Day 6: Architecture & Dream Home

Here's what real rooms look like. Use these as a starting point — go bigger if you want.

1. On your grid paper, draw a top-down view of your dream home.
2. Every room. Every wall. Every door (small gap in the wall = a door).
3. Label each room with its name and its size in feet (e.g. "Master Bedroom — 18 × 16 ft").
4. Add windows if you want (a different mark on the wall).

For each room: length × width = square feet. Add up every room.

Write your total square footage at the top of your 📋 Dream Home Blueprint.

Choose at least 5 from the menu above (or add your own). On your floor plan, draw or label where each one goes.

Then list each one in your 📋 Dream Home Blueprint. Leave space for the cost next to each — you'll fill that in next.

• Home Depot, Lowe's — flooring, paint, appliances, fixtures
• Wayfair — furniture, lighting, fixtures
• Best Buy — TVs, sound systems, smart home tech
• Tesla.com — solar roof, EV chargers
• HomeAdvisor / Angi — installation cost estimates (pools, saunas, home theaters)

For each of these, look up a real price and write it on your Blueprint:

• Flooring — hardwood, tile, carpet, or polished concrete. Price is usually per square foot. Pick a style and find the price.
• Kitchen sink — anywhere from $150 to $2,000+ depending on what you want
• Refrigerator — basic, smart, or the giant 6-door kind
• Lighting fixtures — pick 3 you like
• Paint — interior paint is sold by the gallon (1 gallon covers about 350 sq ft)
• Each of your dream features from Section 3 (pool, sauna, home theater, etc.)

It's fine to use a price range if you can't find an exact number — write "$30k–$80k for a pool," for example.

Don't forget the house itself. In Southern California, new construction runs about $250 per square foot. That's a real builder's average.

So if your home is 3,000 sq ft, the base construction cost is:

3,000 × $250 = $750,000

Calculate your own. Square footage × $250 = base house cost. Write it on your Blueprint.

1. Base house cost (sq ft × $250)
2. + Flooring (your flooring price × sq ft)
3. + All the appliances you priced
4. + All the dream features you priced
5. = Your partial total

• Architect — designs homes, schools, hospitals, stadiums. Path: bachelor's in architecture (5 years) + state license.
• Interior designer — designs what goes inside the walls. Path: 2-year or 4-year degree, then certification.
• Drafter / CAD technician — turns architects' sketches into precise digital plans builders can use. Path: 2-year community college program. Pays well, no 4-year degree needed.
• General contractor / builder — runs construction projects from start to finish. Path: trade school, apprenticeship, or experience-based licensing.
• Real estate developer — buys land, designs buildings, manages the whole project. Path: business or real estate degree + capital.
• Landscape architect — designs everything outside the walls — pools, gardens, parks. Reiman Gardens has them on staff.
• Urban planner — designs whole neighborhoods and cities. Path: master's in urban planning. Works for city governments.

Local schools: Cal Poly Pomona's architecture program is among the best on the west coast. USC, UCLA, SCI-Arc, and Woodbury also have programs. Cypress College and Orange Coast College have drafting/CAD programs that transfer into 4-year architecture degrees.