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Tech which makes Sense

As an architect, when designing new houses for clients, they first come to me with standard tastes that you would see in any house in any neighborhood. What I’m trying to do is broaden their architectural vocabulary and be bold in what they’re trying to do, without spending a lot more money. Part of that is making your house look bigger from the street and living more inside. You can get a lot of “wow” factor if you try a few simple things in your home design.

1. Make your house longer, not square. Most people want to make their houses more boxy in design, with the preconceived notion of saving costs. While this may be true in general, it also makes your house look very small (and boring). For a 2500 square foot house instead of designing it 50 feet by 50 feet make your house longer like 75 feet long by 33 feet wide. You’d be surprised how much fancier and more expensive it looks for not much more money. It also gives you the advantage of putting windows in almost every room in your home, giving them light and visual space.

2. Use the split level home concept. The split-level house was more prevalent in the 1960s than it is today, but it has many advantages if you modernize it. The Split Level lifts the base off the ground. In most of the northern part of the country (I’m from Indiana), you need a footing at least 30″ or deeper to get below the local frost line. Well, let that be the starting point of your basement (or as I like to call it, the lower level.) That means the lower level is 2 feet below ground level, which means you can have full size concrete windows (either 8′ or 9′ high) which saves cost. If you use a lower level 8′ high (to reduce costs), there is a design I like to use to eliminate the bulkheads for HVAC;…incorporate the ductwork into a system I love using floor trusses that are 16″ high, 24″ on center, and keep the trusses in the same orientation throughout the house. Provides plenty of room for HVAC ductwork in the floor framing system and no bulkheads which means less cost as you have flat roofs and no extra frame for those bulkheads. If you need room for the HVAC to “run through” each other, do it in the engine room.

3. With the split level home, the second floor (or the “main level” as I like to call it) is 7-9 feet above ground level, not only giving you a commanding view of the property, but which also looks like a 2 story building, for the price of 1 story. You can leave the windows open at night because the window frames are 10 feet above ground level. You have a lot of visual privacy because people on the street don’t have a direct view of the house. When you sit they can’t see you, even if you have many windows. On the main level, I love using vaulted ceiling beams on the main level to give the rooms more visual height.

4. Use wide overhangs. Wide overhangs were more prevalent during the Prairie Style period This may seem strange, but wide overhangs (like 4 feet wide) make your home look bigger both inside and out. Like I said earlier, I love vaulted ceiling trusses. I start with an 8′ high wall (instead of 9′). With a 4 foot overhang and vaulted ceiling joists, the interior wall height is now 10′ (8′ wall, 2′ at roof truss), with the roof peak at 15′. This is because the roof began to “rise” further from the outer wall. I am getting 10-15 foot ceilings for a price of 8 foot high wall. The wide overhangs also help in summer, protecting the windows from shade, keeping direct sunlight outside.

5. Incorporate screened decks and porches into the design. Don’t make decks and porches an afterthought, but incorporate them into the design, i.e. lay brick or siding over them, put a roof over them, and make the openings look like windows, but don’t put in the glass. . And consider putting them in the front of the house, not the back. I designed a house for my parents that was 1300 square feet on the main level, but added the screened in porch to the front of the house. The house was 72 feet long in the front (24′ porch, 16′ great room, 8′ driveway, 24′ garage) and looks huge. (if you’d like to see it, go to my website (web address below), home page, about halfway down the page, “Click here for more house photos,” and it’s the first photo. the screen is to the left) The interior of the Screen Porch is finished with moisture-resistant drywall, so the interior feels like any other room in the house (it also has vaulted ceilings), but it is not heated no air conditioning. It is the most lived space of the home. Having the screened in porch or deck in the front of the house gives you more community with your neighbors, while it can give you more privacy. In my home, the deck has a solid wall from level to 42″ above the deck floor. This provides visual privacy when I sit, but when I stand up, I can converse with neighbors (42″ is also a good height). bent for the elbows). As a bonus, with the house on two levels, the space below the deck (since it has siding and the floor is 7 feet above ground level), and the roof above the deck, I have a shed that is 18 feet wide and 28 feet high. long under deck for lawn mowers, bikes, tools, which I don’t have to store in the garage.

6. Minimize the garage. There is nothing visually pleasing about a garage. The most important rooms in the house (Great Room, Dining Room, maybe the Screen Porch) should have the most visual presence in your home. Having a monstrous 24-foot-by-36-foot garage jutting out from the front of your house is not attractive. Position it backwards from the front of the house and, if you can, position it towards the back of the house. Use side entry garage doors if you can. And put many normal windows like the rest of the house. Try to make it look like any other room on the street. By playing with the garage and making it look like another room in your house, you will make your house look bigger when it really isn’t. If you are one of the homeowners who eventually converts their garage into a living space, making the garage look like a regular room from the outside makes these conversions easier. Simply remove the garage doors and install window sizes like the rest of your home.

7. Use a lot of repetitive windows. By using the same size window over and over again in a long pattern, it will make the house appear longer. And these do not need to be operable windows. Fixed windows are less expensive than operable windows.

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