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Choosing Your Family’s Perfect Floor Plan

September 8, 2021
Published by Garrette Custom Homes

When people choose to build their new home in Portland OR or Puget Sound with Garrette Custom Homes, we offer a wide selection of floor plans from which to choose. On top of that, we offer a range of options that allow you to further customize your home to meet your family’s personal preferences and needs. Still, when faced with all of those choices, how do you know what to choose? These tips should help you have a better understanding of what is right for your family’s lifestyle.

The first thing you need to do is have a clear sense of your budget. You may fall in love with a particular floor plan, but if it doesn’t fit your budget, there’s no point in getting your heart broken. Use your budget to start the elimination process when exploring floor plans.

Just as important as the budget is having a sense of what your lifestyle is truly like. Think about how you live on a day-to-day basis and determine which rooms get the most use — and may need to be bigger — and which rooms you don’t really use at all and could potentially skip, possibly helping with your budget. Alternatively, those rooms you don’t use that much could be altered to become something you do need. It’s important to make a list of what you do need in a home and what you would really like that you don’t have now. Remember that you don’t necessarily need a big home; you need a smartly designed home that comfortably fits your lifestyle and can stay within your budget.

For example, think about how you entertain or if you entertain much at all. If you really don’t use a formal dining room except for the holidays, you may want to turn that space into an additional bedroom or a home office. If you do entertain but prefer a more casual arrangement, then you are more likely to want a kitchen with a large island that offers bar seating, as well as possibly having a large covered back patio area.

Don’t forget about bedroom placements. Parents with young children are more likely to want to be on the same floor and close to their children, while those with older children may prefer more separation, even having the owner’s suite on the ground floor while the kids take over the second floor. Additionally, you may want to have the owner’s suite and at least one bedroom on the ground floor for accessibility purposes. Older homeowners appreciate not having to climb stairs every day and if you have elderly family members who visit often, it’s nice to offer them a bedroom on the ground floor, as well. If there’s the potential of an older family member coming to live with you in the near future, you may want to make that additional bedroom into a larger bedroom with an ensuite bathroom to offer more privacy.

If you’re building a custom home, don’t forget to look carefully at the lot. The size of the lot and the size and arrangement of your home is important. If you want a large backyard for the kids to play in or to set up a spacious outdoor living area, then it’s important to have a lot and a floor plan that fit each other well.

These are just a few of the points to consider when choosing a floor plan that is right for your family. Really think about what you want and absolutely need and work with the builder to find and potentially customize a floor plan that meets those needs while staying within your budget. The more information you can provide going into the start of the process, the easier it is for the builder to help you build your ideal home. We work closely with our clients to help them in this process so that everyone ends up happy with their new homes in Portland OR and Puget Sound Contact us today to start this exciting process.

Categorized in: Build on Your Land, Community Info, Fall Tips, Finance Tips, Floorplan Tips, Market Tips, New Home Tips

This post was written by Garrette Custom Homes