When it comes to building a custom home, the fun part is choosing the building site, designing the home, and selecting colors. What most home buyers don’t think about is how the construction of their home will impact their comfort and affect their health. That’s …
Most people don’t think of building science when they build a new home. They start out thinking more about the floor plans and what the outside of the home will look like. Next, they start thinking about the kitchen layout and the features they want …
Homebuyers today face a decision: Do you buy an existing home or do you build a new home? With tight home inventories, it makes it hard to find the perfect house. If you can’t find the right house, you have to define what you want and decide if building …
Let’s face it, building a new home takes effort. Buying an existing home is just plain easy. You look, you buy, you move in. Well… it’s not exactly that easy. Today’s housing market is tough. Home inventories are the lowest they have been in years. …
When you think about what home ergonomics is, the first thing that comes to mind for most is fitting the home to the resident that lives in it… designing the home with the body’s comfort in mind. Have you ever thought about the ergonomics of …
Building Science is amazing. Most people never think about building and science in the same sentence. However, the breakthroughs in materials, processes, and tools continue every day. Think about breakthroughs in automotive technology. The more fuel efficient engines, the better safety standards, and precision quality …
We hear terms such as energy-efficient, green, resilient, zero-energy ready (ZER), along with many others every day. When you are a builder, or if you are into building science, you know (or should know) what they all mean. However, as a home buyer that just wants a home that is safe, comfortable, and has the lowest monthly utility bills possible, these terms can sound foreign. The common denominator that plays a role in each of these areas is something called the “thermal envelope”. It’s most basic definition is the line that is drawn between the outside of the house and the inside of the house. It is a boundary. The goal is to make it a solid line (continuous boundary) that keeps water out, allows moisture to escape, and eliminates air movement in either direction.
“The only way you can predict the future is to build it.”, is a quote by Alan Kay, best known for his pioneering work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) design. To extend his thought, the only way to build the future …
COVID has also changed the way many people think about the livability of floor plans. Over the past 20 years, the move has been towards open floor plans. The kitchen, dining room, and family room have blended into one large great room. Formal dining rooms and living rooms have been disappearing from today’s home plans. But at the same time, today homes have become more energy efficient. Some of this can be attributed to stricter local building codes and requirements, while in other cases, it is just because building products have gotten better.
It’s the time of year when people start thinking about the design of the new home they will build next year. For most of those thinking about building, it will be their first time. Lots of new concepts and design ideas are being tossed around. …
