Deciding on the Right Floor Plan for Your Dream Home: Colonial, Ranch, or First Floor Master
December 19th, 2017 | Posted in Custom Home, Floor Plans, Home Design, New Home Constuction
There are three main floor plan types to consider when designing your dream home. Each type, colonial, ranch, and first floor master, has its strengths and weaknesses.
A colonial floor plan is a two-story structure with all the bedrooms, including the master bedroom, located on the second floor. Having the master upstairs close to the other bedrooms is convenient for families with smaller children where parents typically want to be near babies and toddlers. With everyone sleeping on the second floor, many people feel safer since they are not at ground level in the event of a break-in or peeping Tom. On a per square foot basis, colonials tend to be the least expensive floor plan type. In general, it is less expensive to stack square footage. Roofs and basements are expensive parts of a house.
A ranch floor plan is a single story structure with all the bedrooms on the first floor. This is especially convenient for homeowners as they get older. There are no stairs to go up and down in a ranch home. Since all the square footage of the home is on the first floor the basements of ranch homes are much larger than basements in colonials of the same square footage. Unfortunately, ranches tend to be the most expensive floor plan type per square foot. When you are choosing your ranch floor plan you can have all the bedrooms on one side of the home or have the master on one side and the remaining bedrooms on the opposite side for privacy. Finally, ranch homes tend to have the largest footprint so fitting a ranch on a smaller lot can be challenging.
A first floor master plan is a 2-story structure where the master bedroom is on the first floor and the remainder of the bedrooms are upstairs. The first floor master combines the convenience of a ranch with the economical savings of stacking square footage with the rest of the bedrooms on the second floor. This layout provide much more privacy as the master is far away from the upstairs bedrooms. A first floor master plan is typically less expensive per square foot than a ranch but more expensive than a colonial. With today’s baby monitor technology, even younger families are choosing first floor master plans.
