Inside

We drew our house literally more than 100 times.  Draw it many times build it once, kind of a variant on the idea of measure twice cut once.  Drawing is effectively free, building is obviously very expensive.  Keep trying to combine functions and shrink or eliminate things.  Prioritize spaces, if they are lower priority move them up or down.  Growing the house is easy to do on paper and fairly inexpensive if you use space up or down.  The main floor square footage is where all the costs are. 

Another way to think about spaces in your home is to think about homes in Europe/Japan.  Space is in very high demand so they must serve more than one function.  When you are designing its common for square footage to grow, so keep reviewing it and trying to shrink it.

Select dimensions to reduce waste - When designing use standard dimensional lengths of 8ft, 4ft and/or 2ft.  Standard dimensions make it easier to build, creates less waste and therefore less expense and less landfill.  Note each corner adds visual interest but those corners add cost.  You have to have seams joints, corners in the foundation, the roof ends up more complex and the siding is more complex, the interiors and insulation all add up to more costs.

Hallways and entrances - Reduce hallways if you can.  You don’t live in a hallway, but if you have a hallway in your design, consider making the hallways 4ft wide.  Wider hallways permit bookshelves or other low-profile storage in the hallway (dual function) and gives space for wheelchair access.  If you are not into books it could be a storage area, art display area, or even a hallway office.  Combine garage entrance and formal entrance (you don’t “live” in your entrances), and by combining them you can use less space and still give the space a larger feel.

Bonus room - The bonus room is normally over the garage, and there is a good reason for calling it a bonus room.   The bonus over the garage is very inexpensive square footage as you have to pay for the roofing either way, the siding, and the trusses.  The only difference is the more expensive box trusses and finishing such as insulation, drywall and flooring for your space.  It’s simply the cheapest square footage you will get in your home, maybe comparable to the root cellar.   Add stairs to the bonus room over the garage.  Even if you skip the finished bonus room seriously consider the stairs and box trusses to permit better utilization of the storage.

Storage - Storage is always in demand.  If you think you have enough storage, try to double the number of closets (or double their size).  Nearby storage in a home makes the home more practical.  Add a real pantry near or in the kitchen on main floor.  A pantry is practical and gives you storage for foodstuffs near the kitchen (valuable if you can’t easily go up and down stairs). Consider finishing the closets yourselves to save money and permit customization – its fairly straightforward work, and there are guides available at nearly every home improvement store.

Attic Catwalk - Build a catwalk using 2x10 or 2x12’s (or a couple of 2x8s) while the roof trusses are still open, it’s a lot easier to get lumber up to the attic then.  Add 2 to 4 lights on a single switch near the attic access.  This catwalk can be used any time someone needs to move around in the attic, so that they don’t have to attempt to feel around for trusses while wading through the blown in insulation (for instance, in our case, the satellite TV and the wireless internet install guys both needed access to the attic).

Back when I was working with a solar installer (Laurie), we sent a crew of four to install a solar hot water system in an existing home.  (You need this many people if you're not using a lift to get the collectors up to the roof.) One of the crew was a new fellow, and this was his first install.  As they were moving around in the attic to run the piping from the collectors to the basement, one of the experienced installers commented on how quickly the new guy was moving around.  The attic was insulated with blown in cellulose, so the crew was forced to feel their way  from truss to truss so they had something solid to stand on (as mentioned above).  Well.....no one had thought to mention this to the new guy, and he had been walking wherever he needed to go without stepping on trusses.  The mistake was caught quickly, but not before there was a line of footprints imprinted on the ceiling of a hallway in the living area below.  The ceiling was repaired, but a couple of well placed 2x10's could have kept this from happening in the first place.  I know the installers would have greatly appreciated not having to wade through cellulose on almost every install.

Soundproofing - Add soundproofing in walls between bedrooms and living spaces – hard floors are good but may create an echo effect.

Open trusses - Use open floor trusses (engineered open trusses) they are not much more money and they make installing the radiant tubing WAY easier and give room for HVAC, electrical and plumbing.      

Focal Points - To make the home more of what you like, consider antique windows or odd oval, circular or triangular windows.  Just one special window could set the tone for the whole house.  If you really love modern art go there, if you are country at heart go there.

Outside

When you are doing your designs consider what you do outside (if anything).  If you are sports oriented, a gardener, a hunter, or prefer to stay indoors.  Design around those preferences.  If you have a green thumb think about a greenhouse and how you would access it, where you would store your tools and supplies.  In other words, design your house with outbuildings in mind (even before you build them).  If you are a avid mechanic consider a first stall with spancrete so you can work on the car from below, or consider utilities for an attached woodworking shop.  Lay out your spaces and think about power, water , doors and such.  Again its easier to do this on paper so take advantage of your time.

Pour concrete pads for:

a.       Exterior propane tank pad 

b.      Exterior generator pad

c.       Any outbuildings you plan on building right away

Other things to consider in your designs include Rainwater collection setup in the original plans.  You could do a full blown cistern or at least design with seasonal small storage in mind.  If you are in the country seriously consider a circle drive.  It’s easier to plow and gives you a starting point for outbuildings. 

Links

Small, Efficient and Beautiful - Article at oikos discussing space savvy design tips.

Making Smaller Homes Seem Larger - Another article on optimizing the space within your home.