Choosing or designing the floor plan for your new home can be both an exciting and daunting experience.  Without careful consideration of some key points, it can be easy to make a devastating mistake. We have compiled a comprehensive list of tips and suggestions that will help you in your quest to find the perfect floor plan for your family and lifestyle. 

  1. Your Block
    The size of your lot will play a huge part in the size and functionality of your home. It’s often recommended that you have a specific site selected before choosing a floor plan. This will help you to envision how your home will sit on your site and ensure that your chosen floor plan will actually fit.  Making sure that you pay close attention to your sites features such as shape, size, council covenants and requirements as well as potential obstacles such as sewerage lines will go a long way to ensure a smooth building process. Also be sure you take things such as driveway placement, air flow in the home and the angle of the sun into consideration. 
  2. Functionality and Lifestyle Needs
    It may sound obvious but you need to be able to imagine your family actually living in the home.  Things to consider include how many children you currently have and whether more children may come along in the future, whether or not older family members may need to move in with you in the future, pets and general lifestyle needs.  If you love entertaining then you may require plenty of living space, a gourmet kitchen and a fantastic outdoor area.  If you have children you may want to consider things such as a larger dining room, number of bedrooms and some private space such as a kids t.v room.  The general layout and flow of the home is also very important. Think about things such as traffic flow (how will your home be used?) and furniture (will your current furniture fit in the home?).

  3. Make A Wish List
    Start by looking at the current home that you are living in.  Write down a list of what works for you and what doesn't.  Do you have enough storage?  Are there times that you wish you had some privacy from the kids such as a second living room? A good idea is to visit some display homes with a notepad and jot down things that stand out to you.  What are your must haves?  What are your would like to haves?  What do you want to avoid? 

  4. Know What You Are Looking At
    When you purchase a floor plan, there may be many symbols and abbreviations that you might find difficult to interpret.  While some symbols might be easy to figure out such as WIR (walk in robe) or WC (water closet), there are some they may stump many of you. Be careful to make sure that you know what you are looking at with regards to floor and ceiling heights, sewer drains and all of those strange lines and symbols on the floor plan.  Ask your building consultant or designer to help you to understand and interpret these.  Feel free to email us here at info@ahda.net.au for quick questions.

  5. Know Your Budget
    Before falling in love with a particular floor plan (or idea), know what costs are involved with building it.  It is very easy to get lost in the fantasy of your dream home while forgetting about the associated costs that go along with it.  Generally a multi storey home will cost more, as well as split level home designs.  Think about things such as the required retaining walls you will need for your site, the fall of your site and landscaping.  Asking a builder or someone in the know to help you determine the costs will help to narrow down your potential floor plan choices.  This is where our amazingly low priced basic floor plan packages come in very handy - they are so affordable that you can purchase multiple floor plans to take to a builder in order to get a basic idea of costs involved (please note that you will not be able to obtain a full builders quote with the basic floor plan package).  Then once you have an idea of what you can afford, the choice to purchase a full working drawings package is made easy (which you can then use to obtain builders quotes etc).

  6. Regulations
    Before selecting a floor plan, it is recommended that you check with your local council and other relevant authorities regarding zoning and regulations. Restrictions such as house height, minimum or maximum home size (%) and covenants can restrict which floor plans you are able to purchase.