Building a house is one of those ideas that sounds simple until you actually try to do it.

You buy a piece of land. You hire an architect. You draw some rooms. You pick a kitchen, bathrooms, windows, floors, and a roof. Eventually somebody builds it.

Except that is not really how it works.

A house is probably one of the most complicated things most people will ever buy, design, or own. It is architecture, engineering, plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling, structure, landscaping, technology, furniture, storage, transportation, security, and finance all combined into one project.

And somehow all of those things are supposed to work together.

That is what this book is about.

Not how to become an architect.

Not how to calculate structural loads.

Not how to install plumbing.

There are professionals for those things.

This book is about something the professionals cannot completely decide for you:

How should your house actually work for your life?

The book ultimately moves through the entire problem—from understanding the land and placing the house, through the garage, entrance, windows, kitchen, bedrooms and private spaces, and eventually into the mechanical systems, budget, maintenance, aging, and long-term adaptability of the house.

A Custom House Should Be Custom

If you are going through the time, expense, aggravation, and occasional insanity of building a house from scratch, there should be a reason.

Maybe this is your forever home.

Maybe you expect to raise your children there.

Maybe you want a garage that actually works for the cars and hobbies you have.

Maybe you work from home and need a serious office.

Maybe you entertain constantly.

Maybe you don’t entertain anyone anymore and would rather have a fantastic private living space than a formal dining room that gets used twice a year.

Maybe you’re building the house as an investment and expect to sell it immediately.

Those are completely different houses.

Yet people often begin the design process by looking at floor plans and asking:

How many square feet can we fit?

I think that is backwards.

The first question should be:

How do I want to live?

Then: How can the house make that easier?

A House Is a Machine Where People Live

Throughout this book, I keep coming back to one simple idea:

A house is a machine where people live.

That doesn’t mean it should feel mechanical.

Quite the opposite.

The best-designed houses feel effortless.

You pull into the driveway and naturally know where to park.

You walk through the garage and groceries are ten steps from the pantry.

You enter the front door and something catches your eye and makes you think, Wow.

The kitchen connects naturally to the family room. The family room connects to the patio.

The bedrooms are quiet. The bathrooms are where they need to be.

The laundry is near the clothes. The office is somewhere you can actually work.

There is a place for the Christmas tree when Christmas is over.

The air-conditioning system isn’t fighting a 140-degree attic because nobody thought about where the ducts would go.

The plumber doesn’t have to run half the sewer system underneath the entire house because bathrooms were randomly scattered wherever they happened to fit.

When all of this is done correctly, you don’t notice it.

The house simply works.

More Square Footage Is Not Automatically a Better House

One of the themes you will find throughout this book is my skepticism about square footage for the sake of square footage.

Real estate loves numbers. Four thousand square feet sounds better than thirty-five hundred. Five bedrooms sound better than four.

Seven bathrooms apparently sound better than five.

Bigger closets. Bigger garages. Bigger showers. Bigger kitchens.

Eventually you can build a house so large that half of it barely gets used.

Every one of those square feet costs money to build.

Then you get to pay again to furnish it.

Cool it. Heat it. Clean it. Maintain it. Repair it. Insure it.

And eventually replace everything inside it.

Good design is not necessarily about building more.

Very often it is about making every square foot do more.

Spend Money Where It Matters

Unless you happen to have an unlimited budget, building a custom house is an exercise in compromise.

You may want the giant retractable glass wall. And the three-car garage.

And the outdoor kitchen. And the pool. And the twelve-foot ceilings.

And the beautiful stone floors. And the enormous primary bathroom.

And the generator. And solar. And batteries.

And suddenly somebody shows you the estimate.

Now the real design process starts.

Where should the money go?

My general philosophy is simple:

Spend money on the things that improve your life and on the things that are difficult to change later.

Move a couch later. Replace a refrigerator later.

Change paint later. But ceiling height?

Window placement? House orientation?

Foundation? Major plumbing?

Garage placement?

Those decisions become considerably more expensive after concrete has been poured.

Your Property Is Part of the House

Another major theme of this book is that you should not design a house in isolation and then drop it onto a lot.

The property is part of the architecture. Where is the sun?

Where are the good views? Where are the ugly views?

Where are your neighbors?

Where will water go during a serious storm? Which way does the wind blow?

What does the house look like from the street?

What does it look like from the backyard?

Should the garage be on the left or right?

Should the house sit straight? Should it sit at an angle?

Should it move toward the front of the property or farther back?

There are often many more possibilities than people initially realize.

And Then There Is the Future

You are also not designing just for today.

Children grow up. Parents get older.

You get older. Neighborhoods change.

Technology changes.

Cars change. Work changes.

Families change.

And despite everybody’s declaration that this is my forever home, houses eventually get sold.

So we are going to think about that too.

Who might buy this house someday?

What do buyers in this neighborhood expect?

What will the neighborhood look like in ten years?

Are you improving the property, or are you overbuilding it?

How much of what you are spending is an investment, and how much is simply something you personally want?

There is nothing wrong with spending money on yourself.

Just know which is which.

This Isn’t a Rule Book

You are going to find plenty of opinions in these pages.

Some of them you may agree with.

Some you won’t. Good.

This is not supposed to be a set of commandments for designing houses.

It is supposed to make you ask questions.

Maybe you love two-story houses.

I would rather avoid the stairs if I don’t need them.

Maybe you want a formal dining room.

Maybe I would use that square footage for an office.

Maybe your idea of entertaining is fifty people around a pool.

Maybe mine is sitting quietly with the cats.

Neither house is automatically right.

The point is to understand why you are making the decision.

Before Somebody Starts Spending Your Money

That may be the most important reason for this book.

Once construction begins, people start spending your money very quickly.

Architect. Engineer. Builder. Electrician. Plumber. HVAC contractor. Window company.

Cabinet company. Pool company. Landscaper.

Everybody has something they would be delighted to sell you.

Before that begins, you should have a pretty good idea of what you actually want.

Not necessarily which faucet. Not necessarily which tile.

But the important things:

How you want to live.

Where the important rooms belong.

Which views matter.

Where the house sits.

What you are willing to spend money on.

What you don’t care about.

What you want the house to do today.

And what you might need it to do twenty years from now.

Because ultimately, you are the one who has to live there.

So before we build anything, we are going to do something much cheaper.

We are going to think. We are going to move the house around.

Move rooms around. Make mistakes on paper.

Ask stupid questions. Challenge assumptions. Spend imaginary money.

And hopefully save some real money.

Then, by the time somebody finally pours the foundation, we will have a much better chance of building exactly what the title promises:

A House That Works for You.