Home Design Philosophy

5 years ago

When designing or building a house, do you feel compelled to include features or design characteristics for the benefit of potential future owners?

For example, in the house we are currently building, we are including all of what you would expect for a couple of retirees in our sixties, i.e, low maintenance exterior, modest square footage, all living on main level, wide doorways, extra blocking in walls for hand rails, a few spare bedrooms upstairs when our kids and grandkids visit, etc. But we also roughed in electrical, HVAC, plumbing and egress windows in the basement for rooms that we will never build. And a walk-in attic, accessible from a doorway in the upstairs hallway, stick framed with 2x12 floor joists, ¾” subflooring, 2x10 rafters and windows even though this is space we don’t ever plan to develop.

Why do all this you might ask? Afterall, this did add a bit to the build cost. The reason might surprise you, as it has absolutely nothing to do with resale. It is simply in the satisfaction in knowing that a future owner, long after we are gone may appreciate forethought included in the original build. Did you do anything similar in your build?

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User

5 years ago

last modified: 5 years ago

It occurred to me that since I design a lot of renovations, I have a very good understanding of why people want to modify a house they just bought or when their family has outgrown the one they already own and they want to remain in a school district. Its usually a master bedroom/family room addition and/or expansion into the attic, never the basement, and, of course, a new kitchen.

I've been doing this so long I have renovated some houses 2 or 3 times and have renovated houses for my client's children.

So, when I design a new house, I always think of the future possibilities.

I was once designing a major renovation of a large old house when the owners suddenly bought a newly removed house and they tore the month-old kitchen out and I designed a new one. Sometimes I forget whether I'm designing a renovation or a new house.

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Comments (17)

kriii
5 years ago
We did consider resale with our home and have made similar decisions to yours.
User
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Always ... no trusses, full stair to attic, no brick, etc. Young buyers in New England look for expansion opportunities (other than in the basement) because they don't know what the future will bring nor do you.

I like to insulate between the rafters and condition the attic for mechanical equipment so the larger the rafters the better. Currently popular open spaces often require deeper attic joists anyway. I always put a subfloor in an attic and rest the rafters on it to allow taller windows and frieze trim under the roof eaves. So, most of what you've done I would do anyway.

What you want is a half dozen young couples bidding for your house and hearing them discover there's space in the attic for an office or whatever they can't find in other houses. And it not just for he money; good planning can be its own reward.
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Mark Bischak, Architect
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Although designing for future owners may not be a high priority, it is important to not design anything that will deter resale. Unfinished spaces (attics, basements, "bonus rooms", and the like) should be planned to be finished spaces as budget allows and proper planning dictates. Flexibility is key.

It is also good to remember YOU are the future owner, and life is uncertain.
Mrs Pete
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Yes, I can relate to this. We are building on old family land, so it's important to us that our children /grandchildren will find the house useful /livable ... and will have the option to add on.

- We are building a small house with everything necessary for daily life on the main floor. We will be able to close off the upstairs to save on heat/cooling costs.

- Our upstairs will be two bedrooms /one bath ... it will initially be for our college daughter, who expects to come home for a while after graduation. In the future, it could be for a caregiver (family member or paid caregiver). We discussed putting in JUST a second master upstairs, but instead we are going with two bedrooms ... the thought being that it could be a bedroom + sitting room, or it could work for an adult + a child. Our college girl said she preferred the idea of two rooms, saying she'd use one as a bedroom and the other as an art studio. The upstairs bathroom is nice and big, as are the closets.

- We live in no-basement land, so no expansion options in that arena ... but we have chosen a layout that could expand: the garage could become another living area (and with 45 acres, multiple garages could be added) ... the laundry room could become a hallway to another bedroom wing ... multiple granny-pods could be added.

- We do not expect to spend more (or at least not much more) on any of these things; rather, we just laid things out in such a way that options will exist for the future. I would not have put in extra rough-ins, etc.
cpartist
5 years ago
We built the house for us. Now having said that, right now the house is 2 bedrooms with 2 offices but both offices have closets that could make them bedrooms quite easily. One office is approximately 15' x 19' and the other is something like 12' x 13' so obviously nice sizes. Otherwise I like to think I built a well thought out house that could work well in a variety of ways.
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Anglophilia
5 years ago
I think basements with playrooms for children might actually be making a come-back. A basement should at least be built with high enough ceilings that it could be finished if needed.
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Virgil Carter Fine Art
5 years ago
"...Its usually a master bedroom/family room addition and/or expansion into the attic, never the basement, and, of course, a new kitchen..."

There's a lesson here if enough folks are paying atttention...
new-beginning
5 years ago
one needs to have a basement to start with and not a whole lot of areas in Texas are the best suited for a basement.
worthy
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
New three-storey homes are prohibited in our city. So down, down, down we go. In London, England, three storeys down is not unheard of in the most expensive locales.

I may be on the back porch of life, but I always have and always will build for re-sale. At the least, it gives my heirs an advantage.
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Virgil Carter Fine Art
5 years ago
A basement, by any other name, is simply a hole in the ground...

Now don't get excited...it's just a little joke...! :-)
worthy
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
In 1963, a Turkish farmer looking to HGTV his farmhouse discovered the 8th Century Byzantine underground city of Derinkuyu, which hit depths of 250 feet and was capable of housing 20,000 people and all their provisions. An underground river provided fresh water.

Nothing new under...the ground.
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Summit Studio Architects
5 years ago
That could be such an amazing AirBnB!
Just Jane
5 years ago
Wouldn't my county love to tax someone who dug down and found that!
tiggerlgh
5 years ago
Basements are very regional. But where I live they are expected. Mine has daylight windows so it has a lot of natural light in it when the shades are open. Its easy to forget you are (partially) below ground. Now the old dark, wet basements are a very different story. Here many do look at them as places to expand their living spaces but I know that is not true everywhere. Its just not a topic you can generalize across the country.
User
5 years ago
I don't feel compelled to put anything in for future owners.

if I were, I would put in a garage, and a messy kitchen.

mark my words a messy kitchen will be a huge selling point in 10 years so build them in now
jmm1837
5 years ago
No basements where I live (Australia) so that's a non-starter. For the rest, we kind of reversed the scenario. We live very close to the center of a seaside town, in an area which is being redeveloped a combination of town houses and double story detached houses springing up cheek by jowl, crammed on small lots. We deliberately chose a single story with no potential for upward development because, like many older folks, we prefer to avoid stairs. So enlarging the house to accommodate future families would be, to put it mildly, difficult. But that's not the demographic that is the market for our house: many folks in our neighborhood are near or at retirement, downsizing, and wanting a smaller home. The few single story houses on the market sell like hotcakes because they meet a demand that the doubles do not.

What we did do for future owners is ensure that we got a builder with a reputation for building rock solid houses, using good materials and good tradesmen. This house will be here for a while, when some of the bigger ones will be teardowns again.

Home Design Philosophy

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Comments (17)

kriii

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