Expert floor plan review & resolution · From US$3,000 · 28-day turnaround · Worldwide
Few things demand as much of our time, resources, and heart—or have such a profound impact on our lives—as building our own custom home. When making an investment with stakes this high, you deserve to do so with peace of mind. We help you resolve your floor plan so you can be sure your new home will support the life you want to live and be a worthy investment and legacy.
Because home should lift us up—to embrace life, thrive, and share our gifts.
I founded Moneca Kaiser Design Build in 1994 and soon recognized a systemic weakness in the traditional home design process: it privileged structure over quality of life.
Sadly, even the most beautifully designed house fails to become a deeply satisfying home without harmony between both of these essential dimensions.
I developed HomEcology™ to address this imbalance and restore harmony to the practice of homemaking, where it was traditionally intrinsic.
Imagine living in a house in Canada’s capital, just beside the city centre, on a rare and exceptionally valuable lot with multimillion-dollar views of parkland and the river in three directions—yet from inside your home, never knowing these vistas lay spread out before you.
In my 30 years of renovating houses, I’ve found that lots like this are very rare—but missed opportunities are not. They are hiding in plain sight.
This is why HomEcology™ begins with first principles and approaches home design through a holistic, ecological lens—considering the house, the lives it will shelter, and the living ecosystem they are part of as an interconnected whole.
A Resolved Floor Plan™ Analysis would have allowed the property owner to capitalize on this extraordinary opportunity before they built. Instead, they approached us years later to renovate a house that was still in excellent condition.
Open the Lakeway case study to see how we celebrated the vistas →
A floor plan can miss more than a view. Many houses make life harder than it needs to be by wearing us down with small frustrations we only discover once we’re living there.
When I ask about something awkward in professionally designed homes, I hear some version of: “Our designer said it wouldn’t fit, but we really wanted it, so they made it work.”
A floor plan can miss more than a view. Many houses make life harder than it needs to be by wearing us down with small frustrations we only discover once we’re living there.
When I ask about something awkward in professionally designed homes, I hear some version of: “Our designer said it wouldn’t fit, but we really wanted it, so they made it work.”
This is why an independent second opinion is so valuable.
Shoehorning in requests can leave you with bedrooms that barely accommodate a single bed; bar stools and dining chairs that can’t be used at the same time; and kitchens where you get growled at for making a cup of tea while someone is cooking because there simply wasn’t enough room for an island. Trying to fit everything in can diminish the value of the whole.
A designer can only interpret what they understand of your vision. This is why we start with first principles and have developed a comprehensive Homecoming Questionnaire™.
It’s rarely just about the barstools or the kitchen island. Dig a little deeper, and the wish may be to graciously welcome family and friends—an expression of hospitality. You might describe your grandmother’s welcoming home before recognizing the core value behind that memory. These are the links that need to be illuminated to realize your vision of a Harmonious Home™. It’s critical for the design process to uncover that deeper need and keep working with it until an elegant solution emerges.
It may feel like backtracking when you’re already at the floor plan stage. But the issues that surface here are often rooted in something deeper—and your insights will help you move forward with greater clarity.
When our deeper needs are understood, we can practise the art of compromise based on discernment, not deprivation, guided by our true values. Constraint is not the enemy of good design; it’s often what inspires it.
There are many excellent architects, interior designers, and builders who can bring a clearly articulated vision to life. What is harder to find is guidance in uncovering that vision in the first place. This is why we developed Resolved Floor Plan™: to help you articulate what matters most and resolve your floor plan around it before you build.
Your floor plan orchestrates all the other elements of your home. Resolving it before you build helps ensure one of the largest emotional and financial investments you’ll make fulfils its potential—cultivating prosperity both materially and in your quality of life.
When making such a major investment with such high stakes, you deserve to move forward with clarity, confidence, and peace of mind.
Prosperity
Your home is not only where you live; it is typically one of your greatest financial assets and presents an exceptional opportunity to cultivate lasting wealth and financial security. Design is where you engineer that value.
Discovering what is possible now costs far less than discovering what was missed later—both financially and, perhaps more significantly, emotionally. Resolving your floor plan before you build spares you the upheaval and toll of costly renovations to correct problems that could have been resolved on paper.
Legacy and care for future generations
Even a house built to excellent environmental standards can become wasteful if its floor plan fails the people living in it. Resolving yours before construction helps protect the materials, energy, and care invested in your home from premature demolition and renovation.
A home that serves you well over time puts those resources to lasting good use. This is ecological effectiveness: creating enduring value with what we build.
We all leave a legacy. Choosing yours consciously can be deeply satisfying—knowing your home will nurture your life while honouring the resources and ecosystems that sustain us and caring for the generations who will follow.
Harmony
The most beautiful finishes, finest construction, and stunning architecture can’t compensate for a frustrating floor plan—and
their value is quickly diminished by it.
Resolved Floor Plan™ goes beyond flagging problems. We present thoughtful solutions that harmonize your home as an interconnected whole—so the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. These solutions connect your home with what matters most to you and the life you aspire to.
Because home can lift you up—to embrace life, thrive, and share your gifts.
Peace of Mind
Resolved Floor Plan™ is like having an expert in your pocket—offering an independent perspective to affirm what works, resolve what doesn’t, and reveal opportunities you may not have imagined.
It’s expected in medicine, law, and finance to get a second opinion on a decision with stakes this high—and it should be when building your custom home too!
Perhaps your floor plan is already great. Or maybe it faithfully delivers what you asked for but falls short of the life-transforming home you long for. Either way, you deserve to know, so you can move forward with clarity and peace of mind before you build.
Home design has mastered the Yang dimensions of architecture, interior design, engineering, building science, and construction. Yet it is the equally essential Yin dimensions of meaning, values, aspirations, relationships, and deeper longings that transform a house into a true home.
I developed HomEcology™ to bring these Yin and Yang dimensions into harmony—and reveal a clearly defined path to co-creating your Harmonious Home™.
HomEcology™ is a philosophy of homemaking grounded in First Principles—foremost among them, cultivating harmony between Yin and Yang. Neither is complete without the other; their generative tension gives rise to life and creation.
HomEcology™ recognizes our homes as part of a dynamic, living web of relationships between ourselves, one another, and the wider living world. When we intentionally align our homes with our values and this larger whole, our lives become more meaningful.
Choices that nurture us in this way also tend to conserve resources, honour place, strengthen community, create lasting value—and, perhaps most importantly, cultivate contentment. Our Harmonious Home™ nurtures us so deeply that we are freed to give more simply because our cup runneth over.
As we share our gifts more freely with our families, our communities, and the world beyond our walls, prosperity grows and ownership naturally evolves toward stewardship. In this way, we cultivate a more reciprocal and meaningful relationship with our homes and the ecosystem that sustains us—creating a legacy worthy of our highest selves.
And so HomEcology™ reveals caring as the true source of our shelter—quite literally—and the foundation for lasting value in our lives, our homes, and our world.
Resolved Floor Plan™
To resolve an existing professionally designed floor plan
From US$3,000
Optional: The Elegance of Enough Study ™
To identify opportunities to reduce superfluous square footage. From US$1,200
Harmonious Custom Home Concept™
From first principles and conception of your harmonious home to a resolved concept and comprehensive architectural brief.
Investment by proposal
Resolved Floor Plan™
To resolve an existing professionally designed floor plan
From US$3,000
Optional: The Elegance of Enough Study ™
To identify opportunities to reduce superfluous square footage. From US$1,200
Harmonious Custom Home Concept™
From first principles and conception of your harmonious home to a resolved concept and comprehensive architectural brief.
Investment by proposal
Resolved Floor Plan™ — an independent review of an existing floor plan: we affirm what works, resolve what doesn’t, harmonize the whole and uncover latent opportunities before you build. US$3,000 for homes up to 2,000 sq. ft., delivered within 28 days.
The Elegance of Enough™ — an optional right-sizing study that identifies excess square footage without sacrificing function, comfort or gracious spaciousness. US$1,200 added to your review.
Harmonious Custom Home Concept™ — for a new custom home or major renovation: from the First Principles of HomEcology™ to a resolved floor plan, Harmonious Home™ concept and comprehensive design brief. Investment by proposal.
See full service details & deliverables on the Services page →
By design, Resolved Floor Plan™ includes no in-person or online meetings, helping preserve one of our greatest benefits to you: an unbiased expert opinion. Our review is intentionally uninfluenced by the rationale—or rationalization—behind the design. We look for the architectural integrity to stand on its own—as it must in real life, where there are no footnotes.
By design, Resolved Floor Plan™ includes no in-person or online meetings, helping preserve one of our greatest benefits to you: an unbiased expert opinion. Our review is intentionally uninfluenced by the rationale—or rationalization—behind the design. We look for the architectural integrity to stand on its own—as it must in real life, where there are no footnotes.
Your Homecoming Questionnaire™ gives us the insight we need to understand what matters most to you and helps you articulate your wish list.
We then assess your floor plan on its own merits to determine whether it will harmoniously support the life you aspire to.
Whether or not you pursue an opportunity we uncover is entirely up to you. Our role is to illuminate what is possible, so you can make informed decisions.
You are free to take any insights you find valuable back to your designer for further development, and are under no obligation to share where your insights originated.
Posted on Google
Shawn Villeneuve
I am a general contractor and have worked with Moneca and her design team on a few projects and I must credit them for their attention to detail, unique and functional designs, and plan accuracy. There are rarely issues, but if one arises they are quick to address it to keep the project moving forward.Posted on GoogleGaye ChicoineMoneca's expertise in design and renovation solutions is remarkable. I have been at a loss attempting to figure out a new kitchen design for more than a year. In less that 2 minutes she came up with the solution. Minimum renovation with maximum efficiency in the new design.Posted on GoogleAbby KarosMoneca helped our not-for-profit, Compass Centre for Self-Directed Learning, by donating high quality furniture that fit the space perfectly. She also volunteered her time and energy in advising us where to place it so it would serve the highest functional value. Thanks Moneca and congratulations on this anniversary! - Abby KarosPosted on Googlealana melansonI was drawn to MKDB for their design philosophy. I wish I would of found them sooner in the design process. Very professional and I truly appreciated their detailed approach in assessing your needs through their questionnaire.Posted on GoogleTara WheeldonThey are reliable, honest and a pleasure to deal with. You''ll find yourself in good hands with them. They take care of everything.Posted on GoogleJohn GeroOur more than a century old house was looking drab and required a significant redesign to give it more life and curb appeal. We had a great experience working with MKDB in the past for our interior renovations and were excited to work with them again on our new project. We hired MKDB to redesign the front of the house and to build and managed the actual renovations. We found the staff to be very knowledgeable, courteous and great listeners. They sat down with us to hear our ideas and came back with a design that truly elevated the look of our home's exterior facade, roofline and front porch, They made sure that we were fully aware of the cost of the project and any potential costs that could arise, so that we did not have to worry about additional costs after the project started. Like the previous renovation with them, they came in on time and on budget, just like they promised. We very highly recommend working with them.Posted on GoogleImmaculate CleaningMoneca and her team are simply fantastic! Highly recommended!! High quality work/construction and great customer service!Google rating score: 4.7 of 5, based on 23 reviews
In 2024, my 60th year, I moved to Trahila, a traditional Greek village by the sea.
Here, my husband and I renovated a 30-year-old house that was in great condition but whose floor plan failed it in a myriad of ways, most painfully by hiding the view of the sea.
Happily, we have transformed it into our own Harmonious Home™. Surrounded by mesmerising natural beauty and embraced by a generous community of people and cats, it welcomes family and friends for precious, unhurried time together in a place of alchemy.
Without adding any extra space, this house has become expansive and welcoming and embraces the glorious sea and mountain views that were hidden in its old configuration. I would not sell it for even $5 million, though it is worth only a tenth of that in monetary terms. We love it too much, and more importantly—it loves us back. Here everything flows. This is the house the Greek muses built.
Our hope is to honour them and create a foundation so it can continue to be a retreat home welcoming and inspiring other creators after we die.
HomEcology™ grew from the wisdom of mentors and schools of thought for which I remain deeply grateful.
For 40 years, I have studied with my Buddhist Sifu, Chan-Ky-Yut, who is a master of tai chi, meditation, painting, poetry, and feng shui. I am eternally grateful for his guidance and kindness in cultivating harmony.
At Yestermorrow Design/Build School in Vermont, I began as a student of John Connell, the founder, and met Buzz Ferver, who became a dear friend and mentor. Later, they invited me to participate in curriculum development and teaching, and I feel my work is a continuation in harmony with theirs.
These studies, together with three decades of residential design-build experience, shaped HomEcology™ and gave rise to Resolved Floor Plan™ and Harmonious Custom Home Concept™, which I am honoured to share with you.
Contentment is precious and something money can’t buy. Conscious choices, gratitude, and stewardship in the co-creation of our homes liberate us from a consumer culture invested in our discontent.
Together, we can bring your Harmonious Home™ to life—and HomEcology’s aspiration for a Harmonious Home™ for All a little closer to reality.
I would be honoured to see you home.
Moneca Kaiser
Home Maker
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