How do You Like to Entertain?

How do You Like to Entertain?

This should be a question asked of every home buyer. That answer likely will have a profound effect on finding the right home for you. Formal living and dining rooms provide a welcome sensory buffer from the kitchen (visual mess, clatter and chatter, cooking odors) when entertaining. But ask any real estate agent, today the majority of home buyers seek large, combined entertaining spaces with a socializing area and expandable eating area, both open to the kitchen. Yes, as a nation we’ve become a bit more casual – just look at how we dress for work or church. What else is driving the popularity of the open concept? Practicality – buyers understand “cost per square foot” and value space they could use daily more than infrequently used formal entertaining areas. Togetherness – as family time together is increasingly rare and a separate kitchen often results in isolation when prepping, cooking, or cleaning up. And, multi-tasking – whether that’s watching TV while preparing dinner or keeping tabs on the kids after dinner.

The semi-formal “Great Room” borrowed from both the formal living room and casual family room. Often open to the front entry, great rooms may showcase the living room’s attractive finishes (flooring, ceiling treatments) and amenities (fireplace, lovely windows) as well as the family room’s big TV and comfortable furniture. Unrestricted by walls, which limited table size and therefore seating, an open dining area allows you to extend the table, accommodating big family holiday meals. Cherished memories! After all, grandparents, aunts, and uncles came to be with everyone, not to sit at the “adults” table while the kids eat elsewhere. 

Though it is already a generous-sized dining area, the Sunflower Glen (plan #42425) has an open layout that permits “temporarily borrowing” space from the great room, so that you can add leaves to your dining table or set up another table alongside your existing table for large dinner gatherings, allowing everyone to be together.

More than the clothes we wear and the vehicles we drive, we reveal ourselves through our homes. Now part of the public entertaining space, kitchens add to your story. Appliances may suggest the serious chef; storage can be beautiful and obvious, minimalist and hidden, or unique and colorful; and finishes, including flooring, counter tops, and back splashes, speak volumes about who you are. Eliminating kitchen clutter assumed new importance, ushering in solutions such as the Drop Zone to catch items when you first arrive home, Small Appliance Centers (see the Sunflower Glen above) to keep such items off your kitchen counter tops, and larger prep pantries or ironically, Work-in Pantries which, while corralling the mess, harken back to the separate, closed-off kitchen spaces typical of older home designs.

In the excitement of a model home tour, sometimes unnoticed is the presence and design of the front entry foyer. While it’s true that most of the time we go in and out of our homes through the garage, we still welcome guests into our homes at the front door. Do you prefer a home that opens directly into an entertaining space such as the great room? While immediately welcoming, people living in such designs have mentioned they sometimes miss out on greeting their visitors. Conversely you may prefer a more formal sense of entry for receiving visitors, but this comes with the added cost of that square footage. Is there a closet at that front entry, or do you plan on hanging coats elsewhere?

When entertaining, people gravitate towards sunny spaces. Physiologically, our eyes are attracted to light and studies show that sunlight triggers the release of serotonin in our bodies, a feel-good chemical.  Add in the obvious benefit of being able to easily and clearly see everything, and sun-filled entertaining areas win almost every time. Oversized windows, particularly out the back of the home can offer beautiful vistas. Or, you might spend the same amount of money on standard size windows placed on two, or sometimes three sides of your entertaining area, ushering in daylight from multiple directions. Sunlight can be more prevalent in our kitchens as well. By accommodating storage needs with an extra-deep pantry, the Silver Creek (plan #42028 shown below) omits traditional upper cabinets on the rear kitchen wall in favor of additional windows! When we’ve shown home buyers the opportunity to delete some upper cabinets in favor of additional windows in the kitchen, most will gladly spend a little more for the added sunlight. Just be sure you’ve addressed that “lost” storage with, say, an oversized pantry.

Silver Creek - #42028
light cabinets in kitchen

What about your kids? While the open kitchen/dining/great room layout can work great for your neighborhood get-together, where will the kids play and not disrupt the party? If you are fortunate enough to have a basement foundation, that may be your answer – a play room in the basement. But if you’re building on a slab or crawl space, having a secondary entertaining place for their play is the recipe for everyone’s enjoyment. Finishing off space over a garage is ideal for noise reduction. In lieu of a two-story high entertaining room, would you see more value in a rec room built atop that main floor entertaining area? And though primarily envisioned as a place for parents with their children, the Family Lounge can also double as a kids’ entertaining area.

Cedar Glen II - #42229 UL

The Cedar Glen II (plan #42229) offers the potential of finishing nearly 250 sq. ft. of space over the garage – an ideal place for kids’ entertaining.

Honey View - #42343

The Honey View (plan #42343) includes an upstairs rec room accessed by a couple stairs, allowing the entertaining area directly under to still feature an impressive 11-foot high ceiling.

Dillon Park - #42477

The Dillon Park (plan #42477) provides a family lounge upstairs, which could double as kids’ entertaining space.

Join us next week for: Outdoor Entertaining at Home

Livability at a Glance™ is our proprietary color-coded floor plan system that highlights four different lenses especially important to women: Entertaining, De-stressing, Storing, and Flexible Living. Discover your Lifestyle Profile by taking our Livability at a Glance Quiz.

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

Don’t Let Outdoor Living be an Afterthought

Don’t Let Outdoor Living be an Afterthought

I could have done so much more to create memorable outdoor living spaces. I would have made better decisions if I had just known then what I know now. I should have paid as much attention to these issues as I did the home’s livability on the inside. Don’t make the same mistakes!

Because it’s such a big purchase, buying a home has a certain amount of uncertainty. To deal with the numerous decisions, we narrow our focus to achieving our goals at that moment, whether that’s evaluating closet space, choosing countertops, or staying within budget, which can cause us to take our eyes off the big picture and overlook important aspects such as outdoor living and entertaining. This often results in the all too common “could have, would have, should have” regrets.

Could Have: While some relish the idea of an older home on an acreage, I was ready to be done with that – the maintenance…lack of modern amenities…just keeping up with the mowing was tiresome. And coming from that home, I never thought much about back yard privacy. But that is a real issue now. Whether it’s a card party or hosting our book club, it seems like the neighbor kids are always in their back yard on the playset or trampoline. I do love their laughter, and they’re great kids, but that noise and activity can be distracting. Now I appreciate the builder’s home designs that provide outdoor privacy from side-neighbors.

Would Have: If I had thought about the fact that the sun always sets on the back of our east-facing home, I would have paid extra for a roof over our deck. Our big umbrella just doesn’t cut it when we have friends over. Additionally, we’ve had to scuttle barbecuing plans due to rain – a covered deck would have allowed the barbecue to go on.

I wish I had thought through where the grill would go. We would have had a natural gas line run out to the grill, meaning no more lugging around those heavy LP gas tanks. And we would have had a light installed over the grill. Now, when I’m grilling after sunset and cut into the meat, it is hard to see if it’s cooked medium-rare, medium, or medium-well.

Had I known we would move Mom in, I would have chosen that barrier-free option for the transition onto the deck. The threshold and two-inch drop are dangerous for her, having caught her walker more than once.

Should Have: Traffic jams are for cars, not where we go in and out to the back yard. I should have gone with that Gunnison design that had doors off the dining room AND doors from the great room onto its loggia. There was even a door from the owner’s bedroom.

Gunnison - #50016

Buffered by the dining room and owner’s suite, the Gunnison’s (plan #50016) loggia provides desirable privacy. Access from the dining room and great room provides a circular traffic flow, minimizing potential congestion. And just imagine stepping out of your bedroom onto this great space with the morning’s first cup of coffee.

NO REGRETS. As evidenced by these disappointments, there is a tendency to unduly focus on creating the perfect spaces inside our homes, overlooking key considerations for making your outdoor living spaces equally memorable. Taking the time to look at how you like to entertain – or just relax – outdoors can result in the place you most long for in your home is actually outside!

Pre-air conditioning, big front porches were practical and commonplace. Neighbors conversed, and multiple generations played together, on the porch. Birthday parties, kids’ or grandkids’ treasure hunts and squirt guns, or just curled up on a porch swing with a good book, enjoy it all from the Modena’s (plan #29372) 7-foot deep porch that wraps three sides of the home.

Modena - #29372
Modena - #29372

Still, most outdoor living today focuses on the back yard. While covered outdoor living spaces provide welcome shade and protection from inclement weather, know they do cut down on the amount of sunlight entering your home. Skylights can be a beautiful and functional solution to restoring diminished light levels resulting from covered outdoor spaces.

Outdoor Cooking. Seventy-five percent of U.S. adults own a grill or a smoker, according to the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association. So, it’s only natural that our affinity for grilling out is a significant design consideration, beginning with where that grill will be located. Will it be the centerpiece of a full outdoor kitchen?

The Evergreen Weekender (plan #42054) presents a decidedly casual approach, inviting conversation and s’mores around its fire pit anchoring the uncovered portion of the home’s rear patio. At the other end of the covered patio, a wall for privacy and suggested outdoor kitchen location. This design also helps avoid common regrets when it comes to bathrooms and storage. Its powder bath has two doors – one just off the patio. Guests don’t have to traipse all across the house just to use the bathroom. And there’s convenient double-door access to plenty of storage for outdoor furniture, games, and supplies in the deep garage.

Evergreen Weekender - #42054

Screened Porches. Amidst comfortable furniture, plants, and the gentle breeze, screened in porches are useful any time of the day. The screened windows connect us to the outdoors and still keep out those pesky mosquitoes. Dinner on the porch, with a few select friends, amidst the cascade of sounds and aromas, is a special treat.

The Sinclair Terrace (plan #42424) is a celebration in outdoor living – with its 30-foot wide rear screened porch and access to twin covered porches, one with outdoor kitchen and private access from the owner’s suite!

Sinclair Terrace - #42424
Sinclair Terrace - #42424

You don’t want to find yourself saying, “could have, would have, or should have” with regards to outdoor living. From small, intimate gatherings to neighborhood parties and milestone event celebrations, attention to your outdoor living accommodations before you sign a purchase agreement is one way to reduce uncertainty and eliminate regret!

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Flexible Living: Changing Households

Flexible Living: Changing Households

With more than 60 million Americans living in multi-generational households, the tremendous popularity of home plans with two owner’s suites is easy to understand. In fact, 20% of Design Basics’ top-selling home plans last year have two owner’s suites!

Caring for aging parents, shared finances, and bringing the family together are the most common reasons for these plans’ popularity. With grandparents or even great-grandparents in the home, the suite they use will usually be located on the first floor, allowing them to mostly avoid climbing stairs. The Cedar Glen II (plan #42229) features both owner’s suites on the main floor. Secondary bedrooms are found upstairs as well as possible expansion over the garage – there’s even a version enhanced with skylights.

With its streamlined foundation and modest 42-foot width the Cedar Glen II (plan #42229) is affordable and accommodating for multiple generations.

Independent entertaining can call for a somewhat different layout, well-illustrated in the McAllister (plan #42027). Here, the original design’s Bedrooms 2 and 3 can be reconfigured as a second owner’s suite complete with its own entertaining area and possible private access from the front covered porch. This is a great layout for times when your parents are having a few friends over at the same time you’ve planned on a get-together with neighbors in the great room.
Frahm Cottage - #42355

Frahm Cottage – #42355

Casitas

Even more independence can be found in our plans with Casitas, such as the Frahm Cottage (plan #42355). Positioned behind the garage, the Casita is in effect a small apartment, complete with its own kitchenette, laundry area, and gathering area. This Casita has its own outside entrance, though a door could be added from the main home’s rear foyer.

Petaluma - #42290 UL

Petaluma – #42290

Casitas can also be the perfect solution when a live-in caregiver will be part of the household. The Casita in the Petaluma (plan #42290) is located atop the home’s garage. Adding a door off the second-floor hallway means immediate caregiver help is just steps away. Or maybe your situation involves adult children. Forty-five percent of college graduates move back in with their parents after college, often due to the huge student debt they have taken on. Perhaps it is the loss of a job or other life circumstance. Casitas can provide the togetherness AND separation these households crave. Casitas may also provide some rental income. A surprising number of Millennial home buyers look to rent out part of their home from the day they move in.

Whether it’s a desire to grow closer, sharing expenses and upkeep, or life-altering events, households are changing. New homes designed with two owner’s suites are meeting the need and facing little competition from resale homes.

Livability at a Glance™ is our proprietary color-coded floor plan system that highlights four different lenses especially important to women: Entertaining, De-stressing, Storing, and Flexible Living. Discover your Lifestyle Profile by taking our Livability at a Glance Quiz.

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

Flexible Living: You Have Options

Flexible Living: You Have Options

“Have it your way,” wasn’t just an advertising slogan; it’s evident throughout our homes, showing up in our priorities. That’s why you sometimes see layout options highlighted alongside the original design’s presentation floor plan artwork. When the plan was being created, our designers recognized that suggesting a particular modification would appeal to a significant percentage of new home buyers and therefore included that option on the construction drawings.

Bedrooms

The Teglia Place (plan #42481) provides a good example. As originally designed, the split three-bedroom plan offers a powder bath, highly prized by people who love to entertain, adjoining the staircase. However, some home buyers would be willing to forego the powder bath in favor of spacious walk-in closets for both secondary bedrooms. As both configurations are shown on the construction drawings, the option is also illustrated with the presentation artwork.

Bathrooms

As originally designed, the second floor of the Dillon Park (plan #42477) shows a two-story high front entry and owner’s suite with dual-sink vanity, linen cabinet, toilet area that provides privacy without the claustrophobia of having a door, and 6’-4”’ x 7’-8”’ walk-in closet.

Some homeowners prize “me” space around the sink they use in their bathroom. In the “Alternate Owner’s Bath” rather than one vanity with two sinks, two separate vanities provide counter space for items each person uses. (This also helps when one wants to keep the vanity area clean, but that’s not important to the other.) And to avoid the door into your bathroom swinging against the vanity, a pocket door is suggested instead. A bonus is being able to peer into the mirror and see how you look from behind, as reflected in the other vanity’s mirror.

Dillon Park - #42477 Opt LaundryThat two-story entryway is a “Wow!” feature many buyers like or even expect; however, other buyers look at that space and wonder how much it costs to heat, considering it “wasted space.” For these buyers, instead of the two-story entry, they could opt to add the 6’-4” x 8’-8” “open to below” space to the walk-in closet, plus have a convenient seat for dressing (natural light is great for discerning colors in your wardrobe!).

Still another option in lieu of the two-story high entry is adding an upstairs laundry room. This home plan also has a first-floor owner’s suite and was designed with the laundry room on the main floor. Note: two-story high space is counted only one time when calculating a home’s square footage. Finishing off that space upstairs adds 58 square feet to the home.

Home Offices

People who work from home, whether that’s a full-time home-based business, telecommuting two days a week, or just finishing up a project at home, typically need dedicated space for where they’ll do their work. The Slater (plan #29333) suggests a couple options, starting with the traditional home office at the front. This location is popular for its convenience to the front door when clients and/or colleagues arrive, for its relative privacy, and proximity to a bathroom. Also, a private entrance into the office could be added from the front porch. Depending on your household size and preferences, we’ve also seen Bedroom 2 converted into a second home office or even a conference room.

Notice also there’s a Pocket Office off the owner’s suite. Most people have strong opinions against working from their owner’s bedroom, feeling that area must be set apart, a respite from work life; therefore, the pocket door is essential, closing off this ideal space with its sizable work surface, storage, and natural light.

Just under half of the homes built in America are built on basement foundations. So, the presence (or absence) of stairs going down to a basement can make a significant difference in a home plan. For the one-story Pelham Gables (plan #42446), no basement stairs can mean a much larger office space.

Kitchen Pantries

Even two-story homes are affected when eliminating basement stairs. In the Bassett Terrace (plan #42241), deleting the staircase going down off the kitchen means you can double the size of the kitchen pantry!

Garage Spaces

It’s even possible to turn garage space into living space. The Windsor Cottage (plan #42226) includes the option of a first-floor bedroom suite rather than the original design’s tandem third-car garage space.

Pre-configured floor plan options, included on the construction drawings and shown accompanying the standard presentation artwork, help you envision some of the popular ways plans can be tailored to your preferences. Please know that Design Basics also offers individualized Plan Customization, providing you the opportunity to have our design team modify the plan you choose so that it lives exactly how you want!

Join us next time for Changing Households and Lifestages.

Livability at a Glance™ is our proprietary color-coded floor plan system that highlights four different lenses especially important to women: Entertaining, De-stressing, Storing, and Flexible Living. Discover your Lifestyle Profile by taking our Livability at a Glance Quiz.

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

Flexible Living: Home Office or Guest Room?

Flexible Living: Home Office or Guest Room?

It’s both!

One of the reasons for the popularity of Flex Rooms is the ability to tailor areas in your home to how you want your home to live. Equally popular is having rooms that can serve multiple purposes.

The Kingsley (plan #42047 below) provides a flex room off the front entry, the most common location for a home office. Many people will opt to add doors for privacy from both the entry hall and near the stairs. Doing so makes having a space-saving Murphy bed (also known as a wall bed because they fold up against the wall when not in use) an attractive, practical option. With the Murphy bed, this space easily doubles as a main-floor guest bedroom, served by the bathroom just a couple steps away.

Murphy Bed - Closed

Murphy Bed Closed
Photo Courtesy: Closet Factory

Murphy Bed - Open

Murphy Bed Open
Photo Courtesy: Closet Factory

Scrapbooking, jewelry making, even jigsaw puzzles – flex rooms are prized when they can be home to projects-in-progress. The alternative is having to clear everything off the breakfast table. Where in the home can you leave your activities undisturbed? And, what special amenities would make such a room perfect? Do you need specialized storage to organize supplies? Would hard-surface flooring be beneficial, in terms of cleanup? How about a sink for washing out paint brushes or hard-surface flooring for easy cleanup?

The Kenosha (plan #50024 at right) exemplifies flexibility. To the left of the entry, a flex room with Murphy bed. Just off the entry from the garage, a multi-purpose flex space with drop zone and lockers for organization, walk-in closet, pet center, and shower, plus cabinets, counter top work surfaces, and a sink for cleanup. What a great space for pursuing your favorite hobbies and crafts!

Kenosha - #50024 Hobby

In recent years, laundry rooms have become targets for flexibility as well. Like the Kenosha plan, the Harmon Haven (plan #42366) incorporates a hobby/craft room with the laundry area. Or, with plumbing already running to that room, adding a private toilet area is an option, especially if there’s a sink. We’ve even had some folks ask for a planning center/desk in the laundry room, which often shares its workspace with a folding counter.

Importantly, both the Revenna Springs (plan #35079 below left) and the Harmon Haven (plan #42366 below right) have windows for natural light in their laundry/flex areas, making those areas more inviting.

Revenna Springs - #35079 Laundry-Office
Harmon Haven - #42366 Laundry-Hobby

While there are an almost unlimited number of possible uses for flex areas, we would be remiss if we didn’t point out playroom opportunities. Often, in lieu of a two-story high entry, buyers will instead finish that second-floor space and when it’s sandwiched between a couple of secondary bedrooms, kids’ imaginations naturally gravitate towards playing there. Similarly, you may see some home plans that have identified this type of space as a storage area – but think about how much fun your kids would have!

Walnut Trail - #8110 Playroom

Imagine all the fun to be had by finishing off this modest bonus area between Bedrooms 3 and 4 of the Walnut Trail (plan #8110); especially with its magical sloping ceilings, this may be your children’s favorite spot in the home!

Leinart - #29336 Playroom

Toddlers want to be with or near their parents, and parents want to keep tabs on their kiddos. With the kitchen often the activity hub of the home, having a play area off the kitchen (but not the Great Room!) is a wonderful thing, as seen in the Leinart (plan #29336).

Coming next week: Flexible living and floor plan options.Livability at a Glance™ is our proprietary color-coded floor plan system that highlights four different lenses especially important to women: Entertaining, De-stressing, Storing, and Flexible Living. Discover your Lifestyle Profile by taking our Livability at a Glance Quiz.

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

Cover photo courtesy of the Closet Factory.
(Product spotlights are for informational purposes only.)