Design of the home -an excerpt from book Working for Subs, Ch. 3

Design Considerations:

Facade design by author in Tennessee

Covenant minimum square footage requirements for homes built in a subdivision are usually very low. You will find that the cost of the lot and character of neighboring housing usually determine the size of the structure and not the covenants, unless there are severe changes in market conditions once the development is completed. The cost of the lot usually necessitates a much larger home than covenants do in order to recover maximum value upon an eventual sale. Refer to Chapter 2 for a discussion of estimating the cost of the lot.

Your design will be critiqued by all of your neighbors and other builders in the neighborhood once construction begins. Many will approach you on the site and ask the size and style of your proposed home, so they can assure themselves that you are not bringing down values in the area by constructing a lesser dwelling. These self-appointed critics are not normally your friends, and most will confront you later with additional issues. Just smile, and tell them your design will not disgrace the subdivision, giving as little information as possible. You only have to appease the code authorities, yourself, and the lender, not curious passers-by or self-appointed neighborhood architectural police, unless on an HOA architectural committee.

If your project is located in a PUD or subdivision with a homeowner's association (HOA) your plans may be subject to review by an architectural control committee. This is just to assure the other owners that your home will not reduce property values or detract from the cohesiveness of the neighborhood. In other words your design must fit and not be too radically different from other homes in the area. HOA's do have the power to place liens or other encumbrances upon the property, so you must appease them. This modern trend of unification of design is thought by many to degrade the charm previously seen in the neighborhoods of your grandparents with their variety of styles, architectures, and colors.

When building in states like Florida with high wind, flood, and hurricane surge requirements a design professional, architect or engineer should be hired to determine code mandates and recommendations. There are many stipulations for elevation of the structure, enclosures below the base flood elevation, decks, pools, “V” and “A” zones, ⁱ etc., that are beyond the scope of this book, which is mainly devoted to construction scheduling and dealing with subcontractors.

Consider not building a separate living room in addition to a family room to save construction costs; instead look at a study or office just off the entryway that might become an additional future bedroom. Living rooms are seldom used and require expensive unused furniture. They consume the limited living space and budget of other rooms, and are an evolution of the parlor of old for greeting guests.
The modern home is becoming less formal with a hearth room open to the kitchen as well as an eating area. This allows families and friends to gather in one larger place more easily, rather than expecting them to scatter throughout the variously labeled rooms added to the house for specific purposes. Congregating is the natural tendency of groups regardless of your design intentions, and to ignore it will leave you with empty rooms while people are crammed into a smaller space. Everyone at a party groups naturally in or adjacent to the kitchen where the hosts, food and drinks are.

The dining room has remained as a permanent staple of our society that is fortunately slowly becoming extinct. It is a room that might be used two or three times a year, Thanksgiving and holidays, like Christmas, but otherwise ignored except for dusting. Your grandmother, your mother, and most everyone else in America has always had a dining room table under a hanging light fixture with a sideboard or china cabinet and a window. If you insist on a dining room, you will want a nominal twelve by fourteen foot space of about 170 sqft, unfortunately costing $20,000 or more in construction and furnishings. It must be adjacent to the kitchen for ease of access and separate from it for formal dining. This room will probably be best located off the foyer, since it can be an impressive entry feature, and uncluttered due to non-use. Don't omit the cost of conditioning and cleaning this vacant space year-round in your budget.

Rear porches and covered outdoor rooms with low ceilings should be no deeper than about ten feet, since they will darken the adjacent rooms, and to make them larger reduces their intimacy. The deeper the porch, the higher the ceiling should be, in order to avoid a low tunnel appearance. Locate the porch, patio, or outdoor room adjacent to the kitchen and family room for food service and clean up as well as to extend the common living area to the outside. Be sure to allow space for a grill, counter or bar, eating area, informal seating, and a possible outdoor fireplace. You may want to add a small patio off the master bedroom, obscured for privacy from the main living area. A large glass door could replace the master bedroom window adding natural lighting.

The front porch in most urban and suburban settings has become only useful for entry shelter from the weather or as a design feature. It is rarely used for extended living space as in days past. For these reasons its depth might be reduced. The entry porch should be covered, since this will not only give shelter from the elements, but also protects your door and other accoutrements from weathering. In a country or rural setting the front porch may be larger, since it could be used for a seating area due to less concern about privacy.

When arranging rooms and spaces in your design, strive to place a window in every room, or try to open the outside room walls to interior rooms for natural lighting with large passageways. Open passages may be attractively enhanced by  [continued in book, Working for Subs -amazon.com]

i FEMA “Homebuilder’s Guide to Coastal Construction.” http://www.toolbase.org/Home-Building-Topics/Natural-Disasters/coastal-construction-guide

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