Northwest architecture is inspired by nature and necessity.

It is not hard to identify the nature inspiration when surrounded by towering trees, rugged landscape and amazing vistas. The Northwest response to stunning scenery is to create house designs that are in harmony with the environment. Houses are often nestled into a sloped site and the lines of Northwest house plans tend to echo the strong elements of their environment – strong vertical lines in harmony with majestic fir trees, horizontal lines to evoke the feelings of rock ledges, roof undulations to blend with the peaks on the horizon. A Northwest home design is usually clean in design, lacking excessive exterior details. When architectural accents are desired, they are usually achieved with the use of natural timber and rock to further blend the house with its surroundings. A generous use of windows creates a seamless transition between indoors and out and brings light into the interior.

Beautiful Drummond House Plans - Northwest Collection - Cottage Plan #2957

So what about the necessity side of design in the Northwest? The Northwest climate is well-known for the amazing amounts of precipitation so protection of residents and the very building itself is a must.  The Northwest design accommodates this by implementing medium to low sloping rooflines with generous overhangs. To take this a step further, you will notice that many Northwest designs include a covered grilling area for year-round trips to the BBQ. Additional outdoor living spaces are achieved by adding generous decks, often combining open and covered areas for year-round enjoyment.

Charming Northwest Home Design by Drummond House Plans - no. 3832

A Northwest house has wonderful flow and functional interiors with modern amenities. Modern minimalist interior design is quite common as it helps with the laid-back lifestyle so common on the Coast. These designs are not limited to the enjoyment of “Coasties”. Although originating in the northwest, these houses can be built as a primary home or vacation home in any region of the country that has a natural vista or stunning cityscape to be enjoyed.  

Very popular Drummond Design - Carriage Plan no. 3935

Drummond House Plans has a beautiful and extensive collection of Northwest house plans available for your family’s comfort. We also have a number of designs being worked on so you should visit the site regularly or sign up for new design notifications.

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In its May/June issue, Home Builder Magazine, the official magazine of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association did an interesting report about the evolution of house plans in Canada.  Judy Penz Sheluk contacted us to get our opinion about the stock plan industry and the emergence of house plans web sites.  You can read the entire article by clicking here.

Marie-France Roger, my partner, was the one interviewed by Mrs. Sheluk and explained that Stock House plans can be sold as is or modified to suit the customer’s needs.  We can even do a compelete custom project, on-line, by exchanging information with the customer / Builder. 

Some designer, like Mrs. Jane Cameron from Life Home Design, think that people can not be 100% satisfied with a stock plan…  Over the years more than 110 000 people can argue with that because it is the total number of stock plan we sold in the past 35 years !  However, a stock plan company must be able to do some modifications to their plans to make sure that we can serve all types of customers and this is what we do.

In the past, people who wanted to do some modifications or get a full custom design had to meet with a local designer to get a complete set of plans.  Today, we can all do it on line (we do more than 500 modified / custom house plans per year without meeting direct with the customer!) and tailor a complete design to the customer needs and then, by also contacting local engineers and/or architect during the project to complete the plans and meet the local regulations.  Customer saves time and money.  Our costs are about 1 to 3% of the total cost to build.  Get a quote right here !

If you go to a local designer with some images of a stock plans, make sure that the designer gets the copyright licencees from the original designer and work legally on your project because those plans are potected by our Canadian Copyright law.  The original designer has the total right to sue you and your designer…  Don’t get in trouble and work legally!

Drummond House Plans has some programs for local designers / drafters who would like to modifiy a plan based on our design;  it is simple, quick and not expensive !  Click here for more information.

Special thanks to Mrs. Sheluk and to Charlie Blore, Editor of Home Builder Magazine.

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In order to answer the increasing requests from the population, Drummond House Plans has decided to re-design three of its top-selling home designs, to incorporate an elevator.

In fact, it involves three very popular house plans: a Country style design, a charming European home and a luxury European mansion, already in existence here. Modifications have been made to these homes in order to integrate an elevator in each one of them.

There are many reasons why our customers are looking for houses with elevators. Among other things, we find baby-boomers or the elderly with reduced mobility but are otherwise completely self-sufficient, as well as families where one family member has reduced mobility.

Home Elevator by www.universalelevator.com

Last January, during our annual meeting of Drummond House Plan Agencies, we had the opportunity to have as a guest, the Savaria Concord company.

They specialize in finding accessibility solutions in North America. Amongst these solutions were stair chair lifts, platforms as well as elevators themselves. Able to modify plans from its collection, Drummond House Plans also specializes in the exclusive concept of plans for new homes according to your needs as well as renovation plans and home addition designs for your existing home, among others, integrating an elevator!

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Fridays are not always the same…  This one, is a particular “positive Friday” !  Since I was very busy and out of the office most of the week, I decided to go through my e-mails and found this one who really made my day !

“Dear Mr. Girouard (Dan Girouard is our production manager),

I would like to express my thanks for the efforts Johnny Graziani did on changing our house plans.

While the modifications to our plans were not much out of the ordinary, we ran into some unexpected administrative discussions with our town in getting the needed permits. This required additional modifications to the plans with a very quick turnaround time. Johnny made sure that he understood our needs, worked within the limitations of his staff and assisted us in getting preliminary versions of the needed changes so we could work with the town as quickly as possible. Johnny could easily just told us that his schedule was fixed and we would have to wait until his team could complete the work efforts. But instead, he worked with me to understand what the minimum we needed was and how he might be able to get this done quickly.

It was truly a pleasure working with Johnny and the resulting plans match our needs perfectly. I hope all the people in your organization are as pleasant as Johnny to work with.

Kind Regards / Viele Grüße,

Thomas Voshell
Director Industry Solutions
Constituent Services
SAP Labs
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20004 USA
www.sap.com “

We can get recognition from our industry partners but nothing matches that kind of comments to me !  Thanks for your e-mail Mr. Voshell and I want to congratulate our modification team, Johnny, and Dan who does a great job managing all the production team.

To answer your question, Mr. Voshell, I am sure all the people in our organization are as pleasant as Johnny !…  Except myself, sometimes !!!   ;o)

Have a great week-end everyone !

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Drummond House Plans, a house design firm specializing in residential architecture since 1973, recently created a collection of multigenerational house plans, for multi-generational, bi generational or extended families.

Are you thinking of inviting the grand-parents (baby-boomers!) to share a new house with your family, and want to make sure they have their own private areas?  Do you have young adult children moving back home to save money and want to offer them (and you!), private spaces?  Are you a blended family with many children in need of extra bedrooms and more than one kitchen and /or family rooms?

The Multigenerational Drummond house designs and floor plans are designed as one home containing two separate units.  The main unit is generally larger, offering three and even four bedrooms to accomodate a young family with children, while the other unit offers all the comforts of a full apartment with one bedroom, a kitchen, dining and living rooms, as well as a full bathroom and laundry facilities.  For security purposes, both units are usually accessible to one another from inside the home, but both have their own individual / independant access to and from the outside. 

I’d like to share with you three of my favorite multigenerational homes (or bi generational, what is your favorite word fo it?)  Each one caters to the various styles and sizes required by you.  These three beautiful homes all offer large units for the family including very well organized apartments for the grand-parents!  All within the same house!  Which ones are your favorites?  Have a look at all of Drummond’s multigenerational house plan collection and send me your feedbacks! 

Drummond Multigenerational Floor Plans no. 2821: Beautiful 2-storey Spanish / Florida Style, offering a one-bedroom apartment on one side (on the first level), and a large  3-bedroom home on the other side (for the family) with two private balconies on the second level!

www.DrummondHousePlans.com Multigenerational House Plan #2821

Drummond Multigenerational Affordable House Plans 2278:  Charming and Affordable Bungalow Style House Plan, offering on the same level (on the same floor!) a one-bedroom apartment, and a well designed 3-bedroom house. 

www.DrummondHousePlans.com Multigenerational House Design no. 2278

Drummond House Plans - Multigenerational Floor Plan no. 2278 (Main Level)

Multigenerational Designs Plan 3039: Spectacular (and yet affordable) Traditional House Plan Style, on two-levels, offering the grand-parents suite on the first level, and the large 4-bedroom unit on two-levels.

Drummond House Plans Multigenerational House Plan #3039

These multigenerational house designs are offered in many styles and sizes and can be order easily online or by phone: 1-800-567-5267.  All house plans in the Drummond House Plans collection, including any design from the multigenerational house plan collection,  can easily be modified to suit your needs by using the Drummond online house plan modification /customization service, to make sure they answer all your needs. 

I’d also like to recommend a great site I found, that has an article on “How to function in a multigenerational household“.  It is one thing to build a house and another to learn to all live together!

Drummond House Plans’ design team is planning on creating more multigenerational and multi-family house plans, so any comments or suggestions are welcome!

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