Designing a 1000 sf house - what would you do?

[jraabe]

Here in rural Island Co WA there is a special accessory dwelling permit for small houses (under 1000 sf) in areas that normally only allow one residence per land parcel. Each year the county will permit 35 of these. The Grandfather cottage was a design I did initially for such a permit.

We had the 200 sf contest and several folks came up with places you could actually imagine living in.

What would you do in under 1000 sf?



Here's what one couple did. I was there last week. A great compound of three small Bldgs! (total heated SF = 998)
http://www.countryplans.com/Downloads/1000sf/alt-home-tour/

Just to get the creative juices flowing...  

[peg_688]

 Built under the same code / conditions in Island county ,

 

 PITB to get the permit , maybe "to conventional / conserative " for the forum :-/ :-/.

 

[milo]

I will be watching this with great interest. I have recently purchased a small sloping lot that no one else wanted. Everyone I have talked to thinks it's useless because it is a steep north facing slope. I think it will be great for a cluster of small buildings on treated post. I only have $1000 invested in it, so I want to come up with a really low cost house to build. Maybe we could turn this into a contest.

[MIEDRN]

This is about the size I wanted but I know nothing about designing a house.

I do know that I would like an open floor plan with two master suites and a half bath.

I thought about using the enchilada kit and putting a basement under the middle section with master suites off both sides.

A patio off each master would be nice as well. The loft in the center section could be used by family when visiting. The younger kids would love a fort-like loft!

But to be honest, 12/12 roof pitch scares me! I'm sure I wouldn't be up there in the future, and I wouldn't want my family up there either. I'm leaning toward a plain ranch with a low pitch roof. Not as interesting but may be necessary considering my fear of heights!

I'll be watching this thread too!

[bayviewps]

Contemporary plan with interesting exterior angles.  Deck off master bedroom.  984 sq. ft.

[bayviewps]

For MIEDRN  . . .
  Conventional plan with front porch.  Two master suites, 2 baths, large walk-in closets, open dining.
A little over with 1040 sq. ft.

[MIEDRN]

Oh My Gosh!

How did you do that so fast? I love them both! I'll have to save this thread, you just might see this built.

I'll just have to choose which to build now! Thank you.

[Amanda_931]

How I would do this?

I'm working on a plan for me that will probably run about 700 sf including porches, a good weather guest room, maybe with a root cellar.

But also, I've been looking recently at--mostly books on--both Japanese houses and Frank Lloyd Wright's Usonian houses.  There's a right handsome example of the latter not too far from here, open as a museum.  Wright was big on "less stuff" and everything built-in.  Although he could make an exception for books.

(Apparently there's also a book on the Rosenbaum house coming out this fall, probably with signing parties at the bookstores and the house in the Shoals area (of Northern Alabama-- around an hour south of me)

This book is currently in the car to read for lunch.  Not sure it's worth buying, but I'm learning a fair amount.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810946262/sr=1-32/qid=1153444458/ref=sr_1_32/103-3632671-2208619?ie=UTF8&s=books.

I've looked at my trailer here, a lot of the places I've lived, John's plans, the version of one of those that somebody--Jonsey, I think--drew up for my inspection, and Christopher Alexander's web site directions for creating a small house.   This is a different computer, let me see if I can find the Alexander.  It took me about a week to go through this process for something else.  But it is, like all of Alexander's processes, very site oriented.

Here it is:

http://www.patternlanguage.com/smallhouse/begin.htm

I've also spent unbelievable amounts of time staring at store-bought plans.  Walking my way through them in my mind, cooking, putting groceries away, etc.   That said, I'm not nearly as good as Trish on looking at traffic patterns.  

What is the story on that upturned porch roof?

[jraabe]

Nice work BayviewPS  

Looks like he is using 3DHA or some similar program. This would be a good program for a small single story house like this.

[Amanda_931]

Yes, those plans do look like they'd work.

They were more than taking their own sweet time loading for me last night.

[jwv]

John, that house made me smile!   It seems it has several of the Alexander "Patterns". Thanks for sharing that.
Here's an interesting site that I haven't played around with much-I may have learned about it here.  Might be helpful to some http://www.patternlanguage.com/smallhouse/begin.htm

Judy

[jraabe]

Judy:

Thanks for the link to the Pattern Language site. It would appear to have a lot of potential. Are you a member and do you find it worth the $5/mo fee?

[jwv]

You know John, I found that site after we had finished the "design" of our house.  Isn't that always the way? But I think it would be helpful-$60 for a year to come up with a unique home design is doable-some spend that much on coffee in a week!

Judy

[Pala]

The Port Townsend Cutie:

http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1147666643

Links to Floor plans:
http://www.kinnik.com/gallery/albums/2911_main/abp.jpg
http://www.kinnik.com/gallery/albums/2911_main/abo.jpg

[rwalter]

Well looks like I'll have to break out the 3d Architect again once I get home later this weekend. Thanks John for running these contests.

[CREATIVE1]

Love the cluster house concept with several small buildings.  Seems that this type of design gives you several advantages--except in a really cold climate!

1.  More flexibility in how the spaces are used.
2.  Better ventilation and connection with the outdoors.
3.  In some locales, the ability to get enough square footage without ruining the site.
4.  The ability to build in phases without demolishing some of what you already built.
5.  Privacy and connection, by including an incredible indoor/outdoor gathering room.
6.  A really creative design process.

[Amanda_931]

True about the cold climate if you wanted to live like you did the rest of the year during the winter.



But if you hadn't put too much in the way of plumbing that has to be kept from freezing in the outlying buildings, it might work fine just to heat the core.

Just at the moment (heat warnings in the next county--95% humidity here) I'd be wondering if the sleeping porch I want is going to be enough.

This afternoon I sat up at the tree-house and sweated.  Finally a tiny little breeze got down to my level.

[jraabe]

The other advantage of a cluster concept is that an outdoor "room" as in the covered connecting deck to the three units above don't count in the square footage. Such a three season space gives lots of value for the money.

Such a place might be the most used part of a house/compound that started life as a summer get-away place.

[Amanda_931]

Might easily be.  

(on the other hand for the last day or so I've been pulling gallons--literally--of water out of the air with the--inside type--AC unit)

[CREATIVE1]

One interesting design for the heat is what I think they call a "dog trot"--a house with a central porch/breezeway separating the rooms.  I've attached an example from the 1880's, the Doyle Carlton House in Cracker Country--Tampa, Florida.  Look closely and you'll see that the central part of the house--about as wide as the rooms--is open all the way through on the first floor. A living room, bedroom, and dining area all open off the hall and porches. The kitchen is in a bumpout, and the entire upstairs is two dormitories reached by separate tiny, steep stairs--one for the boys, one for the girls.  The entire house is heart pine.  This is my all-time favorite building--and it is small.  I'm not a fan of the "puffy house" built in Florida today.

[Amanda_931]

That's so pretty.

Dog trot was a pretty typical style for log cabins in this area.  Our local firebug got a lovely two-story one just down the hill from me--it was disintegrating, but probably still restorable.

Gives you more daylighting as well as ventilating possibilities.  

And in the South, end fireplaces make a bit more sense--upstairs ones can be used for ventilation as well as heat.  That's why we always get told about fireplaces sucking the warm air out of the room--it works in the summer too.

[ShawnaJ]

Amanda, I'll trade you places! The humidity here yesterday was awful along with 105 to 110 heat indexes, in the SHADE!!!

Today it says feels like 93 degrees, humidity of 63%, no trees for shade in our complex....can't wait for Labor Day to get up to Tennessee, my 40 degree springs and the cool rivers!!!! Don't know what the ocean temp is sitting at now, but it's too warm for cooling off that's for sure....and too many sharks.

[Amanda_931]

Oh, no, you wouldn't want to.  We finally made pink on weather underground.  Don't think it's any worse than yesterday, when we didn't (but they did 15 miles away).  Pink = heat warning.

But I could go wade in a river.  Green or Buffalo.  Probably plenty broken glass, no sharks.  Maybe a snake or three.

[jraabe]

That dog-trot house is most facinating. I hadn't seen it done on a full two story house. (here is a link to a more typical dog trot log house.)

Looks to be up on piers as well. Guess that's been good enough for over a hundred years.

What would you guess, 16' wide?

[tjm73]

Something I whipped up quick like.