Another important input for this phase is the room schedule.  The room schedule is a key resource that gives recommendations on dimensions for rooms and their orientation.

Add download room schedule button. - File is called room list I think.

Maybe change 'master' to 'primary'.

Need to put metric in

Slow Home have a few videos which are a great starting point to remind you what a floor plans is and you want to go over some of the conventions that are used.

Here's a couple of videos on understanding scale and using an architects' scale.

Here's a video on how to use them.

This video from 30 x 40 shows how layout design progresses from rough shapes to well defined spaces.

Resources for layout design

I have been searching out resources for floor plan layouts pretty much since the internet became a thing.

In this resources section (just below) I'm sharing with you the resources that I have painstakingly curated and collected over many years.  They are from architects and designers that are kind enough to share their knowledge.  I highly recommend taking the time to view these resources.  You'll learn a lot and will likely come away with some ideas.

Get ready with your screen shot tool so that you can save any ideas that you like.  Remember that even if you're designing a large home, you might still get an idea from a small apartment.

Slow Home Studio

The Slow Home videos aren't terribly well organized on their website so I've put together a little playlist for you here.  These were made quite some time ago so they quality isn't great, but the quality of information in them is top notch.

1400 sqft townhouse

1300 sqft townhouse

Calgary apartment

Pennsylvania home

Texas home

2700 sqft home

2400 sqft home

Optimise Home

Optimise Home is an architecture practice in Ireland and they did a great series called 'Lessons in Layout' which show how they've adjusted and added space for their clients.

You get to take a behind the scenes look at their design process and see how their architects at work with pen and paper.

The music gets irritating, but all the explanations are given as captions on the screen so you can watch them on mute.

Also remember that the codes are regulations are different in Ireland than in the US.

Plan Attack

Plan Attack is the brainchild of Matthew North - one half of the Slow Home Studio duo and founder of Housebrand in Canada.

I've put a few of his Instagram videos below which are effectively mini masterclasses in floor plan design.  He also puts some still images on his feed which are worth checking out.  Most of the real life case studies are apartments (I guess because a smaller space on a single floor fits better on Instagram)

I've put some of his videos below.  When you're watching the videos there's a few things I'd like you to look out for...

• Take note of how Matthew often makes use of a template of a room or layout to experiment with where it should go.
• Listen out for the way he's not at all a fan of 45 degree or diagonal layouts.
  

He's always adding to his feed so head on over to @matthew.north and have a look.

The app Matthew uses in his more recent videos is Morpholio Trace.

Never too small

I get lots of design inspiration when I look and think about the design of small spaces.

Never Too Small has a great You Tube channel.  The focus is on small apartments.  I find it to be a great source of ideas for designing flexible spaces.  For example, if you want your kid's room to be more than just a bedroom, or you want to have a guest room but don't want to build a dedicated room.

Here are some of my favorites.

Where to find house plans

There are several types of sites you can go to to see house plans which include a floor plan and elevation.  It's very worthwhile having a look at other floor plans and seeing what your opinion is. 

I get questions on what to do if you find a floor plan online that you really like.  While you mustn't copy another floor plan that you find online (which would infringe on copyright) there's nothing wrong with taking a little section of it where you think they layout is really clever and incorporating it into your design.  Usually the best results come when you understand what works well in the floor plan that you like and you use this knowledge as inspiration for your own situation rather than copying.

Architecture websites are a great place to start.  My favorites are...

• Archdaily - I've filtered the results for residential architecture in the USA, but take a look at other countries as well.
• Dezeen

Then there's any number of house plan sites and real estate sites that can also be a great place to hone your taste in house plans.

If you are planning to do all your own drawings, I recommend learning SketchUp Make as it's the only one that really gives you the flexibility you need.  Don't be put off if the landing page shows a piece of furniture - you can design a home as well.  You will need to upgrade to a pro account in order to use the 'layout' part of the package where you can add notes and dimensions.

There's a learning curve involved with SketchUp.  I recommend starting with the SketchUp Fundamentals Course provided by SketchUp.  I've done the fundamentals course while it doesn't focus on drawing buildings but it will teach you what you need to know. 

These are the videos that I found the most helpful for learning more about modeling buildings in SketchUp.  They are a few years old but still relevant.

Checkpoint

When  your floor plan and elevations are available, you'll use the Home Design Layout Checklist to go through your plans in a structured way to determine if you need to make any changes.

Introduction

Similar to the checkpoint for your concept design, it's important to carry out a number of checks after your layout design is completed and before you progress on to your detailed design.

Since your design is now more detailed, there's more to check, particularly in terms of your layout.

If your design team has been working well together, then the items in this checkpoint will have been taken into account during your layout design process.  Sometimes though, something slips through the net and it's important to catch it now, when making changes is relatively cheap, than carrying a design that's got problems further forward.  The further forward you carry a problem, the harder it is to fix later on.  It's very likely to take you longer and cost you more.

Before you develop your design further, it's important that you're happy with it at this stage.  You don't want to spend more money and effort on developing a design that you're not fully happy with further.

Design review

No matter who is responsible for your home design, it's time to review it to make sure everything is as it should be.

• If you're designing your new home you've put a lot of work in to getting your layout and elevations just as you want them.  You already know the layout of your new home like the back of your hand.  And yes - reviewing your own home design is still an important step to make sure you haven't missed anything out and there aren't any adjustments that you need to do.
  
• If you're working with a design professional, they have used the information you have given them and taken your site into account to design your a new home.  They have sent you a set of floor plans, or perhaps they've worked on more than one layout for you to look at and give feedback on.
• If you're buying a house plan, you're likely looking at several options and trying to decide which one is best for you and will suit your site.
• Maybe you're trying to figure out which home is best to buy.
  

In order to do a good review of your floor plan layout and elevations, you need a structured set of criteria to do a good job of making sure you cover everything and are then in a position to give specific and targeted feedback.

That's where the Home Design Layout Checklist comes into play.  Download it from the link just below and it will guide you through a structured review of your floor plans and elevations.

button to download home design layout checklist

In addition to your Home Design Layout Checklist you'll need...

• Your plans - see note below.
  
• Your design brief
  

Format of floor plans and elevations

You may receive your floor plans and elevations on paper, or in digital format.

Paper

If you get your plans on paper, ask for two copies (or make a copy yourself).  You’ll be marking up one of the copies with any changes you want to make and keeping one as a reference copy.

Digital

If you are to get your plans in electronic form PDF is a good format to ask for.  If you plan to print them you may encounter a problem because architects tend to work on BIG sheets of paper which you won’t be able to print whole on a standard home printer.  Now, you can go along to your local print shop and get them printed or you could try printing sections as you need them.

Here’s some instructions on how to comment on your digital PDF floor plans.

Do you have trouble reading and understanding floor plans?

If you’re not used to floor plans or find thinking spatially a bit tricky (many people do) then you could consider these alternatives to reading floor plans.

If you are working with an architect or design professional, ask them to spend some time with you to explain your plans.

In particular, a 3D model can really help give you a feel for the layout of the rooms.  These can be expensive to get done professionally but they can be really helpful to communicate the design. They can also be really helpful if you need to get the support of neighbors to get planning approval for your design.  If those involved in granting planning can quickly and easily visualize the project it takes away any uncertainty they may have about the way they’re interpreting the 2D plans.  3D modeling software will often be able to show how light will come into your new home at different times of day, and the shadows cast by your home.

Giving feedback

Giving feedback at each stage of the design process is really important.  It's your job to give feedback and it's your designer's job to take your feedback on board.

It’s really important that you keep a list of your comments so that you can make sure that they’ve all been dealt with the next time your review the plans.  It helps to number the comments so that you can easily identify each comment in your discussions.

Keep records of your comments and keep all the versions of your design that you iterate through.  You never know when you may want to return to an old version for some reason, or remind yourself of the reason for a change.

The art of giving feedback

You have probably been in a situation at some stage in your life when you have been given feedback in a really cutting way.  How did it feel and how did it make you feel towards the person giving you the feedback in this way?

It's important that you get across everything that you want to say, and doing this in a respectful effective way where your comments will be heard is key.

One of the best ways of doing this is to concentrate on giving feedback about the plans rather than giving feedback about your designer.  One of the best ways of getting into the mode of depersonalizing your feedback is to avoid the use of 'you' or 'I' when you're giving your feedback.  This isn't the yes / no game where you lose if you say you or I, but just try and form the majority of your sentences without these words.

Of course, the more specific you can be about what you do and don't like, the better.  The Home Design Layout Checklist will help you with this.

Rather than, "I feel like you haven't even read the design brief." try "The plans have the right number of bedrooms and our new home is the size that we discussed.  There are a few things in the design brief that need dealing with.  Did you take a look at it?"

Rather than, "You didn't incorporate the window design I asked for." try "The window design concerns me, I'd like to understand the reasoning for the design on the plans."

It's fairly subtle but you get the idea - the feedback is all about the plans and not your designer.

Budget review

Now that you have a floor plan and elevations, you know much more detail about your new home so you're now in a position to put an accurate cost on how much it will cost to build.  There's no point progressing a design that you can't afford.

When your design is just lines on a page, it's relatively cheap to change it.

You can carry out a budget review before or after you've done your layout review below.  I just wanted to put it first because it's such an important checkpoint.

Your plans should have areas for each space.  You can use these areas to feed into any budget calculations that might be running on your project.

Have your builder or quantity surveyor review your design to check that it's still within budget.  Since the design of your home is now decided, this review should be in more detail, taking into account the real quantities of materials that will be needed to construct your home. 

Energy review

It's important to check that your design is in step with what you want to achieve with your home's energy efficiency. 

Work with whomever has the role of your energy consultant on your project to check at this stage that your home design is in line to comply with any energy standards that you want to achieve.

Construction review

If you have a builder on board, check with them that the construction of your new home is feasible and ask for them to point out anything in the design which makes the construction inefficient in any way.

Planning review

Once again, if there's any possibility that your design may be controversial from a planning perspective, check with your building department or have one of your team check on your behalf.

This may be important for heritage projects or avant-garde designs.

Building Code review

Checking against code is included in the home design checklist but it's important for me to call it out here.

If you are not familiar with the codes yourself, have someone check your drawings for adhering to code.

Payment

Completing your layout design is a project milestone, and as such may well be linked with a payment on your payment schedule with your design professional and perhaps any other professionals that you have working with you.

Make sure you are happy with the deliverables so far.  Only pay for them once you're happy.