What I Created
The cartoon show "The Jetsons" was my inspiration to be an architect. I created some fantastic floor plans for houses when I was between 10 and 12 years old. I would draw a multi-angled geometric shape, and then fit doors, windows, fireplaces and room walls into it. I even detailed them down to where the electrical outlets should go. Most of the time my homes had interior bathrooms with no windows, just as many homes and condos do today. I learned how to do this by studying sample plans of homes being built nearby and including everything those plans had on them.
What Happened
Alas! My mom, meaning well, said "They'll never be able to afford to put roofs on those houses, honey." So my dreams of being an architect crashed. But the best part is, many floor plans for condo units look quite a lot like the plans I drew then. After university, I sent a floor plan to a friend in Bermuda for a home on a piece of land he owned. I angled the front deck to follow the edge of the clifftop as he had described it. I don't know if he ever went ahead with building it. I would certainly like to build and live in it!
Lessons Learned
- Perhaps if I had persevered a little longer, I could have had a very different career - as a condominium architect. Condos were just beginning to be built in the mid-1970s when I was in high school.
- I still draw up plans every once in a while on a smaller scale, and my plan to redesign my closet into a proper walk-in from the L-shaped layout in my bedroom worked very well. It functions just great as both a closet and storage area now.
