Hi, I'm selling in California, and moving elsewhere. I want to build, and I'm looking for sources of home plans.
I have the Garlinghouse book, Garlinghouse website, and HSH website I've looked at.
Can anyone recommend any others where interesting, attractive designs are the norm? ( sometimes I hate Google and the zillions of hits they yield )
Thanks very much
Ed (no like spam? remove it to contact me)
Find a designer in the area you're moving to and get it designed for you. Most stock plans are just plain bad. Many plans have never been built. Most plans are designed for a generic person on a generic lot in a generic climate.
I have no idea how anybody can pick a plan before they pick their lot. The lot, orientation, etc. all have a tremendous impact on the design. If you want to to save energy, you'll need a house that is adapted to your very particular site. You will not find this in stock plans.
Do yourself a favor--hire an architect (and yes, this was brought to you by someone looking out for the architects).
"Ed"
I assume you're going to consider other approaches beyond simply looking for sources of home plans?
"The House You Build" by Duo Dickinson-- apparently a #1 bestseller at the American Institute of Architects-- lends some insight, beyond what you might think, toward getting a better home.
I think the budgets are still a little high for many, but then again, they're fairly big homes, and custom to an extent, and there are other complimentary avenues one can take as well:
I was designing house plans for fun around the age of 10 and was considered a top home floorplan designer. Had I been more entrepreneurially-inspired, I might have even sold them under a similar plug: "I feature house floor plans and garages, and am one of the nation's top home floor plan designers. Find that dream home plan!"
It's what they know, Paul, it's what they know.
Where "etc." shall include the choreography.
Although I'm a designer by trade, I swear by the things...
Using thumb and index finger, just pick them up gently by their heads, hover them over what needs to be done, squeeze a little without popping them, and watch them squirt their magic.
...Although the painted application of a Garlinghouse floorplan to a floor might be worth a design consideration, if only for a kids' hopscotch.
I'd have to concur. Although I did end up going with a development-builder (currently driving the poeple nuts - "oh, can you please change this, and that, and..." and they're actually being good about it), I had looked at more online plans and more plan books than Doan's has pills. In the end, found a mass-builder here with a place that was better than any of the book plans I saw.
If you're going to go through the process (and expense!) of getting a nice piece of property, then I'd say, don't go all cheapo-scrimpo on the house plan. Do some research, not only into local designers, but more importantly, so as to educate your own design sense.
The biggest mistake people make, IMO, is to take the attitude that design is supposed to be some sort of "magical" thing that just comes along and hits one on the head.
Nope. If you want to have (1) a well-built house (2) a well-designed house and (3) a house you'll be happy with, you have to put thought into it, and to do that, you have to put some time into some self-education re: design AND building, because shoddy, sloppy construction will ruin even the best plan. I lived in a sloppily-constructed new house and it was a waste of money, a waste of time (because I had to caulk and do other things I should not have had to do in a new house), and a great big *annoyance*. If you want to be annoyed and do a lot of work, buy an old place and plan on fixing it up! That's not what anyone should have to go through with a new house.
And again, if you are going to go through having a custom place built, then for petesakes, make it CUSTOM. What that means is, find a good designer who will help you look at *your* tastes, *your* lifestyle, *your* needs. No pre-packaged plan can be truely *yours*.
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