Preparation for the Design Appointment

We elected to go the "full custom" option, where we could add / subtract rooms, move walls, and do just about anything we want with our new home. It's not free, but we hope to end up with a house that reflects our living style.

We had about a year from the time we signed the contract until our Design Appointment. Judi and I used this time to plan our home design.

First, we took a base Pringle design, The Stirling model. Our Sales Representative gave us detailed floorplan and elevation prints for this base model. I took these prints (36" x 24") to Kinko's and made several copies so we could mark them up with various design thoughts.

Second, we considered how we lived in our present home, what changes we would like for a retirement home, and our in house traffic patterns.

Third, we spent a lot of time on Mike Kelley's Florida Retirement Forums, http://www.kelleytown.com/forum/flretire/ , talking with others who had retired to Central Florida, particularly in Pringle communities. This sharing of information helped us greatly.

We tried on various ideas and eventually came up with a design that we likes. It basically does the following to the Stirling model:

- Pushes the Master Suite back about eight feet.
- Adds a Study in front of the Master Bath.
- Deletes the hall to the Guest Bedrooms and Bath.
- Moves the Guest Bath to be next to the Laundry Room.
- Adds a Powder Room near the Nook and rear Den.
- Widens the kitchen a bit.

Next I built a tabbed notebook in preparation for the Design Appointment. I included pages for each room, showing the design and dimensions we wanted, where we wanted the doors, windows, lights, fans, outlets, etc. It also included sections for appliances, HVAC, cabinets, closet shelving, electrical, plumbing, flooring, light fixtures, and hardware.

Then, we drew out the home design, first as the Pringle base Stirling model, and then as we wanted to change it. I did this using the computer, but it could also be done with pencil and a ruler. We kept a log of each change, deletion, and addition. The Pringle design center had told us that moving walls inside the building envelope did not add any cost. We also knew the cost per square foot for adding square footage at a given ceiling height, including "under air", "under roof", lanai, and porch. Using this, we estimated the costs of our changes.

We talked with Customer Care and got the specific brands / models of all the appliances, the furnace and A/C compressor, water heater, and cabinets. Then I went to the various brand websites to look at the specifications for these items. We looked at the base appliances and decided which we wanted to keep and which we wanted to upgrade. Judi and I used the same process to plan for our HVAC, cabinets, and other features.

We took all of this pre-work with us to the Design Appointment.

Next post - the actual Design Appointment.