Just as important as deciding on that perfect house plan for you and your family is the decision of where to build your dream home! Begin by selecting a building site or lot that is compatible with your home plan, or choose the home plan that works great for your site. Would you like to live on a private lot or in a subdivision? Check with your town’s building department to confirm that your lot is zoned accurately and that your home will fit within the allowable setbacks. Also, verify any other restrictions that may be in place. You must decide the best placement of your home while following all codes and guidelines. Consider the conditions and the terrain. What are the levels of the land, and how does the movement of the water over the surface of the soil affect your home? What are the views of and from your home and the way it is built on your site. Another issue to weigh is the location in the general community you wish to live. Is it near work, schools, church, shopping, restaurants, activities and other places that are important to you and your family? You may want to check on the utilities for your area as well. Is public water available and in what capacity or is well drilling necessary? What are the choices for the electric and/or natural gas services? Are there sewer lines available to the property, or is it necessary to install a septic system? These are just a few factors to consider when deciding where to build your perfect house plan. A little pre-planning is a great idea and makes the exciting process of seeing your dream home come to life a little easier! So, start your search today!

Paint—Welcome to the Wonderful World of Color! Psychologists have long attested that colors signify meanings and effect peoples’ moods. There are so many colors and shades to choose from. How do you decide what is right for you? First, decide what mood or theme you want to set in each room of your new home. Also, you can use paint as a great way to accent a room just by painting one wall or trimming out the molding in a hint of color. Red: is a vibrant, rich color. It is stimulating and draws attention. Red even demands attention! Reds are used to accent doors, walls, niches, and shutters. It provides that perfect pop of color. If you are searching for the “wow factor”, red is your answer! Orange: is a warm, fun, splashy color. There are so many lovely shades from a pale peach to a perfect pumpkin! The tint of terra cotta is a most popular selection. Orange is just inviting! Yellow: is associated with sunshine. It is related to happiness and cheer. With a golden hue to an electric hue, yellow offers a wide range of choices. Yellow also is an energetic color. Blue: is calming and cooling, and it is fresh and clean. Blue is generally considered the most favored color. It is a favorite among men and women. Blue is associated with the awesome sky and cascading ocean. It is widely used in bedrooms, because it is restful. Green: is considered calming and relaxing and even soothing. It is ranked generally as the second most popular or favored color second only to blue. Varying shades of green (a natural forest tint) are tranquil and other shades (a hint of lime) are refreshing. Green is a color linked with harmony and even a sense of renewal. Purple: with it’s red and blue base evokes a sense of uplift or encouragement. It is full of vibrancy and life. Purple is considered a color of royalty as well. Brown: is often related to the colors of the earth. You may have heard the description of “earthy brown”. It is considered a color of stability and reliability. It is associated with organic, natural things. A “down-to-earth” color you might say! It is relaxing and peaceful too. Brown is a wholesome hue. White: (actually the absence of all color) is symbolic of cleanliness and purity. White reflects all the colors of light. It is both fresh and refreshing at the same time. White is neutral. Gray: is considered solid. It is a widely used base color in varying shades. It mixes well when paired with other colors and complements them too. Black: is actually not a color. It is the combination of all colors. Black absorbs all the other colors and light. It makes a bold, powerful statement and can be considered serious. Black is often a great choice for doors and shutters. When choosing your perfect house plan, consider your perfect paint to complete your new home design both inside and out! Start your search for your dream home plan today at www.houseplancentral.com. HousePlanCentral.com offers thousands of premier house plans!

Kitchens have long been acknowledged as the “Heart of the Home”! Kitchens are one of the most important features when building or buying your home. The kitchen is not only the work space for food preparation, but also today’s entertaining areas. This is where people take the time out of a busy, hectic day to share a meal and spend time with family. You could say the kitchen is where memories are made! Remember those wonderful Sunday dinners at Grandma’s?! Kitchens also offer a great benefit for a home’s resale value. So when choosing your house plan, choose the design with the kitchen--that is right for you! The most efficient design for a kitchen is to create a work triangle between your sink, stove, and refrigerator. This will give you room for food preparation, cooking, clean up, and storage. Islands are a great functional feature (with all the counter space, possibly including a vegetable sink, and extra cabinetry for storage )that also makes a perfect space for entertaining! Consider the following kitchen layouts so you can decide which right for you: Galley style: The corridor approach of a galley kitchen lengthens your available space, making it ideal for a small kitchen. This style provides lots of counter space around the sink and the cooking areas and enables the work stations to be placed together, usually on parallel walls. The best work arrangement for a galley kitchen places the refrigerator and sink on one wall and the stove on the opposite wall. L-Shape: The 2 adjacent walls in an L-shape kitchen form a natural triangle for your work space. An L-shape layout works well in almost any size kitchen. It has diverse flexibility in the arrangement of your sink, stove, and refrigerator. U-Shape: The U is an efficient design since it provides three walls for counter and storage space. It also prevents household traffic from interfering in the work space. If you have a large kitchen, you may want to consider adding an island to your kitchen for even more work space. The U is great for this! HousePlanCentral.com offers thousands of varying styles of kitchens. Please visit us today to start your search for your perfect home plan!

Go Green! We hear so much about “Go Green”. What exactly is going green? To “go green” simply involves environmentally conserving our resources and improving the state of our environment. One of the obvious great benefits of going green is to save our environment and resources making our earth a better, safer place to live now and for the future. There are so many items and categories that offer green choices today. These choices are smarter choices that offer an environmentally friendly advantage as well as money and resource savings. Energy efficient appliances, light bulbs and lighting, housebuilding materials and designs, bamboo and other types of flooring, window coverings of blinds and shades, furniture, solar powered fans and electronics, bedding, candles, clothing, cleaning solutions and yes, even personal hygiene products that are “green”. In any category that you may be needing an item, make a wise “green” choice! With many of the green products and services, you may receive an instant savings or rebate. So whatever product or service you are looking for, check on the “green” version. Make a wise, green choice today! HousePlanCentral.com offers many home plans with “green” consideration in the design and features. Feel free to visit www.houseplancentral.com to begin the search for your house plan that makes a green home today! We offer free ground shipping!

Custom Closets (A Functional Room Decorating Idea!) Create warmth, depth, and design in any room just by framing out your closets as cabinetry! The doors to the closets may be created with paneled blocks that resemble actual custom cabinets; yet, the inside of the closets are arranged exactly as you choose. With numerous wood, metal, and laminate finishes you are able to design the room exactly as you wish. By choosing the right finish and material, you are able to begin your decorating before adding a piece of furniture or stitch of material. A variety of trim patterns and hardware make you the interior designer indeed. Install custom shelving, rods, bins, and drawers to meet your individual needs. What a great way for organizing while decorating your room at the same time! Don’t forget your garage is a room too! Complete the look of the garage with cabinetry, shelving, and storage. You may choose to have the organizers installed at the time your home is built, or it is a great do-it-yourselfer project. Just visit your local home improvement store and select the pieces that appeal to you and your organizational needs. HousePlanCentral.com offers many house plans with customized features. When selecting the house plan that is right for you and your family, keep in mind the “living” features of the home. What house plan actually works for you? A home plan that offers what you need and the style you want is ideal! HousePlanCentral.com offers a modification tool that you can actually draw your proposed changes. Please visit www.houseplancentral.com today, and choose your perfect home plan. We offer free standard ground shipping as well!

Part II of the "Why buy stock house plans vs. custom" article has been posted on the site here....

New article has been added to the site here....

Part II of the article can be found here ...

Remember to always email us if a particular homeplan package is shown as being "Not Available" on the site....

Most house plan designers offer a variety of plan "packages" to better fit our customer's specific needs.

There are packages specifically meant to provide additional information, for review purposes only.....there are packages that allow you to obtain CAD file sets which can then be modified by a designer in your area, to exactly fit your specific needs....and there are many other "packages" that allow you to purchase the type that best fits your needs..

As such, we have developed a short article to better explain the different types of floorplan packages, and when to use each....

Part I can be found here

We've finished the third portion of the "Most Popular Homeplan Features" article , and you can view here

If you have ideas for other articles that you'd like to see, drop us an email at webmaster@houseplancentral.com

I wanted to let everyone know that we've just completed Part II of our article series on the "Most Popular Homeplan Features" . Be sure to check it out, as several of the items may be helpful as you look for features that you would like in your new home plan...

You can view it here

Stay tuned for part III....

One of the most popular questions, by far, that we receive from our customers is "What are the most popular houseplan features?"

This is a very difficult question to answer, since the most popular features vary so greatly between demographic groups....between different parts of the country, etc...

In any case, we thought it appropriate to develop a series of articles devoted to this topic, and here is part one of the "Most popular house plan features" series.

Stay tuned for part II and III....

Over the coming months, our team will be developing a series of educational articles focused on providing you with the information that you need...quickly and concisely.

As such, if there are any particular topics that you would like to see addressed, send us an email at webmaster@houseplancentral.com.

Thanks....