A lot has changed on the site this month, and most of it is easier to see than to describe. Several plans have new renderings, inside and out. There is a tool for checking a plan against your lot before you buy. And I've entered one of my designs in Chief Architect's residential design contest.
New renderings
Some of my older plans were still shown with renderings that didn't do them justice. A buyer looking at a flat, dated image has no way to tell how the porch feels at the end of the day or how much light reaches the kitchen. So we went back through the plans and rendered them again from the original Chief Architect models, keeping every wall, window and roof line exactly as drawn.
Haddie's Hideaway, with new exteriors at sunset and the rooms of the upper living floor.
Haddie's Hideaway and The Heron now have full sets: the front, the sides, the rear, an aerial view, and the main rooms inside. The Lowell has new exteriors and its kitchen, living room and screened porch, which is the room I would spend the most time in. Ellie's Hideaway has new exteriors and kitchen views, including the plunge pool deck at the rear.
The great room in The Heron, open to the kitchen and the screened porch.
This week Oak Leaf, The Curtis, The Wren and The Green House got new daylight exteriors. The Macy and Islabella each have a short video tour on the plan page, which walks around the house and then through the floor plans.
Oak Leaf, with its rooftop deck and drive-under garage.
More are on the way. If there is a plan you have been considering and want to see a particular view of, tell me and I'll move it up the list.
Check a plan against your lot
The question I hear most often, before any question about bedrooms, is whether a plan will fit on someone's lot. The lot fit tool answers that. Enter your lot's width and depth and the setbacks your county or HOA requires, and it lists every plan that fits inside the buildable area, with the room each one leaves on every side.
If you add the address, it checks the FEMA flood map and the slope around the lot. Choose a flood zone and it narrows the list to plans built elevated, or to plans offered on pilings for Zone V. You can also filter by foundation, and for a wide or corner lot it will try each plan turned sideways.
Every plan page now links to it under "Questions about this plan", with that plan already selected. It works from each plan's footprint, porches and garage included, so it is a good first check. Your surveyor and your local setback rules still have the final word, and if a plan comes up a few feet too wide, that is often something I can change. Ask me about a modification.
A contest entry
Chief Architect, the software I draw every plan in, runs a residential design contest each round, open to designers who use it. This fall I entered one of my plans. The winners are picked by likes on each entry on Chief Architect's Facebook page, and voting runs through November 12.
I entered Islabella, an elevated coastal house for a waterfront lot. I drew it for owners who want to live on one floor and still have room for a full house of family. The main floor is one open room for living, dining and cooking, an elevator stops at every level, and there is a primary suite on each living floor, so the owners can keep to the main level while guests get a suite of their own upstairs.
If you like the design, like the entry on Chief Architect's Facebook page. It is a small thing that helps a small studio get seen next to much larger firms.
Every plan on the site is drawn by me and sold directly, so if you have a question about a plan, a rendering or how something would work on your lot, you are writing to the person who drew it. Get in touch.
