One of the first things I did when planning the renovations was to invest in a 3D Architectural Software package to enable me to do design drawings to help in planning the renovations. The software I chose was Home Designer Pro. Although it was not cheap, it has proven to be well worth the investment. It has enabled me to understand the layout and structure of the house much better, it has allowed me to experiment with lots of different options before committing to a decision, and the drawings and images produced by the package have been extremely useful in communicating with the tradespeople working on the renovation. As will be seen later, this package allows floorplans to be designed in 2D and 3D. Cameras can be positioned to obtain a variety of 3D images, and even animated walk-through videos can be produced.

An overall view of the house (from above the canal in the foreground) is shown here. The entrance from Quai Antoine Hebrard runs between the garage on the left (with sitting deck on top to watch the barges passing by) and the rose garden on the right and behind the garage. This entrance path leads onto a glass-covered verandah and the current back door (to be the front door in the renovated house). Living areas and kitchen are on the ground floor, four bedrooms are on the first floor, while two more bedrooms and a large open loft area are on the top floor. A basement/cellar lies under half of the house on the Rue Gambetta frontage.