My Ideal House
25th of June, 2008
The space around you is important. I don’t think people spend enough time thinking about and trying to improve the space they spend most time in. The options for someone like me, a 20-year-old still at home but almost finished university are few — stay at home (not an option) or move into a house with roommates. My own house would be too expensive and a small apartment can only be found in expensive areas I don’t want to live in anyway. I want to live in a house with the advantages of a house — backyard, verandah, a window on all walls — but I want to live alone and don’t want more than I need. I drew up a floorplan of my ideal house.
The plan is definitely not to scale, correct scale is hard so it’s my best guess. I’ll follow with a post about how to actually make a damn floor plan later.
The bottom left corner is the front door.
It’s small. The most claustrophobic thing about a house has little to do with the physical size of the interior and a lot to do with your proximity to other people. Big houses that force people to be near each other often, seem smaller. If you’re living alone physical size is much less important, there’s no need to plan for competing sounds and presence made by other people. Beside that, it’s more manageable. The study doesn’t need to be separated because there’s nothing to separate it from.
Every wall has a large window. This is to keep the air fresh, the light natural, the temperature cool and to open the small space. It wouldn’t be possible if it was an apartment. They’ll be covered with thick curtains so when I do want it dark and closed at night or for watching movies, etc., I can. I don’t want to live in a fishbowl at night.
Very high ceilings will also make the interior feel bigger than it is.
I’ve lived in an apartment with just one kitchen bench, it’s not enough and it’s annoying. A second kitchen bench doubles as a dining table. Formal dining is not for me. It’s a waste of space to have an area dedicated to the small amount of eating you do each day and it’s a waste of time to transfer food between where it’s prepared to where it’s eaten and then back again for washing up.
An ensuite is a must have but the house isn’t big enough for two bathrooms, nor should it have two. I want an ensuite but I don’t want to make guests walk though my bedroom to get to the bathroom. A second door that can otherwise be kept locked solves the problem.
The TV is mounted on the wall beside the front door. Floor space no longer needs to be wasted on a TV. I don’t need a room for watching regular TV and then a separate, dedicated cinema for watching movies or sport.
That rectangle on the rear wall is a sliding (or french) door that will open to a large verandah or patio that’s not included in the drawing. I imagine it’s floor space will be the roughly two thirds the floor space of the house. It will provide nothing inside doesn’t but provide an inexpensive, secondary place to eat, drink, lounge and cook BBQ. It’ll add enough space to have people over. Inside would feel claustrophobic with just a few guests, a large, open verandah wouldn’t and living alone I imagine I’d want to invite people around often.
There’s no garage because cars belong outside. Consider that my entire house could probably fit inside your two or three car garage.
One area obviously lacking is storage. This could be solved with a backyard shed but that’s kind of cheating. I’ve thought about this problem and I’ve thought of a plan alteration to provide plenty.
The area right of the kitchen, the bedroom and bathroom could be raised to a second, loft style level. The bedroom door would be replaced with ladder style steps. The bathroom would no longer be accessible directly so a second toilet and sink would be installed below. The rest of the space below could then be used as storage, a workshop or laundry if you’re adverse to the laundromat. The ceiling above the rest of the ground floor area would simply be raised to match. I don’t keep rubbish, so I don’t think I’d need the space.
