Question about the Builders Cottage and Victoria's cottage.

[Bigfella]

My name is Nathan and I am in the planning stages of building a small off-grid full time house. I have been a lurker for some time now and think it best to finally join the "club" if you will. I will be starting my cabin hopefully by August or September in Washington State (with plenty of pictures) but as life has taught me...that can change. I may have to wait until the spring to start but I am pushing hard for an August/September start and will work through the winter if need be. I do have a question regarding the Builders cottage (14')/Victoria plans(16'). I have been doing a thousand variations of each floorplan and seem to be drawn to a 16'x24' cabin. Which floorplan would you buy if you wanted to build a 16'x24' cabin? Can the Victoria be modified to a 24' long version or can I more easily modify the Builders cottage to 16' wide?

[rick91351]

First off welcome!     As you put it to 'the club' - I look at it more as a guild. 

Anyway John at his other sight PlanHelp.com does have a 16' X 28' for down load.  I ordered the The Big Enchilada recently and am expanding it.  I am  using the 16' X 28' down load as the core and and expanding it to 16' X30' (just adding two feet).  You can do the same just subtracting two feet doing a cut and paste or tape on to your plans.

Then to the core 16 X30 we plan on using the builders cottage as a 'wing' for a master bedroom and on the other side, 10 foot of the builders cottage as a utility.  We are planing on living in that while we build an old style Craftsman Style bungalow after I retire.  

When I /we are finished with that, we will have a very nice guest house.  But most likely will be living in the expanded Big Enchilada for at least a full year or two.   Getting all the mill work done on the bungalow is going to take some time.     

 

[John Raabe]

I think Rick's suggestion is a good one. The Victoria cottage does have a 16' wide studio house as part of the set that could serve as a core house - but the main Victoria building is supported by a post and beam structure that is not as easy to change as either the studio house or an expanded 16' wide house based on the Enchilada building plans. Remember that the CP Plans Support forum (or the PlanHelp forum) can help with suggested modifications.

[Bigfella]

It sounds like I need to order the Enchilada plans and sign up over at plan help. Thanks for the input.