As minor as they might seem, nails are what hold much of a house together. Only galvanized nails should be used on exposed materials, both inside and out. Unless the house is roofed over immediately, a sudden downpour could cause regular steel nails to rust and streak the surfaces in just one night.

If your walls will have studs with 24-inch o.c. (on center) placements instead of 16-inch o.c. as recommended, nailers will have to be installed so drywall or plaster lathing can be securely attached. Nailers are small 2- by 4-inch or 2- by 6-inch blocks attached perpendicular to the studs, in between pairs of studs. The nailers will also give extra support and stiffness to the walls and will act as a fireblock to discourage flames from spreading throughout a wall. Read more...

This kind of house space has had its ups and downs over the years. Wrongly positioned, stairways — like hallways — can rob otherwise useful living and working space from any floor plan. To avoid this wasted effort, stairways should be constructed one on top of another whenever possible.

Even though you’ve probably heard a lot of nice things about the spiral stairway, don’t believe all of them. Although this setup, which takes approximately 4 by 4 feet of floor space, is the most compact arrangement you can have, it’s also the most expensive, inconvenient, and dangerous. The novelty quickly wears off. Ask anyone who has had to raise children around a spiral. Read more...

There are no tricks to designing functional bedrooms, but a frequent mistake is to have a poor bed location in relation to the bedroom’s traffic pattern. Because bedrooms usually have at least several doors — the entrance door from a hallway, closet doors in various arrangements, and possibly a door to a private bathroom, dressing room, or even to an adjoining child’s nursery — these entranceways make continuous wall space for furniture, including the bed, hard to find.

Typical bedroom traffic patterns are from the main bedroom door to the bathroom, clothes closet, or dresser, in that order of frequency. If you have to walk around the end of the bed to reach any of these places, you’ll have an awkward traffic pattern. When laying out each bedroom make sure there’s a place to locate the bed or beds that won’t result in the creation of obstacle courses.

An unused “secondary” bedroom is ideal for guests. If you expect frequent visitors, consider equipping such a bedroom with an attached bath for privacy. Try to have the heating and cooling for this bedroom zoned for energy savings.

The typical modern american house consists of at least six main types of areas:

1. Living and Recreation Space. In any one dwelling, this can include a living room, family room, den, library, music room, sun-room, or other rooms and niches planned for entertainment, relaxation, hobbies, or study.
2. Food Preparation Space. The kitchen ranks number one here, followed by additional food storage areas such as nearby walk-in pantries and “satellite” serving platforms, bars, and grills conveniently located in family rooms and other living and recreational spaces. Read more...
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Kitchens are great places for accessories. Living rooms and dining rooms can have you scratching your head for ideas, but kitchens will have you wondering how to decide on what to use. There is just so much that you can do with a kitchen. Accessory items range from under-cabinet lighting to pan racks and space-saver appliances. In addition to visible accessories, there are dozens of possibilities for improving the use of cabinets with slide-out racks, bins, and assorted accessories.

Under-cabinet lighting is, in my opinion, a valuable kitchen accessory. Not only is it functional, it adds to the appearance of a room. This type of lighting doesn't have to be expensive, and doesn't require an electrician for installation. Many types of under-cabinet lighting are designed to plug into a standard outlet. Having the lighting hard-wired is better, but if your budget is small, the plug-in types are better than nothing.Read more...