The first thing to remember when starting to design a residential building is that you need to do this stage after buying a land plot. Firstly, it is important for you to know how and where the communications will come from, how to position the building to the cardinal points, what kind of view will open from the living room if the windows are placed on the south side, and so on. While there is no site, you can, of course, dream of a house, but we will not talk about any specifics.
Second, plan your budget. You will not be able to implement a project of a huge mansion made of expensive large-diameter chopped logs if your budget is only two million rubles, for example. Calculate your capabilities as accurately as possible and only after that start designing your future home, according to your existing savings or future income.
So, having chosen a land plot and at least roughly calculating the financial capabilities, you can start drawing up a project. We emphasize right away that, in the opinion of professionals, it is more expedient to take a standard project in order to remake it to suit the needs of your family than to draw from scratch, especially if you have never done this, and decided to save money on the architect. There are a lot of free programs that will allow you to remake any ready-made project, we wrote about it.
Choosing a house project, you should immediately answer yourself a very important question – your future home will have one or two floors! Experts note that it is better to make a house with an area of more than 100 square meters two-story or at least with a warm living attic. The foundation and the roof are very expensive elements of the house, remember this. If all the rooms of a large house are located on the same floor, the perimeter will significantly increase, that is, you will have to spend more money on arranging the foundation and roofing system.
In addition, a two-story house looks more attractive and makes it possible to separate personal and common space for guests. Of course, it’s up to you to decide, taking into account who exactly will live in the house. For an elderly couple, of course, it is better to do without stairs in the house, for example.
Highlight the basic principles of rational planning.
1. For a family of four, an area of 120 square meters is quite enough, experts say. In addition, a house with an area of 150 square meters or more will be more difficult to sell if necessary..
2. The minimum area of the bedroom is 12 square meters, the master’s room can be made larger, the living room is about 25 square meters, the kitchen is also about 12 “squares”. We admit that these are typical sizes, but they fully meet the needs of future inhabitants of the house and are taken as a model in many countries.
3. Immediately plan the space under the stairs if the house has two floors or an attic. There were times when the owners seemed to have arranged all the rooms well, but forgot about the stairs. This design takes up a lot of space! Select it in the project right away.
4. Save on the laying of communications. For example, if the house has two floors, try to arrange the bathrooms and bathrooms on top of each other so as not to pull water and sewer pipes throughout the building. It is advisable to place the boiler room as close to the kitchen as possible so as not to engage in additional laying of the gas pipe, which, moreover, can spoil the exterior of the house, since, according to the rules, it must pass outside.
5. Two more points on which you can definitely save money – to refuse a guest room and a balcony on the second floor. A balcony or a loggia is always expensive, but do you need them in a private house? For outdoor gatherings, it is better to equip an open terrace or veranda next to the house. A guest room is needed if relatives come to you very often and stay for a long time. It is quite possible to arrange friends for one night in the living room, saving usable space and not making an extra room.
6. The current fashion trend is the unification of the kitchen-living-dining room space. Realtors unanimously point out that such houses are sold faster and at a higher price. This is actually a very rational approach. You don’t want to travel from the kitchen with plates around the house, wandering down the hallways to the dining room or living room, where guests are already sitting? Let it be not a common single space (although you can save on partitions), but three zones separated by wide openings, but remember – with a rational layout, the kitchen, dining room and living room should be close!
7. Be sure to think about a buffer between bedrooms. Let a dressing room, a bathroom, a pantry be located between the room of children and parents. This will help the family get private areas, additional noise isolation from each other..
8. It is highly discouraged that bedroom or bathroom doors open out into the living room or kitchen. Agree, this is a huge disadvantage of the layout, negating all the benefits of privacy.
9. If possible, try to abandon the corridors, a spacious hall is better. But, if you cannot do without them, then make the corridors wide enough so that you can build in cabinets – already a benefit, storage space.
10. One bathroom for the whole private house is a huge minus. Even if you only have one floor – plan a guest bathroom somewhere near the kitchen, across the hall, for example. Don’t queue up in the morning, save the nerves of the whole family.
11. Think over the house to the smallest detail! Even as far as the place for an electric kettle in the kitchen, not to mention the TV or sofa in the living room. There are many programs that allow you to imagine where the furniture will stand in order to correctly position the sockets and not cling to the table legs in the future.
We state: a rational house design is a plan that allows you to create a comfortable area for all family members, save money and sell the building profitably, if necessary. Exclusive cottages with winter gardens and billiard rooms will be more expensive to sell, and over time, such a house may seem too big to you.
What are the fundamental principles one should consider when designing their own house to ensure a rational and efficient construction process?