AboutRichard Taylor, AIA Expertise Ask me about all aspects of house, remodeling. , and room addition design and construction. Ask me about historic homes, renovation, and restoration. Ask me about materials and techniques, and about how you can get the best value for your design and construction dollar. Ask me how you can make your home a very special place. I can't, however, answer specific structural engineering questions in this forum - that's something you'll need on-site observation for.
Experience I own a five-person residential architectural firm, and have been designing custom homes, remodelings, and room additions across the country since 1983. Check us out at Richard Taylor Architects and RTA Plans. I have written and been published extensively on the subject of residential architecture. .
Organizations American Institute of Architects, City of Dublin Architectural Review Board, Past Editor of SPLASH (a CAD program), Past Editor of Open Directory Project, Boy Scouts of America
Education/Credentials Bachelor of Environmental Design (Architecture) Miami University 1983
For more about home design, check out my blog at Richard Taylor Architects Looking for great Luxury Home House Plans? Try ours at RTA Plans.
Question Hi! We have almost 6 acres of land in Florida and would love to build, but we made "chump" money when we sold our house recently (Real estate stinks!!) and so my question is where can I get a REALLY simple box of a house plan to keep cost down?? something simple and modern..thanks!
Answer Sandy:
Thanks for your question!
There are many, many books and websites you can purchase home plans from, and I'm sure you'll be able to find a plan like the one you've described in one of them. There's no shortcut that I know of to make your search easier; you'll have to look through a lot of plans before you find one you like.
Most home improvement stores have racks of home plan books, and bookstores usually have large selections of them. You'll get lots of results on the internet - type "house plans" or "small house plans" in Google, for example, and you'll find plenty of sites to search through.
How you determine the suitability of those plans is up to you.
But there is another route you might consider, and that's hiring an Architect to design a custom home for you.
You probably assumed that's out of the question - Architects are expensive, and only design large homes, right? No, and no! Some of the best small homes around were designed by Architects...and design fees can be very reasonable when you consider the value that an Architect brings to the project.
In fact, I'd argue that in many cases an Architect can save you his fees in construction and energy costs - especially on a very small home!
Architects are trained to solve problems; not just the "design" problems but the whole picture - including your budget. House plans you may find online or in books are designed for the "market" which means they'll probably contain a few things you don't need and may be lacking a few things you do. A custom home design will have exactly what you need without anything you don't.
You situation sounds ideal for an Architect's involvement. The large acreage suggests that you won't have a Homeowner's Association or Review Board looking over your shoulder at the design, so you'll be free to create whatever you want! It's a chance to create a one-of-a-kind expression.
You'll also be able to design the home to take best advantage of the site and incorporate energy-efficiency strategies. Once you break out of the "traditional" home design box, you can design a home with a form that really responds to the environment, rather than trying to force a traditional vocabulary on it that doesn't take the local climate into account.
Since you've asked for something "simple and modern" you seem open to that already - the best homes are often just that - simple and modern. That's also a recipe for a home that's inexpensive to build.
You can see some examples of interesting modern Architect-designed homes on the website below - some of these are wildly modern, some less so, but you should get the idea that you can literally do anything you want with the right Architect and the right attitude:
www.residentialarchitect.com (click on the RA Awards button at the top for several year's of winning home designs)
You can find qualitied Architects through that website, or through your local AIA office (www.aia.org). Spend as much time as you can researching Architects to be sure you get the right one.
Finally, I would consider - if I were you - carefully planning the location of this new home on your 6 acres so that you leave the possibility of subdividing the land open for the future. Could be a valuable move if you ever need (or want) to let it go.
Hope this helps,
Richard Taylor, AIA
www.rtastudio.com
www.rtaplans.com
