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 (http://countryplans.com/gf_randy.html) was a design I did initially for such a permit.
We had the 200 sf contest (http://www.countryplans.com/contest.html) and several folks came up with places you could actually imagine living in.
What would you do in under 1000 sf?
(https://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g166/jraabe/hood.jpg)
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... :D
Built under the same code / conditions in Island county ,
(https://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b299/PEG688/aug2005004.jpg%20)
PITB to get the permit , maybe "to conventional / conserative " for the forum :-/ :-/.
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. ::)
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!
Contemporary plan with interesting exterior angles. Deck off master bedroom. 984 sq. ft.
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.
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.
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?
Nice work BayviewPS :D
Looks like he is using 3DHA or some similar program. This would be a good program for a small single story house like this.
Yes, those plans do look like they'd work.
They were more than taking their own sweet time loading for me last night.
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
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?
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
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
(http://www.kinnik.com/gallery/albums/exteriorpaint/aaa.jpg)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 (http://marywcampbell.com/graphs/DogtrotHouse.JPG).)
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?
Something I whipped up quick like.
(http://i7.tinypic.com/21mvo8m.jpg)
Two Story Plan - 768 Sq Ft Total Living - Part I
- 3/4 Bath Downstairs
- Full Bath Up
- 2 Side Porchs
- Outside Storage
- Hot Water Heater Under Stairs
- Room on Porch for Hot Tub
Two Story Plan - 768 Sq Ft Total Living - Part I
- Front Elevations
Here is a plan that is just a bit under 1000sqft all under one roof but less than 1000 if you dont count the huge open porch as enclosed space. Its pretty lavish space for one or a couple. The large glazed windows that form the living space around the hearth could be made as removable panels which would make the place more open air. I show a variation where the main spaces are treated as a compound, the 3 seperate buildings linked by decks and arbors. This was done on Plan 3d.
ANYONE KNOW HOW TO MAKE THIS PLAN BIGGER? I CANT RESIZE IT SO ITS
READABLE?
(https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/butlerboi/BIGPORCHPLAN-2.jpg)
(https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/butlerboi/BIGPORCHFRONT-1.jpg)
(https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/butlerboi/BIGPORCHCORNER.jpg)
(//%3Cbr%20/%3E%3Cbr%20/%3E%5BIMG%5Dhttps://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/butlerboi/BIGPORCHLIVING.jpg)
(https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/butlerboi/BIGPORCHCOMPOUND.jpg)
(https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/butlerboi/BIGPORCHCOMPOUNDUNDER.jpg)
Here's a little dog trot design I did ages ago. They were done on Paint.
(https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/butlerboi/DETDOGTROT-1.jpg)
(https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/butlerboi/DDOGTROT2FAC.jpg)
Nice concept Bayview! Those twin porches add a lot of indoor/outdoor space to 768 sf of enclosed area. Simple to build too. Are you using 3D Home Architect for that?
Mark: Not sure why the images are so small. They are around 200 pixels or less wide. I see they were posted via Photobucket. I wonder if you could try hosting the image with resizing turned off. That would give you the original image size. (This shows how to do it in ImageShack)
(http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/597/imageshackih4.jpg)
Photobucket can resize down only. To get full size with it you have to reload the image from your computer.
John:
Yes, I am using 3D Architect Deluxe Version 2.1. Owned since 1997.
I am following this thread with great interest.
We had purchased 1 acre of property in April 2004. Since then we have cleared the
property of brush and built a 2 car garage. We will be using the garage as a "staging" area
for prefabing our home.
The property is gently sloping to the rear with a lot of oaks, and cedars.
Our property is in a restricted area. The minimum home size must be at least 1000 sq.ft. of quality construction. We have a few one story plans that I had drawn using 3D Architect.
The home will be for retirement. So many things must be considered. Certainly a one
story in case we wont be able to climb stairs. Large enough bath that is close to bedrooms.
Covered porch for evenings. Etc., Etc. We want living - bedrooms at rear of home.
We have searched the Internet for interesting house plans. Most are pretty standard.
We want an unique home. Maybe something contemporary - modern.
We are looking for input on floor plans and unique construction methods.
Maybe your members can help!
Check out floor plans rather than "houses." Roof-lines, external surfaces materials, etc. can to a large extent be changed without a whole lot of trouble, especially in a one-story house. Which can't be said for the only entrance to only bathroom in a house being through the bedroom (worse than that a place I actually lived in--a little studio cottage in which you got to walk through the bathroom to go from bed/living room to the kitchen).
Might take a look at Dwell magazine.
Mark:
I like that dogtrot design and it got me thinking. I wonder if you couldn't turn the large center hall of a dogtrot into a semi-open area with sliding glass and/or screen barn doors at either end. It would extend the climate zone of the design and make the space into a four season great room.
John: The dogtrot was often enclosed when the family got more prosperous and wanted more space for living and entertaining. or just wanted to look a bit more elegant. Its original use of course was for open air work and living space under cover. Dogtrots were usually built in fairly mild southern climates where long cold snowy winters werent an issue. I agree it wouldnt be difficult to fit the opening with permanent doors or screens but it rather takes away from the original open air aspect. Maybe pop in screens for the warm weather that snapped into batten tracks on the floor or folded to the side like accordian doors or multi track soshi doors on japanese houses. Glazed doors or windows like old style storm windows could be snapped into the tracks for cold weather use. I suppose you could even use a glazed garage door as long as it would clear the stairwell.
Occasionally one sees Nana wall's folding French door advertisement above. They have lovely--and expensive--folding French doors made for just that kind of purpose.
Other people have experimented with roll-down garage doors for opening up a dog-trot. But that would mean lights on in the daytime (even garage doors with windows don't have enough windows in them)
Ive seen some roll down garage doors where all the panels had glass. I suppose you could buy a bunch of upper panels and hook them together and solve the light problem. I know I have seen these. Anyone know a source?
Here we go: You often see these on commercial structures like jiffy lubes or firestations.
(https://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f332/butlerboi/fullglazegaragedoor.jpg)
You're right Mark, and those would be nice.
(the only problem is you would have trouble with ceiling lights--but I have lived in a house without ceiling lights in the living room--there was a switched outlet that took the place of it, though)
Here is the link to the residential application arm of the company that makes the red roll up commercial doors shown in the link above: http://www.armrlite.com/products_residential_aluminum.htm
Wall lights can easily replace ceiling fixtures and usually give more interesting lighting. I often do this in upper floor ceilings so as not to compromise air sealing and R-value in an insulated ceiling.
makes sense--that wall lights put fewer holes in the ceiling.
(the house in question was a rented duplex, built with on the cheap, so I'm pretty sure they didn't do it for that reason)
picture on the door site is gorgeous.
OHhh NOOOO. I got to have a chandelier. When we made the first big addition to the shed in Missouri and finally got electricity, we put up a nice 8 light brass chandelier I got at Goodwill for 5 bucks. We didnt have heat , insulation or any
interior surfaces, but we had our standards. ;) ::) Cant live like heathens. I do need to stop buying them though, no matter how nice or how big a bargain. Last time I was in Missouri, I did an inventory and discovered I had 32 light fixtures stashed away in various places waiting to go up. I may have to add on just to find homes for all those light fixtures. :)
Yard art birds sounds like a less obtrusive obsession.
I don't have over 10--yet. Haven't found a place for the plastic pink flamingoes, but they're here.
Some people think that the wind chimes are a bit much, though.
QuoteThat 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 (http://marywcampbell.com/graphs/DogtrotHouse.JPG).)
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?
Don't know, but we see it every year at the Florida State Fair (in February). Could pace it off.
Here are some Cracker Country pictures, the first ones of the Doyle Carlton House (pretty inside, too).
http://fcit.usf.edu/florida/photos/cities/ccountry/crackc/crackc.htm
Didn't think about it, but there is a certain similarity to the Victoria Cottage I hope to build soon. Hmm.
Fine tuning the 1000 sq ft home.
- Moved bath and utility to front of home.
- Both bedrooms now share a common deck area.
- Larger Kitchen.
- Larger entry.
- Breaker box centrally located in utility room.
What would 1000 sf two bedroom dogtrot look like? :-?
That's a good layout Bayviewps.
I like the bedrooms sharing an outdoor area. That could be a little garden or patio.
It would be nice if an additional 1/2 bath could be fit in.
A local builder who had a small house (probably more than 1000sf) with 2 bedrooms and one bath had a hard time selling the place. Almost everyone who looked at it wanted two baths. Buyers were often two single people wanting to share the house.
(PS - Mark is working up that 2 bedroom dogtrot)
John:
Here is a Two Bedroom, Two Bath I had previously drawn on 3D Home Architect.
996 Sq Ft
Here is the plan that we are working on currently.
We had purchased about 1 acre of property. 165 wide and 265 deep. A driveway runs
the entire length on one side making the property actually 135 X 265. We built a garage
about 1/2 way back. Hoping to have a large backyard.
I had previously wanted a front entry. Because of the extra expense of drive and
sidewalk we have decided a side entry may work better. The garage would be located just
to the upper left of this current floor plan. The rear of the home mostly deck.
This will be a retirement home for us. I know for resale that a two bath would be better.
But have opted for more closet - storage.
We hope to start the home next spring and finishing fall-winter of 2007.
Our needs include: One story home. Approximately 1000 Sq ft. Largest
footprint 28 X 48.
Any help, critiquing this plan, or any advice would be appreciated.
Frankly, I'm not liking these last two designs as much as your earlier effort. If I understand right guests walk up the driveway and come into the living room through the side porch entry.
Seems suburban and feels a bit like a spec house. The 1' pop-outs feel tacked on to the exterior. Maybe it could be softened with fencing, walkways and exterior spaces?
Is this old design tips thing (http://www.countryplans.com/landkit/tips.htm) of any help?
Your right John,
Thanks for you candor.
I've looked at some of the plans I had drawn over the years, and found them more
contemporary and interesting. More in tune to natural surroundings.
The latest plans have been more traditional with less imagination.
Thanks for the thump in the back in the head . . .
Back to the drawing board.