Challenge #1: Choosing a Design Idea

Over this past weekend I worked on the "How to Design a House" section for my web site. Of course, the first hurdle was choosing an appropriate design idea. It's not that I don't have any ideas--I have many, it's that I found it tough to find an idea that was both "different" and yet close enough to the mainstream so as to make a reasonable example.

I actually do have a "real" design commission (well, "real" in the sense that it's someone else's idea). A friend of mine and his wife want to build a house with a 30' clear dome, buried in a hillside. He's even found a company that can make a 30' Lexan dome. Yep, that would about do it. The problem with using this idea for my "how to" example (and I spent a day and a half working on it), is that it's so far outside the norm.

Yes, that's the challenge. We want an example that's representative of the kinds of houses a typical amateur designer might want, but yet straightforward enough to cover most of the more common aspects of house design. And truthfully, if all you want is same-old same-old, you don't need to buy Home Designer Pro and spend a lot of time messing around with it. There are thousands (and thousands) of house designs available on the web. I'm pretty sure you can find one you like, if you look. But, considering that you're someone who doesn't want Vanilla, what can we come up with that isn't flavored Jalapeno Fudge Used Motor Oil Ripple?

I think I have an idea, and it's definitely not vanilla. It's not too bizarre, but it might have a few "complexities" that most people won't encounter. We'll see how it goes. I may have something to post to the web site in a week or two.

Oh, my good friend at sporkspace.org finally got his home page up and working, and he placed a link to my web site on his home page. Gosh! Check out his Antichrist Detector (assuming he gets the web service working, again).