The House Plan Shop Blog

If you are planning to build a new home, chances are you have to sell your current home. This can be very discouraging when everywhere you look there are houses for sale right now. Some are for sale with real estate companies while others are for sale by owner. How can you compete with so many houses on the market? The good news for you is that many sellers do a lousy job of presenting the home that is for sale.

Sometimes it’s the small things that count when trying to sell your home. Other times it is the extra effort you make and the extra muscle you put into selling your home that seals the deal. Below is a list of tips to help you stage your home to sell and make it stand out among the rest.

Clear the clutter: Get rid of anything you don’t need in a room or put it in storage. A modestly filled room looks larger and more inviting than a cluttered one. Furthermore, cluttered homes and sloppy surroundings can make a potential buyer question how well you’ve maintained your home over the years.

Remove personal items: Take time to remove personal effects and photos. When buyers view your home, they try to imagine themselves living there. If your home is filled with too many personal items, it makes it harder for potential buyers to imagine themselves living in the home.

Look outside: The first thing a potential buyer sees in the outside of your house, which instantly creates a first impression. Freshly cut grass, potted plants on the porch and swept sidewalks look inviting making the potential buyer more interested in seeing what is inside. On the other hand, poorly trimmed shrubs or dying grass can turn a buyer away before they ever make it through the front door.

Pay for a plan: Do a little research and find a home stager to visit your home. Pay them for their consulting services and then provide the muscle and elbow grease to make the changes and improvements they recommend.

Main rooms first: Take the professional stager’s suggestions and work on the important rooms first. Most buyers are especially interested in the kitchen, main living areas, master bedroom and master bath. These are the rooms you definitely want to tackle. But remember, the first thing potential buyers see is the entry, so this should space should be equally important. Once the main rooms and the entry are done, make a minor changes and adjustments to the secondary rooms.

Know your audience: Stage your home to attract the type of buyers that are shopping in your neighborhood. Your house should suit the demographic of buyers. If most buyers are families with children, keep all the bedrooms as bedrooms. However, if many of the buyers are singles or couples without kids, stage one of the bedrooms as a home office or exercise room.

Screen appeal verses curb appeal: In today’s market, most home buyers research homes online before viewing the home in person. If you plan to post your home online, it is crucial that the house is staged and looking its best inside and out before the photos are taken. And, don’t try to get by with a cheap camera. Even a great looking home can look undesirable in a bad photo. If you’re trying to appeal to online shoppers, the photos will determine if potential buyers take the next step…viewing the house in person. 

Staging your home will make it stand out among the rest of the homes for sale in your neighborhood. Use these handy tips to help you stage you home resulting in a faster sale for you.

Tags: home staging, selling your house, staging your home

With spring right around the corner, many cities are holding Home and Garden shows. These shows are invaluable to homeowners as they present new products and services for homes and homeowners. Most shows cover everything inside and outside the home, and the best part is everything is under one roof. If there is a home and garden show coming to your area, The House Plan Shop recommends taking time to visit. These types of shows provide consumers with great buying opportunities, side-by-side comparisons between manufacturers and companies and competitive pricing on all services and products presented.

These are some of the things you might expect to find at your local show:

1.    Displays and booths exhibiting the latest in their fields:

·         Building products, tools and materials

·         Green products and energy efficient materials

·         Lawn and garden ideas, gadgets, products and gear

·         Interior design

·         Kitchen and baths

·         Pools and spas

2.    Seminars providing information about landscaping, energy efficiency, home design, green living, tax credits and much more.

3.    A wide variety of professionals willing to answer questions about gardening, landscaping, remodeling, building, interior design, organization and storage, and almost any other home-related questions you might have.

4.    Demonstrations on how to use new tools, install products, and choose the best products to satisfy your particular home and garden needs.

5.    Exhibits showcasing furniture, lighting, countertops and other home accessories.

6.    Experts giving pointers, tips and “how-tos” about everything from starting a flower or vegetable garden to operating a garage door or maintaining your new pool or hot tub.

7.    Professionals and companies marketing their home and garden services such as home landscaping, deck building and installation, painting, roof repairs, kitchen remodeling, power washing and more.

8.    Free samples, information and brochures from manufactures and exhibitors.

9.    Giveaways for everything from a gift card to a local hardware store to a free landscaping job for your own yard. Make sure to take time to register for drawings and giveaways. Someone is going to win; it might as well be you!

If you plan to attend a home and garden show near you, The House Plan Shop recommends checking ticket pricing and parking availability ahead of time. Sometimes discounted rates are available on weekdays as opposed to the busier weekend days. Also be sure to check the hours of the show as they may vary each day. Finally, attend the show with an open mind, plan to have fun and come home with new ideas for your home or the house you are planning to build.

Tags: home and garden show, tips

Are you tired of winter and looking forward to spring? Give yourself a cheerful boost in a matter of minutes.

Choose a sunny window in your home that you glance through often. Buy a bouquet of fresh cut flowers or make your own using some of spring’s early bloomers from your own yard. Arrange the flowers in a favorite vase and place it on your sunlit window ledge. Tie a ribbon around the vase for flair. Or, select a few small potted herbs or succulents to accompany the vase. Finally, add a small figurine or statuary that contributes an outdoorsy feel such as a ceramic turtle or mushroom or a concrete bird. 

In no time at all you’ll have a charming window-scape to remind you that sunny days and warmer weather is just around the corner.

Tags: Home Decorating, spring decorating idea

Alright, so you’ve decided to build your dream home. Part of your dream is to build a green home. So, what makes home building materials green?

First, consider price and availability. These two factors may ultimately determine just how green you decide to go during construction. If you find two fairly similar products, but one is out of your price range, you may be forced to go with the product that is slightly less green in terms of environmental friendliness because it fits your budget. Or perhaps you’ve found the perfect material for the job, but it is not available in your area. Again, you may have to settle for the other choice that is readily available but has a slightly less green quality. No matter what products and materials you choose or must settle for when you build your new home, one thing is for sure, even materials that have some green quality are better than those that have no green qualities at all. Keeping price and availability in mind, here are a couple tips to help you choose green building materials. 

·         Choose products that are green certified, especially those that have been tested by third parties and independent testing companies that have an unbiased opinion. Greenguard and Energy Star are two widely recognized and trustworthy programs that test for many different environmental standards. Energy Star is well known for their top-rated appliances and lighting.

·         Select local materials whenever possible. Shipping materials long distances is not as environmentally friendly as choosing those that do not have to be transported by train or boat and then by truck. Plan to buy locally saving energy and fuel.

·         Look for materials that are green and are manufactured by companies that follow green practices. How a product is made is just as important as what it is made from. Look for products that post green-practice statements on their websites.

·         Choose materials made of recycled content such as tile and countertops made of recycled glass.

·         Select cabinets and wood flooring made from North-American grown hardwoods such as maple that do not incorporate stains, pigments or solvents.

·         One of the best choices you can make is to buy products, such as furniture, that you plan to keep for a long time. Durable, sturdy, high quality products that last a long time in your home means there is less going to the landfill. Can you imagine what the landfills would look like if every household bought new mattresses or couches every year?

These handy tips will get your started when it comes to selecting green building materials for your new home.

Tags: building materials, green building

We’ve all been there. Somewhere along life’s journey, we’ve all have at least one drawer, counter, shelf or room in our home that seems to attract clutter. Many of us have more than one of these spaces. If you are planning to build a new home, take some time to review and consider the organizational elements listed below. Each element helps eliminate clutter and keeps the whole family organized. The House Plan Shop features many floor plans and home designs that incorporate at least one of these “de-clutter” elements.

Drop Zone – A drop zone is a handy space usually positioned near the garage entry or mudroom giving everyone in the family a place to “drop” personal items when they enter the home. A drop zone is meant to organize everything from car keys, purses and briefcases to umbrellas, baseball gloves and jackets. Generally, a drop zone offers a locker for each family member or a hook and shelf/bin combination. Lockers are especially nice because the doors can be closed hiding everything inside. With the hook and shelf/bin arrangement, you can hang things such as a jacket and cap, and the shelf or bin is used for storing other items, like a backpack. With a drop zone, everyone will know where their belongings can be found keeping jackets off the floor, purses off the counter and soccer shoes out of the middle of the foyer.

Cubbies in the Laundry Room – Laundry room cubbies are especially popular with larger families or in homes where the laundry room is on the main floor and all of the bedrooms are upstairs. Similar to the drop zone, each family member has his or her own cubbie or bin. This gives you a place to put clean and folded laundry allowing the children to pick up their own clothing and take it to their rooms to put away. This organizational idea will save you steps on wash day giving you a quick and easy place to store clean laundry without traveling all over your home to drop it off in its designated space. Also, it prevents leaving baskets of laundry all over the home.  Using laundry room cubbies offers an added bonus. They encourage each family member to be responsible for their own things.

Built-In Desk – Built-in desks are a common organizational element in many family homes. Most often they are found in or near the kitchen. Built-in desks provide the perfect place for a computer station allowing you to easily pay bills online. Place a small bin or basket on the desk to hold your mail. When it comes time to pay bills, everything will be in one place instead of strewn around the home with mail on the kitchen counter, in the bedroom and in the office. Other times, built-in desks are used for meal planning offering a great place for the family chef to review favorite recipes or look up new ones online. Overhead cabinets or drawers below work well for storing recipe books giving them a place of their own. Some families prefer to use a built-in desk as a charging station for cell phones, iPods, and the like. The desk is a safe place to leave these items as they charge and the drawers offer a place to tuck charging cables and cords out of sight when not in use. Next time you need to charge your cell phone, you won’t waste time looking for the charger.

As you browse The House Plan Shop’s extensive collection of home plans and floor plans, keep these organizational features in mind. Choose a design that offers the organizational elements that will best accommodate your family’s needs.

Tags: Home Organization