Small Home Living - Food And Other Features of Your Small Home Design

       Have you ever listed your life's creature comforts? Shelter would have to top that list. One of the most enjoyable benefits of my work is the fact that I get to help people with this basic need. It's awesome.

But, where does food fit into the housing picture? Well, food is another basic need. Actually, wouldn't food rank higher in Maslow's hierarchy of needs? Yes, enter "kitchen, stage right!" (That dates me, doesn't it?) The kitchen is one room to pay close attention to when designing and building a small home.

Your Home, Your Food, Your Kitchen

The desire for small homes is growing but there are challenges. I find that people start with a small home floor plan but once they start analyzing what they want and adding things here and there, the small home living idea has morphed into something quite different and the plan often grows by up to fifty percent!

For most people, the kitchen is a central part of their lives. It should not be slighted when building a small home. It should be featured. Let the kitchen solve part of your problem.

How a Large Kitchen Makes for a Smaller Home

Smaller homes require plenty of thought and design to make them as livable and comfortable as possible. There's no one solution for this. If you center your solutions around making the kitchen not only a place for food, but a living area as well, you'll find ways to make the rest of the home smaller. Here are a couple ideas and reasons behind them.


Make the kitchen part of the Great Room/Family Room: An open kitchen allows for "living" to flow more easily throughout the house.
Bring the Dining Room into the kitchen: This means eliminate the dining room! It also means making the kitchen a little bigger. Like the old "country kitchens". And if it's designed well, when company comes you can expand your dining on into the great/family room area.
Let your interior design and décor flow too: To bring it all together, allow your furnishings, décor, and other features to overlap and compliment to give a bigger feel to the home.

Food and shelter go hand in hand just like a bigger, multi-use kitchen makes sense for small home designs. I bet you never thought food could solve your small home design problems!

Small Home Design - Don't Let Your Small House Plan Grow Big

     Do you really and truly want a small home? Over the years of helping people with their small home designs I've noticed one thing. Small house plans grow.

"Oh, but I want this, too!" Yep, I've heard it over and over. It can takes real discipline to keep that evolving house plan small. And working with an architect is not necessarily a solution! Architects are often eager to design in that pantry, laundry, extra room or whatever else you suddenly feel you just have to have!

What Do You Really Want in a Home?

You love the advantages of a small home design, right? The idea of saving money while building, saving energy year after year, and the convenience of keeping that small home neat and tidy are appealing benefits.

But, what are you willing to give up? You simply can't have the same number of rooms or the same size rooms, or all the same features you're accustomed to in that larger home. Something has to give. What do you really want in your home and what are your priorities? It comes down to, what's a must, and what can go?

That Small House Plan Can Still Work

Once you figure your priorities and settle on what's important and what isn't, a good designer can work wonders. But, you have to guard against getting "big eyes" and stick to your guns. And, don't give the architect free reign.

If you know what you want, with clever design and a combination of functions in the home, you don't have to do without. But, it may not be easy.

The Home Building Coach to the Rescue

I recommend getting yourself a home building coach. Industry professionals often hire themselves out as a go between ... between you and your other building professionals like contractors, architects, lenders, engineers, etc. This person can be especially valuable in helping you devise your strategy concerning the design of your home.

No, the coach won't likely design your home, unless he or she happens to be your architect, but they'll definitely be able to help you refine your goals and translate them into practical approaches to help design your perfect small house design.

Get Those Benefits You're After

With the home building coach by your side, you'll have the support to stick to your guns and create something that stays small, offers all the advantages of the home you want, and provides style and beauty at the same time.

You deserve to get the home you want. Now you can.

Small Home Designs - What to Look For in Small House Floor Plans

     It's not about suffering with less. Building small homes is about achieving your objectives rather than seeing what you can eliminate. Thoughtful preparations, research, and good design will yield the results you want.

As with any objective, you must determine just what it is that you want. What's important to you and what isn't? Drill down to your priorities first.

Small Houses That Actually Work

The easy way out would be to simply take a house plan you like and shrink the dimensions and cut out rooms. Easy perhaps, but it makes for a dysfunctional home. What you want is to make certain that living areas aren't cramped and that the things you really want aren't eliminated.

Two tips often given when designing for a smaller home, center around this very idea. They both involve expanding rather than shrinking but one focuses on the element of combining while the other involves sharing. Let's look at both:

Let the kitchen absorb your Dining Room or dining area.
Create one single shared large bathroom with a separate toilet room.

In the first idea, you create a big kitchen that is combined with a dining area. The result is a larger area used for different but complimentary functions. It's a great example of how to combine areas and reduce the number of rooms.

The second example is all about expanding the size of a room (the bathroom) but designing it to be shared more easily. By separating the toilet (and perhaps the sinks and/or shower) you can eliminate one bathroom and make the remaining one very functional and even luxurious if that's what you want.

Expand and Share or Expand and Combine

The bottom line is to think "bigger" without adding square footage to the home. Bigger rooms create the feeling of space and comfort, not crowded and small. Think about what you can share or what you can combine.

And, as always, start with a clear vision of just what is important to you

Top 6 Ways a Small Home Floor Plan Can Save You Money

     Today most of us are looking for ways to save money, and downsizing is one great way to cut costs. Your home is usually your greatest expense and finding ways to save money on housing is more important now than ever. The current trend towards smaller homes is important as more and more people are looking to enrich their lives in ways other than owning a big home to impress. There are many reasons you may consider a small home, but saving money is the top of most people's list.

Here are 6 ways a small home floor plan can save a lot of money.

1. No Mortgage or Small Mortgage. Tiny houses are generally less expensive to buy overall; less materials in their construction, less money in labor, and can often be built without a mortgage. There are floor plans designed for DIYers to save even more money. For those who don't want to do any work themselves, the best thing about small home floor plans is they are much less expensive to build. Many small home floor plans can be built inexpensively enough to avoid a mortgage altogether. Wouldn't it be great to have not mortgage...or at least a tiny one!

2. Energy-efficient. Less square footage means much lower utility bills. Your small home will much less expensive to heat in the winter and keep cool in the summer, as well as less energy consumption for lighting and other electrical use. A tiny home's interior is much more energy-efficient because there are no wasted space in rooms not being used often such as formal living rooms and dining rooms that are used only for guests.

3. Easier to Clean. It's easy to see why a tiny home will be much easier to clean. You will save money on the many cleaning products needed to clean a larger home, not to mention the time you will save zipping through a tiny home with a vacuum cleaner or broom, instead of lugging your vacuum cleaner from room to room on different floors. A small home will need to be organized to stay neat, but less storage space will force you to make important decisions about what things you really need and cherish, and what is basically junk that can be given or thrown away.

4. Worry Free Retirement. Of course, selling the larger family home and buying a smaller home allows empty-nesters to build up and protect their nest egg after retirement. Downsizing has many merits for retirees and those soon to retire. Empty-nesters living on a fixed income can enjoy their golden years without the expense of a large home. Considering how much money you will need to live after you retire, it's obvious why so many people are looking to downsize and save money on housing expenses after retirement.

5. Tax Savings. A small home will costs much less in property taxes than much larger and more expensive homes. Some people buy condos to save on housing costs, but by owning your own tiny house, you can maintain some independence and privacy while avoiding expensive condo homeowners association fees.

6. Save Money Decorating. A small home floor plan will accommodate much less furniture and its best to use furniture that has a dual purpose, such as a bench that has built-in storage. It's much easier to furnish a tiny home than be forced to buy a lot of furniture to fill every room of a large home. Small homes also have less wall space, fewer windows and floor areas. This can save considerable money on home décor, carpeting, window covering and expensive electronics...like a large screen TV for every room.

If these six money-saving reasons aren't enough to convince you that a small home is the way to go, consider the environmental benefits of a tiny home. The smaller home requires much less energy consumption for heating and cooling and a smaller lawn uses much less water and energy to maintain. Choose greener materials during the construction and chemical free household products for a more environmentally friendly home and smaller carbon footprint.

Small Home Design - Joining the Small Home Craze

     Is it the economy? Is it the concern over the earth and our ecosystem? In case you haven't heard, there is a movement ... some would say a craze, but small is in when it comes to home designs and new home building.

Are you thinking of building a small home? Let's talk about it.

Question: What are the advantages of a small home design?

Answer:

As I said, a lot of people are looking at smaller and smaller homes. And this isn't just for second homes or vacation homes. The trend now is to care for the environment and building smaller homes, even if they are quality and luxurious homes, makes a lot of sense.

It is commonly believed that homes and buildings represent the biggest consumption of energy in the world today.

Small House Advantages

Why is a small house design something for you to consider? Let's take a look at some of the advantages of using a small home design to build your home:

Small houses use less energy to operate
They take less energy and effort to build
Small homes need fewer building materials to build
They are less expensive to build
Small home designs require a smaller footprint on the earth
They are easier and cheaper to clean and maintain

Less energy means more savings each month for the homeowner. Fewer building materials means less pollution during manufacturing. A smaller footprint means more earth is left untouched and green.

Smaller Homes Require Better Design

So, if you don't need the space, and especially if your house is designed to maximize the use of every square inch, a small home can be ideal. Just be sure not to shortchange yourself out of space you truly need.

Use experienced and creative professional designers like architects and residential designers to get the most of your small house design. Your home should be comfortable and convenient or you will resent what is missing and it won't serve you well at all. Don't build small for small's sake alone.