One of the first steps in the journey of building your own
home is identifying the home plan that is perfect for your needs, wants and
budget. Many choose to begin searching
through thousands of plans available in plan books or online in hopes that the
perfect layout and design will be found.
One hopes in this case to get a great plan for one low price.
Unfortunately,
these plans can have a number of unforeseen drawbacks. Most importantly, these plans may not be
“buildable” plans—there is far more to a home design than a floorplan and
exterior elevations. While providing
these to a building professional is a place to start, there is going to be
additional expense in developing these plans to the point to which they can be
built. In addition, the plans may not be
appropriate for your land or lot—a plan with a basement that is just “perfect”
would not be appropriate in South Texas where the water table is too high to
allow for basements. Sometimes, the
plans are not guaranteed to pass local building codes and receive a
permit. Finally, making changes to the
plan, however small—can be a huge headache.
At
Texas Timber Frames we have a very flexible and accommodating approach to home
design. We do not approach design work
as a profit center. We see it as a
service we provide in order to take the first step towards getting the home
built. We have designed a number of custom homes for
our clients and they have been kind enough to allow us to use their designs as
“standard designs” from which potential clients can chose (link to
website). We get calls every day from
people who like parts of the design and want to tweak other parts to
personalize and perfect their design.
Our design professionals, sometimes in partnership with an architect,
are entirely capable of making these changes at a very reasonable cost.
We are
always open to new partnerships with architects to expand our capabilities and
imaginations when it comes to timber frame design. We work with the architect directly to
perfectly and efficiently incorporate the timber elements into the plan. We take care of the beautiful joinery details
and frame engineering, executing on what we do best.
There
is a great solution to your design needs for your timber frame home—give us a
call and we can discover the best way for you!
