Happy New Year! I hope it a great one for all. This year I thought I start it off with trends we are seeing in home building. These are items that I’m loving and plan on using them in our designs and my own home in the coming year.

SMALLER HOMES

This is about half of the entire 400 square foot unit.

As someone who is in the middle of death cleaning and a follower of Marie Kondo, this is a trend I support. Here in Sonoma County it’s becoming hard to design a home affordability. We are seeing home construction prices climb over $300 a square foot or about $450,000 for a 1500 square foot house. Ouch. So, the smaller the better. We recently designed this jewel of an accessory dwelling for a mother who wanted to move in with her daughter. It’s about 400 square feet, is perfect for one person and answers the question “where did I leave my keys?”

FIRE RESISTIVE FINISHES

All of this siding is made from cement even the shingles!

After all the firestorms in California, need I say anything use? We specify cementitious siding on all out projects. The house is all cementitious siding even the shingles. James Hardie this the leader in this type of siding. They have been in business for over 100 years and their website is: https://www.jameshardie.com/

ZERO WASTE

We are on the way to zero waste here in California. Why wait until it’s mandatory? There are many websites and people willing to sell you items to help get you to zero waste although I’m not sure if buying more items aligns with the zero-waste practice. The website for California is: https://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/ZeroWaste/Communities/

NO CURB SHOWER PANS

Getting to closer to my dream of power washing my bathroom, Schulter Systems has developed a curb-less, no drop-down shower pan. It’s a great way to put a shower in an existing bathroom. It can be a bit tricky to install properly so I would not call it a DIY project. Their website is: https://www.schluter.com/schluter-us/en_US/Shower-System/Prefabricated-Substrates/Schluter%C2%AE-KERDI-SHOWER-ST/p/KERDI_SHOWER-ST

WALL HUNG TOILET

My next selection fits right in with the bathroom. A wall hung masterpiece that shortens the time it takes to clean that nasty, dirty, stinky floor mounted toilet. Think about it. No lower half to clean. It just leaves me with one question; where do I put the tissue box?