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Online Virtual Design Tools

September 1st, 2009 at 05:40pm Under Uncategorized

If you are designing a kitchen or a bathroom it is a luxury to have a tool that will allow you to put your design ideas into a tool that creates a virtual room for you.

There are a few online tools that will allow you to layout your entire kitchen from appliances to decor and then show it in 3-d. You input the dimensions of your room add windows and door openings and then begin the design process. If you use the Lowe’s tool you can actually select from several different major appliances like refrigerators, dishwashers, cook tops, ranges. Beyond that you can also add small appliances like to toasters to the counter to determine if you have enough counter space to support your cooking style. The appliances specs are taking from top names like GE, Electrolux, Kitchenaide and more. From there you can add top and bottom counters. After you determine the spacial design of your kitchen the Lowe’s tools goes one step further and allows you to add some color to the counters, cabinets and the flooring so you can actually get an overall perspective of what you want. The Lowe’s tools is a great free starter to design your kitchen because it will display the kitchen in 2-D as well as 3-D and allow you to change the viewpoint. The tool will also help you with the design of your laundry room and bathroom.

The Lowe’s tools is a great free started tool. If you plan on taking your design much further such as laying out the furniture and the rest of the color design for your house you should try a dedicated software program like . HGTV Home Designer or Punch software home and landscape design. I love these types of tools because they are about as close as you can get to walking into the real think when you are building or remodeling your home.

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Building with SIPS

May 31st, 2009 at 10:18pm Under Uncategorized

I was driving around the countryside today and I noticed my neighbor is building a new home which is alway as an attraction. I as some strange panels in his yard and a different set up than other stick build sitesI discovered they are building with SIPS or Super Insulated Building Panels. 

Curious I did some research and found that this isn’t necessarily a new building concept.  It is fairly new to our area.  I only found 3 builders in the area that work with this type of SIPS.  The first SIPs structure was built in 1935 for the US Forest Proucts Labratory in 1935.  It began to rise in popularty again in the 1970′s during the energy crunch. 

SIPS panels by enercept

SIPS panels by enercept

Now that were are in another energy crunch I bet we will see more and more SIPS constrution.  One of the draws to SIPs construction is the insulation factor making some SIPS homes use 50% less energy than conventionally framed homes.  Enercept a company that focuses on SIPS has done several studies on the engergy efficience of the panels.

I think that SIPs construction is something I will be doing more research in.

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Welcome to My House Plans Online Blog

January 22nd, 2009 at 09:02pm Under Uncategorized

Welcome to the Myhouseplansonline.com blog.  We will be featuring house plans, history of architectural styles and anything else related to the building process.

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