Addition vs. Addition

Spy vs. Spy with a twist!  The English language is such that two phrases that sound very similar can mean very different things.  In this post we will be exploring the differences and similarities of the phrases "A New Addition to Your Home" vs. "A New Addition to Your House".

I think most folks understand that a house is a structure and a home is the entity that dwells in and among the house including the occupants, behaviors, and the structure itself.  We've recently experienced a new addition to our home (which explains our radio silence for the past month).

A new addition to your house is:

• Noisy
• Costly
• Invasive
• Bulky
• Sleep depriving
• Time consuming
• May include some screaming in the process
• Requires lots of planning
• Requires several professionals
• Requires a permit and/or license
• A lovely thing five years later
• Can pay you back when you move to the next stage of life.

Whereas an addition to your home is:

• Noisy
• Costly
• Invasive
• Bulky
• Sleep depriving
• Time consuming
• May include some screaming in the process
  
• Requires lots of planning
• Requires several professionals
• Strangely, DOES NOT require a permit and/or license
• A lovely thing five years later
• Can pay you back when you move to the next stage of life.

Further, an addition to your home may necessitate an addition to your house but not vice versa.  We have already taken pains to design an addition to our house should we feel we need it.  However the cost of the addition to our home may delay costs available for the addition of our house.  Nonetheless the addition to our home will receive all the necessary attention for the payback when we move to the next stage of life.

Time to School You

With the start of school rapidly approaching, istockhouseplans wanted to be able to reach out to a larger audience than we previously had. We unveil to you our kids section, aimed at grade school students. The page currently has some fun activities. We plan to add educational sections shortly to teach kids about how houses are built. Yes, you can probably find these resources elsewhere, but we will go so far as to explain advanced framing techniques to kids. At some point we'd like to create short videos explaining building science.

But for now you can download and print some activity sheets for your kids in pdf. There is also a website treasure hunt that will grow with time. If your kids have questions about the design and building processes of houses, let us know and we will be happy to answer them. We may even post the answers on a Kids FAQ.

Welcome back to school!