Head throbbing from too many choices in House Plan Heaven?

Before you try our top-rated house plan search engine again, maybe it’s time to try a simple, low-tech solution. After this brief exercise, you’ll be ready to find your dream house with what our customers call “the best search engine on the internet.” By getting some of your ideas out of your head and onto paper, you’ll have a better idea of what you want the next time you hit the search button. Here’s how:

Money Talks

You probably already know the finite amount of dollars you have to spend on your dream house. So before you start the planning process, you can get an idea of how much house you can afford in your area if you consult a local builder or real estate agent. 

Before that consultation, you can get a ballpark figure based on U.S. Census Bureau statistics for your area by using the www.House-plan.org  Estimated Cost Calculator in the Answer Center by clicking the topic “What does it cost to build a new house?” 

This will give you an idea of how much each square foot of your house will cost. You can recheck your numbers for any of our floor plans in the “View Plan Details” section by clicking “See Estimated Cost to Build.” 

Throw the Book at ‘Em 

If you haven’t done this already, grab a pencil or pen and an empty notebook. Write “My Dream House” on the cover. Keep this book handy and record all the ideas and specifics for your new house so that they’re all in one place. 

Before you get to thinking about styles or even a floor plan, sketch out your lot. It doesn’t have to be fancy or even to scale. Use an arrow to indicate north, and jot down anything that will help you orient your house on the site: views, trees, streams, hills, streets, street lights, neighbors’ fences, and so forth. 

You’ll refer to this more when you’re configuring the floor plan, but it’s a good visual reference point when you’re creating each room.

Inside Out 

Confronted with 39 styles may be part of your dilemma. Maybe Victorian AND French Country AND European have captivated your heart, making your selection difficult, or maybe you’re just looking for something different and haven’t seen it yet. 

But you don’t want to sacrifice the kind of living space, or floor plan, you’ll need for a conflicting exterior style, so let’s work from the inside out. We’ll get back to style in a minute. 

One Room at a Time 

First make a list of each room you’ll need. Then add to that list any rooms that you’d like to have but could live without. (Many plans have bonus rooms that can go unfinished until you have the budget to complete them.) 

During this preliminary stage of planning, let your imagination run wild. You may find some plans that can accommodate this extra space without crippling your budget, and you can always eliminate space before making your final selection. 

Your lifestyle should be your main guide, but think about resale value as well. You may not plan to ever move again, but your financing may depend on your bank’s perception of how easy your house would be to sell, and this can also be critical to your heirs.

Now for each room, list what you’ll use it for and how big you think you’d like it. Think about any special needs like extra electrical outlets, fireplaces, windows, ramps, shelves, and so forth. 

If dimensions are hard to picture in your mind, look around your current home to find the areas similar to the ones you’re imagining. 

Use a tape measure to get the actual measurements, and write these down next to each room’s description. During this exercise, don’t forget to think about garage space, a porch, decks, or anything else that will add to the “footprint” of the house. 

Playing in Traffic 

Now that you’ve thought out each room in some detail, you can arrange them on a page by drawing circles of relative size for each one. After sketching your circles in a suitable pattern, connect the shapes with lines to show traffic patterns. 

Getting an idea of traffic flow will determine whether your house is easy to live in or inconvenient to accomplish daily tasks. Whether you entertain frequently, have house guests on a regular basis, or plan on traveling much of the year will have much to do with configuring communal and private living spaces, as well as areas devoted to work or hobbies. 

Try several configurations as you “walk through” the house in your mind. By visualizing the interior, you can eliminate many problems, get a better idea of what you can afford, and establish the kind of floor plan you’ll need before even looking at another house plan.

Leveling the Playing Field 

Your lifestyle and budget will also help you decide if you want more than one level. Space is cheaper in multilevel homes, and basements that can be finished later are the cheapest space houses have to offer. But as we get older, stairs can be a problem, and many people prefer everything on the same level. 

Stylin’ Comes Naturally 

Now that you’ve thought out each room, have a configuration for a floor plan, and know how approximately how many square feet you want, choosing a style will be much easier. You have the information you need to go back to the Advanced Search tool and create searches with better, more specific results. 

From the Advanced Search page, bypass the Plan Style section entirely and make your selections in the sections “Plan Type,” “Details,” and “Lifestyle Features.” 

After you click the Search button, your search results will include several styles. Now you can compare floor plans and exterior styles, making choices from results that match your requirements. 

If you discover a style you really like, you can narrow your choices to floor plans within that style. Now choosing among 21,397 floor plans to find the perfect 1 is as easy as hitting the Search button.

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