This book started with a simple question:
If you had the chance to design a house from scratch, what would you do differently?
Not what would an architect do.
Not what would a builder recommend.
Not what would look impressive in a photograph.
What would you do differently?
Most of us spend years living in houses designed by somebody else.
We learn what works.
We learn what annoys us.
We discover which rooms we actually use and which ones collect furniture and dust.
We discover that the beautiful kitchen may be too far from the garage.
That the laundry room is in the wrong place.
That the afternoon sun makes one room almost unusable.
That the house has plenty of square footage but somehow never enough storage.
That a garage designed for two cars barely fits one modern SUV once you put anything else in it.
And after living with enough of those little frustrations, you begin to understand something important:
A good house is not just about how it looks. It is about how it works.
That is where this book came from.
I Am Not Trying to Design Your House
This is not a book of floor plans.
It is not a collection of architectural styles.
And it is not an attempt to tell you that there is one correct way to design a home.
There isn’t.
The right house for a young family with three children may be completely wrong for a retired couple.
The right house for someone who entertains constantly may be completely wrong for someone who values privacy and quiet.
The right house in South Florida may make no sense in Colorado.
The right house on a narrow urban lot may be impossible on a waterfront property—or vice versa.
So the purpose of this book is not to give you answers.
It is to help you ask better questions.
Questions such as:
Where should the house actually sit on the property?
Which views are worth designing around?
How do you come home with groceries?
Where does the laundry belong?
How much garage do you really need?
Do you actually need five bedrooms?
Would you use a formal dining room?
Where should the office go if you spend thirty hours a week working from home?
Where does all the stuff go?
How will the house work when you are twenty years older?
What happens when the power goes out?
And perhaps most importantly:
Are you designing a house to live in, or a house to sell?
Those are very different objectives.
Design Before Construction
There is another reason I wanted to separate this book from the subject of actually building a house.
Design and construction are related, but they are not the same problem.
This book is about the decisions that should happen before construction takes over.
Once the building process begins, the conversation changes.
Now there are contractors, subcontractors, schedules, permits, inspections, bids, allowances, substitutions, change orders, invoices, delays, and a thousand other practical problems.
That deserves its own book.
This one is about getting the idea right first.
Because if the fundamental design is wrong, excellent construction will simply give you a very well-built version of the wrong house.
You Know More Than You Think
One thing I have noticed is that people often become intimidated during the design process.
The architect knows architecture.
The engineer knows structure.
The contractor knows construction.
So the owner sometimes assumes that everyone else in the room knows more than they do.
Technically, they often do.
But nobody knows more about your life than you do.
You know whether you cook.
You know whether you entertain.
You know whether you have three cars and six bicycles.
You know whether you work from home.
You know whether you wake up early.
You know whether you need privacy.
You know whether you hate stairs.
You know whether you want your children nearby or farther away.
You know whether you will actually use the pool.
You know whether you intend to live there for five years or thirty.
That knowledge matters.
A professional can translate your needs into architecture, engineering, and construction.
But first, you have to understand the needs.
This Book Is About Thinking
You will notice that many of the ideas in this book are not complicated.
Some are almost embarrassingly obvious.
Put the laundry near the clothes.
Put storage where you need storage.
Think about where the sun comes from.
Don’t let the garage dominate the front of the house unless that is intentional.
Don’t build huge rooms simply because the budget allows it.
Make sure the mechanical systems can actually be serviced.
Think about where furniture will go before deciding where every window and door belongs.
None of that sounds revolutionary.
Yet houses are built every day that ignore these basic ideas.
Why?
Because construction has momentum.
Once drawings begin, decisions start stacking on top of other decisions.
Eventually everybody becomes focused on solving the immediate problem.
That is why the best time to think about a house is before there is a house.
Use This Book Slowly
You do not need to read this book as if it were a novel.
In fact, I probably wouldn’t.
Read a section.
Walk around your current house.
Look at what works.
Look at what doesn’t.
Visit other houses.
Walk through open houses.
Look at expensive homes.
Look at inexpensive homes.
Notice the things you like.
More importantly, notice why you like them.
Stand in the driveway.
Walk through the garage.
Open the front door.
Imagine carrying groceries.
Imagine working there.
Imagine having guests.
Imagine being sick.
Imagine having children.
Imagine being older.
Imagine trying to sell the house someday.
The more you do that, the better your eventual design will become.
The Objective
At the end of this process, I do not expect you to have designed the house yourself.
I expect you to be much better prepared to sit across from the people who will.
You should be able to explain what matters to you.
You should recognize compromises before they become permanent.
You should know where you are willing to spend money.
You should know where you are not.
You should understand the difference between something that adds square footage and something that adds quality of life.
And when someone proposes a design decision, you should be comfortable asking the most important question in this entire book:
How is this going to work when I actually live here?
If you keep asking that question, you will probably avoid a surprising number of expensive mistakes.
And you may end up with something much more valuable than a large or impressive house.
You may end up with a house that feels as though it was designed specifically for you.
Because it was.
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