A few years ago, before I used any computers to create houses, a partner and wife came if you ask me and unfurled two drawings. One was a floor plan of a residence that they wished to build. The 2nd was a nice watercolor of the outside facade.
I stared at both drawings and asked: “What would you prefer me to complete for you as you currently have a floor plan and an outside design?”
The husband responded he had created the ground plan with some type of computer program and that the wife had created the watercolor facade. He was an automobile dealer, she was an artist.
My jaw dropped to the floor. I couldn’t speak…
Again, I asked, why did they require me at this time?
The husband replied sheepishly that although they liked the ground plan it didn’t quite fit the setbacks of this lot. I possibly could utilize the watercolor as a research point. (The drawing at right is one of mine, hand sketched and computer colored)
I looked closely at the plans and noticed these were single sheets of copy paper taped together. The first and second floors were exactly to scale and had doors, windows, cabinets, plumbing fixtures, columns, etc. Indicated. The sheets had been plotted on a property printer.
Excited, I immediately bought the application program and tried working with it. I considered to myself: “If this individual, a whole non-architect, could draft a perfectly scaled floor plan, so could I!”
But I hated it. After about 45 minutes I couldn’t get the hang of’drawing’with a mouse with my right hand (I am left handed) and staring at a blank screen while hitting small button commands to work the software. I put everything back in the box.
But I went on with this commission and redraw those plans manually on a scaled site to produce fit and the elevation I drew by hand as well.
A couple of months later I received a commission to style a 14,000 SF home. The owner was a rocket scientist. Literally. His office was only some minutes from mine. We communicated completely via email after our initial face to manage the meeting.
He sent me, several days later, a single line drawing of his ideal house. I stared at it and thought again: “This individual never drawn any house plans and here he is utilizing a simple free CAD program that just draws lines.”
I proceeded to recreate the program to scale yourself and after several days presented it and the client was pleased. Several more days passed and he contacted me to ask to add two feet through the width of the va home loan to really make the central corridor wider…
I was going to commit hari Kari… It involved erasing half the master plan to do this. Several brainless hours of electric eraser work.
Frustrated, I took out the house design software, created the ground plan with the wider hallway and received an approval to maneuver forward. It’s the exact plan shown at the very top with this blog.
I have not looked back. In fact, I utilize the same method to create houses to this day: I create the floor plans in CAD and draw the elevations and interiors by hand. The complete set is then fond of an AUTOCAD for final drawings. A floor planning with CAD saves a huge amount of time in the creation and constant revision of the floor plans. See below a photograph of the house I first drew up in CAD. It had been featured on Good Morning America. This can be a video link. (NEW higher resolution). All photos here.
The thing that was this software? At the time you may visit Best Buy and purchase the program for approximately $65. It’s been improved for the layperson in the last couple of years and now available as Home Designer Essentials. I’ve this for 2017 and there’s a free 2018 upgrade.
Throughout the last 20 years, I’ve tried various other similar programs, but have stuck to the one. I suggest it. I’ve the professional version that does many other items, but for easy floor planning with a consumer, that is easy to understand and use. You’ll find used copies on Ebay or purchase a new one here for $99 that does so much more than the floor plans you can have hours and hours of fun… More pleasurable than I care to learn though!!
Get it if you wish to:
Replicate a current house for remodeling, furniture placement, etc.
To include a terrace, driveway or pool and see how much space you’ve on your own property.
Create a variety of new house plans, real or fantasy.
Realtors can measure existing houses and recreate the actual intend to scale for marketing.
This consumer software has now been so sophisticated as possible create 3D exterior and interior renderings, show furniture and accessories in 3D, colors etc. You will find step-by-step instructions and video tutorials.
For floor plans with a couple of clicks, you can choose to scale your own home, a new home, garage, gazebo, anything. Adding windows and doors and resizing is a breeze. Plop in a case and then sinks. Show appliances in a kitchen. Draw up a basement layout, etc. Then click to see in 3D. Amazing. Easy to use. There is even a trial download.
In today’s world, people are fond of decorating their places closets as they want that pleases and entertains them.