Product Description
A perennial best seller, this new edition features the most popular portfolios and brand-new plans from the nation’s top designers. This encyclopedic showcase has been completely revised and updated to reflect the new century in style and design. Rugged mountain retreats to Eurpoean estates, you’ll find the perfect size and style home to fit you and your family’s needs. Begin your tour with Best-Selling Homes, a full-color chapter featuring some of the most be… More >>
Encyclopedia of Home Designs: 500 House Plans from 1,000 to 6,300 Square Feet
#1 by Boraxo on May 7, 2010 - 1:53 pm
We are planning to build our own home to replace a teardown on a suburban lot. Since I have zero experience in homebuilding, I bought half a dozen books through Amazon. This is one of the more useful ones.
You will find an endless number of home designs and floorplans, much better than some of the more expensive books written by architects. There are plans for many types of “normal” homes – the kind that most of us want AND more importantly can actually afford to build. It would be nice to have more info, i.e. color photos for each of the actual homes, particularly interiors, but probably not enough space in a book of 500 plans (one per page) that sells this cheap.
My main critique is the lack of home designs that appear to be appropriate for California suburbs – most of the designs look best suited for east coast or midwest, or maybe huge tracts with a lot of space. Also too many designs with garages that face the side of the house – many people don’t have lots that can accomodate a driveway that big. Also many of the windows are funky and the designs should include more back door/deck/pool options (doesn’t everyone want a pool or at least a nice yard?) rather than the heavy emphasis on front yards design (again – many people don’t have that kind of space).
But overall I think that amateurs like myself who are looking for design ideas for building a home won’t be disappointed. And the book provides easy instructions for ordering blueprints – with very reasonable prices.
Rating: 4 / 5
#2 by Chris Sellick on May 7, 2010 - 3:51 pm
A huge book full of various floor plans for most budgets and tastes.There are many floorplans here.I’m sure you will find something you like.A great book.
If you are buying books on floorplans then add this one to your collection.Its good value for the price.I also recommend this book too:
1)”The ultimate book of home plans”,By Creative homeowner.
Rating: 4 / 5
#3 by Joseph S. Maresca on May 7, 2010 - 5:58 pm
This work is excellent if you are planning to build a home
and specific sets of blueprints are required. The authors
provide every kind of schematic for comparative home designs
in America and in Europe. This book could probably save you thousands of dollars in architectural fees if you know how
to use and apply it.
Rating: 5 / 5