Mix things up. Keep in mind how individual houses will relate to each other in the streetscape and choose your paint and materials palette accordingly. “You can have a street with varied architectural styles, including bungalows, four-squares, and Victorians, but if the colors are all boring and similar, your development will still look monotonous,” Martin says.
GAIN YARDAGEIf small lots with short setbacks have put the kibosh on any hopes for private outdoor living spaces in your project, don't fret. Good fences make good neighbors by helping to delineate the progression from public sidewalk to private residence, thus creating mental breathing room. They can also make the streetscape more inviting, and they don't cost a lot. At Morgan Square, a community of tidy single-family detached homes (each just under 2,000 square feet) in Fremont, Calif., SummerHill Homes enhanced the individuality of each home by offering varied fencing styles to complement its French, Spanish, and Bay Area traditional elevations. The cost? Less than $1,000 per unit, with homes starting in the mid-$700s.
“A lot of our products right now are city-centric [in places such as Fremont and San Jose, Calif.] so the homes are smaller, but people still want individuality and curb appeal,” says Holland. “These homes are 8 to 10 feet apart and they are rear-loaded, so the fencing really sets them apart.”
OFF THE SHELFSomewhere along the line, the word “custom” became synonymous with “expensive.” But the two don't always have to go hand in hand. When building his own 3,852-square-foot home in Oviedo, Fla., Binkley economized by using off-the-shelf materials in standard sizes to save time and money, and avoid waste. He also bought windows and other materials from local manufacturers, thus minimizing shipping costs.
Credit: R.P. Newton, Estimator, Structures Building Co.</i></p>
Built at just under $93 per square foot, the house (which carries a distinct “industrial farmhouse” vibe) incorporates modest materials, such as exposed cinderblock and concrete floors, with finesse. “The easiest application on those floors is to seal and wax the concrete in its natural color. There is very little cost, and you always have the option to go back and add carpet or tile over it,” Binkley says. Flooring in the upstairs bedrooms was created by cutting sheets of bamboo plywood (at $25 per 4-foot-by-8-foot sheet) into 16-inch-wide strips and screwing them into the floor with stainless steel screws.
Other creative applications of everyday materials in Binkley's house include cut sections of chain-link fence, turned horizontally and suspended from the garage ceiling with cables to create shelving (at $30 a section, compared to $70 per modular garage shelving unit). A solar panel doubles as a decorative awning over the garage, all the while channeling energy back into the power grid. “Sometimes you just have to look at how things would normally be done and rethink those assumptions,” Binkley says.
Take what passes for conventional wisdom and turn it on its head. You never know ... some change could fall out.