As an example, my wife and I have a dream of living in Costa Rica. Part of the process has been designing our future Costa Rican home for about 18 months. The first time I did this, we didn’t even have property to build on. I had everything on a flat, square plot. It was great and it incorporated all of the details I always thought I wanted. Then we went to look at lots and found out that the lots were more interesting than we had ever considered. That is, anything BUT flat and square.

I didn’t just drop the idea of living in Costa Rica. In fact, this new information made the prospect even more exciting. With respect to the house, there were so many new ideas that I could incorporate. In fact, every bit of new information changes what I can or want to do with the house. In fact, I have over 20 different designs that I have played with, dealing with about 5 different concepts.

You can see the latest design on my Flickr page. The house design has changed, but the main idea of living in Costa Rica has always stayed strong. With every new design, I get more and more excited. In fact, this is a great way to visualize the end result of achieving my dream.

So don’t let changes allow you to abandon your dreams. Just look at them closer and see how you can improve them.

What is it exactly?

The top level is the main house with the kitchen, semi-circular dining balcony, living room and hallway to office and master bedroom. The master bedroom has a glass shower that faces out to the private courtyard.

The second level is where the bedrooms are for our three children, plus their common bathroom. This is accessed from a circular staircase that matches the curve of the semicircular dining balcony.

The third level is where the guest rooms are located, along with the outdoor kitchen that they could use. Behind this is where the car would be parked. The two lines in back represent the driveway that would wrap around below the pool and to the bottom of the property. Notice that the pool has an infinity edge that would allow those coming up the driveway to see the water coming over the edge.

The green areas that you see are, as much as possible, the natural slope of the property. There will be a lot of trees on the property, I just haven’t bothered to put them into the model.

Let me know what you think by leaving a comment.