Building a home from the ground up starts with a plan, one that ensures your Pinterest dream home comes to life.
With a passion for architecture, Mélika Masseau, an architecture and wood framing technician started her own business to help people bring their vision to reality. Walking around in Fort-Coulonge and Mansfield, community members can spot houses she made the plans for.
Born and raised in Fort-Coulonge, 21-year-old Masseau works at DML Creation as an estimator. With an interest in learning and build on her current skills she took a program at Compétences Outaouais center, a vocational training center. Upon finishing the course and working on projects that allowed her to draw up plans for her sister’s home, she saw an opportunity for a side hustle.
“I mostly fell in love with it when I was in school,” said Masseau. “There was nothing in the course I didn’t like to do and I really liked everything I think that’s where my passion started.”
In 2020 she officially launched her brand Plans MM, which allows her to digitally draw up a house plan that includes everything the client needs to then go ahead with construction.
When hiring her services, clients can expect to . . .
get support throughout the process, said Masseau. “When you build a house there are so many things. I only do the plans, but that’s the first thing you need. But I try to help them go through the process. They can always ask me questions,” said Masseau.
In her two-year program, Dessin de bâtiment, she learned everything from plumbing to electrical, ventilation, and so much more. When she was still figuring out how she wanted to use these new skills, she mentioned it was great to learn a whole host of things. “It helped me know what I wanted to do, and that’s when I really wanted to start my own business and make plans,” said Masseau.
Her diploma, allows her to work on residential homes that are about 3,000 square feet. As a technician she can create the plans and was able to build a clientele which is an aspect that encouraged her to start her own business.
“The first thing I ask is always where are you building and do you need a stamp?” said Masseau.
After a consultation and sharing ideas, Masseau takes about a month to create her client’s plans which are full of details, such as plumbing and the size of the windows, which will help the contractor when it is time to build.
Masseau explained that there are two types of clients, ones that come to her with a plan and know what they want and ones that don’t. Both situations give her creative freedom to help families build their dream home with her. Often times people do not realize there is a lot that goes into building a home and she is the first piece of the puzzle.
“I really like both because sometimes when the client knows what they want, like for example the bathroom won’t work they got a big bath or things like that, I can tell them what they could do. That’s what I really like when I can give them other options. But I also like when they have no idea and I can give them three different options of quick layouts of what they could get. And every time it’s creative,” said Masseau.
“And I always start from scratch like the plan. Even if you know what you want. I do line by line. Every detail is on it,” she said.
For Masseau starting her business was not too challenging because with a computer and the software AutoCAD she was able to start right away. It was getting the word out and getting new clients which was a bit hard at first. But living in a small community, before she knew it the word was out.
Having family members also in the same industry, she was very familiar with the basics of construction but it wasn’t until she went to school and took the course that she learned that there is so much planning that goes into building a home. One thing that shocked her was how much she enjoyed learning about the mechanical aspect of things.
“I think for me it was that all the things you need in a house to structure it all together, that’s what was the most surprising of it all,” said Masseau.
Because she can only do plans for certain municipalities, Masseau hopes to continue to build on her credentials and get the architecture seal to be able to break into bigger cities and make a name for herself. In the coming months, she hopes to personalize the envelopes she usually gives to her clients when they come to her for plans.
“I would really love to get the word around even more. I’m more in Fort-Coulonge and Mansfield and a bit in Shawville. Some people don’t know me and when they know they’re like, Oh, I didn’t know we had that here. So they go to the city. But you know, there’s someone here that can do it. So I would really love that like everyone in the Pontiac would know that I’m around and I think I’m the only one here that can do that,” said Masseau.
Further down the line, her dream would be to use her connections in construction and build a construction company where she can provide everything from A to Z, said Masseau.
For any inquiries, you can reach her at 819-923-9322 by email at m.elika22@hotmail.com or check out her Facebook page www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063123885026
