DIY: Design your own home

Even though you think you may never be able to build your own home, things can change. And designing your perfect home is an excellent way to visualize being in a home of your own design and to figure out what you really like and want in a home.  You may want to check prices on some of the features you select--there's a delicate balance between visualizing and dreaming.

There are some excellent ways to plan a home available online.  Autodesk's Homestyler is 3D mock-up app with near-reality visual results.

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Autodesk, sample kitchen, Homestyler

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Plan 3D offers many design options, including decks and landscaping, and costs 2.95/month for a yearly subscription.

If you'd rather have someone else do the work, one of the contractors offering custom, aka 'luxury', homes is Toll Brothers.  They have models in a number of states.  Your part of the design process is selecting a basic design and adding options.

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Toll Brothers, Santa Fe model, Pembroke, NV

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My choice for a basic home design is a dome home.  There are many advantages to a dome home, such as energy efficiency; earthquake, tornado and hurricane resistance; and--over the long haul--economy. The article on Monolithic domes at Wikipedia gives a good overview of the issues you may encounter in building a dome home.  David South at Monolithic.org discusses the "True Cost of a Dome Home."  Here's a cutaway of dome construction:

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Monolithic dome, medium cutaway, Monolithic

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A dome home constructed in Pensacola has survived a number of hurricanes since it was built.

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Pensacola Beach, Florida, after Hurricane Dennis in 2005, Wikipedia

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Google Sketchup is a good way to design a dome home and it's free. Here's a link to download it. Applications for designing geodesic domes in 3D are listed at Domerama.  Some are open source.

-- Marge

Checking out Sketchup

SketchUp, a program previously offered by Google but now run by Trimble, is used for 3D modeling and has a number of different types of products.  Follow the Wikipedia link above to get an idea of its capabilities.  The basic program is free; there is a Pro version available.  Look here for the program's hardware requirements.  A Google account is required for some of the functions described below.

Assuming that most of us will be trying/using the free version, that's what I downloaded and installed.  Not having given it a real try, I'm hesitant to make a judgment on its overall usefulness for modeling.  There are some nice features like a tape measure and a protractor.  It took me a while to figure out that I had to tab when creating a line to enter the line length.  Curious thing, no sphere is available as a primitive, you have to build one (tricky) or download one from the 3D Warehouse.

Speaking of the 3D Warehouse, it's the features available through Sketchup that I find more intriguing.

For an example there's Building Maker (accessed through an icon on the upper task bar).  Google describes it thus:

Building Maker is a 3D modeling tool for adding buildings to Google Earth. It's fun to use, and an easy way to get on the 3D map. Here's how it works:

• Select a city from around the world.
• Make a building with photos we provide.
• Save your building and it will be reviewed.
• See your 3D building in Google Earth!

And there's SketchUp Island, a blog where contests and challenges for SketchUp are featured.

You can preview your model in Google Earth by clicking the Google Earth icon, also in the upper task bar.  A word of warning -- I didn't have a place set so my model showed up in Boulder, Colorado; in fact, it always shows up in Boulder, Colorado. Hmmm....

An image of an area you find in Google Earth is available by clicking on the "Add more imagery..." icon in the upper task bar.  It can become the terrain for your model.

If you tire of trying to build your own model, you can download models built and uploaded by other users by clicking on the cardboard box with a down arrow next to the Google Earth icon.  Then you can adapt them (not all are adaptable).  Some require unlocking, some have the unlock function disabled. Upload your own finished model by using the cardboard box with the up arrow.

What I've listed here are just some of the features in SketchUp and I've only touched on how to use them.

Take a look for yourself -- it's free.

-- Marge