Beyond Dollars – The Cost of Home Ownership

by Michele Weaver | Sep 4, 2020 | HER Home

Thinking about the cost of home ownership often resides in the “left brain,” which is associated with information, rational thinking, and analytics. Yet we feel other, very real costs, expressed in terms such as happiness/frustration, contentment/disappointment, or confidence/anxiety. Closely related to cost, William Poundstone points out in his book Priceless, “Though a price is just a number, it can evoke a complex set of emotions.”

The cost of home ownership is more than what we pay in mortgage payments, utilities, maintenance, and repairs. What is the value of living in your dream home? A kitchen in which you can create masterpieces, enough storage that you can feel organized, and outdoor living space that’s fun for everyone?

Yes, we look at costs in terms of dollars. In lieu of the standard shower in the bedroom suite bathroom, the spa shower costs $3,000 more, about $16 higher per month in a 30-year mortgage at 5% APR. But your right-brain (feelings, emotions, story) reminds you that every day you’ll use that shower. It might be that you enjoy taking a hot, relaxing shower. It might be that you want to use the body sprays for an invigorating shower. It might be that you just don’t want to bump your elbows into the sides of the standard-size shower when washing your hair. How would that spa shower make you feel physically? How would it make you feel about yourself? Then there is its impact on resale – a future buyer may fall in love with that spa shower, the amenity that gets you a quicker sale at your full asking price.

The spa shower you want might be what clinches your home’s future resale!

Whether we were forced into it or leapt at the opportunity, many of us got to experience firsthand the “joy” of working from home during the 2020 pandemic. Suddenly, we had a new appreciation for home office design. Size, location, privacy, natural light, storage, workspace, seating… even the trek to the bathroom all took on new meaning. Companies discovered some underappreciated benefits of having employees work remotely, too. Now, whether full-time or a couple days per week, millions more of us have jobs working from home. But at what “cost”? For our happiness…our sanity…our productivity, this may mean remodeling or even buying a new home, designed with the amenities and solutions for working from home we need and want. There are a few silver linings, such as the potential home office tax deduction, reduced commuting time and expenses, even “going to work” in your comfortable yoga pants. How do those things factor into the cost of home ownership?

Many of those same issues can be applied to home schooling. At the time this is being written, the jury is out on whether schools will return to their pre-pandemic “normal.” Some have already announced a remote or a hybrid approach, going to 2 or 3 classroom days per week, and issuing laptops or tablets to students for learning/studying at home.

Flex spaces perfect for working from home/schooling from home became the new must-have amenity with the pandemic. This flex room with a wall bed is perfect for guest space and/or working/schooling from home. (Photo: Closet Factory)

If you have the time, the know-how, and the tools, you may be able to tackle costly maintenance and repair projects inherent in older homes. What is your time worth? If you lack the know-how, what’s the cost, in terms of time and frustration and money, of doing that repair twice? New homes give you back time, like not dusting the whirlpool tub you never use. Staying put, doing nothing seems safer, because we don’t often consider the high costs associated with inaction.

On May 15, 2020, Seth Godin’s blog read, “The cost of something is largely irrelevant, people are paying attention to its value.” Once we learn to value how a new home can enrich the lives of everyone in our household, positively affect our health and our outlook, even grant our desire for enhanced livability and style, we can take a holistic look at the total cost of home ownership.

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

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Thoughtful Design Concepts

Wall Bed/Flex Room Photo: Closet Factory

Cover Photo: <a href=’https://www.freepik.com/photos/coffee’>Coffee photo created by user18526052 – www.freepik.com</a>

Design Adds Meaning and Value

by Michele Weaver | Aug 7, 2020 | HER Home

Everything is designed. Look around you. Everything you see was designed. The ceiling, lighting, your chair, the wastebasket, the door. Design can make or break a business – just look at Apple’s outstanding designs and now defunct Oldsmobile for lack of design innovation. The jeans you’re wearing – are they Wrangler jeans that set you back $20 from Walmart or a $100 pair of fashion jeans? They mean different things to you and have different “value” for you.

Not everything gets noticed. And that’s okay, because sometimes thoughtful design blends right in. We might not appreciate good home design because it already resolved potential issues. It’s kind of like how we don’t necessarily appreciate feeling good until we’re recovering from being sick. But as with chronic pain, bad design – such as doors that open into each other – calls attention to itself and definitely gets noticed!

Remarkable design is “whole brained.” You might be familiar with left-brain/right-brain theory wherein left-brain thinking is associated with logic and analytics. FUNCTION. It’s an essential part of design. Does it do what it is supposed to do; does it do it well; and does it do it reliably? The right-brain is associated with creativity. FORM. Is this attractive? Does it stir your heartstrings? Lean too heavy to left-brain thinking and you end up with homes that look like plain, boring boxes. With too much right-brain thinking, you may sacrifice both livability and cost. The SOCIAL side of design resides in the right brain as well, which asks “What does this design say about me?” And, “How does this design make me feel about myself?”

Travel Center Design Concept

Design can revolutionize our thinking, or leave us wondering “What were they thinking?” Design solves problems – existing and new. Suitcase always in the way in your closet? The Travel Center is an elegant solution that also provides a place, so you don’t have to pack your suitcase on your clean bedspread. Conversely, there’s the random linen closet, nowhere near the bedrooms or bathrooms. Go figure.

Design is a reflection of who we are – and who we want to be. Design lets your personality come through. Design reveals your values. Claire is looking for the WOW! factor in her front entry views. Elise feels good about the walk-in closets for her kids’ bedrooms. Maggie dreams of a home that’s casual, fun, perhaps even a bit whimsical. And Margo’s home has the contemporary touches that make it unique – and uniquely hers. Yes, design tells us and others who we are and can even help us understand ourselves better. A window to our soul.

Finally About Me® – discover your new home personality (click any profile silhouette below to learn more).

Design is about freedom. Freedom to express our true selves. Freedom and the autonomy to make our own choices rather than settling for someone else’s. Design tells stories without using words. Chamfer drywall corners, 32-inch wide interior doors, no-step entries, and an oversize doorless shower all “speak” safety while welcoming everyone into your home.

Photo courtesy: Hy-Lite®

Design is emotional. Pleasant Saturday morning solitude as you greet the sunrise on your private rear deck. The joy in Saturday night with a few close friends enjoying tasty barbecue on that same covered deck. You love how sunlight streams in through your bedroom’s transom windows. And the artistic glass block windows in your spa-inspired bathroom. Rather than “settling for,” you find inspiration in some of your design choices.

Design connects us. As humans, we were designed to live in community, and our homes are where that happens most. Design can bring us together, such as an expandable dining area for big family meals. Home plan design actually takes connection a step further, as the home design connects buyer and builder, sub-contractors and vendors, lender and building officials. Like a bicycle wheel hub whose spokes connect to every aspect of building your home.

Yes, design adds tremendous meaning and value. And cost. It must be expensive, particularly remarkable home design, right? Custom home plans typically range from $2.00 to $10.00 per square foot and will take from several weeks to months to complete. Pre-drawn home plans from leading residential designers average around $.50 per square foot and often can be delivered the same day. Customizing a pre-drawn plan to your specific desires can be significantly less costly and faster than starting from scratch. Your designer may also be able to suggest ways you could potentially reduce your new home’s cost. Scouring the internet, there may even be cheaper home plans, but do they provide good value? Design Basics’ talented residential designers solve design issues with creativity and innovation. Less experienced drafts people may resort to simply adding expensive square footage.

Good design can be the difference between elation and regret. Unfortunately, poor home design is a gift that keeps on giving too, as you experience the daily disappointments of the design shortcomings you learn to put up with. Living in a home that achieves your needs and wants is our designer’s gift to you – No Regrets!

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

View other articles on our blog
Browse our Her Home™ Magazine
Thoughtful Design Concepts

Flexible Living: Home Office or Guest Room?

by Michele Weaver | May 11, 2020 | HER Home

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.

Kingsley – #42047

Murphy Bed Closed
Photo Courtesy: Closet Factory

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.)

Flexible Living: Tailoring to Your Preferences

by Michele Weaver | May 4, 2020 | HER Home

Flex spaces in a home can be tailored to your personal preferences for how that space will be used. A common example is seeing a home that features a dining room off the front entry, but you don’t want a formal dining space in addition to the casual eating area, so you re-purpose that space as a den. That’s relatively easy, with no changes needed, except that you may add walls and a door for privacy.

Sometimes re-purposing rooms requires subtle floor plan modifications. Opting for a fourth bedroom in lieu of the den in the Haskell (plan #42006) deletes the larger linen closet to provide more private access for Bedroom 4.

Connick Chase – #42465

We want your home to work for how you live. That’s why we’ve labeled some rooms as “Flex Space” instead of a bedroom. At times, it can be difficult to envision something other than what is directly shown. But the power of a Flex Space let’s YOU envision how you want to utilize that space. Whether it is a natural space for an additional bedroom, home office, or craft space, you get to choose. Take the Connick Chase (plan #42465) with its 8’-6” closet and adjacent bathroom, the front room makes a natural bedroom. But we chose to label this as a Flex Room because our research told us doing so gave people the freedom to envision that space however they might want, such as a home office.

Sometimes you will see the term “Bonus Room” on floor plans; often, these are spaces that could be finished off as living space if you desire. An example is Plan #55886, with a possible bonus room just off the entry from the garage, alongside the laundry room. Five steps down from the main floor, this location provides excellent privacy as a den or home office or could be left unfinished as storage.

When you see square footage called out for a bonus room as seen here on plan #55886 (143 sq. ft.), it’s because that footage is not calculated in the home as originally designed; and if you were to have that space finished off, you would add that number to come up with “total finished square footage.”

Accessible unfinished space over a garage can make wonderful storage, especially if you are not building on a basement foundation. But finishing rooms over garages, affectionately referred to as “FROGs”, is another classic example of flex space. We’ve seen awesome home theaters, fitness rooms, and even delightful creative studios for writers and artists. But perhaps most common is to turn that flex space into a kids’ play area, especially when there is adequate sunlight!

The space over the garage in the Cedar Glen II (plan #42229V) was enhanced with a pair of VELUX® brand skylights, providing the natural light that makes this space an ideal playroom. Photo courtesy of VELUX.

Upstairs lofts are also common flex spaces. Due to their design, some plans’ loft spaces are more closed off and make for natural reading, study, or game spots; while some are open to living areas below. Prized for their flexibility, loft uses are sometimes limited by sound transfer between floors.

The Mariposa (plan #42237) is mostly closed off; thereby, limiting sound transfer from one area to another.

The loft space in the Gretna Mills (plan #42250) is open to sound from the entertaining area and vice versa, noise from the loft potentially interrupting conversation downstairs.

Some loft spaces can be reconfigured, as the Gretna Mills shows the option of a third bedroom in lieu of the loft space.

Because flex spaces are critical to how you want to live in your home, some Design Basics’ home plans show a Signature Space® – literally, a small space that you can put your signature on! Among the more common uses are Pocket Offices, extra bathrooms, Pet Centers, and specialized storage such as a super-pantry. We’ve also seen these turned into safe rooms, wine rooms, and even a home elevator. The Signature Space’s location may further suggest possible uses. The Fiala (plan #42281) has a Signature Space just off the patio doors leading to the covered porch. Some homeowners, particularly households with pets and small children, prize such a space for coats, boots, pet sundries, etc., because of all the traffic to and from the back yard.

Ideal for corralling boots, coats, and gloves after building a snowman, a Signature Space near your backyard access is a handy space. Or do you have dogs? What a perfect spot for the Pet Center complete with shower for washing off those muddy paws!

Finally, some people prefer to convert outdoor living spaces into flex spaces. For example, the Palmer (plan #42057) has a covered porch that the buyer wanted to turn into an inspiration room. Windows lined two walls for connection with nature, a wall fountain added the sounds of gently falling waters, twin fireplace tubes anchored each end of the built-in bookcase, and there was a traditional work area as well as another, more comfortable chair plus table for storage and work surface.

Coming next week: Flexible spaces that serve multiple purposes.

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 VELUX.

Versatility by Design – Product Spotlight

by Michele Weaver | Apr 27, 2020 | HER Home

Attachments Stacked

Whether you are entertaining or preparing a meal for your family, efficiency AND versatility are important. KitchenAid® has introduced a wall oven that will quickly replace many other cooking appliances in your home. They applied one of the most popular features of their widely popular KitchenAid Stand Mixer, versatility, to the Smart Oven+. The Smart Oven+ features interchangeable attachments that allow you to cook, grill, steam, etc., all in the same appliance. Even better, the attachments stack to save space and most are dishwasher safe, making clean up a breeze!

Baking Stone Attachment

Grill Attachment

Steamer Attachment

The oven also boasts smart capabilities that pair with the mobile app, so you have complete control. The oven can be powered by voice commands or through your AI devices. KitchenAid did not skimp on design options either. The Smart Oven+ can be customized to match the height of existing cabinetry to give your kitchen a cohesive look.

Learn more about the KitchenAid Smart Oven+.
Photos Courtesy of KitchenAid.

For more resources on thoughtful design and products:

(Product spotlights are for informational purposes only.)

Beyond Dollars – The Cost of Home Ownership

Design Adds Meaning and Value

Flexible Living: Home Office or Guest Room?

It’s both!

Flexible Living: Tailoring to Your Preferences

Versatility by Design – Product Spotlight

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