Saturday, September 15, 2012

Playing with House Designs

Lately I have been having a lot of fun reading about small houses and innovative house designs.  While I am not ready to move my family into a 100 sq/ft house like the ones shown at Tiny House Blog  I do like the concept of building a smaller house and using space efficiently.  Below is a design that I have created, inspired by an old homestead near where we live.  I planned this design to:

  • Be inexpensive to build using an extremely simple, one truss direction shape (30'x44')
  • Have a main floor of ~1000 sq/ft (925 sq/ft)
  • Have an open floor plan
  • 4 ft wide hallways
  • Use Structural Insulated Panels (SIPS) for external walls and roof
  • Master Suite on Main Floor
  • The use of attic roof trusses to add a bonus room
  • No bedrooms above or below the Master Suite
  • Garage/ living room on the sunny south side
  • Clerestory windows that allow sunlight in while maintaining privacy
  • Alternating tread stairs going up to the attic play area
Anyways, I have attached some pictures of the main floor.  The basement and attic will be posted later.  The basement will contain 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a family room, a laundry area and a space for food storage.  The attic will just be a long room about 12' by 30' that will be used as a kids play area/ space for guests.  The total square feet of the house will be about 2300. 

Let me know what you think!