Going to build a House...!!!

by Jenny Clark

Before selecting a home design style (or even something as simple as exterior paint color), consider where you’re planning to build, and what aesthetic works best in that area. Check if your building location has an HOA and/or any requirements. Ultimately, your home should be an expression of yourself.

How to Choose the Right House Plan

1. Create a Spreadsheet of Needs. Talk with your family. Discuss what each of you wants. What are your needs now and what will your family's needs be in the future? Should you plan for future aging in place? Write it down.

2. Observe. Look at how you live and where you spend most of your time in your house or apartment. Why spend the time and money to build or remodel? If it's just because you like change, maybe no building plan will satisfy.

3. Reflect on homes you have visited. What features did you especially enjoy? Look at the way other people live. Is that lifestyle really what you want?

4. Consider the features of your land. Where is the sunlight best? Which direction offers the greatest views and the cooling breezes? Could remodeling capture a piece of nature overlooked by builders of another time?

5. Select exterior finishing details with care. Know if you'll be building in an historic district, which may restrict exterior modifications.

6. Browse through building plan catalogs for ideas. You don't have to buy stock plans, but these books can help you visualize possibilities. Public libraries may have these popular books on their shelves.

7. Use the web's search function offered by online directories of building plans. Houses from sites like Houseplans have often been designed as custom homes before being offered as stock plans. Some plans are "specs" (speculative) and many are often more interesting than "plain vanilla" catalog plans

8. Select a floor plan that most closely matches your ideal. Do you need adaptability? Perhaps you should consider a house without walls. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban designed Naked House (2000) with movable interior modules — a unique solution that you won't find in a house plan catalog.

9. Estimate your building costs. Your budget will determine many choices you make in the design of your home.

10. Consider hiring an architect to personalize your building plan, or to create a custom design.