Home Design Guide

It’s been over forty years since Topsider Homes made its beginnings, in a very small manner. The first prefabricated, custom-designed home by the company was built  on a mountainside near Boone, North Carolina in 1968. That was just the beginning. The company then never had the time to look back. In the last 41 years, the company has been keeping alive the tradition of shipping to various destinations all across the world prefabricated, custom-designed houses of all kinds.

In its early days, Topsider Homes mostly featured a much more “woodsy” look than today, with rough textured wood interior surfaces throughout, ideally suited for cabins. The ingenious post and beam pedestal design, conceived as a prefab solution to expensive and unsightly foundations on severely sloping terrain, became popular soon. The company grew in the 1970’s and in the 1980’s the focus was mainly on resort development projects at such places as Walt Disney World, Pinehurst Country Club, Hilton Head Island and many other well-known resort locations worldwide. In the 1990’s, with the emergence of CADD and other technologies, the focus got shifted to individual customers as well.

The growth rate for Topsider Homes has always been steady. The company has till date sold thousands of homes worldwide. These homes range in size, from small prefab cabins and cottages to unique custom post and beam home designs. The places where the company has made its presence felt in a real big way are spread as far and wide as the Bahamas, Panama, Scotland, India and Canada. The company makes it a point to reach out to even remote and interior places.

Times have changed. It’s all very fast now and any company that doesn’t like being left behind has to move forward at a rapid pace. New building materials and technologies are now available at a rapid pace. The tastes of the customers too are changing; they are even getting to be more demanding in nature. It’s in this changed scenario that Topsider Homes continues to render service to people all around, shipping all kinds of prefabricated homes to people all across the globe and holding aloft a tradition of success.

Building a house to live in is one of the major decisions a person has to make in life. Traditionally, it would take considerable costs and months of planning even before the first post is driven to the ground. Now, homeowners have another choice on how to go about building their abodes—kit homes. However, before making the actual purchase, the owner builder actually have several considerations to make. Taking the time to go over these factors help owner builders avoid unforeseen problems and hassles later on.

DIY or Hire 

Most kit homes, especially starter homes, are easy enough to construct by the owner builder. Additionally, the task gets easier if the owner has some experience in construction or is quite handy with building tools. These prefabricated homes also come with complete instruction manuals and specifications to further aid its construction. There are also some owner builder courses available. However, some homeowners may not have the time, patience, or inclination to build the kit homes themselves. This is when the expertise and services of a contractor comes into the picture. There are some contractors who specialize in this kind of structure and are capable of making the dream homes of their clients become reality.  

Home Design                 

Building a home takes a lot of serious considerations, including its design. Interested buyers of kit homes should keep in mind that there are numerous designs to choose from, to meet various preferences and needs of buyers. Generally, the types of kit homes available are log homes, panelized homes, domes, and timber-frame homes. There are also many layouts to choose from. Some kit homes are also designed to become eco homes for the environmentally-conscious owner builder. 

Cost

Of course, home building also involves spending hard earned money, though the exact amount would depend on the scope of the venture. Some kit homes are so affordable to make while there are also houses designed to showcase the owner’s social status and may cost considerably more. In order to get a viable estimate, the owner builder should add the cost of purchasing a home kit to expenses incurred for land, utilities, interior decoration, owner builders permit, and contractor’s fees, if any. DIY homes, in which the owner builder takes on majority of the construction tasks, would understandably cost less than homes built by contractors.  

Timetable 

Most kit homes take less time to build compared to conventional ones. This is one of the biggest advantages offered to homeowners who are thinking of purchasing kit homes for their next abode. After ordering the kit home package and getting it delivered, the home buyer can have it built in several months to a year. This means that owning and living in a kit home is both easy and convenient.  

Local Laws 

Owner builder also need to consult government agencies concerned regarding local regulations and zoning laws that might affect the building of kit homes even before construction began. This is to avoid any regulatory problems later on and to make sure all building codes are followed. 

“Timber Frame” is beautiful and an inspiring method of construction that has stood the test of time in many countries throughout the world.

Timber frame homes are handcrafted in a style that proudly reveals its support structure as a mixture of art and engineering. Posts join to beams by the use of tenons and oak pegs. Timber trusses support vaulted ceilings. Exposed wood knee braces give rigidity and functional beauty to the entire structure.

Timber Frame Construction

Timber frame construction begins with a well thought out design, and a set of drawings that express that design clearly. The layout and cutting of the timber frame parts are done in a workshop environment. The goal of the timber framer is the creation of a timber structure that exhibits precision, strength, and beauty. A variety of wood species, surface textures and wood finishes can be used to create a special look. Timber frame homes easily meet modern energy saving standards. They match effectively with structural insulated panels, which are known for their warmth and rigidity.

Custom Timber Frame Home Design

The mating of traditional timber framing methods with modern construction techniques give the homeowner limitless design choices. Timber use can be intensified in the more lived in parts of the house and minimized in others. Custom timber frame home designs can be simple or complex. Timbers can be added or removed to match the spending plan. See our selection of custom timber frame home plans.

Well designed and well built timber frame homes retain their appeal, and therefore their value, for this generation and the next. The tendency to complement the wood frame with other natural materials make the timber frame home a place where people want to go to experience feelings of peace and well-being. Timber frames bring nature inside and also act as a picture frame for the world outside. You can see photographs of these beautiful timber frame homes on our website.

Topsider Homes has the perfect engineering, custom designs blended with unique building systems that goes green, eco-friendly. There is a wide popularity for building eco-friendly homes and in employing Green strategies which has resulted in a more accessible and affordable mode of construction in the 21st century.  In fact, Topsider’s original pedestal home design, created in the 1960s, was an architectural solution for home building in environmentally sensitive and topographically challenging locations which had minimal disturbance on the environment.

Green building means, from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and deconstruction there are minimal impact or disturbance on the environment. Usual constructions create a lot of havoc on the site, but green building ensure the project remain eco-friendly while constructing a building and also throughout the life of the building.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Green Building Program addresses seven aspects of Green Building: Preparation and Design, Resource Efficiency, Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency and Conservation, Occupancy Comfort and Indoor Environmental Quality, Operation, Maintenance and Homeowner Education. Topsider Homes considers all the aspects specified and intelligently includes all the necessary ingredients to make it a the most efficient ‘green building’.

Topsider Homes has reached a successful level in providing the best green, eco-friendly through the research work and dedicated effort of the design and architectural staff. Each component in green building has layers and layers of depth to be explored. The field is constantly evolving and is a rebirth in the building industry today with more change and more rapid innovation than ever before.

Topsider’s green building  is an environmental responsibility the team has taken to work together to limit this waste. Keeping in mind the scope of growth in the field of green, eco-friendly building construction, Topsider Homes is moving ahead to provide the best of services to its customers.

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With this entry level home design package, you will be able to enjoy the fun of being involved in the landscape design process. It will show you exactly how to start creating landscape designs in a manner that makes every detail look like Mother Nature’s own creation. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a landscaping beginner, whether or not you’re an avid gardener, whether or not you have the DIY skills or knowledge for landscaping, and even how many landscaping books and magazines you’ve bought. This design package has a style for nearly every climate, country, era, trend, fascination, and art form.

This system contains thousands of photos in one impressive database. These photos may be used by you to experiment and create the perfect outdoor living experience for you and your family with beautiful landscaping. It also includes an ebook which covers ideas of inexpensive landscaping, smart ways of conserving water in landscaping, where you can obtain free compost, what types of landscaping adds the most curb appeal, and how to create gorgeous patios.

As a bonus, you will find a Beginners Manual for Creating and Managing your Own Organic Food Garden, wherein you will learn how to greatly improve your health, how to enjoy better tasting gourmet food on a daily basis, how to raise your energy level, how to lower your weekly food bills, and how to eliminate disease-creating chemicals that big companies spray through your family’s food.

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Home is always considered as the best investment. If you own a home, then its value goes up within a few years and you get much more than what you had invested initially. However, traditionally built homes take a long time and money to get finished. But with factory built homes, otherwise known as modular homes, there is an affordable low maintenance home provision before the new-age buyers.

As the name suggests, all the supplies of these homes are built in the climate-controlled environment of a factory usually in assembly-line fashion. Once the modules are completed, they are transported to the actual site in large units. Since the modules of factory built homes are built by skilled craftsmen using precise machinery and methods in factories, they provide better durability and can even withstand environmental hazards. That’s why they are also called as energy efficient homes.

These energy efficient homes are cost effective by as much as 25% to 30% than their traditional counterpart. It’s because even before the initial construction phase of building modules, the entire design is depicted through computer aided design specifications. Hence it’s easier to identify every possible aspect of home. Plus, as the materials are bought in bulk for a lot of similar designed home models, it’s bound to be cheaper than individual buying.

One of the biggest concerns about traditional cement-brick based homes is the waste materials. They have to be loaded to city outskirts to be dumped there. But with factory built homes, the waste amount is very minimal and even those are completely recyclable. Building this way saves money by minimizing waste materials and thus they are eco-friendly too.

Many first time buyers get skeptical about the outlook of modular homes. But contrary to the misconception, factory built homes look just like any traditionally-built homes. The difference lies in construction method, and not their appearances. And once completed, it’s hard to distinguish these energy efficient homes than their regular counterparts.

As quality engineering and latest construction techniques are used in building energy efficient homes, it ensures low utility cost for the buyers. Facilities such as better insulation in the exterior wall, less air filtration, better sealing around electrical outlet and fixtures or even filling up gaps between pipes facilitate lower heating and cooling costs for the homeowners.

With computer-assisted designs, now-a-days you can even customize factory built homes as per your choice of design. The latest computer aided software not only helps bringing out accurate sketch customization, but also communicate your machinery to the manufacturing unit, thus ensuring you modular home design is built accurately. Today these energy efficient homes are considered as a stylish as well as economical alternative to conventional homes.

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The package includes an ebook which covers ideas of inexpensive landscaping, easy and accessible ways to increase your property value, how to create a low-maintenance landscape, where you can obtain free compost, what types of landscaping adds the most curb appeal, how to create gorgeous patios, weed control techniques, smart ways of conserving water in landscaping, and how to select the right soil and plants for your garden.

You will also find another ebook, which is entitled “Beginners Manual for Creating and Managing your Own Organic Food Garden”. In this book, you will learn how to greatly improve your health, how to enjoy better tasting gourmet food on a daily basis, how to raise your energy level, how to lower your weekly food bills, and how to eliminate disease-creating chemicals that big companies spray through your family’s food.

With this entry level home design package, you will be able to enjoy the fun of being involved in the landscape design process. You will be able to enhance your home’s exterior with stylish furniture, lighting fixtures, and more. You will be able to make the ideal landscape to complement your home, from gazebos to pools, slopes to grades, fencing, and plants to trees. In other words, you will benefit from a design based on your unique desires and personal preferences.

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Topsider Homes, the leading manufacturer of prefabricated homes not only build homes but also have perfect designs and building technology to build Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants too. For the past four decades the company has been efficiently supplying resort developments worldwide.

From Central America to Europe and Asia, the company has been delivering elegantly designed resorts and in US, the company has already built prefabricated buildings in Walt Disney World, Pinehurst Country Club, Sea Pines Plantation at Hilton Head and Lake of the Ozarks.

Resort and hotel projects are well managed in the Caribbean by the experts. The company’s services are very much in demand in the Bahamas and Panama as the post and beam building technology is an ideal solution for those is these areas with limited access to skilled labor and building materials. The company has the specialized service of shipping the building materials to any part of the world and this helps the customers to acquire restaurant and retail designs of international level built in a short span of time.

The Caribbean-themed restaurants with the exclusive and one-of-a-kind design of Topsider Homes had won the NAHB’s (National Association of Home Builders) National Commercial Builders Council GRAND Award of Excellence. The award was exclusively given for the home designs. The designers and the engineers of the company has been successful due to the hard work and dedication given to make each and every project that eventually draws the attention of many taking it to a level of fame and excellence.

The Green building practices that are strictly adhered to, appeal to the customers who prefer eco-friendly buildings. The project management team of Topsider Homes concentrates fully on the completion of a project from start to end and list in the top companies who manufacture prefabricated Hotels, Resorts and Restaurants that are highly reliable and also eco-friendly.

Chicago, as an environmentally-conscious city, has many eco-friendly, “green” homes on offer. Apart from the obvious fact that a green home is good for the environment, homebuyers are also cognizant of the potential savings that green homes will get them in the long run, though the initial costs may be slightly high.

A well designed green home can cut down on energy consumption by 30-60%. Owners of green homes also enjoy many state and federal tax breaks under the Energy Policy Act, 2005. The city itself promotes a green future by offering information on services such as Recycling, usage of CFL (compact fluorescent light) bulbs and energy efficiency through the Chicago Green Home Program.

Guidelines for Green Homes

When you buy a new home, you would be well advised to look for an eco-friendly and energy efficient one because it will save you a lot of money in maintenance and energy costs in the years to come. The hardware costs will typically be recovered within the first five years. When looking for a green home, it is important that you are aware of the various terminologies used and the features of a green building.

A green home may be one that is constructed with energy efficiency as its goal or it may have been built using environment-friendly construction material. There are six guidelines that the National Association of Homebuilders uses for green homes:

1. Design and Preparation of the Lot

Construction causes heavy impact on the soil, wild life and vegetation of the environment surrounding the building site. Evaluating the effects of construction on the environment will enable the builders to figure out how and where the impact can be minimized or eliminated entirely. Building on lots that have already been used for some sort of development previously is an ideal way to minimize construction damage to the environment.

2. Utilize Energy Efficiently

Green home construction integrates techniques that utilize the energy that is available more efficiently. This is also combined with reducing the immediate energy requirements.

3. Use Resources Efficiently

Technological advancements and superior building methods allow for efficient use of building materials and thereby lessen the strain on environment and minimize construction waste production. New homes. construction in chicago is all about reusing or recycling almost all materials such as lumber or concrete. Using bamboo for flooring, instead of the traditional wood, ensures that the material used for construction is easily replenished because bamboo grows much faster than regular woods.

4. Indoor Air Quality

Indoor air is significantly more polluted than the external air, so interior ventilation and moisture management is an important aspect in any green home design.

5. Conservation of Water

A green design will ensure that a plan is in place for effectively managing and using the water that is available. This single aspect can have ramifications on more aspects of energy efficient home design than any other: faucets, gutter downspouts, exterior cisterns and all other interior and exterior plumbing hardware will be affected by the conservation design.

6. Awareness, Maintenance and Operation

The homebuilder invests a considerable amount of time and energy on a green home project. It is up to the homeowner to maintain it, and make the best out of the design by learning everything about the energy saving features and its operation and maintenance.

Everybody dreams and desires to own home of one’s choice. In the past, people were interested in ownership of a home only for the sake of owning a home. But there is sea change in people’s outlook. New homeowners want their dream home designed to fulfil their aspirations to match their aesthetic preferences and lifestyle. This underlying trend has created big demand for custom homes across the U.S.

There are specific pockets in the country where custom home builders are carrying out construction of custom homes, particularly for retirement communities, on large scale. One reason for this being people have developed good sense of what they need in a new home. Another reason for wanting to have custom homes is that only in the later part of their lives people start feeling to settle down into homes where they can live as per their convenience for rest of their lives.

Custom home builders in different states in the U.S. apart from being of specific interest to retirement community are also of interest to middle-aged people who look for home designs that will improve quality of life in their existing areas.

There are some important considerations to be kept in mind in designing of custom homes. With unlimited possibilities of design features, room and floor layouts and selection of colors, your custom home builder can customize home design as per your needs. It is easy to get popular design options by taking tours of recently built custom homes in your area to see latest features which can be perfect compliment for your dream custom home.

You should take a practical look and select best location to build your custom home. The location is equally important as design of home. You also need to consider future changes that you may require in new custom home. With addition of children in your family you will have to determine number of bedrooms to be included in the floor plan. You may invest extra money in designing your kitchen and bathrooms to add value to your home.