Some Simple Rules of Thumb-

From that point, I stick to just some very basic rules of thumb that I think are almost universal but these are in no particular order-

The Sun-

Morning sun in the Kitchen/Dining area- wherever it is you spend those first few minutes or hours when you start your day. This is a very simple rule, just try to make this space have at least some access to the eastern sky, even if a skylight is the only solution.

And just pay attention to where the sun is likely to be in relation to all of the spaces of your house during the course of the day.  A lot of South facing glass is a good, but very basic, passive solar design principle, but too much without the proper shading can easily overheat your house too.

Windows on Two Sides-

Have windows on at least two sides of every room, preferably adjacent sides- This is often difficult to achieve for every room without a floor plan that has a lot of ins-and-outs (recall the $2000 per corner rule from the construction costs article), but a bedroom, for example, with just one window on one wall, especially if it happens to be facing North, is quite literally a cave. You will not be drawn to using that room for anything besides, possibly, and art studio, and experiencing that kind of room is quite literally, depressing.  Having that second window facing one additional direction will literally double your access to natural light, whether that be direct or indirect. The rooms to make sacrifices with in this area would be anything but the main living spaces and the bedrooms.

Relate to Outdoor Spaces-

Relation to outdoor spaces- Ideally all of the main living spaces should have some relation to your main outdoor living space(s), and ideally that space would be facing south. Of course these things are often not possible due to the fact that your backyard might be facing north, etc. But the direction is less important than having a solid visual relationship to private or semi-private outdoor spaces.  And by "outdoor spaces", I would definitely not limit that to large backyards or patios, etc.  Many of you obviously will have two side yards that are only 5' in width, facing a fence.  But on that fence you can potentially create a nice little garden space with a fountain or something that a larger window can look out onto.  This is not a perfect solution to create an invigorating space, but it is a  huge step in the right direction.

Design Rooms Around Your Furniture-

This is one of the terrific aspects of the CAD programs mentioned below and is commonly referred to as "object oriented design".  This just means that most of the typical types of furniture people use every day can generally just be selected from  a library within the program, even re-sized to the exact dimensions of the furniture you currently have (or might buy) and then easily arranged to form the room.  So you can just think of room design, in part, as just arranging the furniture is a way that works, and then design the room around that.  But you don't necessarily need a CAD program to do this.  Little scaled cut-outs in paper will work just fine too.

And, believe or not, I am just going to leave it at that as far as Basic Design Principles go. Of course, there are volumes and volumes of literature on design and people, like myself, devote our entire professional careers to this stuff. Certainly, there is infinitely more I could say here, but I find for the most part, even these very basic ground rules are either not considered seriously, or entirely ignored in most of the houses designed and built today, or at any time in modern history. This is plenty enough to at least get you going in the right direction. But I will make a few comments on some other items concerning the design of houses today.  These come from common questions I get from clients all the time.

Computer Aided Design (CAD) Software-

All in all, if you are somewhat computer savvy and have the aptitude for interest in that kind of thing I think these kinds of programs are fantastic. As is probably obvious from some of the graphics in this article, I use these myself most every day, often all day. When I graduated from architecture school in 1989, this stuff was really just getting off the ground, so I was almost entirely self-taught in this area. I started with an $80, of-the-shelf program called "Home Architect 3D Deluxe" by a company called Broderbund and I used this for several years professionally. For the last 10 years or so, I have been using a program called Chief Architect (made by the same parent company), which is kind of a cheesy name if you ask me, and most other architects I mention it to either laugh and/or have never even heard of it. But for the vast majority of conventional, and even somewhat unconventional design, I don’t think it can be beat for ease of use and a comprehensive schematic-design-through-working-drawings program, especially for a one-man or small (read- vast majority) architectural office. Most of these programs have the ability to import and export in the AutoCAD formats almost all larger offices use, but they are infinitely easier to learn and use.

Another great program, one version of which is free to download is Google Sketchup. This program is more generic in nature and can be used for the design of just about anything, but has a lot of easy tools and components geared toward building design. One big advantage to this program is the easy tracking of sun and shadows across your design. There are also really great video tutorials to help you get started with this.

That said, these programs can also lead you astray of some of the basic design principles mentioned above. Because they have a lot of pre-fabricated components intended specifically for residential design, you can just drag and drop a lot of things into your design that may give it a rather common, generic feel and look. So just be careful not to let the program determine your design. These are valuable tools but they are just that, tools, no substitute for imagination and executing design principles.