Woman with a Plan

Where do you begin?

With a plan obviously!

I began by visiting the farm where the house was to be constructed (farmhouse it is). I measured the land with my mom’s help using normal tape. Since we planned to build the new one about the same size as the previous house that existed there we resorted to planning for a space of 35’ X 35’.

“The Plan” let's call it for now

I picked up a sketchbook and a few colour pencils.

In the corner of the notebook I jotted down the client requirements, basically what all my family would need there.

On the list, I had a bedroom, a toilet, a kitchen and a bigg hall ( because joint families believe in - time spent in the hall = time well spent with family :) )

I fixed it to be a single bedroom (albeit we live as a joint family) as I thought it was not a permanent residence and that we might be there only for the weekends.

With that in mind, I started making rough sketches of the area and how it could be used to accommodate all these. I preferred having an open kitchen since it wouldn't be frequently used and allotting a separate space for it would be space expensive.

I am generally not in for rooms with attached toilets, that bothers me on the hygiene level so I tried placing them separately.

When I and my friend Kargil looked for houses to live in in Chennai I learnt from her what ventilation and lighting could do to a house. She had that particular requirement since the day we started looking for houses and I never knew why until the day we found one and I saw how much the light and the ventilation make you feel better.

Coming back home I missed the ample openings in my home and felt cramped. I had to move furniture around so that all the windows in the house could be thrown open.

This desperate need for natural light gave rise to the courtyard. (They all didn’t develop the first day I sat and drew, it took time and quite a few sketches).

When I ran out of ideas, I went to Pinterest and the internet for help. I picked up ideas on the go and saved them to my board

I made a plan for the house within 26' X 30'. I was proud of myself for accommodating the requirements in a smaller area and I thought to myself that I was saving a lot of money.

Once I had a draft of the plan I wanted to start visualising them in 3 Dimension and put to test my SketchUp skills (SketchUp is available for free with basic features). This I thought would help me visualise the space and elevation. I hadn't completed the 3D model, because I was doubtful of the kind of roofing I wanted.

And now the trials.

I took screenshots of the plan and shared it in my family WhatsApp group.

People seemed actually happy with the plan. It was simple and neat.

Then came the important question - so what would be the estimate of this project?

This is the part I feared the most.

I had learnt estimation in college. I knew the short-wall long-wall method, and I knew the Center line method, but I didn’t know how many days a mason took to raise 10 feet wall, or how much a 3’ X 5’ window would cost. This is the part I feared the most about building a house - applying what I learnt practically. This caused a delay in the proceedings and in the meantime, my family realised they wanted it to be a 2 BHK house rather than a 1 BHK.

So there goes my Plan A to the bin!

After a long break, I had to start over, before the guilt starts to seep in me. This time I gave myself a larger space and I had to give in to attached toilets. I stuck to the open-kitchen plan and made the courtyard the centre of attraction. I still wanted the halls to be spacious compared to the rooms and this time I was also starting to get an image of how the roofing should look.

The courtyard (also called Muttram) couldn't be placed at the centre like usual because of space constraints, so I had to push it to one corner. I chose the North-West corner because on the Northern side of the site, there were Mango trees and on the Western side of the house there were paddy fields. The Eastern side had a factory in less than a 5 ft distance and I wanted lesser openings on that side. With the courtyard at the corner, the rooms had to be accommodated in a lively space too. At least one side of the room had to face the greenery.

So the rooms were placed one on the North East and the other on the South West. This leaves the South East space for the kitchen and hall. This also agreed with a bit of the Vasthu, but I had to convince my family to make a few compromises on that part.

I plotted this first on Autocad and then imported it for 3D sketching in SketchUp (of course it's not a mandate to have a 3D drawing at hand, but just letting you know - SketchUp is super easy to learn and start working on). I realised it's always better to start drafting in Autocad once there's a basic idea of the placement of the rooms, since it makes it easier to comprehend the space available and is accurate to scale. Once I started plotting I realised I am going to need a larger space so I had to make alterations accordingly. This resulted in Plan B.

This is the latest plan that I had used for approval. There were at least 6-7 drafts before this.

Another important lesson while drafting Plan B was that there are going to be suggestions for changes popping up now and then in the plan due to various factors and it's okay to have open ears. It's also nice to consult a few other people and most importantly those who ought to live there to know different perspectives.

I didn't have all the detailed drawings by the time the Vasthu Pooja was made, but I had a floor plan and a SketchUp 3D Model, to begin with. It was important to start visualising (not to minute details, but to have a basic idea) the set-up of the house (even the interiors) to define a style and accordingly choose an elevation. This I did with the help of a Moodboard. I had to re-draft the plan quite a number of times, which was annoying at the beginning but I also knew that the plan was getting refined, which was good for me.

Regarding the legal work to start building a house, I had to get the plan redrawn from a draftsperson in a technical way. And this document is to be submitted to the Panchayat or Municipality for approval.

I can totally see the changes from my first plan to the next that first model to the next and I am happy how just the experience from one plan can totally level up the next work. There's still space for improvement, especially in terms of detailing and space management and I hope it turns out better in the future plans.

Also, thanks for tagging along so far :)