We Make It Easy to Get House Plans in Wells, Maine

What you can change and what you cannot

Start by sorting the building into three categories, because most owners arrive believing the wrong things are immovable.

The exterior walls are usually the hard constraint. On the tight lots at Wells Beach, Moody and Drakes Island, the existing footprint often sits closer to a boundary than anything new would be allowed to, so the walls stay where they are as a condition of the project rather than as a design choice.

Interior walls are frequently not structural. In a small cottage a surprising number of partitions carry nothing but themselves, and the ones that do carry something can often be replaced by a beam. Finding out which is which is what the existing conditions drawing is for.

The stair is movable and it is the biggest lever you have. In a small building the stair eats a disproportionate share of the floor, and relocating it frequently frees more usable space than removing three walls.

The roof volume is space you already own. Opening a ceiling into the existing roof does not change the footprint and does not add a square foot to the plan, and it changes how a small room feels more than any other move available.

Bathrooms and kitchens are movable but expensive to move. Anything with a drain wants to stay near the existing stack, so the cheapest good plan usually keeps wet rooms close to where they already are.

Windows can change without the walls changing. Where light comes from is a design decision that is still entirely open to you, and on a cottage with one dark side it is often the most valuable thing on the list.

Storage is a design problem here rather than a shopping problem. In a fixed footprint, built-in storage drawn into the plan buys floor area back. Furniture bought later takes it away.

Draw the furniture on the plan. In a house this size that is not a decorative exercise. It is how you find out whether the layout works, and it is free while the drawing is still a drawing.

When a rebuild beats a renovation on paper

At some point the honest answer is that reworking the building costs more than replacing it, and the drawings are how you find that line before you commit.

Compare like with like on one sheet. A renovation plan and a rebuild plan of the same footprint, drawn to the same standard. Handed to the same builder they produce two comparable numbers, which is the only way this decision gets made on evidence.

The renovation loses its advantage when the structure is tired. Once the framing, the foundation and the systems are all being addressed, the existing building is contributing very little except its position on the lot, and its position may be the entire point.

Its position may also be the entire constraint. Ask the town what a replacement building would be allowed to be at your address before you assume a rebuild is available. On these lots the answer is frequently that a new building would have to be smaller or sited differently than the one standing.

Flood requirements can decide this for you, and they are the reason rebuild-against-renovate is a live question at the beach rather than an academic one. What applies at your address is a matter for the town and not something to take off a map you found. The Town of Wells will tell you what governs your property.

The estuary areas carry additional review, which affects the calendar more than the design, and the calendar here is already tight.

Because this is a hard seasonal market. Contractors compress around the summer, which means a decision made in February gets built and a decision made in May often waits a year. That fact alone is worth more than any design advice on this page.

Do the comparison before you fall in love with either answer. People who have already decided tend to commission the drawing that agrees with them.

Who gets house plans in Wells, ME

Owners of Wells Beach, Moody and Drakes Island cottages reworking the inside of a building whose walls cannot move. People deciding between a deep renovation and a replacement on the same footprint. Owners of inland rural lots where none of these constraints apply and the design starts from a blank sheet.

What does the job cover here?

An existing conditions drawing that establishes what is fixed, then a plan working inside it: interior walls sorted into structural and not, the stair reconsidered, the roof volume assessed, and openings redesigned for light.

On a Wells cottage, add the furniture layout to that list. At this scale a plan that has not been tested against real furniture is not finished.

When should you start drawings in Wells?

In the autumn, without exception. The seasonal compression here is severe enough that drawings finished in spring have already missed the year.

Working drawings over the winter, permit early, and a builder booked before the summer takes every crew in town.

Why is Wells different?

Because the design problem here is subtraction rather than addition. Everywhere else in my service area the question is how much to add. On a beach lot it is how much better the building can be made without getting any bigger.

A statewide fact for your comparisons: Maine does not license general contractors or builders, and only plumbers and electricians hold state licenses. On a fixed-footprint job the drawings do more of the work than usual, because there is no room on site to improvise a solution.

What should you ask before hiring in Wells?

Can I extend a cottage on a small Wells lot? Often not, or not by much. Existing footprints frequently sit closer to boundaries than new work would be allowed to, which is why the walls tend to stay put.

How do you get more space without getting bigger? Move the stair, remove non-structural partitions, open a ceiling into the existing roof volume, redesign the openings for light, and draw storage into the plan.

Is it cheaper to renovate or rebuild? It depends on the condition of the structure, and it is answerable. Draw both to the same standard and have one builder price each.

Are all my interior walls load bearing? Usually not. Working out which ones carry something is the first job of the existing conditions drawing.

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A fixed-footprint renovation usually wants the detailed tier, because removing walls means somebody has to say what carries the load afterwards, and that belongs on a drawing rather than in a conversation on site.

The renovation against rebuild comparison is the best money on this page. Two plans of the same building, priced by the same builder, turn the biggest decision of the project from an opinion into a number.

That comparison is also what the two included revisions were designed for. Use them on the question that matters rather than on finishes you can settle in June.