Do you have a clear vision of the perfect house for you and your family?

    If you are like most people, your vision of your dream house is actually an idea without much in the way of concrete details. It may consist of mental images of houses you admire or remember. You may have merely a sense of what it should be, but no clear image of it in a physical way. This is normal. No architect expects you to come to his or her office with a design. After all, that’s what the architect’s job is. You’ve got to give you architect a chance to earn his or her money! (more…)

    Radon is back in the news. Radio personality Paul Harvey, the New York Times, and other news outlets reported recently that granite countertops pose a threat of emitting radon gas. Radon gas has been purportedly linked to risk of lung cancer. The Marble Institute of America has responded with a scholarly report essentially saying that the radon emissions from granite are so miniscule that they warrant no fears.

    It seems that this report surfaces every ten years, or so. It has been promoted by the makers of competing countertop materials, like quartz products like Cambria or Silestone and solid surfaces like Corian. You can read and listen to the reports for yourself, but it seems to me that this is a Chicken Little issue that grabs the media’s attention and the stone countertop industry then has to spend lots of time and money de-bunking it. (more…)

    Here’s a small, but important tip for placement of recessed lights in ceilings.    

    If you are placing a ceiling fan in the ceiling of a room and you plan on using recessed lights in the ceiling, make sure to keep the lights well away from the blades of the fan. If you don’t do this, the turning blades of the fan will produce a strobe light effect. Of course, if you’re really into disco and yearn for the 80′s, this might be a great thing. but for most of us, this kind of flashing light situation isn’t very good.

    So my general rule is to keep the ceiling lights at least a few feet away from the ends of the fan blades and even more if the fan is suspended farther away from the ceiling.

Bill Hirsch

www.designingyourperfecthouse.com

www.williamhirsch.com

    I had a client ask me about light switch type, color and what I thought about dimmers.

    One question was whether or not the Decora style switches, those are the ones with a wider, flatter, rocker type of switch, were “expected” in a high-end house. I told them that I have some clients who like the Decora switches, but I could not say it is the majority opinion. I don’t think there is any expectation of them in a high-priced house. (more…)

    There is an exhibit called Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling at MoMA, Museum of Modern Art in New York, that explores the history and future of pre-fabricated housing. Click here, Pre-Fab Housing Exhibit, to take a look at the New York Times article about the exhibit. (more…)

    If you asked me what the single most important quality a good house design should have, I would have to say that there must to be a “purposefulness” to the plan. A key to this purposefulness is to be sure your house design has an understandable concept.

    There are many good and effective organizing concepts, but probably the most common and possibly simplest of these concepts in a house is the classic “four-square” plan. (more…)

    I don’t even want to know how this happened.

    Maybe the bubble got stuck in his level.

Bill Hirsch

www.designingyourperfecthouse.com

www.williamhirsch.com

    Some parts of a house never seem to be in a good place. Electrical outlets (the place where you plug in the cord) are often in obtrusive and clumsy places. Many times you don’t have a choice because the National Electric Code requires outlets where you don’t think you really want one. But the Code is the law of the land. So if you want to get your Certificate of Occupancy and actually move into Your Perfect House, you’ll need to comply and put that unwanted outlet in the wall, anyhow. (more…)

    Yikes! It’s nearly 100 degrees here in North Carolina and the humidity nearly matches it. It was still over 90 degrees at dinnertime! I, for one, don’t find solar energy all that welcome this time of year. Maybe if I was generating electricity from it I would feel differently. But the solar energy I’m talking about makes me roast whenever I step out of the shade and it makes my attic a veritable furnace. But, I’ve found a building product that comes to the rescue. (more…)

    There are lots of books about kitchen design that are full of many useful tips. But sometimes, the essentials of laying out a kitchen are overlooked. Here’s one i like to point out to my clients. (more…)