RANCH REMODEL

Right after moving in, I wanted to find a way to create a simple floor plan of the house. Being a visual person, it helps me to grasp how much materials we need for certain projects and also where furniture can/will go when we finish rooms. After getting frustrated with 3D home planning programs and not wanting to spend hundreds of dollars on a CAD program, I ran across this post on Lifehacker about FloorPlanner.com. It turned out to be just what I was looking for, and free to boot.

The website is a simple Flash-based CAD program. To get started, you have to create an account. The personal account is free (ad-based, but not annoying) and allows you to create 1 house and share it with people. The personal account is what I use and it is perfect for someone that just wants to plan out their own house or tinker with designing a new house. The PLUS account is $27.50 per year and allows you to create 5 houses without ads. There’s also PRO and BUSINESS accounts that allow you to export plans as high-res images and simultaneous publishing of plans.

It took a little getting used to at first, but once you get the hang of it the process is very simple. My advice is to save often because the site has frozen on me a couple of times. I like the fact that it gives you inside dimensions of a wall when you draw it, and you can change the thickness of walls, so drawing an existing house is as simple as measuring rooms from drywall to drywall. I’m not going to give an in-depth tutorial, it’s easier to just dive in and learn it yourself.

A few things to consider when using the site:

- They’re based in The Netherlands so some of the furniture and fixtures have interesting names and lack some of the more American furniture and fixtures.

- The windows are only one height. You can change widths but not height. It looks fine from the plan view but if you look at it in 3D it might not be quite right.

- You can duplicate plans. I created the original plan and duplicated it to plan out renovations.

- The site is still fairly new (2007) so hopefully they will continue updating and adding things to make it even better.

All in all, the site is excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone renovating, purchasing, or building.

Take a look at the link below to see the original floor plan and the remodel plan of our house. I am still in the process of changing the remodel plan. The kitchen hasn’t been planned yet but most of the other changes are on there.

Original Floor Plan

Remodel Floor Plan