Hi - new guy here w/ house design

tjm73 · October 07, 2005, 04:03:59 PM

Hello!

I'm looking to buy/build my first home and was doing research on different styles and heating/cooling/insulation options when I stumbeled upon the site. I started poking around and liked the idea of a small house.

I read about the 200 sq-ft contest. Neat contest and some cool designs too.

I took that idea expanded it a little and designed a realitively small house. Actually I designed 6 houses by mistake. I ended up with 2 main floor options and 3 loft options, all on top of what I call a half basement. More than a crawl space, but less than a full basement.

I did them in bitmap (yes I have much free time at work).

Do images have to be hosted someplace else and linked? This VBB is different than I'm used too.

Anyway, wanted to say hi and see if anyone might be interested in my little design experiment.

Terry

Jimmy_Cason · October 07, 2005, 04:25:22 PM

For image hosting, the favorite in this forum is

www.tinypic.com

Copy the url from tinypic
Then when you are ready to post, click on the insert image button above all the smileys and place the url inde the img's brackets

jraabe · October 07, 2005, 05:36:20 PM

Welcome, Terry. Here is a bit more information on the forum and how it works.

http://countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=news;action=display;num=1099677798

We'd all enjoy seeing your design.

Terry · October 07, 2005, 09:56:57 PM

I just lost a HUgE post because I didn't pu tin my name. That is a feature that sucks!!

Terry · October 07, 2005, 11:05:53 PM

Here's the pics of the house I designed. It has double thick outer wall construction to double up on insulation. Heating source could be woodstove, pellet stove, corn stove or traditional gs furnace. But I designed it with an exterior wood boiler type furnace that would also provide the hot water for the home.

In this picture I have the 2 main floor plans. The only difference is the kickout for a more roomy kitchen area. What you can't see is the closet under the loft stairway. It would have removeable shelves because it has a trap door entry to the basement to facilitate the instalation and removal of the water heater and or furnace units.

In this picture you can see the 3 loft options. I simply call them Loft, Large Loft and Extra Large Loft. I put a king size bed in to demonstrate the room available. Also I'm sure you will notice the washer and dryer in the loft. This did 2 things. First it save dspace on the main level. Second, it makes laundry easier and you don't have to carry much up and downthe steep stars. 99% of the time you change clothes in the bedroom area so it makes sense to me to have the waher and dryer where the dirty clothes are. I have to give credit to this idea to my mother. She mentioned it once a long time ago and when I was designing this I thought hey that makes great sense and added the feature in.

Loft has no overhanges and was designed for a single bed sleeping area. Large Loft has a 4 foot overhang off the end of the house to give a great ammount of room. Extra Large Loft has 4 feet of over hang off the side of the house (if set ontop of the standard main floor) and was designed to allow multiple bed options for a small family vacation house.

The last two pics are just elevations to add outside perspective and show the stair pitch and basement principle. The roofing option was left open on the one cause I couldn't design something I truely liked that I thought could actually hold a snow load.

So what do you think? I'm looking for honest thoughts and reactions. Whether you love it or hate it doesn't matter. Just curious what others think of my ideas (or individual ideas).

Terry

tjm73 · October 07, 2005, 11:09:24 PM

I wasn't logged in that makes sense.

I forgot to add the scale is 1 pixel is one inch. The posted pics are JPEG, but i have them on my PC as bitmap.

Also the loft is 10 feet from the floor to the floor of the loft. The roof is a semi cathedriel that slopes out at 6 feet above the floor.

I designed with the exterior wood furnce because I would also have a detached 6 car garage that I would want to have heated. And this type of heating unit would heat both the house and the garage.

Terry

glenn-k · October 07, 2005, 11:14:26 PM

Looking at the scaled rise and run on the stairs, I am guessing that you are using the Jefferson type alternating tread stair- otherwise it looks like the stairs would take a lot more room

glenn-k · October 07, 2005, 11:53:57 PM

1998 California Code requires private stair rise and run serving less than 10 occupants to be no more than 8 inches high and no less than 9 inches of run. Higher use requires not over 7 inches nor less than 4 inches rise (vertical) and run (horizontal) minimum of 11" per step.

A Jefferson stair is allowed for certain areas I think and takes about half as much room I believe.

From our old forum

http://countryplans.com/bbs/messages/6388.html

New forum

http://countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=01;action=display;num=1108838907;start=5#5

tjm73 · October 08, 2005, 09:54:05 AM

I live in NY. I have never heard of that type of stairway or the CA code before.

I guess, in a way that's kinda what I envisioned, but full width steps.

One thing I didn't do with my design was look at or consider any local building codes. I don't even know where to find the local building codes, short of going to the local town/village hall and requesting them...which I should do anyway.

jraabe · October 08, 2005, 10:04:59 AM

You will need to have something like the Jefferson stair for the space you have allocated. It may not be your best bet for the bedroom, however, and may not be allowed by local code. Such stairs are uncomfortable for oldsters as you have to back down. I wouldn't want one into the cellar as you can't really carry anything up and down them. Note - You do not want a stair with a 12" riser!

Your most interesting drawing will be the two cross sections. One through the pop-out and the other in the open ceiling area of the LR. You have the start of an interesting design. I see a saltbox on the wider section and a gable on the front - two gables of different heights. Could work out pretty nicely. Still, there's that pesky stair...

(See the 16x20 layout thread for more info on stairs - http://countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=01;action=display;num=1128349708.)

tjm73 · October 08, 2005, 10:59:10 AM

Thanks for the info about the stairway. I'll inestigate further. What rise/run would you suggest while still taking up minimal space?

I didn't really design this with older people in mind. But you highlight a good point.

In the other thread you wrote... "The old rule of thumb on stairs is that rise + run = 17.5". You might find that an extra riser with a shorter tread might be more to your liking (and easier for oldsters)."

I wonder how much space a 7" rise with a 10" run would take up? Or perhaps 8" rise by 10" run.

tjm73 · October 08, 2005, 04:22:26 PM

Ok, I updated the stairs to be more user friendly and removed the basement trap door access and added in it place the access from outside the house. I also Added a roof to the overhang option lofts. Now what are your thoughts?

Terry

Amanda_931 · October 08, 2005, 07:11:10 PM

I really dislike the idea of having to go downstairs to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. Or if I were sick or on crutches.

The sawdust toilet has made me a bit less intolerant, but still.....

This is a house you--or a potential buyer--may end up living in when you are 75, that does become a consideration.

One of the very few times anyone will hear me talk about keeping resale value up.

jraabe · October 10, 2005, 10:47:40 AM

See if this sketch gives you any ideas.

tjm73 · October 12, 2005, 04:23:17 PM

OK I modified my design a little more. I took the basement access back inside below the stairway to the loft area. Made it a full basement too. This is my idea when you were talking about roof options.