Over the years I have had the opportunity to help others with their additions, as well as having renovated my own home extensively. This has given me great insight into basic construction, design considerations, building codes, and architectural trends. With that, I must say, the current state of architecture is poor. This is not a slight on architects; this is a slight on builders. There was a time where architects 'designed' and builders 'built'. Nowadays, current land development trends have created a market wherein builders design houses based on cost, and consumers pick the design they hate the least.
The current designs offered by developers are a mish-mash of varying architectural styles augmented with ‘classy’ features such as space eating foyers, reading nooks, and anything else that suggests opulence at the expense of function. The present-day multi-level, multi-roofed designs are like the flats from a western movie with over-designed faces, and afterthought backs. The biggest drawback to these designs is their wasted space. I live in a 120+ year old house and there isn’t a wasted inch. Our previous home, which was designed by a builder, had maddening space inefficiencies. The design may have looked good on paper, but when you tried to actually live in the space, you quickly realized the vast shortcomings of the layout.
This doesn’t mean I have all the answers. I’ve tried to design a house several times and have quit in frustration. I simply haven’t the experience know how to design what I want.
However, all is not lost…
There are a number of websites online that offer an endless supply of databased designs that are searchable by feature and square-footage. So with a virtual smorgasborg of options available to me, I set out our wish list:
- 1 ½ - 2 stories
- 1000+ square feet
- 3 bedrooms
- 1 ½ bathrooms
The first site I visited, www.globalhouseplans.com, returned 127 results... More to come!
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