What NOT to do

Due to mounting pressures in other arenas, last week's blog post missed the mark.  But we are prepared this week to offer a small round of funnies.  Please always background check your contractor and make yourself aware of energy efficiency practices.







We are particularly fond of the fixed R-21 door:

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.

Golden Post

Hey how about that, we've hit 50 posts! Since June 26, 2007 we've been telling you all about our wacky ideas for building better houses. Can you believe we've been talking about 24" o.c. framing or adding exterior foam lo these 2 years now? Crazy! Ducts in the house? Ludicrous!

Not so crazy actually. All across the country, more and more builders are waking up and realizing that they are building the worst houses they possibly can without going to jail. This is called a code home. Much of this change comes from consumers realizing that there are better homes out there and that they don't have to settle for the Cheap Charlie, Get 'Em Up by Friday contractor 'specials'. Much of it has to do with the terrible housing market right now that has forced builders to either step up or go out of business. If Centex and Pulte are having issues, how are you doing Joe Q. Builder?

Just waking up? About to go out of business? Contact Istockhouseplans today and let us help you gain an edge. A razor sharp, honed, hair-splitting edge.

Tudor or Faux?

In light of our last update and the new Tudor-inspired Wilshire plan, we have embarked on our first ever picto-blog. Bringing the technology of yesteryear to the cynicism of today we are pleased to do our service to the community with our do's and don'ts:

Just like the game, can you find at least six things wrong with this picture?

1. Improper use of siding. A true Tudor home will not have a half-timbering effect on the front only.

2. Improper placement of windows. True Tudors have banks of casement windows, not dual single-hung windows.

3. Tudors should not have a 2-car garage attached to the side. Perhaps a detached one with carriage doors would be fine.

4. The half-timbering effect is too weak. There is not enough timbering effect and what is there doesn't look like anything more than 1x4 afterthoughts. Six inch boards are minimum, 8" and 10" are better.

5. Roof pitch is too shallow. True Tudors have pitches of at least 9:12 - 12:12 is better.

6. Tudors should not be tract homes with lipstick and rouge.

7. The front door and porch columns are a craftsman style.

8. Tudors have full grids or diamond grid windows, not 9-lite prairie muntins.

(We won't embarrass the builder by mentioning their name)


If your eyeballs weren't seared shut, here is an example of how to do:

Note the lack of stone, the thickness of the boards, the decorative touches, the banks of windows, full grids (though it looks like the original wood may have been replaced by vinyl), the garage in absentia, the difference in the front door and the boundless use of brick. THIS is a home proud to be called a Tudor, and rightly so. Do not be fooled. Want to try one more? Tudor or faux?

Give up?

Faux, though a somewhat better attempt than the first one. But maybe you prefer to settle for less. We're not telling you what to do, we just thought you ought to know. Check out istockhouseplans for highly accurate reproductions of classy older homes. Be brave, be daring, just don't be half-hearted.

All Quiet on the Design Front

Greetings in the name of istockhouseplans.com. It's been a quiet two weeks. So quiet in fact that we almost forgot we had a design upstart company. Actually, for as quiet as things have been here at istockhouseplans, they have been anything but on other fronts. Our dayjobs have been picking up a bit, the holiday season is here, and other generalities of life have made putting any time into plans almost impossible. We'd like to be able to offer you all of our plans with slab and basement by now, or have the original Creston ready, or any of other several projects that are on the drawing board. If you have been eyeing one of our plans but holding back because it didn't have the proper foundation, please shoot us an email and tell us what you're looking for. We're more than happy to oblige.

In other news, Buena Vista Homes of Lake Oswego, OR held their liquidation auction this last weekend. According to the news feed it was more like a circus than an auction. Many, though certainly not all, of the homes sold and some for a reasonable price. Kudos to Buena Vista for thinking outside of the box to keep themselves alive.

The question came to us recently: "Why don't you design more simple and basic homes? You might sell more of your designs." Apparently this came from a contractor's frame of mind. Just because our houses don't look like tract houses, doesn't mean they aren't economical to build. If you are asking why we don't design 1600 square foot dinger boxes with a garage, then maybe you should check out the Montavilla series. If the question needs to be further refined to why we are stuck designing classical re-creation homes, then we would like to talk about principles. Quite frankly, we will not prostitute our skills on something that we do not find to be beautiful. We will not crap out a plan just for the sake of turning a buck. We have some standards that we will not turn from, which is a good reason why we are debating about releasing the Creston series from the courtyard design contest. They don't look good to our eyes. What if we had won and they were built? We may have realized our mistake and been sorry we designed them as we did. In retrospect we would have made some changes but that's what happens when you find out about a contest halfway through. The point is that we will not spit out cheap homes in order to turn a profit. We would rather sell 2 plans a month of our unique and beautiful homes than a dozen crapshacks. And if you don't like what we design, we respect that and we don't expect you to buy from us. But if you realize that our plans are every bit if not more economical to build than many of the crapshacks, we think you might have a change of heart. Thank you for the question.

We will be all but shut down through this week and next for the Christmas holiday. Any orders you place will be attended to immediately but designing and emailing will be sporadic at best. We at istockhouseplans wish a you a Merry Christmas and hope that you will not be taken in by the hustle and bustle of the season. Slow down, realize what's important, and enjoy the people around you. We'll see you next year!

House envy, or, Does size really matter?

Your contractor tells you that size matters. After all, he drives around the biggest pickup truck available. Your wife tells you that she actually likes it smaller. Your friends are somewhere in between. Can you really live your life knowing that yours is in the bottom 25th percentile?

Why big is good:

• Show off


• Store a bunch of crap


• Less grass to mow
  

Why small is good:

• Cheaper to own


• Less maintanence


• Less crowding

OK, so we're biased. We may not have the biggest one on the block, but we know how to use it. It's comfortable, it fits well, and we're used to it. Oh yeah, sometimes we'd like to be a few sizes bigger, and maybe someday we will, but for now we like what we have.

The average size has increased double from 1950 to 2000, while the number of folks using it has dropped 25%. More to go around? Maybe more greed? And all the while, they know how to use it less and less and so much is wasted. Sometimes parts or even the whole thing goes unused for quite a while. Then one day you'll hear, "What is THIS down here!?", or, "How did THAT get there?". Come on, get a grip. Do you really need to live life like this?

But there is help. First, own up to what you have. Second, learn how to use it properly. Third, maintain it in tip-top condition. Hopefully you will get to a place where you are happy with your lot in life and not try to strive after what others have. At the end of day, it's not about who gets to go home to what, but about how big a mess you have to clean up.