Designing Home Additions
Home Additions Design Planning!

A properly designed addition enhances a home! This requires the talents of a good architect. If you possess them, you may want to design your own home addition. Most people rely on an architect to help them design their new home addition.

Home Addition Planning - Getting Started -
The first step for your new home addition is to prepare a program if it is not too confusing to use these architect terms.

List the use and approximate dimensions of each room for your new home addition. Rectangular rooms (Approximately 1/2 again as long as they are wide) generally have the most comfortable layout.

Addition Window and Door Location
For the best light and ventilation, locate windows on two walls and try to place doors near corners.

Room Layout Considerations for Your Home Addition
Consider how each room relates to other rooms.
What factors should you consider?
* Noise * Access * Light

Visualize Room Relations
What can you use to help you see how the rooms will relate?
Know it will take time first of all.
Then illustrate what you would like to see happen.

Illustrate? Illustration examples: Notepad with scribbles and rough sketches Magazine Clippings Your site plan: Make copies and scribble in where you would like addition. Pictures of your home copied - drawing in roughly your addition location. Pictures of other homes - with similar layouts of what you would like to see.

The Three Home Addition Options
There are three options for your addition style.
* Build horizontally from your home
* Build Up above your home
* Build a major addition (2 story wing or a full second story)

Home Addition Attractiveness
Can any style of addition be made to look attractive?
Yes - still most designers play it safe by following two rules.
1: Echo the original house wherever possible.
2: When the addition must depart from the style of the house - The departure should be clear and intentional, in subdued contrast to the original.

Important Home Addition Elements
Three elements are particularly important:
* Roof
* Siding
* Windows

Roof Aspects For You and Your Builder To Understand
Roof aspects that are crucial to appearance are details:
Slope
Overhang
Covering

Slope: Matching is fairly simple in most cases and with some carpentry tricks the overhangs can be matched as well.

Roof Covering: You can usually find roofing material of the same size and shape as the ones you have. However - They almost NEVER will match perfectly. Generally you can settle for an approximate match. If the roof is a dominant feature - you may want to re-roof the entire home.

The Homes Covering is Often Siding or Brick.
Siding: Old fashioned patterns still can be found in stock in lumberyards, and if necessary, you can order pieces specially milled to match at a fairly reasonable cost. Siding your entire home is another option. Is there a good place for a contrast in siding material? Stepping your addition 8" from the corner may help. If your home addition is being added to a smaller homes this can create an effect on the home design not desired by some homeowners.

Roof, Siding, Windows = Your New Home Addition Look!
Combine these details. We have now created the look for your new home addition!

Home Addition Planning of Location
In the planning for your home addition - Consider inside your home the room's layout, and outside your home what architects call the focus point of the house. The focus point is what draws and holds your eye, such as the front door or a large window. For this reason most additions to homes are built at the rear.

All these home addition rules are overruled by gifted designers and architects. The most strikingly beautiful new home additions achieved there impact because the builders dared to disregard conventional building methods.

So what is the final authority?
Individual taste. It is your home, and your home addition must please you!

“By All Means, Don’t Say, “If I Can;” say, “I Will!” Abraham Lincoln

“Whatever You Do Today, Do It Better Tomorrow.” Robert Schuler