Books for Building and Designing a home
Haley
5 years ago
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Haley
5 years agoRelated Discussions
Best books to read before designing/planning a home?
Comments (5)No book can give you an architect's education and intimate kowledge of historical design, engineering, and mechanical systems. Unless you've got 6 years or so before you start building. However, you could start with your local building code. You'll need to be well familiar withit. And for a little theory on relationships and what works, A Pattern Language (Alexander) and Patterns of Home (Jacobsen). To stay away from builder cliches, What Not To Build (Edelman, et al.). What Your Contractor Can't Tell You (Johnston) for how to communicate and organize with professionals. The Susanka ''Not So Big'' series, but especially, Creating The Not So Big House. Designing Your Perfect House (Hirsch) Getting Your House Right (Cutsato). Better Houses, Better Living (Ferguson) Kitchen Design With Cooking In Mind (Silvers)....See MoreList of design/materials decisions to make when building a house
Comments (40)This is great advice, BUT...what if you and your spouse aren't on same page or timetable. My husband is all about the nuts and bolts of construction, but I am trying to be proactive and get some other decisions made about what he deems more "decorator/cosmetic" type stuff...i.e., cabinetry and interior trim/casing, etc. I tried to tell him the cabinets could have a lengthy lead time depending on what we pick, and that BEFORE we can decide on cabinetry, we have to make a decision on appliances. In other words, we can't plan cabinetry around the 25 year old refrigerator he doesn't want to get rid of until it croaks... We should "plan" for the refrigerator we "want" rather than what we "have". I also want a 36 inch rangetop instead of a 30 inch gas cooktop, and that too has go into the planning. I know he's thinking we'll take a wait and see approach - meaning what we have left $$$-wise and then make appliance decisions, but in the real world it doesn't work that way. I've just run into the same issue with the siding on the house - the plans were drawn with hardie board & batten siding to give the project a fresher mountain farmhouse look. Our GC assumed that meant we wanted to paint the siding after installation because my husband really didn't listen to me when I talked about using a rustic prefinished hardie siding. He thought the "rustic" could just be painted on afterwards, and now is crazed because the GC is telling him the local company that prefinishes the hardie has a 3 month lead time due to their volumes, and the other company that does that type of prefinishing is in Canada and the Pacific Northwest and we'll have high(er) freight charges. It goes back to thinking that "painting" is just "painting" and is a cosmetic thing......See MoreBook review: How to Build Your Dream House Without Getting Nailed
Comments (1)Well...before one considers building, (or reading a book about building), one might beneficially want to understand and consider: --One's budget and appropriate contingency fund; --One's needs vs wants, and how the needs might be best organized and related to one another; --One's land or site, and how it will significantly affect how a house may be designed and constructed; --The design options, and how the design process works, for a home, on a specific site, for a specific budget, to address needs and as many wants as feasible; --The requirements, schedule and costs for required local jurisdictional approvals from start to finish of the project; --The options for competitive bidding versus a negotiated construction contract; --The various category of construction contracts, and how they can be written for either the owner's benefit, the builder's benefit, or a reasonable shared benefit. --How to understand and manage allowances (hint: zero allowances); --How to manage project close out and occupancy. If the book addressed all these, it's an exceptional book. If it didn't, keep looking for reference books! But chances are, there are few books which address all of these critical issues....See MoreHelp! Like The Outside But Want To Change Inside and Add More Space
Comments (15)There are some great threads in the Building a Home forum about the design process, and also with book/reading suggestions. Here are some other posts from forum member Virgil, who's an architect, [What's A Well-Designed House?[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/whats-a-well-designed-house-dsvw-vd~5370217) Tips for Buying Land, Designing and Building A Custom Home Part 1 of 3 Tips for Buying Land Designing & Building Custom Home Part 1 Continued [Tips for Buying Land, Designing and Building A Custom Home, Part 2[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/tips-for-buying-land-designing-and-building-a-custom-home-part-2-dsvw-vd~5079485) [Tips for Buying Land, Designing and Building A Custom Home, Part 2 continued[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/tips-for-buying-land-designing-and-building-a-custom-home-reposted-dsvw-vd~5213136) [Tips for Buying Land, Designing and Building A Custom Home, Part 3[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/buying-land-designing-and-building-a-custom-home-part-3-dsvw-vd~5213150) and also What are you doing to make your house enrich your life? Here's several thread with book recommendations, https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5402585/books-for-building-and-designing-a-home#n=22 https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/3281434/book-suggestions#n=31 Good luck! In so many cases, where one door closes, another -- and better -- one opens : ) ....See MoreVirgil Carter Fine Art
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