Suggestions for new home design?

Start online looking and dreaming Highland Road type houses and then adjust your look to Staring Lane affordability and reality.

I built 15 years ago and can offer these suggestions.

1. We bought several home design books so we could decide the over all look of the front of the house. I ordered several sets of plans for both the front of the house and for the general layout. I incorporated bits and pieces of each into our plans.

2. Every Sunday for a long time we went to real-estate open houses. We got ideas on size of rooms, counter tops, fixtures and just an over all layout of the house. I also had several friend of a friend who just built and they allowed me to view their home. Many discussed the few things they would have done different. Pay particular attention to the master bath and kitchen.

3. I ordered information from an architect in Arkansas named Doug Rye on how to build an energy efficient house. I used about 70% of his suggestions. I doubled my sq. ft. and cut my utility bill in half.

4. Pick your contractor carefully, get at least 5 references.

5. Buy lighting and plumbing fixtures from a supply house rather than from a big box store. They have experts who can look at your plans and offer great suggestions for each room.

6. Get a large folder so you can put all the brochures you will collect.

Velvet, drape everything in velvet.

Here you go Sport....

Your hipster reward:

Mr Rye: discusses pros and cons of different types of insulation.

There is a max. sq. inches of glass windows vs. sq. ft of floor space.

How to read and understand the yellow tags on water heaters.

Discusses seer ratings on AC units.

Caulk or place foam on all the holes the electrician drills in the header boards.

Place expanding foam in the small space around doors and windows. This is about a 1" gap made by contractors that allows them to fine tune the placement of doors and windows. If you add up all these areas together it amounts to a lot of uninstalled wall space.

There are many suggestions like these.

quote:

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Mr Rye: discusses pros and cons of different types of insulation.

There is a max. sq. inches of glass windows vs. sq. ft of floor space.

How to read and understand the yellow tags on water heaters.

Discusses seer ratings on AC units.

Caulk or place foam on all the holes the electrician drills in the header boards.

Place expanding foam in the small space around doors and windows. This is about a 1" gap made by contractors that allows them to fine tune the placement of doors and windows.

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I built our house last year and they made us do a "Rescheck" which calculates the efficiency before we even were able to get the permit.

The inspector made my insulator go back and fill the gaps around the windows and any holes in the top plates.

Mach,
How much $/sq ft?

Lion4life,

I build homes and have one almost identical in the front except I don't include functional shutters. That is a real popular exterior style. There are lots of variables, but the last one I did came very well equipped, was 2200liv/3200total and was 67sqft total. That front fits on probably 6 of the plans we have in house that are customizable.
That includes drafting fees and an engineer stamp if required by parish.

You guys should check out the site. We have tons of pictures on facebook. Townsend Homes.
We don't build everywhere, but have a sizable radius around SE LA.

Hoping to keep in the 130's. I'm doing all brick, including front and back porch. Who knows what it will cost once I get done. Supposed to have me in by June. I'm thinking July.