Building A Small Cabin Tags

The layout for Green Living Plan 497-46 shows a wet bar between the kitchen and the dining room, which is a very practical solution. The perfect spot for a bar may be in a corner of the great room that would be tough to furnish. On the occasions when you...

Bring your family along with you when choosing a floor plan. Don’t make the mistake of keeping your floor plan decision making to yourself. If you are able to walk through physical models of homes before deciding on a floor plan, consider bringing your family along for the decision. It...

Thinking Ahead to Holiday Parties. It would be a mistake to design an entire house around holiday meals and parties that only happen a few times a year. That said, plenty of new party-oriented homes are built each year for empty nesters in markets such as Palm Springs, Phoenix, and...

Bonus Rooms (Laundry, Play) - One of the most popular trends in today's house plans are dedicated laundry rooms and the renewed popularity of pantries. In fact, in my new house we made the mudroom a combination laundry and pantry. Some house plans offer laundry on the second floor of...

Too many parties begin and end in the kitchen. One way to keep everyone from congregating there is to put food and drinks in other rooms. Bars, which are making a comeback in new home design, though they tend to be smaller today than they were 50 years ago, can...

Do certain functions of your home need special accessibility? Whether you have a live-in family member that needs extra space to maneuver or children who need extra wide hallways to run around, consider this factor when choosing a floor plan. Older homes tend to have narrower hallways, doorways and...

Number of Bedrooms - This question may seem simple and easy to answer but it is worth thinking about and discussing. The easiest answer to this question would be based on your current family size and needs. You may need a two bedroom today and need a four bedroom down...

Decide what size of home will best suit your family. Every family doesn’t need a sprawling estate and every family won’t feel comfortable in a small two bedroom home. Choosing a floor plan first should start with how large a home will fit your lifestyle. Assess how many bedrooms you...

Bringing Exterior Material Indoors. This technique – using exterior siding, roofing or trim inside a home – has long been core to custom homes. Now it’s increasingly employed in mainstream housing to create a unified design theme. Using cultured stone to wrap the fireplace, the same stone used for exterior...

Consider safety for little ones when choosing a floor plan: Have you ever fell in love with a sports car just to be brought back to reality that you have a full family that will not fit in the car? The same mistake can be said when looking for the...