If you are planning to start a family, then you may have decided to build a home with a custom design. This will allow you to start with a clean sheet of paper so that you can come up with a structure that is perfect for your changing situation. Yet you may face a significant question at the outset and one that could have a considerable bearing on the future. Should you build a single storey or a two-storey home?

Single-Storey Benefits

If you have always lived in a flat or condo up until this point, then you may have been used to living in a restricted space and without any room to spread out. You certainly don't want to make the mistake of restricting the size of your new home, but there are a number of benefits associated with sticking to one floor.

Smaller Footprint

For example, you will be able to significantly reduce the amount of energy that you put into the home build. It will take you a lot less time to build a single-storey home than the alternative, and you will need fewer construction materials as a consequence. This means that the carbon footprint associated with the home will be much smaller as it does, of course, require a lot of energy to create wood, glass, stone, concrete and other materials.

Lower Costs

You may also be able to spend less money to heat or cool the home once it is finished. Typically, a single-storey home design will have fewer rooms, but it will be easier for you to regulate the temperature in this type of structure anyway, as warmer air tends to rise. You may need to have your heating on for a longer period of time to warm up a two-storey home, as the heat will tend to rise to the next level naturally.

Design Options

Some people worry that they will lose an element of privacy if they stick to a single-storey design. They may feel that everybody will be "on top of" each other, but this does not have to be the case. You can choose a design that will separate all the bedrooms with, for example, the master on one side and two other bedrooms over on the other, with the living room and open plan kitchen in the middle.

Your Plan

Talk with your designers and architects and see what type of plan you can come up with, to take into account your future needs.

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