In this podcast episode, I share a story about a little Christmas card mishap I had a few years ago and how it relates closely to one of my favorite things I offer to clients inside my ‘Before You Build’ group coaching program … personalized floor plan feedback.
I also talk about the importance of bringing in a fresh set of eyes when looking at something repeatedly (ahem … your floor plan, in this case) and the importance of careful planning and making changes to a floor plan BEFORE building a house.
Below is a transcript of the ‘Before You Build’ podcast episode 49, ‘Floor Plan Feedback (Why it’s CRUCIAL)’. Please note that the transcript isn’t fully edited.
Below is a transcript of podcast episode 49, ‘Floor Plan Feedback (Why it’s CRUCIAL)’. The transcript isn’t edited, but it’s here if you would prefer to read the text rather than listen to the episode.
This isn’t a buttoned-up, written-out, practiced podcast episode, but it’s one that I think you’re gonna really enjoy because I’m going to tell you a story that I think is actually pretty funny in retrospect, something that happened to me a few years ago.
Stay tuned for that because it’s all going to relate to one of my favorite things that I offer in my group coaching program, which is the floor plan audit.
So, I said I was going to tell you a little story that relates to the floor plan audit, which is one of the things that I offer my clients in my Before You Build group coaching program.
I make a Christmas card every year. I think I’ve done it every single year since my oldest was born.
I don’t think we’ve ever missed a year, even in 2020, when I didn’t feel like doing it. We did one of those silly ones where we’re all in our PJs because nobody was leaving their house.
So, anyway, I do it every year, and I go back and forth between companies using Tiny Prints, Shutterfly, or Minted. (these are affiliate links. I may receive a small commission if you purchase through these links. Click here for more info.)
So I don’t even know which company I was using the year that this story is happening. Whatever company it was, I don’t know. That doesn’t even matter because it wasn’t their fault. It was my fault.
And so I get into whichever company I was using to make cards, and I put my picture in, and they spit out all the examples or all the options, and I figure out which picture I want to use.
I figure out which card I want to use. And mind you, this is over a two-week period. I go back and forth about what picture do I want to use? What design do I want to use?
So I’m going back and forth. And then, finally, it’s time to make the decision and order my cards. I make the decision. I look at the card, and I say, okay, well, this looks good. The way the card is, the way the font, the text, all that looks good with the picture.
Nobody’s head is covered. Nobody’s head is cut off. Everything looks good. I don’t even remember what the picture was. I don’t remember if the dog was in the picture. I don’t know.
Usually, she is. So then I probably showed my husband. I don’t even remember, but I probably showed him, and he usually is just kind of like, order it, whatever. So he probably didn’t even really look at it. So I’m like, okay, this is it.
And then, I double-check because before you order, you always have to double-check. Did you spell everyone’s name right? Is anyone’s head cut off? Whatever. So I double-check, and I’m like, yeah, it looks good.
I don’t remember what the card said. Probably Merry Christmas. That’s probably it. And then love the barkers. So I look at it.
I was like, ” Yep, everything looks good. No one’s face is covered. It says’ Merry Christmas’ or whatever. It said’ Love the barkers’. And I was like, ” Perfect. “
So I order it, and then a few days later, the cards come, I’m so excited to open the box and see the card in real life. And so I open the box, I pull the card out, and the first thing, but by the way, the cards looked really good. But the first thing I noticed was it said Merry Christmas or whatever it was, Love the Barkers. Not the barkers. The the barkers.
So I’m like, oh, my gosh. I have the twice. So I go back to the website to see what I ordered, and I’m like, they must have made a mistake and put the twice. Well, nope, I made the mistake. So I had to keep the cards because when I looked back, I ordered Love the the Barkers.
I did not catch that. And I wasn’t going to spend more money to buy new cards. It was my mistake, so I had to live with it. So I sent the cards out, but I’m like, oh, my gosh. Seriously?
There were, like, five words on that card, and I didn’t even notice that there was a duplicate word that it said the twice.
How did I not even notice that?
And the reason I didn’t notice that is because when I was creating this card, I kept looking at the card over and over and over to make sure things were right, to make sure it looked good. But I looked at it so many times that that did not even pop out at me.
Literally, there were probably five words on the card that did not pop out at me.
THE IMPORTANCE OF FLOOR PLAN FEEDBACK
This relates to my floor plan audit because when you’re looking at something like your floor plan over and over, you just don’t notice things that might be completely obvious to someone else.
I see this all the time with my clients’ floor plans because they look at them so often that they just don’t see it, and their builders don’t see it because they’re also looking at it all the time.
So, I love going in with a fresh eye because there is something so beneficial about having a third-party unbiased person look at your floor plan.
Not your builder who’s also looking at it, not your architect if you’re using one because they’re not unbiased. This is their design, they’re going to think it’s great.
Not your mom who wants to make you happy, not a friend who also might want to make you happy or just doesn’t really know what is what with the floor plan.
This is why I offer this to my clients because I can go in, and I will see things that they miss, and it’ll be so obvious to me right away. Not because I’m some kind of unicorn, it’s because I haven’t been looking at the same thing over and over and over again.
Obviously, I’m not a unicorn because I didn’t even see two does in my Christmas card. So I miss things too.
But when it comes to looking at my clients’ floor plans, I can spot things that they’re probably going to want to tweak before they build their house.
The thing is, and I always tell my clients this, it is way better to make changes to your floor plan or your front elevation when it’s still on paper or still on the computer. Because once you build your house, it’s not easy to just change your floor plan.
You’re kind of stuck with it once the house is up and you’ve moved in, and you don’t want to get to the move-in point and think, oh my gosh, I can see my bathroom from the front door, like you can see my toilet from the front door, things like that. You don’t want to notice that after you build.
You want to notice all of that and change it while it’s on paper, even if it’s annoying for you, your architect, your builder, your draftsperson, or anyone else you’re working with. You want to change it while it’s on paper because you can’t really change it once it’s done.
So again, that is something I offer my clients, and I absolutely love doing it.
I also love looking at their ideas for floor plans and just kind of helping them see common themes that they might not see because they’re looking at so many floor plans. They might be looking at hundreds of floor plans, and they narrow it down to maybe five. And it’s not obvious to them what the common themes are, what you’re seeing consistently with each floor plan.
And when I come in, and I haven’t been looking at these over and over and over again, it really pops out to me what the common themes are. And then, I’m able to help them get a start on their floor plan and what they envision.
Getting that feedback helps them really understand what they want in their floor plan. Then, when they meet with their builder or architect, whoever is drawing up the plan, they can say, “Okay, this is what I want. This is what needs to be in the house. These are my must-haves”, all of that.
Yeah, when I think about all the valuable information I have online, it’s super helpful. But you’re not getting that personalized feedback on what changes to make, the personal audit to find the mistakes before they become a problem.
Because when your floor plan is still on paper, you can make any changes you want. There is nothing saying you can’t.
And I highly encourage you to make any changes you think you need to make or want to make before you build your house.
So, I just wanted to share all that with you. It’s kind of a weird story, but I was thinking about it because it’s October at the time of this recording, so I’m already starting to think about Christmas cards for this year.
It just always makes me giggle when I think, oh, my gosh, how in the world do I miss the the Barkers? Like, how do I even miss that?
I can guarantee you if I had shown a friend that and I said, what do you think? It probably would have popped out to them immediately.
There’s just something very valuable about getting a third party’s eye on whatever it is you’re doing.
What I help people with is their floor plan, and I love doing it.
And if you want to learn more about the Before You Build program, click here to learn more!
