This article is part of our ongoing home construction specification plan series.

Assembling a Home Construction Specification Plan — Spec Plan A: Deciding on Your Home Style

Building a home from the ground up is the dream of many homeowners. There is something about new home construction that gives the homeowner a strong sense of participation, even control over the home building process. Never mind that the house is all-new!

If you are building a home in a new housing development, you may have a choice of three or four home styles, but these styles are the ones offered by the developer. If you want something different, than securing an empty lot or tearing down an existing home is the only way you can ensure that the home style you want matches your precise needs and tastes.

Selecting a home style can be a drawn out process especially when taking into consideration the needs of others, i.e. your spouse, children, guests, home office, even the neighborhood where the house will be located. Certainly, you don’t want to build a three story colonial in a neighborhood dominated by ranch homes unless, of course, the trend in that neighborhood is toward replacing the existing housing pool with something much different.

Are you ready to build? Let’s first take a look at the home styles that have shaped the American landscape.

A History of Home Styles

Take a look at most any long established American town and what you will see is a complete history of home styles dating back to the colonial era. In parts of Massachusetts, for example, Cape Cod, Georgian and Saltbox homes dominate with Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival and Victorian era homes nearby. Newer construction may include Tudors, Colonial Revival, Classic Revival, followed by Bungalows and Spanish Mission style homes.

After the Second World War, the housing market exploded with Cape Cods, Ranches, Split and Bi-level homes joining the housing mix. Today’s home styles include most of the earlier trends plus hundreds of variations. Unless you are designing your home from scratch, you’ll probably search house plans to find the home style you want.

Architectural Types, Spec Sheets and Home Plans

To avoid feeling overwhelmed, searching an architectural type site will help you quickly narrow down the home style you are seeking. There are more than two dozen style types to choose from; therefore eliminating the majority of them and settling on three or four styles will help you keep things in perspective. Use a construction spec sheet to help you list your exact layout requirements for your new home.

With home styles in mind, you are now ready to search house plans. Thanks to the internet, more than ten thousand home building plans can be found online – narrowing down that list to a manageable few is easy when you designate square footage as well as the bedroom and bathroom parameters.

Take Your Plans To Your Builder

What if you find a house plan that isn’t quite what you want? That’s easy – take it to your builder who will look at the house plans and your construction spec sheet to finalize a home design plan matching your criteria.

Once the final plans have been made, then you’re ready to give your builder the green light to proceed. Soon, you and your family will be living in a new home designed with you in mind.

Tags: home build, home builder, Home Construction, home construction specs, home plans, home style