The Home Design Handbook: The Essential Planning Guide for Building, Buying, or Remodeling a Home (Paperback)

by June Cotner Myrvang (Author), Steve Myrvang (Author) "No response is required..." (more)
Key Phrases: standard items that should, solar access, home landscaping, Color Qty, Home Landscaping, Kitchen Dining (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
The Myrvangs, owners of a Seattle architecture firm, have created a book that will help novices navigate the area of home design. Design is important to anyone building, buying, or renovating a house since a home is typically one's largest investment, and once it is built one must live in it. Readers are given a series of questions which are designed to help sort through the tremendous amount of detail involved. Checklists of items that typically need consideration in every home, both interior and exterior, are covered. This is not an essential purchase, but is recommended for public libraries with active building and renovation collections.
- Jonathan Hershey, Akron-Summit Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"An extraordinarily useful workbook for anyone planning a remodel or new construction project. The Myrvangs have taken a commonsense approach to everything from selecting a building site to figuring out what you want in your living spaces."-Seattle Times/Post-Intelligencer
-- Review

After remodeling fourteen houses we know one thing for certain. You have to know exactly what you want before you can describe it to a contractor. The exercises in this book help even indecisive homeowners translate their dreams and ideas into workable plans. -- Gene and Katie Hamilton, authors of How to Be Your Own Contractor and Don't Move-Improve!

Book Review by Katherine Oana This substantial book...covers every aspect of buying, building or renovating one's existing home. Everything you need to know and more is here in nontechnical language. The entry to the home, the living room, bathrooms, kitchen and bedrooms each have separate chapters. For homeowners looking to remodel, there is a focus on structural changes and other practical aspects. The age of the house, neighborhood, the cost of renovating vs. moving should be thoroughly investigated, say the authors. The information on working within a budget offers guidelines and questions. Would it save money to be your own contractor and if not, how to best work with a design professional? One outstanding section is that on energy conservation.

This design handbook closes the distance between homeowner, the would-be homeowner and the professional. It provides thoughtful questions to ask and how to get the most for your money. The average individual would never know how to proceed in buying, building or restructuring an older home without guesswork and mistakes. This book supplies the information. For homeowners who wish to delve more deeply into technical information, the annotated bibliography offers sources with more detailed descriptions.

If you want your home to reflect your lifestyle and personal tastes, this book is convenient and comprehensive. -- Beacon Journal, August 3, 1992

I enjoyed this book enormously. It fills a real need and is a great way to communicate your needs and wishes to an architect or contractor before it's too late. -- Fayal Greene, author of Anatomy of a House

So, you've bought that lot and want to build on it. Or, you love your home, but it needs an addition or a remodel. "The Home Design Handbook" is a handy book of questions that need answering before you contemplate any work on a house. Is the lot geologically stable? Which way do you want the house to face? Are there enough windows on each side of the house so that the interior isn't bathed in shade certain times of the day? What about the basement you want to turn into a guest room? Or that remodeled kitchen or bath? (These are the two costliest rooms to redo and cost even more to undo if they're inefficiently or incorrectly remodeled.) These questions are so basic they're the easiest to overlook. I found myself saying, "Hmmm, I didn't think of that."

The book is subtitled "The essential planning guide for building, buying, or remodeling a home," and indeed it is. Its chapters contain lists, questions and plenty of space to write in ideas and plans. -- San Francisco Chronicle, July 8 1992

The Home Design Handbook is an extraordinarily useful workbook for anyone planning a remodel or new construction project. -- The Sunday Seattle Times/Post Intelligencer, April 26, 1992

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Holt Paperbacks; 1st edition (April 15, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805018336
• ISBN-13: 978-0805018332
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #438,508 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars thinks of everything - very personalized!, August 10, 1999

By A Customer

This book looks at home design from a wholistic approach as well as up close and personal. It focuses on your hopes and dreams and the soul of your home to give you true satisfaction with your design. It includes such things as site, energy considerations, family's lifestyle, outdoors and indoors, and budget. With the guidance of this book you can plan to build a house from scratch or remodel an existing house to your taste and needs. Each room in the house is taken into consideration in detail, right down to the storage space, with photos and floor plans. Useful addresses and an extensive bibliography are given for your further exploration. This book is fantastic, especially because it gives you the freedom to custom design your dream house. Much of it is in the form of a workbook, with blanks to fill in. After going through all the forms, it will become clear to you what you need to do to achieve your goals.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for home buyers!, September 26, 1999

By A Customer

We found The Home Design Handbook to be an excellent resource as we searched for our home. The questions and exercises helped us narrow down and prioritize what we wanted (and did not want) in our home. Even the information intended for those who plan to build or renovate a house, covered issues that we found important considerations for anyone buying an existing home. For example, we learned alot about what to watch for to ensure the house was more energy efficient, inside and out. We felt we were better educated buyers with this great book!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly lists - a workbook, January 31, 2004

By	Thomas E. Hess (Lafayette, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Most of the book is literally pages filled with questions about what you want in a home, with blank space to write in your answers. There are a few suggestions that all somehow end up pointing at similar designs. The filled out book would be given to an architect to start a design. Very good for someone who needs a formal structure to decide what is needed. If you've already throught seriously about what you want, this book will waste your time.