Have you ever considered building a custom home? If so, William J. Hirsch’s Designing Your Perfect House: Lessons from an Architect is the ideal resource for answering such questions as: How do I get started? How do I decide upon a building site? What kind of house can I afford with my budget? What design features will create my perfect house? How do I make my dream house just right for me?

Now the entire book is available for download as a PDF file!

The book is structured as a series of twelve logically arranged “lessons” that demonstrate how you move from wonderful concepts to a finished dream home. It begins with an exploration of the philosophy of design, the grammar of architecture, the creation of space, and discussions of how to make spaces be appropriate and gratifying for the people living in them. Subsequent discussions address issues of scale, daylight, how to make a house feel like a home, unifying a design, flow, and proportions. The final sections follow the process through site analysis and selection, programming, schematic design, style, room relationships, controlling the budget, and methods of contracting for the construction. Throughout, color photos and drawings illustrate the book’s major points.