Home Plan Doctor: The Essential Companion for Anyone Buying a Home Design Plan

by Larry W. Garnett

Overview

Building a new house begins with a home plan, but the two-dimensional drawings used by contractors are often difficult to interpret and challenging to visualize. In easy-to-understand language, Larry W. Garnett explains construction terminology and basic design principles, enabling you to expertly navigate every step of the home-building process. From selecting a plan to judging its room-by-room suitability and requesting modifications, Home Plan Doctor offers cost-effective suggestions and encouraging guidance so that you can create the house of your dreams. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781580176989
Publisher:	Storey Publishing, LLC
Publication date:	12/19/2007
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 10.88(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Larry W. Garnett has designed homes for 30 years and won numerous design awards. His designs have been featured in Southern Living, Better Homes & Gardens, and House Beautiful. He has been a featured speaker at housing design seminars, including Harvard's Graduate School of Design. In 1997, Larry was inducted into the American Institute of Building Design's College of Fellows (FAIBD). He lives in Texas.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction

Part One — Making Plans
1 What Comes First?
2 Finding a House Plan
3 Defining Good Design

Part Two — Exterior Design Elements
4 The Right Style for You
5 Approaching the House
6 Cladding and Windows
7 Roofs and Porches

Part Three — Interior Design Elements
8 A Space of Your Own
9 Practical Considerations
10 Come Inside
11 Kitchen and Dining
12 Bed and Bath
13 Hardworking Rooms

Appendix
*Design Criteria Form
*Stock Plan Customization Form
Resources
Acknowledgments
Conceptual Plan Index
General Index

Editorial Reviews

If home plans and blueprints look like hieroglyphics to you, this book is the Rosetta Stone.”
Kevin Ireton, editor, Fine Homebuilding

“Clear and practical advice from a veteran designer. If you’re building from a stock plan, this book could save you from a lot of mistakes.”

Kevin Ireton, editor, Fine Homebuilding

“If you’re building from a stock plan, read this book first. You’ll get a better house, and you’ll like likely save money too.”

Kevin Ireton, editor, Fine Homebuilding

"Like a Consumer’s Guide for electronics, this book gets ‘under the hood’ of what makes a space into a workable, functional, happy house, translating arcane architectural language into everyday language. Not just for house plans — anyone who is looking to buy a home, and to shape the where and the way of how they live, needs to own this book." Melanie Taylor, Melanie Taylor Architecture Gardens LLC

Larry Garnett’s Home Plan Doctor provides a powerful dose of preventative medicine for those who wish to avoid the headaches of homebuilding. This comfortably written, ultra-informative book is absolutely loaded with often-overlooked details that are essential to consider before you build. I guarantee you’ll find yourself saying “I never would have thought of that” – but you’ll be thankful Larry did.

From the Publisher