Rand Soellner remembers back when he was designing HUD housing (that’s Housing and Urban Development) for governmental agencies for people that were just barely above the poverty level. Nowadays, there are more people in that financial category, or at least those that have taken some severe fiscal hits during the last couple of years and are now regrouping, trying to figure out how to rebuild their lives.
Other people have decided that they do not necessarily need a huge house anymore. Rand Soellner Architects (the Home Architects TM) designs giant castles, comfortable timber frame houses, lakeside cottages and smaller projects as well.
For those of you interested in down-sizing, holding onto more of your cash, and finding a residential design that feels much larger than it really is, that is one of this firm’s primary objectives. Right now, Soellner has several of his Cardinal Camp Cottages being designed, which are a breakthrough in the more compact housing market today.
Soellner has a 2,500 HSF (Heated Square Foot), 3-story model underway, which is 2-stories with a walk-out basement, built into a mountain slope in the Highlands, North Carolina area. Soellner has another amazingly compact 912 HSF 1BR/2Ba “Firefly Cottage” in design as well, for people who really want to shrink their construction budgets, yet enjoy a weekend getaway, that just might serve them well into retirement, after they leave the big cities of Atlanta, Houston or Miami, and live out their golden years in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Not much to maintain, either, with a house this compact. And utility bills are next to nothing, especially the way Soellner specifies his super-efficient insulation systems.
Most people will want a custom approach to the Cardinal Camp Cottage, Firefly Cottage, or other prototype Soellner designs. Rand has learned through the decades, that some people spend years searching for the “just-right” existing design online or on free log home catalogs or other model house literature. What Soellner has understood is that this leaves most people frustrated. “They tell me that they cannot find exactly what they want,” said Soellner, “most people say that what they see online or in house plan catalogs isn’t even close to what they have in mind.”
There are 2 interesting things about residential architectural design:
1. It is easier to design larger houses with no particular concern for excessive use of space.
2. It is very difficult to design much smaller residences very efficiently, not wasting a square inch. Only the most experienced architects are able to do this well.
So what is the answer? Hire a residential architect with decades of experience like Rand Soellner Home Architects. They will help you by listening to what you want, then carefully crafting a design to suit your specific needs and the topography of your building site. Nothing that you find online anywhere can do that. Do yourself a huge favor and contact a nationally acclaimed house design firm like Rand Soellner and get your dream started!