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For most people, building their first home is an exciting part of life. In the context of evaluating floor plans for your home, working with professionals as the hickory group can significantly reduce the effort needed to understand abject details of the floor plan. Most of us cannot comprehend a floor plan from a set of line drawings and much less perceive what the new home would finally look like. But, when you have professionals like hickory on your side, the task gets very light because they can even show you how your new home would look like when completed, albeit on the computer screen. There are many steps involved in evaluating a home floor plan and we have culled out the top steps to aid you further.
Review the basics
Without an idea of the most important features of your new home, it is tough to rate a floor plan. Therefore ahead of commencing your home search, it helps to create a list featuring numerical ranking for every important feature that you have imagined. For instance, if an island in the kitchen is a priority for you, assign the number 1 to ‘Kitchen Island’ in the list you create. By rating the priorities similarly, it gets a lot easier to set aside floor plans that do not feature the must-have attributes.
Focus on the flow
Floor plans that feature a poor flow will require that you backtrack or take circuitous routes for reaching key areas of the home. Check out attributes like groupings to ensure that frequently used rooms are grouped in close proximity. Ideally, the kitchen is about the dining room and the bed and bath are adjacent to each other in a quiet part of the house. Similarly, consider whether it is easy to move from one part of your home to another and look for barriers that may prevent easy access to different parts of the home. Do you see the layout as confusing or odd? Further, the flow within any room is also equally important and more so with the kitchen and baths. Irrespective of the size of the kitchen, elements like the ovens, sinks, dishwashers, and refrigerator should be in close proximity to each other so that the cooking, as well as clean-up, is easier. If you cannot comprehend these factors check with some leading builders like hickory in your local area.
Aesthetics
A good floor plan should enhance the visual appeal of your home. While evaluating plans, imagine things that visitors see when they enter the home. Is there a foyer where the visitors will land first or do they reach the living space straight. A foyer is very helpful in keeping debris and dirt away from the living spaces apart from providing a more affable entry point to your home. Similarly, examine how the bathrooms are located. Is the powder room opening directly into the family room or kitchen and whether such an alignment can be changed.
Take some measurements
It may not always be easy when it comes to judging the way your furniture fits in the new home. If some of your furniture items cannot fit in the new home, the way they should, have you considered an upgrade? Another option is to measure the furniture and see how they can be accommodated in the new house without creating an eyesore. To help you further with this part of the exercise, you can find a helpful app like ‘SmartDraw’ which gives the ability to automate the whole process.
Factoring in future needs
The best floor plan should fit your present and future needs. When you are planning a significantly long stint in your home, it could help to have an option for adding a master bedroom suite on the first floor of your home. Maybe, you are not going to use that extra space for several years. But, it would be very convenient when occasional guests drop in.
Similarly, consider the garage. You may have only one car now but even before you realize, your children would have grown up needing one or two more cars in your home. Is the garage space large enough to accommodate all the family vehicles?
Price
All floor plans are not made alike and therefore, the best floor plan you choose should also be affordable for you. Depending on the size and features offered, the pricing can vary and only you can decide the amount of money that you will invest in your new home. Remember to set aside at least 10% of your overall budget to meet exigencies. Even with the most efficient planning, the last-minute add-ons and changes do demand extra cash and therefore it helps to be prepared. Many people fail to foresee this additional cost while evaluating floor plans and end up overstepping their budgets. The additional burden can leave you cash strapped when you enter your new home and that is not a nice thought.
Ask for a walkthrough
Once you have zeroed in on a couple of floor plans, reach out to reputed builders like the Hickory group and ask them for a free walkthrough for the chosen floor plans. Most professional builders today are equipped with 3D apps that will help you with a close-up view of what you can expect when your new home is all ready to move in.
Choose a reputed builder
For many of us who are building their first home, figuring out the best floor plan can be a huge challenge. But, when you have a reputed builder like the Hickory group on your side, the task gets a lot easier. The extensive experience and expertise these professionals bring to the table will ensure that you make an informed choice with the best floor plan for your new home.
