Plans

08:56 Monday, 16 March 2026
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I've been MIA from the marmot for the past few days because I've been head-down in learning how to draw a house. Notice I did not say "design."

We have contracted with a firm with experience designing homes built with insulated concrete forms (ICF). That turns out to be, mostly it seems, converting existing plans to match the unique requirements and characteristics of ICF homes. They are not architects.

We provided a somewhat detailed outline of a plan we found on the web, and made some rather significant modifications to it in our initial consultation. In the draft plan we received, it had grown eight feet in width! Size is a constraint, as it's directly correlated with cost for the shell.

Subsequent discussion with our builder regarding our budget has caused us to re-evaluate our wishes with regard to size. I'd written an earlier post right after this discussion, but I think I went into too much detail with regard to competing wishes for a general audience. Suffice to say, it's a "pick any two" situation between, size, ICF and affordable. Not to suggest that ICF is an enormous premium, but it is a premium.

So I went to the App Store to look at home design programs for amateurs. I tried two low cost options that are mainly toys. The option I ultimately went with is Live Home 3D Pro from BeLight. I don't know if an experienced draftsman could use the program to create actual plans, but it allows me to experiment with various sizes of floor plans and layouts to figure out what might be achievable.

I think the "vision" is now "small retirement home," versus something more conventional. The fact that it will be built over a walk-out basement effectively doubles the size, with some additional flexibility regarding the timing and level of finish of the basement. There will be space to accommodate guests and give us some additional storage and a place for all our books and art and so on.

I'm generally pleased with the program, though it does have a rather steep learning curve. There are videos on YouTube, and a Reddit sub-Reddit. I've managed to avoid Reddit for all of my life, only occasionally visiting it from other sites linking to posts there. For whatever reason, I'm generally reluctant to join it, but I'll browse the sub-Reddit and see what the vibe is and maybe I'll join if I have questions.

The one thing all of the programs I tried have in common is they are all especially fiddly. To the point where I think I may need a mouse for the kind of precision pointing I need. My fingers always seem to be selecting and moving things I'd had no intention of touching. And there are an enormous number of details, because that's where Satan lives, of course.

What I've managed to do so far is draw a house slightly larger than the one we're currently living in, which is 24'x40', because that gives me at least a little bit of an idea of how big the house I'm drawing is. So I'm working with a 28'x44' outline, and so far I've managed to have a fairly decent size (that is, bigger than the ones we currently have) bedroom, full bath and walk-in closet/laundry, a half bath and a dedicated entryway (mudroom) and enough room to accommodate the stairs leading down to the basement.

Depending on the pitch of the roof, we could have a loft area, but that adds another set of stairs, which I haven't figured out where to stuff in yet.

28'x44' is 1232 sq ft, which is about 120 sq ft less than the house we sold in Nocatee, which had another bedroom and full bath, along with a "sun room" and "flex room," which, all together, exceed the size difference between the two plans. All that is to say that the kitchen/dining/"gathering" rooms are all slightly larger, as is the main bedroom.

This will be the low cost option. I think we could go as high as 32'x48' without breaking the bank, especially if we omit the loft option. Obviously, the larger we go, the less we can accomplish in the basement in the short term. My preference would be to finish the basement at least to the level of framing, electrical, plumbing, drywall and doors. While it wouldn't be "finished," it'd be usable. We'd still need flooring, trim, and paint.

My goal is to have some ideas for Mitzi to consider before we speak to the designer again, and have some specifics regarding constraints we want incorporated in their design.

As long as we can keep the focus on "retirement home," low-maintenance, easy to clean, able to age in safely and comfortably, and not on showcase features, or sized to host many guests all at once, we should be okay.

It's kind of exciting, but also stressful and all the economic uncertainty being injected by the madman a plurality of this nation thought would be a good president doesn't help either.

But the beat goes on...

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