architectural

It's been a year since we moved into our new place at Stonebrae. And we still haven't started landscaping in our back yard. Not to worry though, I have been hard at work designing and visualizing what our back yard will look like, and we've selected our contractors for the project. So we'll be getting that started soon and we're very excited about how it will turn out.

2D drawing, my layout overlaid on top of plan drawing of our lot.

I started out sketching designs and ideas on the iPad using Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro, which is a great 2D sketching tool. But when I started to use photos and try to visualize the outdoor kitchen and pergola in 3D, it wasn't cutting it.

Top view of the lot in Sketchup.

 So I found out about Google's free 3D drawing tool, Sketchup, and started playing around with it. It's pretty easy to learn by watching the various tutorial videos they make available, and you can't beat FREE! So I started out by sketching the kitchen area, and next thing you know I had added the pergola, and then the whole backyard design. And then to take it to the next step, I started drawing the outline of the entire house, and before you know it I had a complete 360 view of the property. So I went ahead and did some redesign in the front yard too. This stuff is addicting! One of its primary purposes is for architectural and landscaping design, so it was very easy to take the real world measurements I had and input them to make my drawing to-scale and as realistic as possible.  

Kitchen and pergola area, with measurements using Sketchup.

In addition, Sketchup can pull in real world imagery from Google Maps and Google Earth, so you can actually render stuff and see what it looks like in real locations.  And you can build and share objects (called components or models) with everyone else in the Sketchup community, so you don't even have to draw/create everything yourself.  If you need a pre-rendered palm tree or a chair, chances are someone has already done it for you, and you can just drop it into your project and move/rotate/scale it around to your taste, or even tweak it further.  Data just wants to be free...

Plants, furniture and pergola from the 3D Warehouse.  House, walls and fountain design by me.

We're still in the process of getting approval through the HOA but our contractor is on board and we are ready to make this jump from virtual to reality very soon. Stay tuned for real photos of the finished project and we'll see how true to the design it turns out!