Yucatan Gringos

It is said that a woman often changes her mind. . . must be true, as I just ‘had’ to make changes to the initial floor plan of the home we intend to build. . . and, more than likely, up to the time that the builder lays the walls with the cement blocks, I will be perusing them still, looking for any improvements I can make . . . .

In the set of plans that I posted here in a previous entry, the layout was ‘close’ to what I wanted. . . Of course, if I had no limits on money or lot size, there would be no need for me to figure and ‘juggle’ the rooms and walls around to come up with the most convenient layout with an optimum of space use. . and - even before coming up with the previous plan, I had done at least a half a dozen different sketches of various layouts. . . all these still danced in my brain as I studied the plan that we had gotten a bid on. . .

Convenience to the outside patio areas from the kitchen was one thing that I worked for. . . that and a half bath accessible from both inside and outside.  . and having all the rooms located where they had a view of the ocean and could take advantage of the breeze - when weather permitted. . . (okay - so one bedroom upstairs could not be located for this, but at least I have gotten the rest of the rooms laid out in this manner). .

I was not quite happy with the kitchen plan. . .the outside door created a problem with the opening. . . that, and the run of cabinets had to make a turn. .(a straight run in all cabinets would work better, as I will have to research cabinetry in that area yet, and make use in some way of prefab units to fit in with the concrete and tiled counter tops and shelving. .). . still, I wanted to keep the “L” shaped layout of the home and the overall look of the outside of the home. . . two days of shuffling different sketches, drawing and erasing, and a new layout developed. . . a much more open kitchen with more counter space than previous, still convenient to the outside door. . a larger master bath. . relocating the stairs, and a re-arranging of the upstairs bedrooms and bath (making the open room area located towards the beach side of the home) - - and this is what I have come up with. . .

The first and second floor layouts. . .with the conversions to metric shown in parenthesis. .

And the lot layout. . showing the pool location, the surrounding security wall, and carport.

As the overall sizing is close to the first plan, (we did add just a bit more of square footage), this plan should still fit within out budget. . . Our hopes are that our next trip down there will include signing the contract to start construction of our new home. .