want to sell the house. Consider what types of floor plans are the most popular on the market so that you can have an easier sale. Many people want to buy a house that has at least three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, and a dining room.

Review Practical Concerns

There are also a lot of practical things about a floorplan you should think about; namely, what will make your life more convenient based on where it’s placed? For example, when you plan to host a lot of outdoor parties in the summer, you probably want the kitchen to be toward the back of the house. A washer and dryer adjacent to the bedrooms can be quite useful if you’re going to have a large family living in the home. If you work from home frequently, at least a small space that can serve as an office is not only practical but possibly necessary.

Getting to live in a home that you design is exciting, and you’ll probably feel that eagerness growing with each step of the process. As you select the floor plan for your new home, be sure to consider both aesthetic and practical elements in order to create a liveable dream home you’ll always love.