Multigenerational households are one of the fastest-growing living arrangements in the United States. Pew Research Center estimates that roughly 18 percent of Americans live in a household with two or more adult generations, a share that has climbed steadily since the 1970s. Builders who plan for this shift start with the floor plan, because a […]
Living at home in your twenties and thirties has moved from a quiet family arrangement to a defining housing trend of the 2020s. High rents, student debt, and the cost of saving for a first home push many adults to stay with parents longer, while aging parents often welcome the help and company. The result
Homes hold a lot of memories. They are where children take their first steps, where families celebrate and argue and make up, and where the routines of daily life get established. That attachment is measurable: a 2024 Zillow study found that 44 percent of adults would buy their childhood home if they could. The stereotypical
Family needs change on their own schedule. Children arrive, parents age, jobs relocate, and the house that fit a couple of newlyweds can feel wrong for a family of five a decade later. Planning a home with the future in mind means designing, or finding, a house that keeps working as the household changes. The
Homes are full of small rooms dedicated to specific functions: home offices, formal dining rooms, playrooms, and utility spaces. In recent years, more listings have started advertising a den, and buyers increasingly ask what the room can actually be used for. A den is a flexible, multipurpose room that works as a secondary living space,
House leveling returns a settled structure to a level plane by raising the low side and supporting it in place. The cost depends on where you live and what type of foundation you have. Common costs for leveling a house range from $3,500 to $6,500 in many areas, but the price can drop below $1,500
The type of house you choose shapes your budget, your maintenance load, and the way your household lives day to day. Buyers weigh price, location, and lifestyle, but the building form itself sets the limits: a bungalow behaves differently from a penthouse, and a flat differs from a farmhouse in almost every practical way. Knowing
When company comes calling, where will they stay? A spare bedroom works for a night, but a detached guest house lets you host friends and family at your house without everyone sharing one bathroom, one kitchen, and every quiet hour. Guest cottages, guest sheds, mother-in-law houses, and granny flats are all names for the same
Some buyers take a house exactly as it comes, but for a true DIYer the blank canvas is the point. A 3,200-square-foot Houston new build became exactly that for one designer, who turned a cookie-cutter floor plan into a personalized home with bespoke trim work, ornate built-ins, swirling wallpaper, and a palette drawn from botanical
A home is where most people spend the largest share of their time, so the decisions made before the first shovel hits the ground carry weight for decades. Building a new house involves dozens of choices that interact with one another, and the order in which you make them matters as much as the choices
