My name is Valerie and I’m a floor-plan-aholic.
Does anyone else obsess over finding just the right layout for their characters’ homes? My current folks are living in an old mobile home while building their house. Of course I had to find just the right layout. They don’t make that many basic 14-foot wides with only one bathroom anymore.
Here is a model that’s pretty close:
Now the house they’re building is straw-bale, and I haven’t been able to find anything that looks close to what I’m imagining.
The hero lives in an old farmhouse, and they really don’t make floorplans for those anymore. Now they come with 3000 square feet, 4.5 baths and vaulted open spaces. Ever seen an old farmhouse? Not like that! So I’ve drawn my own, but I’m too lazy to fire up the old scanner to show you. Along with the maps of the property and the town and the region.
How about you? Do you need these props, or do you just wing it? And am I the only one procrastinating over here? LOL.
Totally! I fretted a LOT over the floorplan for M's house – an updated 1920's craftsman bungalow – and found that old Sears house kit floorplans helped a LOT. There's a house here – http://usahomeandgarden.com/architecture/sears-ho… – near the bottom of the page that looks like a LOT of farm houses in rural Iowa. (just the pic is at http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/images/1908-19… For my character's house, I took an existing plan and added an addition off the back to expand the kitchen and give room for an upstairs bathroom.
Anyway, creating floorplans is freaking AWESOME!!
Oh! Another great link is http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/bydate.htm or you can google Sears Kit Homes or Sears House Plans 😉
Oh, wow, thanks for the links, Tam!! I did not know about the Sears kits. Off to see 🙂
Me, I visualize the house or layout, then draw that out as a floorplan. I have sketches of the spaceship for Shafter, Coma Wedding has a more traditional layout, and I'm sure there are others lying around :).