My Ideal House
25th of June, 2008
The space around you is important. I don’t think people spend enough time thinking about and trying to improve the space they spend most time in. The options for someone like me, a 20-year-old still at home but almost finished university are few — stay at home (not an option) or move into a house with roommates. My own house would be too expensive and a small apartment can only be found in expensive areas I don’t want to live in anyway. I want to live in a house with the advantages of a house — backyard, verandah, a window on all walls — but I want to live alone and don’t want more than I need. I drew up a floorplan of my ideal house.
To properly see the labels and detail view it at full size.
The plan is definitely not to scale, correct scale is hard so it’s my best guess. I’ll follow with a post about how to actually make a damn floor plan later.
The bottom left corner is the front door.
It’s small. The most claustrophobic thing about a house has little to do with the physical size of the interior and a lot to do with your proximity to other people. Big houses that force people to be near each other often, seem smaller. If you’re living alone physical size is much less important, there’s no need to plan for competing sounds and presence made by other people. Beside that, it’s more manageable. The study doesn’t need to be separated because there’s nothing to separate it from.
Every wall has a large window. This is to keep the air fresh, the light natural, the temperature cool and to open the small space. It wouldn’t be possible if it was an apartment. They’ll be covered with thick curtains so when I do want it dark and closed at night or for watching movies, etc., I can. I don’t want to live in a fishbowl at night.
Very high ceilings will also make the interior feel bigger than it is.
I’ve lived in an apartment with just one kitchen bench, it’s not enough and it’s annoying. A second kitchen bench doubles as a dining table. Formal dining is not for me. It’s a waste of space to have an area dedicated to the small amount of eating you do each day and it’s a waste of time to transfer food between where it’s prepared to where it’s eaten and then back again for washing up.
An ensuite is a must have but the house isn’t big enough for two bathrooms, nor should it have two. I want an ensuite but I don’t want to make guests walk though my bedroom to get to the bathroom. A second door that can otherwise be kept locked solves the problem.
The TV is mounted on the wall beside the front door. Floor space no longer needs to be wasted on a TV. I don’t need a room for watching regular TV and then a separate, dedicated cinema for watching movies or sport.
That rectangle on the rear wall is a sliding (or french) door that will open to a large verandah or patio that’s not included in the drawing. I imagine it’s floor space will be the roughly two thirds the floor space of the house. It will provide nothing inside doesn’t but provide an inexpensive, secondary place to eat, drink, lounge and cook BBQ. It’ll add enough space to have people over. Inside would feel claustrophobic with just a few guests, a large, open verandah wouldn’t and living alone I imagine I’d want to invite people around often.
There’s no garage because cars belong outside. Consider that my entire house could probably fit inside your two or three car garage.
One area obviously lacking is storage. This could be solved with a backyard shed but that’s kind of cheating. I’ve thought about this problem and I’ve thought of a plan alteration to provide plenty.
The area right of the kitchen, the bedroom and bathroom could be raised to a second, loft style level. The bedroom door would be replaced with ladder style steps. The bathroom would no longer be accessible directly so a second toilet and sink would be installed below. The rest of the space below could then be used as storage, a workshop or laundry if you’re adverse to the laundromat. The ceiling above the rest of the ground floor area would simply be raised to match. I don’t keep rubbish, so I don’t think I’d need the space.
Cool plan.
A couple of things you may want to consider as you plan further are….future expansion. Although going from single to couple to more? is a very difficult thing to plan for…still it’s fun to try.
We designed our house from scratch when there was only 2 of us, now there’s 3, with hopefully more, so we designed it with areas that will change usage over time.
Another very important consideration (which is generally ignored by home design/build companies) is the orientation of the home on your land. ie which way does it face relative to the sun, prevailing winds, roads, neighbours etc…and what benefits does this bring. I spent a LOT of time researching the solar aspects of this before designing our home, the benefits are huge and ongoing.
And finally….you could possibly put a small prebuilt home on a piece of land for a relatively small amount of $$$ compared to a traditionally built home…of course land is VERY expensive so it’s not easy.
I look forward to future revisions…with detailed explanations.
Aaron Spence.
Made by Aaron Spence who has a website — http://panedia.com
That’s actually very nice. I love the huge counter/bar space. As for me, I love two different types of designs — I like old stuffy castles and manor houses with secret rooms and lots of random spaces and also small, simple, cozy homes like the one you designed. I think this could be complemented very well by a large outdoor area — something calm and relaxing. Maybe a lake? :D
Made by Ranjani who has a website — http://www.biscuitrat.com
“One area obviously lacking is storage” - that’s immediately what I thought when I saw this. Where do you put everything?
Continuing my comments from flickr - I think this layout almost works if it was only you living there and only have a few friends over at a time.
I imagine that if two people started living there there things would be very uncomfortable, hence why I included a second floor with a library and observatory, and a larger kitchen on the bottom floor. Having those extra spaces around is nice not only for unforeseen circumstances of having say, a girlfriend, or a brother or someone move in or spend the weekend with you. As comfortable as the couches may actually be, the privacy you have is very removed once you add another person.
Additionally, having a room dedicated as a study/library would let you create a separation of your workspaces. So you don’t just go from mid-work to mid-quickly throwing something together to mid-checking something online to forgetting about the rest of it while you watch TV as dinner burns and your clients wonder where you are.
Made by Daniel Nicolas who has a website — http://www.thesirdanny.com
The plan is specifically not for future expansion. I would live in it while young and single. When circumstances change I would reconsider what I feel is the ideal house and aim for that. I don’t want to live in the same house my entire life in any case.
That’s another great thing about a house this small. Even on a smaller block you have the flexibility to position it almost however you want.
Yeah, I think the outdoor area is an important part. Like I said, it’d be big, almost as much floor space as the house itself.
I agree, it’s definitely a house for just one person and that’s how it’s been designed. Two or more people inside at once would make it feel claustrophobic, I know and that’s where the outdoor area comes into play. I would never want to live permanently with anyone else in this house.
Again, I agree. A few months ago I moved my computer/office equipment out of my bedroom for that reason and it feels great. The greater problem is sleeping and working in the same space but thinking about it now, I guess it’d apply to all spaces for relaxing.
Made by Jim who has a website — http://valhallaisland.com
There are a few prefab companies that make very cool small homes…boxes if you like, that you can add to over time. In theory, you could start with one (like you have) and add more over time (assuming you planned sufficiently) which could be cool.
I’m not suggesting you live in the same house forever, but moving home (buying selling etc) is a very expensive & time consuming process, the less you do it, the more money you keep. We considered this rational when we built our house….it’s more than we need now, but the extra cost at build time would be more than made up for doing just one sell and buy/build. Let alone the many buy/sells that a typical family does as they expand.
Aaron Spence.
Made by Aaron Spence who has a website — http://panedia.com