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Posts Tagged ‘Blueprint’

Kitchens have evolved a lot over the years.  Once found only in the rear of the house, today’s kitchen design takes the kitchen out the background.  The challenge for kitchen design is in creating a more open-faced kitchen, that is part of a dining area, a family room or a great room.

In deciding on how to design your kitchen, you must take into consideration such things as: will your kitchen have an island?  Will it be of a modern or traditional design?  What kinds of appliances will you need for your new kitchen design?   What kind of lighting design?

1. Kitchen as ‘Great Room’
Whether you are redesigning an existing kitchen or planning a new kitchen in a new home there are some design considerations to keep in mind, such as including in an island or peninsula as part of the kitchen design.  These can be used to connect the kitchen to a nearby dining area or family room thereby creating a ‘great room’.   A kitchen island or peninsula will allow the cook to keep in visual and conversational contact with family members or guests in the adjoining family or dining room.

2. Create a Kitchen Canopy
To give the kitchen some visible borders without blocking views create a kitchen canopy.  Also a high ceiling in the kitchen can create the perception of spaciousness.

3. Using Kitchen Cabinet Color to Set Tone of Kitchen Design
Kitchen cabinets will help set the tone for the whole room.  The choice of wood will influence the overall look of your cabinets.  To create a light look, use a light wood such as ash, beech, birch, oak, maple, or chestnut.  For medium range, select cherry.  To darker kitchens, choose wood that has some color to it.
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Choosing The Right House Plan

Everybody would like to live in a mansion or a sprawling ranch but there are many factors to consider when choosing a house plan. There are also a few pitfalls that can be avoided by doing your homework and  making the right choices.

Before you commit to buying a stock or custom house plan, you should know how much of a house you can afford to build. A good place to get this information would be the bank that you might use to get your loan from.

Once you know what your budget is, you can determine how much house you can afford and pick a house plan that fits that budget. One way to accomplish this is to call several homebuilding contractors in your area. Ask them what the building costs per square foot are. Not all contractors are willing to volunteer this information, but you will find enough of them that are willing to help at the prospect of gaining a customer.

With this information you will be able to determine the square footage of a house plan you can afford. If your budget is $200,000 and the cost per square foot is $100, then a 2,000 square foot home is in your budget($200,000/$100= 2,000).

Another consideration is the size of the lot you intend on building your home. You don’t want to invest in a blueprint for a house that won’t fit on your lot. Check with your municipality or county on the distances you must have between the building and the lot lines. Most have  rules on how much backyard you must have and how much your house must be set back from the street or building line.
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