custom built home plans in brookline | Colony Home Improvement

Benefits of Building a Garage Apartment in Brookline, MA

February 2, 20160

Is a garage apartment part of your custom built home plans?

Custom built home plans should include a garage apartment.

Space needs often change over time, requiring residents to either upsize or downsize a home. A garage apartment can be an ideal way to meet those changing space requirements, whether you’re considering room additions in Brookline or looking to downsize. A garage apartment can be as simple or luxurious as you choose to make it. It can be designed to serve as a temporary living space, for long-term living, as a home office or as recreational space, depending on your needs.

More Living Space

Families often grow and change, sometimes in unexpected ways. A tough economy has led to an increase in the number of adult children returning to live at home after college. Sometimes young married couples return to parents’ homes while saving up to buy their own house. Perhaps it is time for an aging parent to join the household. Choosing a garage apartment over room additions in Brookline has the advantage of privacy and a greater degree of independence for the soon-to-be residents. That can make the living arrangement more comfortable for everyone involved.

Guest Quarters

A garage apartment is an excellent option for short-term or long-term guests. If you have visitors who come during the holidays or vacation season, they can enjoy the visit without the added expense of staying in a hotel. If you’re building a home, you may want to include a garage apartment in your custom built home plans in Brookline. When your in-laws come to stay or your adult children visit home with their own children, the ones you’ll want to spoil and send back to their parents, you’ll have the space you need.

Room additions can include a garage apartment.

Consider a garage apartment for your room additions.

Special Use

If you have a specific use in mind for your garage apartment addition, talk to your local southeastern MA home improvement contractor. They can help you custom design the space to create exactly what you need. For instance, if you are envisioning an art studio, sewing room or home office, natural lighting, smart space-saving storage and built-in amenities can maximize productivity and comfort.

You could use a garage apartment to increase your income by designing a rental unit with your local contractor design. This apartment can be designed with an entrance separate from your garage entry for maximum privacy for the tenant and you. Using a skilled professional builder is important for this type of project because vehicle fumes must not make their way into tenant living space. Be sure to check local zoning laws before making this investment.

Ready to Down-Size

If you are ready to downsize, you might want to do the opposite – custom design an easy-to-care for, low-maintenance garage apartment for yourself and rent out your house. That home rental could significantly add to monthly retirement income for seniors who no longer want or need all that space. This arrangement can be a creative way to reduce monthly expenses or increasing monthly income without having to increase weekly work hours.

Designing Your Own Home in Brookline, MA? What Comes First, Land Purchase or House Design?

January 26, 20160

Are you thinking about designing your own home.

Designing your own home requires careful attention to detail.

When working with skilled eastern MA premier home builders, your custom built home can be a success, whether you obtain your land first or design your home plans first. However, your decision regarding which to do first can have an impact on how smoothly the overall process goes from start to finish. It can determine whether you have to make design compromises. There are many factors at play in this sort of project and lots of planning to be done so the order of operations does matter when designing your own home in Brookline, MA.

Major Factors to Consider

Zoning and land use laws can impact the type and style of home you can build on a parcel of land, as well as whether you can even build there at all. When selecting land to buy, you’ll need to have a clear understanding of all applicable zoning laws and land use regulations. Guiding covenants can also apply to the way land is used, such as limiting the removal of trees to a certain percentage of the tree population on the parcel, specifics about how far structures must be from property lines, perhaps significantly farther than local building ordinances demand, and rules about utility or access easements. All of those things can impact custom built home plans in Brookline and the surrounding region.

If you design your home before you acquire your land, that can make finding the right land a more daunting task. Not only do you have to find a property that works to satisfy all the bureaucratic demands, but that land will also have to work topographically with your design. Certain types of homes, for example, work better in flat open land spaces than on land with rolling hills. Slope and water drainage may make positioning a home within a lot’s legally buildable space difficult. However, without having an idea of your basic home plan, choosing the right land for your eastern MA premier home builders to construct your dream home can be difficult.

Consider the property regulations in your custom built home plans.

Custom built home plans need to consider the property too.

Take a Different Approach

Instead of choosing one or the other to do first, take the middle road in designing your own home in Brookline, MA. See it as the dynamic, fluid project it is. Come up with a basic design, then look for land within your budget, distance from work and other essential elements. Then, add further depth and detail to your custom built home plans in Brookline, shaping those plans so your home works with the topography of the land and all laws, regulations and restrictions associated with the land parcel or building lot. When you use eastern MA premier home builders offering 3D design technology, you get a better view of how tweaks to your custom home plan will look and function, making the process a lot easier.

Contact us for further information about how 3D design technology can help you efficiently bring together land purchase planning and custom home designing, reducing the difficulties in making your dream home a tangible and pleasurable reality.

How to Make a Small Bathroom in Brookline, MA, Appear Larger

January 14, 20160

Create more bathroom space with custom built home plans.

Custom built home plans can help create more bathroom space.

If your Brookline, MA, ranch style house plan features a small bathroom, there are a number of ways to make it look and feel larger. Some of these techniques can be accomplished primarily through decoration choices, including the use of light and color to create visual effects that enhance the sense of spaciousness. With others, you may want to consult contractors for bathroom additions in eastern MA. A few simple changes to a building plan or some light remodeling can make a huge difference.

Let There Be Light

Light is the best way to create the sense of spaciousness, even in a small area. Natural lighting, when possible, is a great choice. Large windows, skylights and sun tunnels all can help a small bathroom look bigger. For the best results, try to avoid having a big window look like a wall. Think sheer for curtains so the light can pour in to open that space. Consider a sky light or sun tunnel in the shower or over the tub for your custom built home plans in Brookline.

Use large mirrors, glass tiles, pale colors and shimmering metal fixtures to capture and reflect light. Plan your lighting to eliminate dark corners or spaces without being harsh. A well-planned system of recessed lighting can help accomplish that goal. Talk to your local contractors for bathroom additions in eastern MA about light placement and fixtures that can enhance the feel of your bathroom space.

Open, Airy, Delicate

Avoid anything boxy, closed in or bulky in construction. Choose a graceful pedestal sink over a cabinet style. Wrought iron and open glass shelving, delicate vintage-look fixtures and an open floor plan can work together to make a small bathroom look and feel larger. Don’t break the space with high contrast color patterns. Stay within the same light color scheme for the walls, ceiling and floor. Try to use glass doors instead of a shower curtain. If that’s not an option, consider a clear or barely there sheer shower curtain.

Make small changes with the help of contractors for bathroom additions.

Contractors for bathroom additions can help you make many changes.

Direct the Eye

Make decorating choices aimed at taking the gaze where you want it to go. Vertical stripes and tall narrow shelves will take the eye upward, helping to create the illusion of height and space. Two large mirrors strategically placed opposite of each other can make a small room look as though it goes on forever. Place a large mirror across from a large window to bring in a wide open sky. Think about bathroom window placement when making a Brookline, MA, ranch style house plan.

Create Space

When creating your custom built home plans in Brookline, consider adding recessed storage spaces to your bathrooms. Don’t forget to add soft lighting to those spaces, both for practicality’s sake and for ambient space enhancing lighting. For a small bathroom, pocket doors and sliding doors eliminate the need to calculate swing space, allowing more flexibility in how you choose to arrange the room.

Interested in enhancing the bathrooms in your home? Contact us to learn more about custom home plans in Brookline and smart bathroom design.

Tips for Designing a Comfortable, Functional Brookline, MA, Home Office

December 8, 20150

Include an office in your custom built home plans.

Your custom built home plans should include an office.

Whether you’re giving up the office commute or starting a home-based business, your home office design should start with a carefully thought out plan for creating a work environment that suits your particular needs. Home offices are typically created as a room addition, a room conversion or a multi-purpose room re-design.

The increasing need for room additions for Brookline and the surrounding towns has given contractors plenty of experience in designing home offices. No matter how you create your office space, here are a few tips to help you get the most functionality and comfort built into your design.

A Designated Work Space

One of the biggest disadvantages to working from home is the distraction from the rest of the household and its associated responsibilities. Obviously, having a separate room is ideal, but utilizing a corner section in your guest room or family room is a good second option. Built-in work areas with desk surfaces and storage are easily accomplished. Sliding screens can also be installed to enclose the space for more privacy.

Surface Space

Some people require nothing more than a small free-standing desk for their laptop. Others need lots of space to spread out their work. When designing your home office as part of your custom built home plans in Brookline, designers encourage homeowners to plan the room around the actual square footage of surface space needed for all your work requirements. Many home office designs accommodate work surfaces that can serve many purposes, such as a weekend family hobby or the kids’ school projects.

If you're consider room additions, think about a home office.

Home offices make great room additions.

Built-Ins

When it comes to storage, few people ever have enough! Home offices tend to accumulate many items that are best tucked away in storage so whether you’re designing your home office space as a room addition, a room conversion or into custom built home plans in Brookline, adequate storage should be a key component. In this situation, built-ins are the way to go.

Built-ins reduce the look of clutter and can free up floor space for an additional project table and a comfortable reading chair. Wherever space will accommodate, consider custom-built areas of shelving, recessed file drawers, custom-built cabinets for supply storage and even additional pull out work surfaces.

Lighting

A great advantage to working from home as opposed to a commercial office is you can avoid the dreaded fluorescent lighting and satisfy your ideal lighting. Illuminating a home office requires adequate and often specialized lighting.

Natural light is the optimal source of illumination. If possible, arrange the space where your desk and work area will maximize the most natural light. If you opt for a room addition in Brookline and the surrounding towns, consider enlarging an existing window or even installing a new window. Research your ambient and task lighting options carefully and get recommendations from your designer or builder. Whatever you choose, don’t skimp on lighting!

Your home office should provide space to focus and maximize your productivity. It should also be a place you are comfortable spending time in. As experts in Massachusetts premier home remodeling and additions, we will design a functional home office space that meets your requirements and your budget. Contact us for a consultation.

Modern Trends for an Outdoor Living Space as Part of Your Home Addition

May 12, 20150

Use custom built home plans for outdoor spaces.

Custom built home plans can create beautiful outdoor spaces.

When most people think of a home addition, they consider adding to their interior living space. However, contractors for home additions in Brookline and the surrounding areas can help you create custom built home plans that add outdoor living space as well. During the summer, having this type of living space can greatly improve your quality of life.

Effective Lighting

Just because the sun goes down doesn’t mean you have to head inside. With your outdoor room addition, choosing the right lighting can create an ambience that makes spending time outdoors after dark more enjoyable. In addition, the lighting you use in your new outdoor living space can work to draw the eye to certain features, as well as make it easy to see what you’re doing. In some cases, this may involve installing several types of lighting to serve each purpose individually.

Comfortable seating outdoors can be a great home addition.

An outdoor home addition can create comfortable seating.

A Comfortable Seating Area

Most people who want an exterior room addition have a nice seating area in mind where they can relax, spend time with family and friends and enjoy the outdoors. When you work with contractors for home additions in Brookline and the surrounding areas, they can help you create a comfortable place to sit and enjoy the feel of relaxing in the open air. You will be able to choose from a number of elegant seating options, as well as layouts that will help feed the conversation and allow you to enjoy the surrounding landscape.

Ask contractors for home additions about an outdoor kitchen.

Contractors for home additions can make an outdoor kitchen.

Consider a Kitchen

Whether you often grill outdoors or you’d like to give it a try, one of the most popular outdoor living trends is an outdoor kitchen. These kitchens often include a highly functional grill or outdoor stove top, along with other popular kitchen features, such as a small refrigerator, cabinets and countertops. Your custom built home plans will allow you to create a kitchen space outdoors so you can easily prepare meals without having to leave your guests out on your patio or other outdoor living space alone.

A room addition doesn’t have to be limited to the interior of your home. While adding more living space inside may have its benefits, creating new outdoor living space can be just as functional and help you enjoy some time outdoors as well. When you follow these latest outdoor living space trends, you will be able to enjoy the outdoors in new ways, whether you spend time outside as a family or entertaining friends

If you’re interested in expanding your outdoor living space, contact us. Our Massachusetts contractors can help you plan and carry out a functional living space in your own back yard.

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