Efficiency by Design - Design

The mere design of your house can have a big factor on your lumber bill. Think about the jogs and other dimensions in light of the dimensions of your materials. Are you attempting an 18" jog? Or worse 26"? Why is your floor 24'-6" wide?

Creativity Unleashed!

It's been a while since posting. The creativity muse hit hard the other night. Think 2x4 and back of the head. When consciousness was regained, this was on the computer screen:

After another muse attack (bag of doorknobs this time), this variant appeared:

Both are available for sale on a T-shirt or, say, tote bag. (Ice pack would be nice). This second one looks real nice on a thong.

See the full collections on CafePress:

"Tinier Than Thou" apparel and gifts
"Mine's Tinier" apparel and gifts

Or if you prefer, Zazzle.

What I Didn't See

Normally we get to draw our plans on paper and then ship them off to a builder, never to be heard from again.  But a recent purchase of the Arleta 2850 was being built a couple of hours away and we just happened to be driving through very recently.  The house is very nearly done just needing final trim and landscaping.  It looks nice.  But not what we pictured...

The house was built in a fairly lax jurisdiction so the builder was able to change some windows and structural issues without much fuss.  Unfortunately the effect of replacing sets of single hungs with gigantic sliding windows killed some of the period effects.  As did the rounded sheetrock corners, lack of wood trim, casing, and floors.  Now it's understood that most people these days prefer carpet in bedrooms but we find it unappealing.  The front porch was unfinished but at this point we're not holding out for a miracle.

Lesson learned?  Not quite sure yet.  While our plans are purposefully Spartan on details, we do get disappointed when our vision isn't matched.  Perhaps a set of SketchUp images showing our vision for the plan would be in order.  In fact this plan has some rough sketches ready, they just need some refining and uploading.  Perhaps that's the rub.

If ever you purchase an Istockhouseplans house plan and would like some direction towards creating a Craftsman or period look, please let us know and we'll be happy to put together a 3-d image for you.  Just one more service that we offer.

Space Saving Ideas

Apologies for the month of silence.  We've been on vacation a little a getting more business than we've ever been used to.  Totally.  Awesome.

But this caught our eye.  There are some ideas that are a little vain but for the most part here are some practical and ingenious ways to use space in your home.  We especially love, love, love the stair landing with the trapdoor.  The fact that under the staircase is open is even better as it would make a small space feel larger.  Plus it's available for any use you can dream of.

The sawhorse dining table is rather cool too.

Open + storage + wainscoting = win!

Getting Sketchy

A while back we mentioned some of the tools in our technological toolbelt.  One of these is SketchUp by Google.  Recently we have been going gung ho with this tidy little program and creating some masterpieces.  We took our Arleta A 2850A and gave it a little treatment of realism.  It's hard to get across the beautiful images in our head in two black and white dimensions or with myriads of text.  Crown molding, craftsman window trim and wainscot look so much better in three colored dimensions.  We'll be giving more of our plans this treatment in the future and doing walk-throughs as well.  But in the meantime as you wait with bated breath, here are some sneak previews:

Bird's eye view

Welcoming entry

Decked out parlor

Stay tuned for more!

Use it UP!

Where do you suppose the most wasted space in your home is?  Probably from about 4' up the wall and higher.  No, really.  Look around your room right now.  I'll bet that furniture goes about 4' up the wall and then maybe there's some pictures above that.  But if you look around that same room, you've probably got bits and bobs and some mess on the floor.  Consider a child's bedroom.  Taking up floor space is a bed, dresser, closet, and numerous toys on the floor including LEGO that you will step on at 2am during a bed check.

Perhaps the most obvious way to go up is with cabinets or shelving.  Your kitchen should be a natural example of this.  Why do we not do this in other rooms of the house?  The dining room is a perfect place to install a small bank of floor cabinets with some wall cabinets above.  Add some tile, trim and glass doors.  Congratulations, you just installed a buffet.  The family room or great room or media room or whatever you want to call it is another place where a tall wardrobe, or open cabinets or shelves might free up some floor space.  Toys go low, media goes in the middle, decor and display goes high, extra pillows or blankets can be stashed behind solid doors.

Or what about a kids room?  Captain's beds have a bed over desk combo that can save floor space by elevating.  Bunk beds are another great option for rooms with more than one kid.  You may run into some arguing over who gets to be on top.  But what if you have 9' or greater or sloped ceilings?  This is a great opportunity to try out a technique that we've drawn but not yet implemented.  First, the closet (including walls) needs to be have a footprint of at least 40"x78".  Build it with a ceiling about 78" tall.  You're not going to use much space above the clothes rod anyway.  Next, build a rail around the top and install a ladder to climb up.  There should be enough room for a twin size mattress to fit up there.  * May not be suitable for younger children or anyone subject to random tripping.  If you're quite crafty you could work a dresser into one side of the closet without encroaching too much into the rod space.

Or consider a reverse captain's bed layout.  Enclose a space about 78"x60" or more and about 4' tall.  In this space goes a bed and basic nighttime necessities.  Call it the cave.  Above this remains a platform large enough for a desk, dressing area, LEGO layout, or mini Pro Wrestling ring.

Could this be affected in a master bedroom as well?  Sure, why not!  Most master bedrooms are laid out with an idea to be conservative, elegant, and grown-up.  But who says grown-ups can't have fun?  Elevate that bed with a walk-in closet below!  Or enclose the bed and include a home office above.  Oh sure it won't be for everyone.  There'll be complaints of, "how do I change the sheets without falling or knocking my head?"  You just do.  Or you choose a more normal layout.  But for those with stars in their eyes, go for it!

This post was inspired by a house we worked on with 13' ceilings.  It's not our plan, we were just pitching in with a friend's overload of drafting.  If you consider 6'-4" of head height with perhaps a 2x8 floor in the middle you reach 13'-4".  While it's not possible to get two legal stories in that space, it is possible to create a small loft in one side or corner and double up the floor space.

Istockhouseplans will be exploring this concept for some future small house plans.  If you currently are using vertical space in your house or apartment, we'd love to hear about it in the comments.