A Blueprint for Better Building
(Page 2 of 5)
August/September 2005
By Steve Maxwell
The second important design feature is aesthetics. Beautiful land deserves structures that look attractive to family, friends and passersby. Will your property look better with the building you’ve envisioned? If not, go back to the drawing board. And while you do, understand that great aesthetics aren’t achieved primarily with money. The most cash-strapped rural family I’ve met had a beautiful home that was always immaculately tidy and attractive. They built it themselves on the shore of a lake, following classical design ideas and working diligently to keep the house’s exterior painted in the most vivid colors imaginable. These folks didn’t have much money, but visiting their home was like stepping into a colorful fairy tale.
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Will the reality of your new structure live up to the potential of the design? This is the third key to success, and it relates to the amount of care and workmanship you apply to the task. With the much-improved tools and materials available today, you can expect to achieve results that are every bit as good as a professional’s. It’s going to take you a little longer to get the job done, but understand that outstanding quality is within your reach, and you’ll be glad you made the effort once the project is complete. Believe that it’s possible, and then work accordingly.
Model for Success
While there’s no shortage of computer programs that I could have chosen to create a virtual model for building my shop, I opted for pieces of foam board — the ideal low-tech homestead modeling material (corrugated cardboard can make a good substitute). Foam board is a sandwich of semirigid open-cell foam glued between two layers of pasteboard. It’s about three-sixteenths inch thick and available at office and art supply outlets everywhere. Foam board slices easily with a sharp utility knife and holds together with just about any kind of glue. Use it for your model’s walls and roof panels; fasten them to a plywood base and then stand back to see how your building will look (see photo in Image Gallery).
The greatest value of a scale model is the peace of mind it offers you. Once you’ve settled on a shape you like, you can build the full-size version with complete confidence. You won’t have any nasty surprises such as misjudging the size, shape and placement of windows because you’ve already “seen” the final design proportions.
But before you cut any foam board, start sketching ideas on graph paper. This helps determine the overall floor area and roof slope. These are the most important design parameters of any building, and they’re worth the effort it takes to fine-tune them. Depending on the size of your structure, you’ll find one or two graph paper squares per foot is a useful scale. Make a list of all the equipment or functions you want to include in the building, and then draw them on the floor plan. This way, you can be sure everything will fit.
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