House Plans.info » engjake

Creative Housing

engjake — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:13:39 +0000

Looking for some cool new housing ideas? Want your home to stand out from the rest? Check out this article we came across yesterday. Featuring seven unique houses from a custom built home that is upside down, to a home shaped like a toilet. I can’t say i’d like to live in most of these, but… you have to give the architects and builders props for trying something completely off the wall.

http://www.mywiki.ws/Top_7_Weirdest_Houses

Why building codes exist.

engjake — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 18:54:05 +0000

I was recently looking at a home near Jackson Hole Wyoming where my parents live. This home was built 30 yrs ago without (i still don’t think there are) building inspectors that regulated construction in any way. The foundation on this home was barely 6″ in the ground, not the typical 30-36″ deep for frost depth. As a result the heavy winters have taken their toll on the foundation and a large section is all cracked, falling apart and causing the home to settle. If they had poured the foundation properly the first time, it would probably be in great condition today. Unfortunately, now the home needs to be jacked up, foundation cut out and replaced with a new wall. Kind of a pain to do and probably expensive to the owner. In my opinion it would probably be best to replace the entire foundation but the cost to do so would probably be prohibitive. Anyone ever done this before?

Designing House Plans

engjake — Tue, 22 May 2007 18:58:52 +0000

Having designed and built several of my own homes has ben a blessing, but a curse. A blessing because I have been able to design things according to what I like and not have to settle on the closest matching house plan in a plan book. A curse because I can’t settle for a plan that is already drawn in a plan book, even though there are hundreds that would suit my needs/wants. I’ve just been thinking about this lately as I have tried to come up with a new home design. We plan to build again, basically as soon as we can come up with a house plan that we like. Unfortunately, being in the home building industry… there are so many things I have seen and would like to do that I can’t fit it all into one home. I guess I’ll just have to keep prioritizing and honing what we have.

Concrete Panel Homes

engjake — Tue, 08 May 2007 17:40:29 +0000

Well, it’s been a bit since i have posted here. I’m cursed with recurring kidney stones. We’re trying to figure out what is causing them, but when they start moving, it’s incredibly painful. Hence, I missed several days of work, and have been playing catch up.

I was just reading an interesting article this morning on the Home Builder Association website about pre-fab concrete panel homes. I would imagine it is fairly expensive to do around here, but it is something I would like to check into. Apparently they are very efficient since the walls are thick, dense and can hold in warmth or cold. The drawback – that I can see – is that the average joe will have a hard time making repairs if needed or re-routing wiring or plumbing. In the standard construction method of 2×4’s and drywall, it is fairly easy to tackle for the weekend warrior. Still, overseas most homes seem to be built of concrete because it is so available to everyone. This is definately something that we will likely see more of in the future. Check out the NAHB article here:

Prefab Concrete Homes

Going green

engjake — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 22:16:01 +0000

I think one of the biggest problems that inventors of “green” or environmentally more responsible products face is getting builders to use their products. I might be wrong, but it seems that this is often the case. Usually such products are not as easily obtained and often cost more than what is nationally available for construction.

According to this recent article from the NAHB though, half of new homes are expected to be built using green products by 2010. This is good news and i hope the trends continue in that direction. Green products are not as available as I wish they were in our area, I rarely see people using these types of products.

Check out the article about green building here.

Why so Big?

engjake — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:59:21 +0000

So my little girls love to watch this show on ABC called “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” Some of you may have heard about it. The idea behind the show is great, and it’s really neat to see people’s lives changed for the better. But i wonder sometimes if they go a little overboard with the homes. I know there is probably a lot network politics, influences to keep ratings, and advertisers probably determine some things as well.

Some of these families have had terrible tragedies, others are destitute, and some are both. I wonder if building them a smaller, nice home that was equipped with solar panels and/or other systems to make the home and family self sufficient might be better than just building them a huge home. A huge home comes with huge heating bills, power bills, higher taxes, more maintenance etc. Would it be better to help the family out by providing a nice home that is low on maintenance, taxes and energy costs be better for the family in the long term?

Just some thoughts for anyone at ABC that may read this [doubtful]. Either way, it’s a neat program and wonderful that they are able to help so many families in need. And I guess many of them now have fund raisers to help pay off the mortgage, or help give the family a nest egg to help them out in the future. And, if the homes weren’t as big and spacious, the ratings might not be as good. Still, i’d like to see them build a modest, modern and self sufficient home for someone, sometime.

Builders Honored for “Building with Trees”

engjake — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:50:54 +0000

Sounds odd I know. I was curious when I read this headline as it was ironic to find it under the “Building Green” Section of the NAHB (National Associsation of Home Builders) website. The author purposely entitled the article this way to catch attention and it worked. I quickly clicked through to read about it.

The article was about 4 development companies in the US that were honored by the National Arbor Day Foundation – not for using trees to build – but for taking into consideration the impact their developments would have on the trees in the area. These 4 developers hired tree-care professionals to help them design their developments around the existing trees and provide long term tree-care and protection. Their developments also included planting of new trees and shrubs, transplanting established trees to preserve them and more. You can read a bit more here: Saving trees while developing.

I hope this will be a continuing and growing trend in our country. I always hate to see established trees removed to install roads and parking lots. In my small town there is a Walmart that is supposedly being built on a large piece of land. Now there are many large trees on the land that have been there forever. I’d bet they won’t keep any of those big trees, and instead we’ll have a huge superstore and a grand parking lot to look at. What a nice welcome to a small town nestled in the mountains. I hope that our city officials have required them to do a certain amount fo planting to replace what we’ll lose – but it will never be the same.

The Glidehouse

engjake — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:56:09 +0000

I just came across this article on livemodern.com. Michelle Kaufmann is the designer of this cool modular homeplan. Hang on… it’s not your common modular house. As you can see, it has a really simple modern style, and the foor plan is pretty nice too. The simple design works well for energy efficiency and apparently it can be completely self sufficient (not connected to city utilities) if needed. There are also several configurations to meet your lifestyle and building site.

See the complete article here:
http://livemodern.com/glidehouse/

New blog about house plans.

engjake — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 22:40:42 +0000

Welcome to our blog about house plans and home building. I hope you’ll come back and visit often and share your ideas about home building with us. Having built many homes myself, and being invloved in the industry for years; I thought a blog about the subject might help others looking to build their own home or just looking for ideas.