Here’s a collection of guides that I’ve written through the years to protect your home from natural disasters and hackers, or just to find the right builder or architect. Some of them are taken from my books — don’t tell anyone. Others were generated to hand out during presentations. Enjoy.
How Much Does it Cost to Build a New Home?
Maybe you aren’t the kind of person who keeps a strict family budget or regularly balances a checkbook. But if you plan to risk your savings on a half-million-dollar new home, it’s time to start acting more like an accountant. You need to develop a budget and stick to it closely. If you borrow money…
How Resilient Is Your Home?
Rolling blackouts in California and utility outages in flood-ravaged regions have focused renewed attention on resilient architecture, designing homes that bounce back from major storms and operate independently. Could you still live in your house if the power went out and gas wasn’t available? It’s an increasingly vital issue to contemplate, one addressed in my…
How to Avoid Buyer’s Remorse
We’ve probably all felt buyer’s remorse at some point in our lives. Sometimes, we wish we’d spent a little more to get the stereo systems of our dreams or a tailored dress that fits perfectly. And sometimes, we wish we’d spent a lot less. A five-year commitment to a $450 monthly payment for a German…
10 Tricks of the Design Trade
You may not notice them when first glancing at a house design, but designers often employ tricks of the trade to make their homes look larger, live better, and go together more economically. The touches could be as subtle as a raised vanity that allows you to run tile to the wall in case you…
How Windows Perform in Hurricanes
The United States gets hit by roughly the same number of hurricanes each year. But they are growing in intensity, thanks to higher level of moisture in the lower atmosphere. In 2017, two Category 4 hurricanes struck U.S. shores. The next year, Michael made landfall along the Gulf of Mexico with Category 5 force with…
How to Pick the Right Builder
The most important decision you make when building a new home is selecting your builder. Nothing can make or break the home-building experience like the builder you choose. Some people spend years in their new house cursing a builder who cut corners or cost them a fortune by failing to do things right the first…