Archive for September, 2009

Interior Design Tips: Adding Eco-friendly Accessories Throughout the Home

Monday, September 28th, 2009

Around the home, there are several, simple interior design tips for incorporating organic home accessories. Best House Floor Plans compiled a short list of easy, low-budget design tips on dressing up the décor. Using sticks, stones, soy and organic elements, consider these interior design tips to decorate with eco-friendly home accessories.

The Entrance
At the door, the wood entwined wreath is a natural accoutrement to adorn an entrance. Whether it’s a store-bought door wreath or twigs handpicked from the lawn, this eco-friendly home accessory is a welcoming impression.

Interior design tip: If you decide to make your own twig door wreath, select up to 15-pliable twigs (10 to 14-inches in length). Use burlap to bundle the twigs. (Avoid brittle twigs).

Foyer
In the foyer, less is more. It takes just a single accessory to create an organic home accessory. For instance, pour filtered water into a glass vase. Next, configure a lucky bamboo plant in the vase. Centering the plant in place, drop various sized stones in the vase, covering the roots. This eco-friendly home accessory is low maintenance. It requires moderate light and a few drops of distilled or purified water– just twice a month.

The Kitchen
In the kitchen the edible centerpiece is multifunctional. It doubles as eye candy and as a healthy motivation to snack nutritionally.

Interior design tip: Take a massive, decorative wooden, rod iron or ceramic bowl and fill it with apples, oranges or pears. Be sure to buff the apples or pears, so they shine. And voila you have an edible centerpiece.

Great Room
Move over LED lighting, soy candles present another organic home accessory. What makes the soy candle so eco-friendly is that when it is extinguished, it releases few carcinogenic fumes. By day, unlit candles double as a functional piece of artwork. By night, they light up the room, instituting a flicker of illuminations.

For additional interior design tips, HousePlansandMore.com maintains a library of resources.

Related Articles:

Eco-Friendly Decortaing at Home

10 Eco-Friendly Products for Your Home

Organic Decorating for Today’s Modern Home

Decorating with Natural Elements

Home Buying Tips: Construction Loan Vs. All-in-one Construction Loans

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Home building financing questions and answers. Discover which financing is ideal for the construction of your new home.

How soon after I start building my new home should I obtain a home loan?

Actually, the first step to building a home is obtaining financing to cover the cost of building your new home. This is referred to as a construction loan.

Why is a construction loan necessary?
As building a home incurs a cornucopia of costs, homebuilders cannot afford to defer the expenses, correlated to building material, equipment and labor.  With a construction loan, the homeowner or borrower can pay for construction costs over the duration of completion.


Is a construction loan the same as a mortgage?

No, a construction loan ranges between six and to 12 months or for the duration of the construction. A separate home loan is needed once the home is built.

Are there any loans that cover the cost of building and financing my home?
Yes, these are known as “all-in-one construction loans.” They cover both the cost of building and maintaining the mortgage.

Is the construction loan less expensive than the all-in-one construction loan?
Actually, construction loans or two-time close construction loans tend to be more expensive than the all-in-one construction loan. Since two-time close construction loans call for several closings, one at the start and conclusion for refinancing the loan into a permanent home loan or mortgage, it accompanies a variation of costs.

Are there any advantages or drawbacks to the all-in-one construction loans?

The all-in-one construction loan is lauded for its convenience, meaning that it reduces overall closing costs. On the other hand, depending on the current interest rate, the all-in-one loan hinders a homeowner from shopping around for a better rate or loan.

If I select the all in one construction loan, do I have to pay interest during the home-build?

From lender-to-lender, the interest responsibility varies. The best all in one construction loan does not have an interest rate.

For additional home building construction click Home Plans and More.com.

Related Articles:

Builder Construction Loan

An Introduction to New Home Construction Loans

Getting A Construction Loan Vs A Mortgage Loan

How Construction Loans Work

Best Cottage Home Plans on the Internet

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

Featured Home Plan Style – Cottage Homes

Where to find the best cottage home plans on the Internet? Review these luxurious cottage home plans that we found on three top-rated home floor plan Web site resources.

Cottage home plans are commonly mistaken for domiciles short on style, space and luxury. Although these homes do not have the levels and depth of a Victorian home, these smaller abodes epitomize comfort and coziness. The history of the cottage home plan is traceable to the Middle Ages, where peasant farmers were housed.

Today, the cottage home plan has evolved into the ultimate vacation respite. Ideally, these dwellings are situated in close proximity to a forest, an ocean or even near a lake. But, regardless of the location, the interior features are just as important:

We found the best cottage home plans on the Internet:

At House Plans And More, we fell in love with this sprawling, duplex cottage home plan. An airy atmosphere of French doors, paneled windows and a portico leading to an exterior porch view of the lake, is so picturesque that it looks like a dwelling right out of Architectural Digest.

The “Church Street” Plan that we found at Cottage Home Plans was a manageable with 1470 square feet of space, two bedrooms, an observation sundeck, two covered porches and a built in fireplace. Regardless of what lays outdoors, this cottage house plan exudes eye-popping appeal.

Among the other best cottage home plans that we found on the Internet, the French, Tuscan, and English cottage homes that we found at VCHousePlans.com were to live for…and reminiscent of somewhere else in time.

In the weeks to come, we’ll investigate how to obtain financing for your dream home floor plan.

Related Articles:

Small Cottage House Plans

6 Basics to Cottage Style

Cottage Design Ideas

What is a Cottage-Style House?