House Plan Blog

EUGENE, ORE.—April 2, 2019—Detached garages with granny flats, backyard guest cottages, pool houses, gazebos, and standalone workshops and hobby rooms all have several things in common—they’re accessory building structures that can add much needed living space and value to a residential property and they’re gaining in popularity.

Rick McAlexander, CEO of The House Plan Company, a residential design marketing company based in Oregon, defines an “accessory structure” as any type of living space on the property that is considered incidental to the primary dwelling structure.

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Building a new home is an exciting, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and selecting the perfect home design and floor plan to meet your family’s needs can be daunting, but it’s a critical step toward realizing your dream home.  

Rick McAlexander, CEO of Associated Designs, a leading residential design plan company based in Oregon, offers four important pieces of advice when choosing the right floor plan for new home construction.

1. Define the Goals of Your New Home

The first step in selecting the right home design, even before purchasing a building lot, is to determine the goals of your new home and create a “wish list” of the desired spaces, features and amenities based on your lifestyle. According to McAlexander, this...

Newswire —Feb. 1,2019—You are considering a new home and are stuck trying to figure out what style of living area will best work for you, your family, and the way that you live. Well ponder no further. The House Plan Company has prepared this helpful guide to the three main types of living areas and how they live.

The Vintage Layout: Separated Family and Entertaining Spaces

Formally defined spaces and separation between family and gathering spaces is the traditional approach to arranging the living area of a home. As showcased in the...

The need for your home to grow with you has been a long standing concern with homeowners. Moving is time consuming and expensive so without spending too much on a larger home finding ways to adapt the current space is critical.

Originally the solution for this problem was the bonus room. Smartly maximizing the additional space created by the truss system over the garage, the bonus room provided family’s with the opportunity to spread out as budget and lifestyle allowed.The pitfall with the bonus room is the need for stairs in homes that are otherwise on a single level and being tucked away over the garage can leave the room feeling detached from the rest of the house. For homeowners’ looking for a solution to their growing needs that isn’t as separated as the...