Designing Your Dream Home: What It Entails By Aspen Drafting & Design

Designing a new home is an exciting and rewarding journey. It’s an opportunity to bring your vision of the perfect living space to life—a place that reflects your personality, meets your needs, and stands the test of time. At Aspen Drafting & Design, we’ve been helping homeowners achieve their dream homes for over 37 years. Here’s what the process of designing a home entails and how we make it a seamless, enjoyable experience.

1. Dreaming Big: Establishing Your Vision

The process begins with your ideas. What’s on your wish list? Think about the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and any unique features like a home office, gourmet kitchen, or outdoor living space. Consider how your family lives now and how your needs may evolve over time.

At Aspen Drafting & Design, we work closely with you to define your vision. Whether you have specific details in mind or just a general idea, we help refine your goals and turn your dreams into a practical plan.

2. Creating the Perfect Layout

The layout is the backbone of your home design. It determines how spaces flow and interact. Key considerations include:

• Functionality: How spaces will be used daily, ensuring convenience and efficiency.

• Lifestyle: Designing for your unique needs, whether it’s entertaining guests, raising a family, or aging in place.

• Aesthetics: Balancing beauty with practicality, making sure every room is visually pleasing and comfortable.

Our team at Aspen Drafting & Design specializes in crafting layouts that are as functional as they are beautiful. With experience in designing homes of all sizes, we know how to maximize every square foot.

3. Factoring in the Details

Details make a house feel like home. This includes ceiling heights, window placements for natural light, storage solutions, and more. Every decision, big or small, contributes to the overall look and feel of the home.

We collaborate with you to ensure your new home reflects your personality and style while keeping it practical. Our years of experience mean we can offer creative ideas and solutions you might not have thought of.

4. Navigating Building Codes and Regulations

One of the most critical parts of the process is ensuring your plans comply with local building codes, zoning laws, and HOA regulations. These rules can vary widely depending on your location, and navigating them can be overwhelming.

With over 37 years of experience, Aspen Drafting & Design has an in-depth understanding of Utah’s codes and requirements. We handle the technical aspects, ensuring your plans meet all necessary standards, so you can focus on the fun parts of designing your home.

5. Turning Ideas Into Reality

Once your plans are finalized, they become the blueprint for your builder to bring your home to life. A clear, detailed plan ensures a smooth construction process and minimizes costly changes or delays.

At Aspen Drafting & Design, we pride ourselves on delivering precise, high-quality blueprints that builders love to work with. We’re here to support you every step of the way, even after the design process is complete.

Ready to Start Your Journey?

Designing a new home is a big investment, but it’s also an incredible opportunity to create a space that’s truly yours. At Aspen Drafting & Design, we’re passionate about helping our clients every step of the way, from dream to design to reality.

If you’re ready to start designing your dream home or simply want to explore your options, reach out to Aspen Drafting & Design today. With decades of experience and a commitment to excellence, we’ll help you create a home you’ll love for years to come.

Contact us to schedule your consultation!

House Plan Design a Designers Perspective

The fact that I really enjoy what I do makes it very easy for me to get more involved with the client and really dig deep to get to the real wants and needs that my customer has for their new home design. This is very critical to the success of the design but more important to the construction and beyond of the home itself. I take very serious the fact that the good folks I work with are investing their hard earned money and in many cases making the largest investment of their financial life. Despite the fact that we have been mucking along in one of the worst housing industry dilemmas of all time I am still very optimistic that when a person is hands on involved in the plan design and then construction of their home project that overall they are in great shape as to actual value. If the home design process is done right then they make little to no compromise and get a home that fully satisfies them and this greatly increases the value beyond just monetary. In addition I spend a good bit of time on each custom house design making sure that every part is designed with the most value and lowest costs possible while maintaining quality above a typical “Builder Grade Home”

So in short whether you use our service or another custom home design service make sure to let your truest wants, needs and desires be known. Do not get in a hurry or try to rush the design process along, let it evolve and study it at every step. Look at the plan drawings as they develop and imagine standing in that Kitchen or sitting in the Den watching TV. Look around and envision what you see and what it feels like and make sure it is what you really want. Think about the experience of driving up to the house and think if you are going to feel full pride in its façade. Be open with your home designer and most of all do not be shy or hold back anything you think or feel about where the home design is heading. Make sure that your wants are more dominant in the design than the plan designers. Remember the custom home designer is a tool that you use to get what you want and that what the two of you are working on is far more than just boards and shingles. It is your “New Custom Designed Home” Don’t shortcut anything, live in it in every way possible until move in day arrives. Then you can sit back and relax and admire what you have created. I guarantee form experience that you will think and say what I have heard so many times “This feels like more than just another house” and when one of my customers says that to me I always reply “because it is truly yours”

Best of luck!

Aspen Drafting and Design LLC

Your Kitchen is the Heart of Your Home

Kitchens are the heart of the home and everyone uses them differently.  A classic example is an experience I had when Contractor and Drafting Design. My Friend invited me and some workers to a Construction Party at her Home. We congregated in the kitchen to help with lunch and I was struck by how immaculate the kitchen was. Come to find out, my friend never used it. She never cooked, she ate out all the time or ordered in and the only thing she kept in her refrigerator was her fur coat LOL. The point is, that worked for her.

When designing the kitchen for your new home plan, be sure it works for you! It will be a social center where family and friends naturally congregate and not just to enjoy your cooking! Opt for open space and a natural flow into other areas of the home.

You’re designing and then building a new home which is challenging in itself. The kitchen design may be the most challenging of all. Be sure your home designer understands who you are--- what’s right for you and your lifestyle. You’ll probably spend more time in the kitchen than in any other room in the home. Listen to what the design professionals have to say but stand by your guns when it comes to your likes and dislikes. You’ll be living with it (and you’re paying for it).

I have some simple kitchen design rules I’ve developed based on personal experience.

My Rule Number 1. Don’t go overboard on the big trends of the moment, or lean too much the other way by choosing strictly traditional looks. They can become dated and boring over time. The safe alternative is to adopt a transitional approach. Transitional, as its name implies, is a blending of styles. Lines are clean but can incorporate a touch of the ornate as well. Lighting and faucets will be more on the contemporary side.

My Rule Number 2. Opt for quality. This is not a place to skimp on appliances, counter tops, cabinetry and flooring. Ask your kitchen designer to review the pros and cons of various materials available. Don’t overbuy. Consider if this is going to be your home for life or if you intend to make a move in the next few years. It’s never a good idea to go for the extremes…the most or least expensive.

My Rule Number 3. Utilize every bit of space available. In my opinion, there’s no such thing as too much counter space. Cabinet built-ins provide badly needed storage, keeping your countertops free from clutter. In my last kitchen, the drawers came with silverware dividers built in. No more of those plastic ones which never seem to fit in the drawers. I had two corner lazy Susan’s under the counters. One was for spices and canned goods, the other for small appliances.

My Rule Number 4. Be sure your major appliances are a standard size and that your counters allow enough space for standard size appliances to slide in and out easily. Recently a friend bemoaned that her old refrigerator had to be replaced and that the space it fit in was too narrow for most of today’s models. She had to special order one and wait months for it to be delivered, living out of an ice chest and an old refrigerator in her garage. The only other option was to tear her kitchen apart and remodel to accommodate a new one. Your house design professional is so important in determining dimensions and measurements and ensuring that all the parts fit seamlessly together as planned.

My Rule Number 5. Do your own research. Be sure you understand the care and upkeep of your new countertops, floors and appliances. I remodeled a kitchen in my Florida condo and selected all stainless steel appliances. They were so beautiful but they were also a magnet for fingerprints and smudges, requiring constant cleaning to look their gleaming best. Talk to your home designer and go over all the various options with them.

Rules were made to be broken so if there’s something you absolutely can’t live without, go for it. Buy that wonderful kitchen faucet that’s part stainless, part chili-pepper red. It will make a statement and create a focal point to build your décor around. Just remember, the next owner may not share your taste and anything too “unique” may be a deal breaker when it comes time to sell.

A popular extension of the home kitchen is an outdoor kitchen. As noted in an article I found on newhomesource.com, the outdoor kitchen is no longer just for warm-weather climates. People want to start entertaining outdoors earlier and stay outside longer in the season. The outdoor kitchen allows for gracious entertaining in settings that are impervious to spills and messes. This type of kitchen can be as simple or as creative as you make it. Think of your outdoor kitchen as an oasis. Adults can cook and chat; children can play within sight of parents. The experience is relaxed and informal. Work with your design professional but expect to add anywhere from $5,000 to $15,000 to the cost of your home; for those seeking some more creative and elaborate surroundings, the cost could easily reach $100,000.

Is the cost worth it? According to an article on the website Landscaping.about.com, “In a competitive economy, homeowners face the challenge of differentiating their residence from others. These spaces are a unique selling point that could act as a deciding factor amongst perspective home buyers. Also, they will last and provide enjoyment for decades. The enjoyment to be had from dining outside is passed from homeowner to homeowner. “

Make sure you sit down and really think through your new kitchen. Make a lot of notes and look online for ideas and layouts that might fit into your new house plan.

Then Call Aspen Drafting and Design LLC for your new Home or Kitchen Plans.

Friends Kitchen