When DH and I bought our first house a couple years ago, we knew it needed a bit of a facelift. We had decided to gut the quasi-finished basement and start from scratch. As DH worked downstairs I attempted to come up with an effective floorplan. This is what I came up with. Now that everything is framed and drywalled I think the layout is actually working out quite well. I used AutoCAD and google Sketch-up to draw everything out (Insert nerd here) so I could see what it would look like. With Sketch-up you can make a 3D model that you can look into - very cool! Sketch up is a pretty great program its free and quite user friendly - I'd definately suggest it to anyone renovating or making major changes. I've also used it for organizing my closet, laying out the nursery, and drawing up railing ideas for our front step.
