New Home Design features Granny Flat!

Simply Elegant Home Designs is now offering a new house plan featuring an above garage "granny flat" apartment - The "Deepha...

Readmore »

The Value of an Architect 2 - Architects have great Tools!

A recent project I am working on at Ron Brenner Architects gives me another example of how a good designer can add value to a project. The...

Readmore »

The Value of an Architect

While at my regular job - Ron Brenner Architects  - I received a phone call a few days ago. It was from someone who had been designing thei...

Readmore »

Ron Brenner Architects creates new Cottage House Plan

Ron Brenner Architects is creating a new design for the Cottagewood division of Kyle Hunt & Partners. The design is characterized by ...

Readmore »

Architects Suck?

I had quite a long conversation with a very nice fellow the other day. I’ll call him Tom, the owner of another pre -designed house plan com...

Readmore »

Home Design Ideas - Split the Garage!

At Ron Brenner Architects , I am currently working with a client on a new home design to be constructed in Rochester, MN.  Here we have run ...

Readmore »

House Plans - Build it yourself

In the "old days" people used to build their own houses. Many would buy a set of house plans and the construction materials from t...

Readmore »

Builders Get Fresh!

Today I have a commentary written by Jim Kirkland - a good friend of mine, and multi-talented individual who has been in the building busine...

Readmore »

Design Value - Rustic Cottage House Plan

It's been a while since my last posting. Been busy over the holidays. Also, I have been working on a couple of new interesting projects....

Readmore »

Efficient Framing for House Plans

Fine Homebuilding has a new article on the future of framing house plans. For many years we have been framing houses basically the same way...

Readmore »

Design Challenge for a 2000 SF House Plan

Lately I have been getting inquiries for modestly sized new home designs that feature main floor master bedrooms. A search of the web revea...

Readmore »

Finding Design Inspiration in Old Houses

My better half and I just got back home from a short trip to the Napa Valley area. We don't really go for the wine, although that'...

Readmore »

Rio 2016 Olympic Images

This post is not related to house plans or home design but I thought would be interesting for everyone. As you know Rio De Janeiro has been...

Readmore »

Light Emitting Wallpaper

Jonas Samson, an interior designer from the Netherlands has created a new kind of wallpaper that is also a light source. The paper has a li...

Readmore »

Cookie Cutter House Plans

I live in  the  Twin Cities area of Minneapolis / St.Paul ,  where we have one of the  largest Parade of Home tours in the country.  Eve...

Readmore »

It's Time to Build!

Almost every day I ask myself why more people are not taking advantage of this crazy building market.  By crazy I mean this is a ridiculous ...

Readmore »

Interior Design with Sketchup

Simply Elegant Home Designs is now using Google Sketchup to better describe the interior design elements of their house plans.   Ron Brenne...

Readmore »

The Mudroom

The mudroom has become an increasingly important space in home design. This space has transitioned over the years from nothing more than a ...

Readmore »

Update to top 10 house plan sites

Some time ago I posted my opinion of the top 10 web places to find good house plans.  I have now updated that posting by dropping in one new...

Readmore »

Its the Energy Stupid!

I ran across this criticism of Architects and the green movement the other day.   http://www.buildingscience.com/documents/insights/bsi-007-...

Readmore »