Powerful Reminders for Single Story House Plans
When it comes to choosing the right floor plan for your new house, there are so many things that could influence your decision – the living area you require, number of people that will live, look and feel of furniture you are willing to get and finally the amount of time you are willing to spend in this place. If you are a kind of family that stays together, discusses things, dines together and practically loves each other, one story house is what you should invest in. Thanks to innumerable single story house plans that range from traditional to ultra-modern, there are several reasons why a simple modern house is worth all the effort and money you are going to spend on it.
What is a Single Story House?
A simple modern accommodation built as per a single story house plan that focuses on creating a common living area and other private areas like bedrooms and office on a single floor in order to eliminate the need to construct more floors. A house based on such a plan is usually a pretty simple structure but a highly comfortable one. It has all the features of the house right on a single floor and thus enable easy access to everything.
Let me summarize all the good things about single story house plans and why such a house might be just perfect for your family.
Why Should You Invest in a Single Story House?
Perfect for spending your entire life
Right now, since you are young, you have a lot of energy. You can run around the house, climb the stairs, get down quickly and run wildly around your house without even a second though; but what happens when you grow old? When you have no energy left and have to rely on a walker or a wheelchair for maneuvering? Taking stairs will never be an option and when emergency strikes, you might turn out to be an extra liability on the rest of the family. Single story house plans can save you the all the pain because they do not have a staircase. Since everything is right on the ground floor, the houses built as per a good single story modern design does not require a staircase. This means, no matter how old and weak you get, you can still at least move around without anyone else’s help.
Children friendly homes
Just like elderly people of the family, the younger ones too face difficulty with the staircase and believe me if you do not take good care of the children, they will end up with bumps and swellings every other day due to falling from the stairs. The little ones who have just started crawling are at the maximum risk with the staircase in the house. Although a staircase gate is a good idea but if you have careless teenagers or lazy family members in your home, accidents are bound to happen. A single story house plan does not contain a staircase and hence is highly child-friendly.
Highly energy efficient
A multi-story house needs an excellent heating and cooling unit to keep temperature inside the house at a comfortable level. In case the heating/cooling system is not efficient, the house will end up with different temperatures in different parts of the house thus making the living experience a miserable one. Not just the temperature regulating system, even the lightening of a multi-story house is not so easy on the pocket. Whereas single story house plans are created keeping in mind the temperature regulation, air flow and lightening of the house. Single story house plans are highly efficient when it comes to all these because their architecture enables controlled flow of atmospheric air in the complete house, the fact that there are no more stories above, enables maximum intake of natural light and large open living area with flowing air eliminates the need of a costly HVAC system which is a MUST have in a multi-story house.
A big open floor
Unlike the traditional house plans, single story house plans tend to merge multiple areas of the home into a single big area. Almost all the modern single story house plans are equipped with a region termed as the family triangle. A family triangle is nothing but a large area comprising of the kitchen, living area and dining room combined into one large area where family can cook, eat, talk and play together. This enables the family to have all the features of a multi-story house within the limited space of their single story house without compromising on any comfort. Also the limited space has forced the architects to come up with creative ideas to beautify the single story houses so they look nothing less than their multi-story counterparts.
Single Story House Plans are easy to expand
A one story house is generally built on a big lot. This gives you enough room to expand and easily add features like a deck, a sunroom or maybe a patio to the single story plan whereas a multi-story plan even if its just 2 stories will require deep risk-analysis and careful planning before making any such expansion. This kind of expansion makes a strong indoor-outdoor bond giving your single floored house a larger than life feel and touch.
The cost of building
Single story house plans are simple and easy to build. Since there is not much space for experimentation and showing off creativity, there is nothing much to spend on. The fact that it does not require a staircase or a second or third floor, makes it so much cheaper and affordable. Also, the maintenance cost is low as the house does not require a heavy HVAC system and relies a lot on natural light. With a few more efficient power-saving accessories like solar panels which require one-time investment, the overall cost and comfort of the house can be maximized to its full potential.
Generally, single story house plans ensure that you get the maximum out of the land as once constructed, although you do have an option to expand your outdoors, but major changes in the indoors will increase the cost of the house and thus negate the benefit of investing in a small 1-floor house. So, before you proceed with finding the right house plan for your family, here are a few things that are a part of all the GOOD single story house plans.
Features of good single story house plans
Allow Scalability
Single story house plans aim at making the most out of the available land. This means that not only the indoors should be well planned but the outdoors as well. The plan should be structured in a way that allows you to scale and add more things to your existing accommodation like a patio or a garage later on if you do not have them already. Expansion within the indoors is not so feasible an idea but if the plan allows you to later modify the house and add a second floor in future, it is pure gold.
Save Space by combining common places
Most of the architects these days, while creating a single story plan make sure that they give home owners the maximum free space that they can. One such attempt we looked at earlier was the family triangle which involved combining the dining room, kitchen and living room to give maximum space to the family to dine as well as spend time with each other. Similarly, the architects have come up with more such space saving ideas like combining laundry room and mudroom, reducing the number of bathrooms and building bigger windows to give a more spacious look and feel to the house.
Takes care of common things
Although houses built using single story house plans are small as compared to the multi-story houses, there is no reason that a good plan should not have space for garage or a small play area for kids. Look for the single story house plans that takes care of these things because a few years from now, you might need that space and moving to some other house will not feel so homely.
Makes maximum use of natural resources
Single story house plans are designed for maximum utilization of resources available; and when we say resources, it includes natural resources as well. The plans should be created in a way that allows maximum intake or air but is still controlled (you do not want your children getting frozen on cold winter nights) and maximum use of sunlight to cut down on the electricity and thus be budget friendly. As a solution, most of the single story house plans have big beautiful windows to allow maximum intake out air and light and enough white spaces to keep it airy and cozy all the time.
Small yet creative
Another reason to invest in an excellent single story house plan is to ensure that you do not feel left out when your friends and relative brag about the new armchair they got in the office UPSTAIRS. The one floor houses, although popular among young generation are mostly considered to be budget friendly and cheap and as a result people do not expect much from them. However, the new improved single story house plans are set to change the expectation part. Before investing in any plan, ensure that you are getting a creative one for your home and it will give you everything you need in a house including an office and space for your car. You do not want to be the one repenting after you tell your friends about your new house.
There are few things that are common to every single story house that is built, but there are many more things that go into the making of a house, that is, the style of the house. Single story house plans come for various sized plots, including mighty ranches to the tiny cottages and each of these style have a distinct look and feel to them. Let us take a look at the most popular styles for single story house plans.
Ranch Homes: Ranch homes in particular have a variety of styles. They range from small plots to the big dreamland kinds. No matter the size of a Ranch house, the basic structure stays the same. Ranch houses built as per single story house plans are budget friendly, easy to construct, convenient to maintain and appeal to both young as well old home owners alike. They are generally wider and have a colonial and contemporary feel. The latest designs of the single story house plans allow a master bedroom and a few more family bedrooms thus making this kind of house the ultimate choice of home owners. Read more about ranch homes here http://www.houseplansale.com/ranchhomeplans
Mediterranean homes: Mediterranean single story house plans are a mixture of various European designs inspired from Italic, Spanish and Greek regions of the continent. These homes are usually big and have outstanding exteriors. Another feature that sets Mediterranean houses apart from other style is the big outdoor area. The indoors are usually wide and comfortable and mostly luxurious. These kind of homes have been known for arched doorways and dramatically shaped windows with asymmetrical and pyramidal roofs. Read more about Mediterranean house plans here: http://www.houseplansale.com/mediterraneanhouseplans
Cape Cod homes: Cape Cod is a design that has been in existence since 1940s and represent a post-war American era. These houses were built keeping in mind functionality and simplicity required to house growing families. These modern day Cape Cod houses are usually based on innovative single story house plans that make efficient use of the available land. These houses are usually small but still capable of housing the modern as well as traditional fitments. Read more about Small House Plans here: http://www.houseplansale.com/smallhouseplans
Cottage homes: Cottage homes are small and are considered as the best for vacation homes. These are pretty straight-forward and are usually based on single story house plans. The striking features of a cottage home include excellent woodwork, beautiful windows, varying roofline and cozy interiors. The exterior of the house are a mixture of stone, concrete and wood which give a charming and cute feel to the home. Read more about Cottage House Plans here: http://www.houseplansale.com/cottagehouseplans
No matter what style of home you choose, structures based on single story house plans are an interesting way to make the best out of the available land. The designs are pretty simple and easy to follow and most of all, the single story house plans easy on your pocket.
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