Building a house begins with buying a lot and designing Houston luxury home plans. Constructing your dream custom house is an intricate process involving proper planning and preparation.
Preparing for designing home plans requires the owner to identify the needs and wants and communicate these ideas to a project team.
Designing home plans is a process that has a structured procedure. It should not be rushed to get quick results, for any oversight while doing so can turn out to be costly for the project from errors and omissions.
To turn your vision for new construction Houston into a reality you need a step-by-step guide to house plan designs your own house even with the assistance of professionals.
It can help you develop a future house site into a full-fledged and well-organized luxury custom home plans equipped with modern amenities.
However, before initiating a custom house construction project you need to ask yourself the reasons for wanting to undertake the custom house building process instead of buying an existing house.
Your reasons may vary ranging from building a joyful and safe environment for your children to building a house to be sold later and make a profit.
You may read our detailed resource to know more about the architecture design and building plan.
Learn about the design process for Houston luxury home plans
How to Prepare Architectural Home Plans
The building design and custom house construction process dictate the following series of steps are required to develop home plans as mentioned below:
# Set Home Plan Goals:
The first thing to consider at the outset of preparing home plans for a luxury home is through the design build construction process is setting the goals.
These include developing the floor plan layout, specifying the living square footage size, interior features, and design elevation of the building, among others.
Try keeping achievable goals and every aspect of construction in consideration. In most cases, the design would be made to suit the needs of the family at present.
However, the same space may fall short in the future when the family grows. So, it would make sense to plan for an extra room or space to accommodate the growing needs of the family in the future.
You may also keep the possibility of selling the house someday, and so, adding certain features to make the building appealing to any potential buyer.
In case you want to involve a builder and know about the various builder services offered, read our blog.
# Feasibility Study & Site Analysis:
This involves understanding the investment requirements of the custom home building process and looking into aspects such as logistical concerns, finish quality, estimated construction cost, and any environmental impact study, among other expenses.
Site analysis involves carrying out a professional evaluation of the proposed site with inputs obtained from a soil test, property surveys, tree surveys, and topographic surveys. In addition, aspects such as deed restrictions on the site should be considered.
The deed may contain building restrictions, namely, setback lines, minimum and maximum size and height, classification of structure, etc.
In case one of the deed restrictions prohibits certain home plans, which otherwise is on the ‘must have’ list of yours, then the same should be put for hearing before the home owner’s association.
This can be a public hearing that discusses the impact of your request on other property holders in the immediate neighborhood.
# Conceptualizing Home Plans:
Custom home plans require having some basic design parameters in mind to communicate to your design team.
These items are things like the architectural style of the house, one or two-story structure, kitchen, and living room sizes.
Communicating how your family uses the living area and how you entertain your design team is essential for them to capture the appropriate house plan design features.
Are you planning to use the existing furniture and supplement or want to start fresh?
It is important to know about furniture placement when designing the layout or floorplan of your home plans.
This is important to avoid your rooms looking cluttered when furnishings and furniture are added.
For instance, find out how much space a chair or table might occupy and the remaining space available to move around comfortably.
This is more appropriate when designing a hallway. To learn more about preparing and planning your custom home plans.
# Developing a Concept Investment Budget:
For a new construction Houston, the foremost thing to consider is developing a working concept investment budget. It should be a part of your goals as a project owner.
Research with your house building contractor, the soft and hard cost of the essential factors like construction cost, site development cost, design fees, furniture, and decor, among others.
Add these costs to arrive at a consolidated sum aka working concept investment budget. You may need to set aside a sum to meet any contingency, which may crop up out of the blue and take you by surprise.
These may be related to a sudden increase in the cost of materials, an unfortunate mishap at the job site, issues related to logistics leading to delay in transporting materials, etc.
Once the custom house building process gets underway, expenses that seem to be a trickle at first can turn into a deluge.
So, it is advisable to keep an excel sheet to track the budget and expenses from beginning to completion.
This will help you understand if all expenses are following a set pattern and plan. Keeping track of your day-to-day expenses can help you understand if you are going to stick to the planned budget or exceed it.
# Designing the Floor Plan:
Preparing the custom home plans is where all your preparations and hard work pays off. The research, planning, and collection of photo images are now at your fingertips as you collaborate with your design team.
As your designer begins to block out the floor plan be mindful of the design functionality of the space. The floor plan flow should represent your communicated house design needs and desires you have shared.
There are also a few rules of thumb to guide you through the development of the house plan layout.
When possible, the bedrooms or study rooms should be tucked away at the corner of the house where noise is minimal. Also, the bedroom should not be close to the staircase or near the home’s entrance.
Besides, it should not share a wall with other living areas where the likelihood of noise is more. In case you are planning to build a multi-story house, place a bedroom and an attached bathroom on each floor.
The bedrooms should not be visible from the living rooms and serve the need for privacy. Plan the number of rooms in such a way that none remains underutilized or ends up as a dumping place for discarded stuff.
At the same time, the floor plan should be planned in such a way that it can fulfill the growing needs of your family in the years to come. You may view our video to know about multigenerational design ideas for your home plans.
# Framing & MEP:
House framing and infrastructure are critical elements of house building and the development of home plans.
They represent the skeleton and organs of the body of the house. They will eventually be covered in finishes, which is why they are so important to plan and design beforehand.
The framing defines the shape of the house and creates the envelope, while MEP (mechanical, electrical & plumbing) provide the essential elements that offer us convenience and comfort. These house plan documents are traditionally prepared by licensed engineers in Texas.
Not only does lighting offer the essential need to see at night, but it also provides a remarkable ability to accent and highlight interior architectural features.
Other than the obvious convenience that plumbing provides, plumbing fixtures can take a common shower and turn it into an oasis of pleasure to rejuvenate of soul.
High-quality ductwork with proper insulation and sealing prevents the ingress of moisture and mold growth thereby shielding the HVAC system. Modern HVAC systems can remove allergenic air particles from your household increasing the air quality.
# Cabinet & Closet Elevations:
While planning to install various amenities and architectural features in the building plans, they should include sufficient dimensional details.
This includes features such as kitchen cabinets, vanities and all built-in cabinetry. These details should include cabinet drawers and doors, special space dividers, dimensions and enough detail that a casework fabricator can create shop drawings for your ultimate approval.
Further, you may include amenities such as an extra closet built-in for guests who might stay at the house or ensure easy access to frequently used commodities or appliances.
You may even plan for a master switch operable from the bedroom that can control all lights in your house and/or add soundproofing to specific rooms or areas.
# Arrange a Design Team:
Developing your custom house design team requires hiring an independent home designer, builder, engineer and possibly an interior decorator if you want to approach new construction from a design to bid method.
The other option as a delivery method is hiring a design team is to commission a house building contractor that offers design build construction.
This provides the owner with a premier builder to be responsible for both design and new construction.
Assuming you are interested in mitigating your personal risk and optimizing your enjoyment of the custom house building, you will need to obtain the construction services of a design build construction expert.
During the early vetting period the owners will need to interview design build custom home builders in order to get comfortable with them professionally.
This requires examining their previous work, discussing design ideas and most importantly their business acumen philosophy.
If you are planning to spend the better part of 12 to 24 months with this professional, you absolutely want to trust them and be like minded in your business thinking.
# Prepare for Contingencies:
There goes a saying “failing to prepare is preparing to fail” that encapsulates the importance of preparation. This goes to prepare for any unforeseen or unexpected situation that may arise while the construction process is underway.
Specifically, you should plan for construction delays, product selection allowance overruns and understand that there will be disagreements with your custom home builder.
Unfortunately, these are a part of the custom house building process. These are also true for the luxury house design process.
You will want a large number of architectural features in your house plans. Some of these features may conflict with other home design features. This is one of the reasons you want to prioritize your wish list.
You may keep Plan B ready should Plan A faces challenges and becomes difficult to execute. And should you face any contingency, do not panic but face the situation after making proper consultations with professionals and experts.
Conclusion
There is no substitute for planning in advance when it comes to preparing home plans for new construction Houston. However, it is always advisable to take inputs from qualified and experienced professionals to ensure the final output meets your expectations.
You may further read a blog to know more about the steps to be taken in designing and planning the construction of your home plans.
