Ask the architect: Hello, we’re a family of six planning to move out of our current home once we’ve built a new house in the garden. Could you give us some advice on what we should be aware of in this situation? How do we turn it into our dream home?
Answer:
Planning and building a house from scratch gives you a unique opportunity to get it just the way you want it. Therefore the most important thing to do is figure out what you want! Naturally you also have to consider the restrictions, such as the physical environment of where you intend to build, your budget, neighbours compliance, and so forth, but in the initial planning phase it is important to let your imagination run a little wild. The reality of matters will catch up with you soon enough.
Before making any irreversible decisions it wont hurt to go through this list of items:
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Materials
Which building materials would you like to use in your new home (and which are a big NO)? Wood (softwood, hardwood, plywood, composite, etc.), plasterboard, steel, concrete, glass, tile, rock, clay, earth? Picture your toddler with his tongue on the material you have chosen for you floor. Does it make you feel OK or slightly nauseated? Even though we associate steel, glass and concrete with industrial buildings, these materials can make an interesting contrast in a home, perhaps in combination with more traditional materials for this type of buildings (wood and glass). Consider this; do you want your home to stand out or merge into the environment? |
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A question of style
Describe your preferences regarding style with 3-5 words (for example minimalistic, futuristic, simple, fresh, urban, rural, naturalistic, rustic, traditional, organic, modern, classical, industrial, etc). Choose words that speak to you. It could be wise to sit down with a pile of magazines and put a big black X over what you don’t like (like the mix of styles in the picture to the left?) and cut out pictures of solutions you find appealing. |
Design decisions
Do you like walls to be straight or arched, 90 degrees on each other or in freer constellations. When it comes to design, the shape of the roof is essential. Do you imagine flat, skillion, gabled, hipped, arched or some combination thereof to support a style?
Spatial qualities
Do you want some of the rooms to have higher ceilings than normal, for instance the living room, kitchen, family room, hallway, or other? Make some sketches (on a piece of napkin if you want to feel like a real architect) to illustrate what you like.
Rooms
Make a list of which rooms and functions you’d like to incorporate in your new house. How many bedrooms, bathrooms, living rooms, etc. do you need? Do you wish to build a basement, garage or carport, or an apartment for outlet?
The site
Practical stuff like where to situate the building on the site, distance to neighbours, vegetation you wish to keep, etc, need to be taken into account. The size of the building site might determine the size of the ground floor, which will determine how many floors you need, and so forth. The planning department in your municipality will help you figure out the status and formalities.
Whether you intend to hire an architect for the planning and contractors for the building, or go to a house-catalog company for the complete deal; the better prepared you are – the better the result will be!
Hope this helps. Best of luck on this brave endeavor.
Great advice. I’d love to build my dream home but, frankly, I’m just too dang lazy! Plus I doubt I could afford it! All of my friends who did it literally ripped their hair out during the process, but all loved the final results.
I have friends who purchased land in the country, quite reasonably, and built their own homes from scratch. The results were funky, to say the least, but served their purposes. Over the years, they’ve made numerous additions and improvements, and have added substantially to the value and comfort of the property.
Our first home was under 1000 square feet and new. As it contained no fiberboard, chipboard, or other substandard laminates and products glued together that could cause allergic reactions, we bought it and then we chose to renovate. The fact that my husband is a carpenter and building inspector meant he was our general contractor and he was in charge of the renovation. We did all work ourselves with help of friends who are also qualified trades people. Most work was done by labour barter exchange, rather than through cash payment.
A decade later after we had purchased and paid for an acreage, I drew up a floor plan and roof profiles and got an architect to create blueprints. Then my husband became the general contractor hired subcontractors and/or entered barters with them and built our current home.
Our house is unique in design. The blueprints are under copyright. Ours is a true West Coast Contemporary home that features modern elegance with combination of Western Red Cedar and Douglas Fir Post and Beam timber design and sleek contemporary finishing. The spacious open concept floor plan features floor to ceiling windows in the living areas allowing a spectacular panoramic view of forests, meadows and a the skyline that’s completely free of the sight of any man-made structures other than our fences.
The design is two-story, Western Red Cedar and Douglas Fir post and beam, open space living, lots of glass (almost a 360 degree view), skylights, with huge covered decks on the east and west ends of the house. The roof-line is Dutch hip and its an open ceiling plan (20 feet at the peak). As we live in the rain-shadow zone on the coast and experience lots of winter rain on this forested island, we have 5 foot roof overhangs all the way around the house. Our art studio is located on the ground floor and our home is on the story above it.
There’s not a single piece of lead piping, chipboard, fibreboard, of anything else that could trigger allergies in the building materials used in our home. It’s a green home but has ZERO modern-day green-washing products in it. We selected each board that went into our home and had the lumber milled to order. We also chose to find recycled quality building materials from turn of the century homes that were being demolished and used them as well. We purchased first generation Fir plywood 1/2 thick inches but did the complete interior tear down of the old homes ourselves. We also tore down and purchased first generation Fir doors, door frames, window sills and casements, etc. from other old homes, and stripped and re-finished them all. We aren’t into painted woods; we like natural wood grain.
Our floors are ceramic tile in the bathroom and kitchen and hallways between. The rest of our floors are all Maple hardwood, which we purchased from recyclers, stripped, installed and re-finished ourselves.
Does our home contain the normal appliance every other home contains? Yes, it does but we draw water from our own well and heat with waste wood and have electric heating back-up. We are conservationists who don’t waste water, electricity, or anything else. Our lifestyle is “simple living”.
Those who see our home for the first time always remark on the size and the fact it resembles a lodge. I love the home we built because it suits us and our lifestyle. I have no inclination to move. I love my home and I love where I live too.