It’s not uncommon for people to fall in love with a certain exterior home design or the decor/colors/etc., but then ask for some pretty extensive changes to the floor plan. Or, they build/purchase the home only to find out the floor plan isn’t conducive to their household’s needs. You’ve made a pretty substantial purchase, don’t let buyer’s remorse put a damper on the excitement of your new home!
When we were looking for our first home, my cousin told me this exact same thing, as she and her husband made the mistake of looking at the exterior and interior decor rather than the actual layout of the home. Once they got settled in, they found the home’s “livability” wasn’t right for them. She told me, “You can change the decor, but it’s difficult to change the layout!” We appreciated this advice.
No Regrets: Home designers suggest home buyers get the floor plan design right, then address the elevation – because various elevation styles can be crafted once the home’s layout has been determined. Also, if you are building new, inquire about plan alterations as there may be a couple of areas that you’d like designed a little bit different. We can help you realize your dream home with a few changes.
While we know the home’s exterior appeal is the first impression and will either attract or disinterest home buyers, we encourage you to explore the floor plan/layout before making a decision. Your perfect home may be hiding behind the the next door you open!
Take for example the three Peony plans:
Peony Grove (Tuscan) and Peony Place (Contemporary) have the same floor plan, but very different elevations
Peony has a different elevation (French Country) AND the floor plan has been tweaked a bit
Hideaway Solutions has solved the problem of hard to reach shelves and cabinets in the kitchen with the STEP 180 pull-out cabinet step stool. Modern design lends itself to tall ceilings and cabinets, which can create a problem when they become out of reach. Hideaway Solutions has developed a sleek way to disguise a step stool into your design by creating a retractable built-in option. The step stool is built into your cabinetry and conveniently tucks away when not in use, saving space but not skimping on safety. It provides a built-in railing with an integrated child-lock that drastically reduces the risk of accidents. So go ahead, use all those upper cabinets and tall shelves, the STEP 180 was designed to work with custom and standard cabinets to give you a step up.
Read more articles in our latest edition of Her Home™ Magazine.
Learn more about Hideaway Solutions.
(Product spotlights are for informational purposes.)
Change is all around us, having become the norm in American society. And as our lives change, we begin to appreciate homes that were designed to adapt to our changing situations. It’s called flexible design.
Flexibility in Design
With a flex space, you are in charge. No longer need that guest room? No problem. Designed to work for any function, Flex Spaces are easy to transition with your changing needs.
We live in the digital age and virtually anything can be done online, including many of our jobs. Did you recently transition to a work-from-home career but don’t have a home office? A Flex Space offers the perfect solution. Whether it be a full-sized room, such as a guest room, converted to a home office or a Pocket Office, a smaller space that can be closed off when not in use, the choice is yours.
Take for instance the Woman-Centric designed Sinclair IV (plan #42159) that presents the Pocket Office design concept rather than a full office.
With our Livability at a Glance™ colorized floor plans you can easily see flexible living areas of the home. Learn more by clicking here.
Those of you who follow Design Basics likely know that we have a home plan book collection based on the four Livability At A Glance™ lenses: Entertaining, De-Stressing, Organized Living, and Flexibility. It may come as a surprise that the top seller from this collection is the Flexible Home Plans title!
We all try to predict the future – what prospective home buyers will want – and plan accordingly, so we can incorporate certain amenities into the homes we offer. This provides better design, and some control over cost and construction. Yet, individual buyers have individual needs as well as a desire for their home to both reveal and augment who they are.
Hence, the surging popularity of homes with pre-planned design options; not just the default 2-foot extension for the dining area, but true flexible spaces. Design Basics’ Harmon Haven (42366) shows an open flex space to the front – think dining room with a walk-thru pantry/server or music room. Or, imagine that space closed off as a home office via barn doors. The original design has a large laundry area that can easily double as a craft/hobby area, but some buyers would be much more interested in a second bedroom on the main floor with its accompanying full bathroom, preferring the convenience of a stack washer/dryer in their owner’s suite because there’s another laundry closet upstairs. And that second-floor loft? Just asking “How would you use this space?” may yield more varied responses than you would have dreamed!
Design Basics’ Elba Grove (42336) is another new plan showcasing flexibility. The original design presents a study/home office with nice storage and adjoining powder bath, so clients and colleagues need not walk through the rest of the house to use a bathroom. But we also show it just as easily could be a nice main floor bedroom suite. There’s a pocket office at the back, which could also be a…planning center…wine room…bulk item closet…or deleted altogether in favor of a larger dining area. The deep garage offers abundant storage potential or may become a workshop, gardening center, man cave, or like Apple and Google, where the next mega-business is born!
Search for other Flexible Living plans via our Plan Search Tool.
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We all try to predict the future – what prospective home buyers will want – and plan accordingly, so we can incorporate certain amenities into the homes we offer. This provides better design, and some control over cost and construction. Yet, individual buyers have individual needs as well as a desire for their home to both reveal and augment who they are.
Design Basics’ Elba Grove (