I have always been fascinated by house designs.  When I was younger my family hired an architect to design our home in the San Fernando Valley, and I had the chance to watch my parents go through the process of design from start to finish.  After we moved into our new home, they asked a friend (Raymond Cote) start on a cabin design in the San Bernardino Mountains by a town called Crestline. Again I was able to watch the creative design of our A-frame cabin and see it being built.

I did not go on to be a Residential Designer right away.  Instead, I got interested in robotics the early 80's, and I pursued the field of mechanical design. After a few years, I ended up in Bend, Oregon, working for a company designing aircraft ground support, and this to say the least, was boring. One evening I was looking through the local paper and I ran across an ad by an Architect looking for a part-time Draftsman, I applied for the job and got it.  Working this extra job in the evenings was amazing, and I felt like I finally found my calling.

After a year or so, the company I worked for closed their doors, so I worked full-time for different local Architects and Designers. This lasted for a couple of years.  At that time, I realized that I was missing the ocean, so having honed my skills, I was ready to take the next step.  Off to the Oregon coast I went and started a drafting and design service which eventually grew to two offices.  In addition, we had referral work coming in from all over the state.

Now, you may think this was a great situation, but I was not happy.  When I started this company, I was able to do all the design myself and work directly with clients,  which I found to be very rewarding. As the company grew, however, I turned into a fire marshal.  Just trying to keep up with all the management issues was a full-time job, and I wanted to get back to designing custom homes.  So, I sold the company and moved with my family to a place I had always wanted to live (Spokane, Washington) and started all over again.

This time I did it right.  I am again able to design one-on-one with my clients - and have a life too.  In addition, I have been taking classes over the past 20 years on solar design, green building & design and a slew of product classes.  I have designed several homes using, Insulated Concrete Form Homes, Notched Log homes, Butt & Pass log Homes, Standard Frame, & even a couple of Hay Bail Design abodes.

In my experience, it's not that difficult to design an energy-efficient house. Adding extra insulation, thermal windows, and other "green" methods and materials pay for themselves in a few years.  Our house is very comfortable; it's easy to heat and has no drafts. That's a huge advantage of  living in a smaller house; it's very efficient and therefore less costly to operate and maintain.

Most of our business is with custom-designed houses, but you can find plenty of great stock house plans on our website that we can modify for you to fit your needs and dreams.  Whether you choose a custom design or a stock house design, we will happily help you to create your dream house.  

To learn more about subjects like House Design please visit the web site at: http://www.greathousedesign.com