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Young House Love » Our First House » Playing Architect With Floorplanner (Making 2D House Plans)

| By John Petersik | November 28, 2007 | 20 Comments

Playing Architect With Floorplanner (Making 2D House Plans)

We’ve finally found a way to show off the changing layout of our house without actually inviting everyone over for a visit (although we’re always happy to give tours). The other day I was browsing RemodelingMySpace.com and saw a link to some free (!!) software called Floorplanner, which they had reviewed as an easy-to-use tool for creating 2D house plans. They also showcase software like Plan 3D and Google SketchUp if you’re looking to do more involved, 3D drawings. But I’m starting slow…

Last night I cranked away on two very different floor plans: our old layout, and our almost-there new layout. Check each of them out below, but ignore the square footage and other technical stuff (I didn’t bother to measure every room exactly). I just tried to make everything as proportional as possible. So without further ado…

Here’s our old floor plan:

Old House Plan2

And now our new floor plan:

New House Plan2 1

Some noteworthy changes are:

  • The wider doorways around the kitchen and den
  • The new wood floor uniting the kitchen, den and laundry/bathroom area
  • The more open laundry nook (buh-bye bi-fold doors)
  • The living room became a living / dining room
  • The dining room became a third bedroom
  • And, of course, the new kitchen (with about 50% more counter-space!)

Hope all my time was worth it and you guys can better visualize the transformation happening over here. And again, Floorplanner is free so I encourage everyone to take it for a spin. We’d love to see the results.

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Filed Under: Home Improvement, Our First House, Project Planning

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Comments

  1. Avatar for Emymeyo The Small Business StrategyEmymeyo The Small Business Strategy says

    December 4, 2007 at 8:57 pm

    good ideas!

    Reply
  2. Avatar for AnonymousAnonymous says

    February 18, 2009 at 9:10 pm

    Knocking down the wall (or part of the wall) between the “Den” and the “Living/Dining Room” would open up a huge amount of space, (thus making the house far more modern/contemporary), as well as making the entire house seem larger. Just a suggestion from a passer-by.

    Reply
    • Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

      February 18, 2009 at 9:19 pm

      Hey Anonymous,

      Thanks for the idea! We actually looked into taking down that entire wall but were advised that we had to leave a good amount of it intact since it’s a weight bearing structural wall (it was actually the exterior wall of the house, and the den was built as an addition in the 70s).

      Instead we opened things up as much as possible (and actually had to hire a mason to get through that exterior wall safely) by creating a 6 foot wide threshold between the kitchen and the den (much wider than the 32 inch doorway we had before) so we can now see through the den from the front door in the living/dining room. It really does make all the difference! Thanks so much for the suggestion.

      xo,
      Sherry

  3. Avatar for robertrobert says

    May 27, 2009 at 4:30 am

    nice!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  4. Avatar for acubedacubed says

    June 29, 2009 at 6:03 pm

    nice work i am also interested in redesigning my house can u pls tell me the software used. thanks

    Reply
    • Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

      June 29, 2009 at 6:24 pm

      Hey Acubed – the software is from a site called Floor Planner. You can use it here: http://www.floorplanner.com

  5. Avatar for ElaineElaine says

    July 16, 2009 at 2:33 pm

    Does your 1350 sq ft include the sunroom or is the house 1350sq ft + sunroom?

    Reply
    • Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

      July 16, 2009 at 3:38 pm

      Hey Elaine,

      The 1350 does include the sunroom although it’s not heated and cooled so it’s technically not “finished” square footage. We use it so often (spring through fall) that we count it! Hope it helps.

      xo,
      Sherry

  6. Avatar for juliejulie says

    August 25, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    where is your water heater and furnace located? and where do you guys store brooms/mops/buckets and such?

    Reply
    • Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

      August 25, 2009 at 10:12 pm

      Both the water heater and the furnace are in the basement (well the furnace is in the crawl space that you access from the basement under the sunroom while the water heater sits in the corner of the basement directly under the sunroom). As for brooms, mops, and buckets, we keep the buckets in one of the large base cabinets in the kitchen and tuck our mops and brooms into the third bedroom closet. Hope it helps!

      xo,
      s

  7. Avatar for juliejulie says

    August 25, 2009 at 5:15 pm

    Sorry for all the questions on these old posts! I just have a little house so I’m always curious to see other people’s design solutions especially for storage! You guys have a beautiful home and an awesome blog. I found you searching for how to paint furniture and I think I’m going to move in and not leave until I’m caught up with the archives!!

    Reply
  8. Avatar for LoriLori says

    September 7, 2009 at 12:57 pm

    Love your site! We are moving in a few weeks and I’m getting lots of great ideas from your renovation.

    Just saw you mention that you have a basement – will you be doing an renovation/finishing to the basement? I would love to see that!

    Reply
    • Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

      September 7, 2009 at 1:17 pm

      We sure will! We are just saving up our pennies. Stay tuned…

      xo,
      s

  9. Avatar for Briar OakBriar Oak says

    January 12, 2010 at 8:29 pm

    I know this post is more than two years old, but I just have to share that I finally made our house layout at Floorplanner.com after I read about it on your blog forever ago. It was very fun! And then I had to come back and look at yours again here. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

      January 12, 2010 at 9:16 pm

      So glad you had fun with it!

      xo,
      s

  10. Avatar for MichelleMichelle says

    August 9, 2010 at 2:22 am

    Hey you guys, I know this post is ancient in your world, but just wanted to let you know I visited floorplanner.com for initial basement layout design ideas and I love it! We came up with a great solution, so far, that accommodates a guest bedroom/office, family room area, exercise space, laundry area and a workshop – all under our modestly sized Cape. Thanks for the tip!

    Reply
    • Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

      August 9, 2010 at 10:06 am

      So glad it worked out for you!

      xo,
      s

  11. Avatar for JoannaJoanna says

    July 24, 2011 at 11:23 am

    Thanks for the tip on Floorplanner – can’t wait to try it out ..

    Reply
  12. Avatar for EmelinaEmelina says

    June 17, 2012 at 12:55 pm

    Well, I hope you’re happy! I stumbled upon a cool doll house project from Craftgawker which led me back here. ONCE AGAIN I have spent three hours here, ignoring my Pinterest account and the many tabs I have sitting on my Internet page. Thanks_a_lot! :D

    Reply
    • Avatar for YoungHouseLoveYoungHouseLove says

      June 17, 2012 at 1:21 pm

      Haha, thanks Emelina!

      xo,
      s

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John and Sherry smiling against pink backgroundHey, we’re John & Sherry. We’ve fixed up 7 homes, written books, designed products, started a podcast, and then downsized & moved to the beach! Here you’ll find over 3,000 DIY projects & home updates. More about us…
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