Ideas for building a home?

Question

We are drawing up plans for building our home. I would like some advice on this. I have an engineer and builders to finalize all of my plans what I really need are ideas as to what I want. What are some things you wished you had done differently when designing your home? What are some things you would like to add to your existing home? I have never done this or even thought about designing my own home. It is going to be a small house about 2,000 sq feet and 2 stories. ideas please.

Answer 1

One thing I wish I had done differently when I designed my house was to make the kitchen more open. It is to small and dark.

Answer 2

When you're talking about living in such a small space, you should study up on small spaces.

I would suggest that you go down to look at some travel trailers. I know, that sounds like a strange suggestion, but travel trailers are designed around the principle of packing all the comforts of home into a very small space. If you start looking at 5th wheels in the $30K-and-up range, you will find some surprising ideas for living in a small space.

My last apartment was a studio above a 2 car garage. I found some amazing ideas by looking at travel trailers. I got a lot of ideas that worked out extremely well for me while I lived there. I even bought some pretty interesting stuff that is designed specifically for travel trailers to make the place more spacious. I still use some of the space saving ideas I got from travel trailers in my current 3 bedroom apartment.

Some of the things you'll find are miniature appliances, hidden storage, small space design ideas, dual purpose furnishings, etc. Not every idea will work for you, but some may, and if just one idea enriches your life, it would be well worth killing a couple of hours.

Good luck in your new home.
-SD-

Answer 3

I have never just drawn up plans. We choose a builder we like and one of their plans and have built three homes so far. Pay attention to the layout and details for the kitchen and master bath. Put as much into them as your budget allows. And then closets and other bathrooms. 9 ft ceilings on the first floor make a big difference and if you can keep as open a floor plan on the first as possible. It will make the home look and feel larger. Flat screen TVs have more people mounting them on the wall so entertainment centers that take up space are no longer necessary but if you have a big screen, then you should look at doing a built-in unit so you don't have that huge TV taking up a room. Have fun. You will always find something you wish you would have done different when you build but there's always the next house.

Answer 4

We just finished our home 3 years ago. Husband and I did it ourselves. The one thing I have that I just love is a separate sink and cabinet area that is built into the area above a stair well. It is built around the corner from the kitchen. This is the area above the stairs going to the basement, most people put a closet in or storage area. We put basically a wet bar in this area with upper and lower cabinet built in microwave ( so I don't have to have a micro on the kitchen counter) and we have used it as like a coffee center. Coffee pot and all the fixings are kept in this area. This way I don't have to have the coffee pot on the counter either. It is very nice having the extra small sink and the storage .

Answer 5

We just got our new house last week, haven't even moved in yet, but I know one thing I'd have done differently was to have more storage. I have nowhere to hang coats when someone comes in the door, or to set shoes. A nice entry closet would have been nice. I was going for a wide open look and I got it, but the extra closet space would have been nice too. I will have a space for coats and all when the garage is done, but until then it will be a hassle.

Answer 6

You can start by reading lots of architecture magazines and books. Find out what current trends are in building. Dwell Magazine is good for modern ideas and they usually do issues on small houses. Books such as "Mini House" and "Mini House Now" available on Amazon are good for ideas. Another one is "Small Houses in Finland". I got plenty of good ideas from these books. Some of it may seem strange, but you can get the ideas and tailor it to your taste. I used these kind of resources for choice of material, color combos, unique product ideas etc. You answered my question on the Tilt windows so you must already know a little about this stuff. I have a small house (built in1929) about 1200sq ft. and made it look very nice IMHO. I got the idea for tilt windows while vacationing in Hungary, my apartment had them and they were really cool. So to answer your question I'd put in tilt windows. I'm looking at replacing carpet on my second floor with Bamboo floors - inexpesive and very nice. I'm thinking of cork flooring for my basement remodeling project. A company called Hakatai makes REALLY nice glass tiles that I made a shower stall out of and used as backsplash in my kitchen. They are very reasonably priced compared to other companies. I'm currently having a concrete countertop installed in my kitchen. Most of these ideas came from reading lots of magazines and books first.