The design

Designing a home is so much fun. Given we were bidding on a narrow block with an easement down one side we found an architect even before we bought the block. This gave us some comfort that we could create a great home on this block.

We based the plans on a home that he had designed previously, and then tweaked them to suit us. I played around a bit with homestyler.com to develop some plans I could play with too. It was great fun and a good way to communicate the changes we wanted. This program lets you overlay a design, copy over it and then move it around and change the size etc.

We are nearly at the stage where we have a layout that we are happy with. I am still a little concerned about the size of my wardrobe, and also about the space around the table in the family room. I'm measuring all my current spaces, so that I can get a bit of a feel for the size. It is really hard for me to imagine the room sizes without doing this. This pic is a little sneak peek of the plans.

The next stage will be adding the elevation of the land to the plans. The architect will do this once we have agreed the layout. Then we will send the plans out to some builders to get quotes. I'm really hoping that the prices will be reasonable, and that we won't need to compromise on the plans - but I think this may end up happening. I'll let you know.....