Have all your kids gone away to college? Are you sick of hearing about the global housing crisis? You may be looking to downsize your home to save costs if the answer is yes to those questions. One of the cheapest and fastest ways to go about it is by building your own home. Do It Yourself Flat Pack homes are good options because: 1) you can build them quickly 2) there are many models out there that are high quality and energy efficient, and 3) you can build them in a fraction of the time you would build a traditional home.
As a matter of fact, if you live in the UK, there’s an engineer living there that is designing a home where the biggest part of it can assembled in about four hours. According to Dr. Mike Page, the engineer who designed it, it is as easy to put together as an IKEA bookcase. There isn’t even as much assembly as you’d see in a regular flat pack kit because when customers order these prefabricated home kits, they get the finished product. All that will need to be done will be to add the flat pack furniture, dust your hands off, and you’re done. Voila! Livable Home!
The QB2 Cube House
You can buy the flat pack house between the ranges of £10,500 to £47,000. The QB2 cube house, as it is called, is about 10 ft. tall and 13 ft. wide and allows two people to sleep in comfort. Also importantly, the building doesn’t require any action by the planning commission because it’s only 10 ft. tall. You can see how the designing genius of Dr. Page comes into play when you look at the space saving measures that are incorporated in the building that makes it much roomier than homes of the same size.
Amazingly, the QB2 cube is able to provide a fully functional and comfortable floor plan in its compact design. This is accomplished by combining features in the home such as using a sturdy bookcase as a foundation for a mini-spiral set of stairs. If you bought the QB2, the following components would fit in your home:
- A bedroom with a large double bed.
- A large galley bathroom with sink, toilet and full-sized shower.
- A dining room table that converts into a sofa that.
- A large and perfectly functional stove and refrigerator.
- Appliances to include a TV and washing machine.
- A Mechanical heat recovery HVAC system and low energy lights.
Design Options For The QB2
The shell of the QB2 can be erected in about four hours, but it takes a little longer to add other parts of the home such as the kitchen. There is an option to build the cube home yourself for about £9,495, or let Bolton Buildings build it for you for £10,305.00. This basic model includes ceiling and floor joists, foundation and wall studs.
An additional option costs about £27,208 and will provide insulated walls, roof covering and floors and ceilings. It also has walls with birch lining within them.
Home Decorating Tips For Your DIY
You will need to approach home decorating for this small home a little differently than a regular-sized home because if you don’t, things can look crammed. For instance, some smart use of space would be to delineate rooms by hanging a nice set of curtains on electrical piping curtain rods for an inexpensive and appealing touch to your small home.
Homebuyers looking to downsize their home would do well to check their local companies that provide small DIY flat pack homes like the QB2 cube home. Once the home is assembled, and you begin living in it, you will be amazed at how they take advantage of engineered designs to provide a trendy and modern home that is an enjoyment to live in.