What To Consider When Building Your House

If you could rebuild your house you would make so many changes. Changes that would both save on time and money. Unfortunately people have certain programmed approach when they are designing their house. Although the architect has an important role to play, end of the day whatever you tell him he will do. We are influenced by what we see in media, so we need to think a little outside the box to make things easier for ourselves. 

It is difficult to know before you build what it is you shouldn't have done. I believe over the years the concept of a house has evolved too much that we have forgotten its initial purpose.

What To Consider When Building Your House:

1. When building your house imagine you are 70 years old

A lot of decisions we make are based around how we feel today and not in the future. As we get older we become less capable of doing the same things we did when we were younger.

Two storey building can be quite tiring to get up and down when you are of a certain age. Bungalows are good solution to this problem. Building upwards allows you to gain space, but can be quite costly. As they say, the sky is the limit. I notice that with my parents now they are older they try to go upstairs as few times as possible. If it were possible they would probably go upstairs to sleep only. Keep it small and grounded.

Small house little maintenance. Yes, when you are young you are more than physically capable to clean your house, but the house isn't changing size or shape as you get older.

2. Verandas

A veranda is now part and parcel of houses these days. The problem with verandas is that you don’t see anybody in them. So what is the whole point of having one if you are not going to use it? In Cyprus nearly all bedrooms have a veranda. People can probably count more easily the times they use their verandas than the times they go to church, and that is saying something.

A veranda does cost, and it adds unnecessary volume to your borrowed money. By not including a veranda you might later regret not having one. In that case then you can at least consider a very small veranda. We use extensively the verandas on the first floor to sit and relax or when we have guests. We have never ever used the verandas upstairs. If for example we had no bedroom verandas we would have saved a handsome amount of money.

3. Big rooms big brooms

The bedroom is a place of sleep, dressing up and spending time alone. A bedroom should be big enough to accommodate these basic needs. Any other space is useless, unless you are intending on dancing in there, having sleep overs, or playing Twister.

4. Avoid open plan style house

Having an open style layout is quite nice. There is something convenient about it, however there is something expensive about it. Many houses have these open space design. An open plan costs more to keep it cool or warm. Closed sections allows you to have more control over the temperature, as it is more confined. This helps you save on money when required to heat it up and cool it down.

Applying some of the points raised above will save you many thousands. Money is not cheap to obtain these days, so don’t make it even more difficult for your selves.

Keep it simple.