Grandfather vs Volks plans

[dmuhlen]

Hello, all. This is my first post, been lurking quite a while. Over the last year or so, I've purchased both the Enchilada and the Victoria's Cottage plans, but have decided to build neither. My wife and I recently purchased 2.5 acres near Torrington, Wyoming, and plan to build there. We're now looking seriously at either the Grandfather or the Volks Cottage, and I'm looking for someone familiar with those plans to help me decide. The Volks has a 16' wide side room while the Grandfather has a 14' wide side room, and as I'd prefer the wider one and that steers me toward the Volks. I'm wondering about the roof trusses in these plans. Do the plans include site-built trusses? I think cathedral ceilings are mentioned in the descriptions, are these scissor trusses or how is that done with trusses? The two plans look very similar, though if I bought the Volks I'd be flipping it's orientation, which should be no big deal.

I've almost finished building a 12 x 16 Little house with lofts for temporary use while we're building the real house. Any info on these two above plans would be much appreciated.

David

[John Raabe]

Hi David:

You are right, the Volks cottage is a modification of the Grandfather cottage that may work better for some layouts. Both plans have simple truss diagrams meant to be taken to a local truss supplier for design to local loads. I have shown a half scissors truss to get a sloped ceiling over the great room and eating area. I have flat bottom trusses elsewhere. There could be other options such as scissors trusses over the larger bedroom wing. I would not suggest site built trusses for these two houses as the truss company engineering will be much more efficient (and probably less expensive) than a site built truss.