"Design is not just what it looks like & feels like. Design is how it works."
Steve Jobs
I'm here in Longview Texas today looking at a home with clients for a remodel project. Here at R Plans Residential + Interior Design, I generate income through new construction home design, or house plans. But we also do remodel projects in chief architect as well. While my main income is from custom house plans, I always have a remodel project going. The turn around is much less time and it's a healthy challenge to have to design around someone else's work. Of course new house plans are my favorite for their ease of restrictions, but remodel plans have a place.
This past week I have been bombarded with questions about when to bid and if a floor plan is sufficient for bids. I can assure you with every fiber of my being a floor plan is not sufficient to get a bid. When you send an R Plans custom house plan out for bid, you have all the necessary questions answered. When you just send one of those pages out, you don't have questions answered. My construction documents don't just come with your custom floor plan, they come with a roof plan as well as an electrical plan along with elevations of interior and exterior walls. If your roofer and electrician look at your floor plan, they don't have any idea what to bid. If your mason looks at the floor plan, there is no sign of what type of installation he will be asked to do. He will know whether he is using brick or stone, but there are no ribbons on the floor plan, there is no wainscot and no window or door trim. He requires the elevations in order to give you an accurate quote. It stuns me that some clients can be so adamant about what plans I include in their documents. They want to make sure they are getting everything they need to build their home. Yet the moment they see the floor plan they send it off for bids. If all your builder needed was the floor plan, trust me I wouldn't waste my time creating all the other documents.
So the latest trend is the modern farmhouse. My most recent clients are all drawn to the metal roof with black windows. They all want the white siding and stained posts. This is a pretty trend, but let's not forget it is a trend. If you want your house to last and keep that timeless look, take some of these attributes, but don't use them all together. I would suggest a white window. We all know white windows look great on the Southern Living houses, and they have looked great for years. pair a white window with some metal roofing. Pair siding with some stained accents. But throw some brick in there. Custom homes with all the farmhouse attributes will be dated back to 2018 for years to come. Look ahead and let me design a home that won't be dated when your kids are grown.
So what do you think of stairs? There is a cost efficient way to design stairs, and there is a very costly way to design stairs. The only way a 2-story home will help you save money is if you use more than 40 percent of your footage upstairs. Stairs are expensive so let's have them work for us. We do that by putting necessary rooms upstairs. Put your kid's beds upstairs. Put their hangout space, baths, and closets upstairs. The worst thing you can do for cost, is to add a bonus room upstairs and only have the bonus room upstairs. You didn't need a bonus room, and now you are adding stairs along with a bonus room. Stairs only save you if you are saving slab. If you are considering a 2-story and want to help your budget, put necessary rooms upstairs and save yourself the cost of exterior materials and slab.
Let's talk about the difference in a custom house plan and a spec house plan template. At R Plans, we draw houses for you. On the internet you can get a template that isn't made for you. Before we design, it's necessary to know where you will be building your dream home. The size of the lot often determines the shape of the home. More and more, people are valuing the home much more than the land. This means lots are getting smaller and smaller and it is restricting the footprint of the home. Sun angles should also be taken into account. It's important to know if you will be staring into the sun during dinner, or when you are trying to watch television. There aren't many things worse than sitting down to enjoy a show only to realize the glare is blinding. Our homes are designed to capture the best views. If your back yard is gorgeous, let's make sure our picture windows are facing the backyard. We want you to enjoy your setting while you are in your new home. Template plans can't suffice these needs because templates have no idea where you live. They don't know the climate or your land. They don't know your routines or how many people are in your family. I would suggest you take a look at some template if you want to get a feel for the flow. However; I wouldn't look with the intent of settling on one. There will always be something you wish to change. And creating custom house plans allows us to make those changes. Whether you need house plans Longview TX or house plans Tyler TX, we are R Plans can serve you. We serve Longview TX house plans, Tyler TX house plans Paris TX house plans, East Texas house plans.
My husband and I purchased a spec home about a year after we were married. The outside is cute, given it is a front garage entry on a very small lot. But there were so many things I would have changed inside the home, without even changing the footprint. The doors in the guest bath hit each other. This is a simple solution. The front entry is very large and has an odd 45 degree wall with a niche. The niche is lacking electricity, I would have changed that. There is not one stack of drawers in the whole home. That is a cheap way out. Also, no cabinet hardware anywhere. These are things that I include in my custom designs. Chief Architect allows me to create custom cabinetry. I design your doors and drawers in your kitchen. You have cabinet hardware shown, you have drawers in the kitchen and bathroom. Purchasing a custom plan should include cabinetry elevations. Not only does this save you the strife of designing your own kitchen, it makes sure your builder isn't going to cut corners and put doors everywhere and leave off hardware. When you show your builder a detailed drawing that includes the cabinetry in your home, he is much more apt to follow that lead. This takes all guesswork out of the equations. This way you can know he sees the vision and has all tools necessary to implement the design. R Plans Custom House Plans ensures he will have the tools. Template plans often don't include a single drawing of cabinets and thus leaves the designing to your builder. Let me break the news to you, your builder is a builder. Not all builders should be trusted with design.
ABOUT
The R Plans | Residential + Interior Design company is just that, a company specializing in Residential Design.
We draw house plans that make it easier to enjoy your home. The first key to good design is understanding your client and drawing what works for their lifestyle. The second key is making sure your client knows what they are getting before they ever begin construction. Using our 3D software, I will show you what your home looks like, inside and out, before construction begins.
Finish Selections are another one of our services. We offer furniture, fixture, and finish selections. Take a look at our Process page to see some of the finishes you may be needing for your home.
While we take considerable time to get to know our clients, gain an understanding of their needs, and gather a firm grasp on their aesthetic preferences, we are still interior designers at the end of the day. As designers, we routinely utilize our expertise to meld highly functional spaces and superb aesthetics in order to achieve high quality results. We are not simply draftsmen; we will use clients' ideas as a starting point which we will build on with exceptional design elements and principles to present functional, beautiful and completely customized plans and selections. If clients simply want their ideas put to paper, they may not truly understand and appreciate the expertise and creativity interior designers offer. Rest assured, we will take design liberties to achieve outstanding and methodical results.
We are a design company alone. We do not build. This gives you the option of bidding out your plan to multiple builders in your area and it ensures that you get to work with whomever you please. We are happy to recommend builders should you be building in the East Texas area.
Reagan Lasseter, RID
NCIDQ Certified 12624
OWNER | DESIGNER
M e e t R e a g a n - R P L A N S O w n e r + D e s i g n e r
I was born with an eye for aesthetic and a yearning to attend every Parade of Homes my mom would take me to. This love of well-finished interiors, directed me to Stephen F. Austin (a CIDA Accredited Program) where I completed my Bachelor of Science in Interior Design in 2012 -Axe Em Jacks! It wasn't until my second year in the program that I realized there isn't enough beautiful furniture in the world that can fix a poorly drawn house plan. My desire for efficiency and ease is what drives me to draw a plan that works for you.
After graduation, I completed the NCIDQ testing and requirements to become a Registered Interior Designer.
TELL ME MORE
We start with our clients from the very beginning. Some of our house plans have begun with a template from a client, others have started with a sketch on a table napkin. You simply need to know what you need, what you want, and what you don't want. From here we will be able to plan the flow of your home. Some clients need the laundry room adjacent to their master closets, others prefer to combine it with the mud entry. Some clients need the kids far far away, others feel safer knowing the kid's bedrooms are conveniently close. These are some of the spacial relationships we will cover during the floor plan phase.
When it comes to your style, your Pinterest boards tell it all. Precise pictures, magazine clips, and pins sometimes explain your style to us better than your words can. You don't need to know what era you are in love with. You don't have to know a single Architectural Style. You need to know how to say, 'yes we love that look' and 'hmm, that's not for us'. As your designers, we are going to learn what you love and what you...don't love. We will use your ideas, along with our own, to construct the plan that fits you.