Amanda Eliza Bertha - Home Quick Makeovers Top Tips: Learn How to Design, Decorate and Furnish Your Ideal Home

Introduction

While the reality often is that we live where we can afford to live, there is a deeper reality and that is the dream home that exists in the back of our minds. If you do not have a clear image of your dream home, begin to cultivate it. Take a little time each day as you go about your routine to think about how you really want to live. This can be as simple as thinking about the sunlight you would like to see on your kitchen counter as you make your morning coffee to the feel of the chair you sit in while you read your favorite book.

There are actions that you can take each and every day that take you closer to having your perfect home. This book will guide you through the steps involved in designing, decorating and furnishing your ideal home.

When you dream, let your mind soar. Dont let matters such as money and location hamper the development of your ideal plans for your perfect home. However you can make little changes in your lifestyle that can help you achieve your dreams. These changes can focus on building a dream home fund so that you can start turning the dream into reality sooner rather than later.

There is no reason to let your dreams become hampered by reality. In letting your dreams grow unfettered, you will be able to create the best possible outcome for your living arrangements. In other words, dream big.

Design

Home plans that set out the dimensions and space for your home are ultimately drawn up in a style and language that home builders can execute without errors and omissions. However, the home that results is only as good as the plans.

First, you have to have your design concept. The best source for your design concept is in your own mind. Take time to visualize your home. Perhaps you are the type of person who thinks this is too new age or too ethereal and a waste of time. You want your ideal home now and dont want to waste time daydreaming.

There is a very good reason for serious envisioning of your home as it will be, if your plans go well. Sometimes the biggest mistakes can be completely overlooked even with the best architects in the world available.

What Can Go Wrong?

Here is an example. Will and Joyce planned the ultimate home for themselves. It was a second marriage for both of them so they were experienced in what they wanted and needed in a house. Money was not an issue. Joyce had inherited a bit of money and she had also sold the home she had shared with her late husband.

Will was already retired and had time to sketch out his ideal home in great detail. They had a location already selected. It was on family land so there would be sentimental value. There were no impediments to their plans or the execution of the plan to have the home that each of them wanted.

And yetwithin a year, they were frustrated and annoyed. They moved into the house immediately after their honeymoon ready for a life of blissful shared retirement.

The daily upkeep on the house was onerous. Taking the garbage out was a hassle because it had to be hauled down their very long lane to the road. Neither Will nor Joyce liked walking it to the road, especially in the winter, and it was not feasible to haul the municipality-designated garbage bins down with their car. The bins were just too big to fit in the car.

The house overlooked the water and to maximize the view, the house was designed with three levels. However, a bad knee made navigating the numerous steps from the living room to their top floor bedroom painful for Joyce.

Having lived her first married life in a one-storey ranch house, Joyce dreamed of a multi-level house. The dream was one thing; the reality was another.

The issues started with these factors and spread. It was difficult to keep the long lane cleared in the snowy winter. While it was possible to hire someone to blow the snow, the length of the lane made this a long and laborious task and they were often not able to get off their property until the afternoon.

Within a year, they listed the house for sale.

This is why it is a good idea to visualize a typical day in your dream home. There are solutions to just about any problem that can arise but you need to know about the potential drawbacks in time to overcome them. For instance, Will and Joyce could have installed an elevator so that they could have had the levels she wanted as well as the pain-free transportation from one level to the next.

The garbage bin issue might have been resolved as well but there were a bunch of other problems that emerged because the plans were drawn up quickly based on their previous homes and what they did not want rather than on what they did want.

Both factors need to be taken into consideration: what is on your wish list and what is off your wish list. Prioritize the things that are important to you and be aware of your limitations (such as dealing with high cupboards, stairs, noisy surroundings, and regular weather conditions).

Can You Renovate?

Have you ever watched home makeover shows where the people get expert advice on staging their home for a quick sale? Suddenly with a bit of paint and furniture re-arranging and decluttering, their house is transformed into something magnificent.

If you already have a house, and if you are not required to move for work or other compelling reasons, assess what the reasons for moving really are. The most common reason for moving is the need for more space.

The sad fact is that sometimes moving for the sake of more space is an expensive mistake. People have a tendency to do the same activities in their homes so if you have an overfurnished home, you more than likely recreate that crowded atmosphere in your new place.

June sold her townhouse because she could not cope with her neighbors intrusions and demands any more. She dithered for years and finally admitted that she was helpless to deal with her demanding neighbor who thought nothing of asking June to do her grocery shopping or drive her to the doctors office.

When she found another home that was similar to the one she had, she made a supreme effort to get her place on the market and sold. The sense of freedom she felts was exhilarating. Untilshe moved in and her new neighbors came to visit. She soon realized that while the neighbors were different, the same type of intrusions was soon going to develop. The problem was not with the neighborhood but with Junes basic inability to set boundaries.

Getting to the Design

There are books and websites filled with house plans and you can garner a lot of great ideas from these sources. However, you should sit down and sketch out your own idea of a floor plan.

Looking at a place from the perspective of sitting in a room lets you know what works for that room. All too often people fail to look at the connections between rooms and the paths that they tend to travel throughout the house.

Sandra has a lovely spacious home. She and her husband designed their dream home with a deck that ran the full width of the southern side of the house. The patio doors on the deck opened in to the television room.

On paper it was a great idea but in reality, the big comfy sofa and the two recliners took up most of the room and the patio doors quickly became useless as a way of getting to the deck.

The other room on the south wall is the dining room and with the buffet and sideboard and formal dining room set, there is no space to move the patio doors to that part of the south side. This situation created a conundrum for which there is no easy solution. The deck cannot be moved because of other features of the house such as the attached garage and the front landscaping and the wooded area beside the house.