What I wanted to do was cover first, what makes a floor plan truly open. Then I’ll toss out a couple of reasons why the open floor plan is all the rave in the industry. 

So, what makes a plan open? 

Most designers would say there are at least these three factors:

1. Room Integration
2. Maximum Use of Livable Space
3. Viewpoints to Main Living Areas

Here is a plan that was found through a search on Google for “Open Floor Plan.” It is literally the image of a plan that is used as an example of an open house plan. Hmmmm... somebody is fibbing and taking advantage of the buzzword. I’ll show you why this is not an open plan. (I’ll leave out why its a flat out horrible plan for another blog)

No Room Integration: You have three main dwelling areas in this house (leaving out bedrooms). The kitchen, living room and dining room. While all of the rooms are close, they are divided by walls. The red triangle symbolizes the connection of the three dwelling areas and the green line symbolizes the walls. This means that the house will only feel as big as the room you are in. None of the three dwelling areas are even remotely open to each other. 

Each one is segmented by walls and even more amazingly, doors! 

NO Maximum Use of Livable Space: In the next image, look at the green lines. That is hallway space and tons of it. There was no thought put into the design of the floor plan. With that much room there should be some kind of formal entry or foyer (see “A” & “B”) or skating rink. That space could have created larger bathrooms, bedrooms or living areas. That is thousands of dollars in wasted space. Thousands!

NO Viewpoints to Main Living Areas: Finally, in the last image, I am going to cover something that is a bit less easy to “see.” This is the idea of viewpoints and how our peripheral vision plays a role. Imagine standing in a corner, facing the wall. The room would feel pretty small, right. Well, if you are in a 12 x 14 room, that is how big the house will feel. Especially with eight foot ceilings and limited windows. This is what is on the menu here in our “open floor plan.”

What I did is put a O in each of the rooms that is a dwelling area. I included one in the pseudo foyer because this is your visitors first impression of the home and is very important. 

The - - - - - - - to symbolize a line of sight. An open floor plan should allow you to look into a main dwelling area from another. Not every room has to be open completely, but the majority should. Often times the dining room may be towards the front of the home, making it unable to be directly in the mix. In fact, if it wasn’t such a resale taboo, many would eliminate the formal dining room altogether. Keep in mind, there should also be a natural flow of traffic, but lets stick to the lines of site for this example. 

This home is laid out much like a apartment would be, opening straight into the living room and with four walls defining each space. 

The only room that can be easily seen from the entrance is the living room. All other rooms are void of that all important line of site, making each room not just closed, but void of interaction. I hear everyday how much the person cooking wants to interact with what's happening in the living areas.  

Finally, since I have shown you what is wrong with the so called open floor plan above, let me show you, without going into a ton of detail, what an open floor plan really lives like. 

The lines of site are plentiful. The hallway used in this plan has a specific purpose and that is for the WOW factor upon entrance. They even added a barrel vault for the effect of grandeur. You can see all the way through the house from the entrance and from the breakfast area, kitchen, foyer and living room. 

When it comes down to our greatest investments, good enough doesn’t cut it. We expect our house to be a reliable shelter, but it should also be a functional part of our lives that is a place of ease and rest. 

Home buyers have become more particular and are taking their time to find the “perfect house”. No longer are home buyers looking for just a roof over their head. They are looking for the house they can call a home with charming curb appeal and a floor plan that is both livable and conducive for entertaining.

These new discriminative buyers are patient and looking for a home that will make them feel unique with a floor plan that is custom to their needs. This will be the challenge to the speculative home builders who need to cater to their future clientele. No longer can a builder build the same homes over and over again only changing paint color and brick and expect it to sell quickly.

The current economy may be slowing the home sales, however I believe that the homeowner market has stopped settling for the typical home and now taking more time to search for a home they are willing to invest their money into. Homeowners do not mind paying more for what they like, the problem is that they are not finding what they are looking for so they put off buying until they find it. They may also make low offers to a seller who may not have a home exactly what they want but make it up by justifying a low offer.

The new generation of homes have the charm of generations past. The small attention to detail and uniqueness that says “this is my home” and stands out by its charm and not by the address on the mailbox. Smaller, Smarter, Simple and Sophisticated floor plans designed for entertaining and living in every room, every day without compromise. Remember the "4 S" theory of the new generation of homes.

As the market recovers the New Generation of Home Buyers will be out in full force. If they don't find what they are looking for they will wait patently until they do.

Chuck Frusterio

All across the nation there is product sitting and sitting and sitting. The building boom created many “casualties.” Companies that got into the industry during the boom, but couldn’t operate or produce at a level that would sustain them for the long haul.

So for the companies that are still in the game, what is the next step? The “pre-sale” has taken a leave of absence and with the amount of product sitting, most builders are trying to unload the hefty mortgages they pay every month. So, are builders stuck waiting, even hoping, the market will come back or is there something they can do now?

If you’re willing to ask yourself the hard questions, you may come to some answers that will sustain you in the current market. Here are a few to get you started. . .

• Am I an “average” builder? That is to say, is the quality of what I build strong enough to compete in a flooded market?
• Do I build homes I would live in?
• Are my house designs generic, out dated or standard?
• Do I use the cheapest materials I can find?
• Is my Curb Appeal anything to write home about?
• What builders do I respect and what do they do better than me?
• Do I have efficient business management systems in place?
• Do I have a relationship with a designer who helps me gain “pre-sales” and refers me business?
• Is my supporting cast strong? Is it even alive?

Necessity is the mother of all innovation. You may have never had a reason in the past to ask these questions. The truth is, only good builders are going to survive this season and the best builders are going to do well in it. Take an honest look at yourself and your product and ask, “Is there something more I can be doing?” Hold yourself to the highest standards, then hold your designer to the same. Provide a home that is thought out, built well and attractive. Deal with the fact that your margins aren’t going to be as high right now, but celebrate that your homes are selling.

But remember, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting a different result. If your product is sitting, make some changes.

Good Luck!

To say the internet has transformed our day to day lives might be the understatement of the century. Not since old Gutenburg has mans written communication taken such a dramatic leap. Now, by nature we are skeptical beings, especially with technology. However, we are just as adaptable and once we become comfortable with that new gadget we stop questioning and start using... in record numbers.

From day one shopping has been at the forefront of the internet. For me, uncrate.com is an absolute must visit! I’m a guy and I like guy things. My wife on the other hand personally keeps Gap (and Baby Gap) in business. Oh the joy of internet shopping! Sit in your PJ’s at home or relax with a cup of joe at your nearest cafe and shop to your hearts delight.

And if you don’t like your next online purchase, return it! Heck, you can even return it at the physical store if you want to skip out on shipping charges. Sure beats the hours spent at a mall playing, “Yes dear, your butt looks good in that.”

But is this the way to make the kind of purchases we call investments?

I have professionally been apart of the buying experience for over a decade and I am absolutely stunned at some of the things purchased on the internet. Maybe I am a finicky buyer, but when tens of thousands of dollars are on the line, I feel point and click could be a mistake. I am not talking about the kind of purchases that are luxury items like a Rolex or a jet. I am talking about the everyday purchases we, the average American make. The car note we take on or the mortgage payment we commit to.

With some investments, guidance from an expert is just to valuable to skip. I believe this to be true with the design of your home. I wanted to take a few minutes and share some thoughts and I am going to base these thoughts on the average 3/2 home. Obviously where the house is located changes the price based on property values, so lets take a number that I see in my own community of $300K for a three bedroom, two bath home.

There are really three markets buying home designs online; the homeowner, the builder and the developer. And for these three purchasing markets there are MILLIONS of sites offering plans. Cottage house plans, Mediterranean house plans, Old World house plans, Tudor house plans, Country French house plans and Luxury house plans. The list goes on and on and on. Go ahead, google it. Search for house plans and there are about 23,400,000 results! This without even introducing renovation designs.

Its like shopping for cologne. Ever been on that fun little excursion? After five minutes all of them smell the same and you walk out with a headache. Looking at thousands of plans online can have the same result. But the internet does create one thing that can “look” like an advantage to the consumer and that is price competition. You can purchase your next home design for around $600.00! That is 0.02% of the cost of the home.

This may “look” like a good thing, but does this not seem wrong to anyone else in the room? Of all the elements that go into creating the $300K cost of a home, only one fifth of one percent is being spent on the DESIGN of the home! I mean, the idea of a “luxury” house plan for seven hundred bucks is just silly! The only time $700.00 and luxury should be in the same sentence is when referring to flatware.

A vast majority of websites on the internet that sell house plans are tossing up either sub par designs or outdated homes at a very economical price. But is this the place you really want a bargain? Is this the facet of the home building process that you should skimp on? With issues like resale value, wasted space, curb appeal, cost from design mistakes and flow of the home on the line, its just the wrong place to go the cheapest route possible.

So the question we are all thinking is, “who do I chose?” I can’t tell you who to chose, but it is my experience that the best answers come from the best questions. So let me share some questions you should be asking yourself and your designer while in the process of picking your home design. Keep in mind that there are three markets and with brevity in mind, I am going to focus on the individual home owner looking to build a custom home.

Ask Yourself:

• Do I want to purchase just construction documents?

• Do I need advice on livability and flow of the home?

• Do I care about the resale value of the home?

• Do I want eye catching curb appeal?

• Am I comfortable enough with my experience to go it alone?

• Do I know what my likes and dislikes are well enough to see them on a floor plan?

• Do I want the home tailored to my lifestyle?

• Am I willing to invest the time and resources to get help with the design of my home?

• How are you going to help me get exactly what I want?

• How available are you to me?

• Are all of your plans actually built or were they designed to sit on a website?

• What separates you from everyone else on the internet?

• Why is this the price point of your plans? (In other words, why are you so cheap and why are you so expensive?)

• How many employees do you have and what roles do they play in my design?

Being the technology person (nerd) at Frusterio. I don't get to interact with clients, or potential clients, very often. We are always trying to innovate our house plan portfolio at Frusteio.com. Now I have the opportunity to get some broad consumer feedback on the site.

Let me start by listing out some of our current features:

• Live online chat
  You can see the speak bubble icon on just about every page of our site.
  

• Book appointments
  That's right. Fill out a small form, choose a day within the next two weeks and a time slot and you're off.
  We also have a form for selecting our home design services. After that we would contact you and book an appointment with you the old fashion way. I plan on merging these two tools together since they both accomplish the same goal.
• Easy search tool
  We've seen so many house plan sites that display huge, intimidating search tools like the one shown above. We decided to keep ours as simple and quick as possible. In the event that you do want to get down to the nitty gritty. We're (that is, I am) working on an advanced tool for the public that should be ready fairly soon.
• Tabbed floor plan layout
  We saw that most sites stack their floor plans, and specifications, all the way down the page. Forcing you to scroll down to see each piece on information. We've placed our renderings and floor plans in tabs and put the plan specs side by side with the floor plans. Unless you have a real small screen. You shouldn't have to scroll too much.
• Advanced floor plan tools
  Some of our plans are real big and the dimensions and room names get shrunk down a little too small the read. If you click on the floor plan itself or the view larger icon. You get a new window with a high-res pdf that you can zoom in on and see all the detail you can handle.
  The next feature is the ability to flip the plan. Click the flip icon and you get a mirror image of the tab you're currently looking at. If you switch tabs it will go back to it's original state.

The last innovation I want to talk about is our blog. We want to provide you with as much information as possible to help you in designing your home. Our blog is the best tool to use for that purpose. Our thanks to HubSpot for their internet marketing expertise and for providing us with this software.

What would you like to see added to, or even taken away from, our website in the future? We can sit and come up with as many ideas as we can. But you're the ones that have to use them.

Thanks for your feedback!

I have always wanted to have a blog, but never thought I would have the time or ability to maintain it or a direction to take it. Now I do. I work for an amazing company that understands the importance of the internet and we have an awesome team that maintains it and will help boost our productivity on the web to a new level. And now, I can be on the team too! YAY.

First, let me introduce myself. My name is Catie and I am a project consultant here at Frusterio. I work for the people who come to us and want something new and different or classic or modern in a home plan. It’s amazing to work in a field where there are no limitations to the creativity of how I can help and serve the people I work for and with.

Home design is an amazing field that allows anyone to be able to imagine the possibilities of a house and transform them into a home that will last forever. It is amazing to drive through downtown, (which me and Amy, our office manager do often) and see the history of a city through the design of a typical home. To imagine that in years to come, people could see a design that you thought of and appreciate it as a part of history. It allows you to think of your home as a personal fingerprint of you and your family that will be evident for years to come.

I am excited about what I do and how I can help those around me. If you have any questions about anything, feel free to contact me and respond to anything I post.

I am also looking forward to writing more as my experiences with Frusterio progresses. I am always learning more about this field and I hope to continue to do so.