Choose Your Starting Point

 

Choosing a home plan from thousands available on the market can be a daunting task. But once you understand the implications and process of developing a home design, you can make informed choices that will give you a more successful outcome.

 

When you are searching for the perfect home design you may find that it is difficult to find exactly what you want. Because every homeowner has unique lifestyle, taste and budget needs, careful consideration should be given to all the factors involved in your project.

 

You will need professionals with various skills to work with you ensuring not only that your home is designed to meet your expectations, but that it can be built on your specific property. You also need to select the right combination of building materials to get the best value from your design. Being able to get all of this expertise from one source and working with a team of experts that are familiar with your project will produce a much more successful outcome.

 

The first step is to produce a concept design. To do so you have essentially four options:

 

1) You can design the home yourself with your own ideas using a variety of different sources.

2) You can select and order stock plans from one of the many books or magazines available.

3) You can hire a professional architect or designer to prepare a design and drawings based on your personal specifications and your site.

4) You can choose a complete solution which includes custom design as well as material assembly and construction services.

Design it Yourself

For many people, designing their own home seems simple and natural, for who better knows what you want than yourself. For others, they prefer to work with something that already exists as a starting point. And when it all works out, it is indeed deeply satisfying to look around and feel "we created this".

 

When choosing this route, be prepared to do lots of homework. Your level of knowledge and experience in construction and design—as well as your ability to translate your concepts into reality using visualization and drawing skills—will have a great bearing on your eventual "success". Since it's something you may do only once in your life, you don't get a lot of chance to practice.

 

Although this can be the least expensive way to get your concept plans, you will still need to have construction blueprints professionally prepared. These need to consider local building codes and engineering requirements.

Using a Stock Plan

If you find the do-it-yourself route too risky, choosing a stock plan may seem to be more of a sure thing. With the large number of house plan books and magazines available, there are a wide range of options to suit nearly everyone's budget and taste. Because they are mass-produced, stock plans can be inexpensive.

Looking at plans can help you define what you want (or don't want) in a house. These designs, the simpler ones anyway, often employ very basic construction techniques which are familiar to builders and can be relatively inexpensive structures to construct.

 

However, stock plans may never have been built before and the basic construction blueprints provided often fail to meet local building code requirements. In many cases, they need to be re-engineered or re-designed. Such home designs tend to be geared toward a generic flat building site and actually getting them to fit on your property often requires costly modification or choosing another more suitable design.

Hiring an Architect or Designer

A professional design process provides an opportunity for you to express your ideas, problems, and desires to someone who has the expertise and perception to translate them into an attractive, practical and well-built home that has a better resale value.  This includes keeping an eye on your budget, building site challenges and personal preferences.

Working with a design professional lets you participate in the development of the concept and take your design to a higher level than you may have thought was possible. Hiring a design professional can provide a dramatic new perspective.

 

It is still up to you, however, to assemble all the other resources you need to create your new home. This includes making sure you have site specific construction blueprints, choosing and sourcing the right materials as well as finding qualified builders and technical expertise.

Complete Solution Designs

You can choose from a large number of standard plans that are pre-engineered and can be customized to your specifications. Alternatively, you can work with an experienced design team to create a unique design. In either case, your designer will be able to help you make informed decisions, choose the right building products and provide you with technical expertise and practical building options.

 

Working with the resources the LIHBN provides gives you all you need to get your home completed. You have the ability to work with a professional team right from the beginning that is familiar with your project. They help you to first understanding the process, and plan ahead for cost effective and efficient construction.

 

The support of a professional team saves time and money when building your custom home so that you get the best result and the lifestyle you want.