Okay -- after a fruitless search on the internet I turn to the source that I should have turned to in the first place.

Does anyone have a source (preferably online) of floor plans of basic "homesteader" type homes? I'm not looking for something with a bathroom off of every bedroom and twelve foot ceilings -- I'm looking for something with two to three bedrooms (that will be used as BEDROOMS, not LIVING ROOMS!) and a large main living area designed to do real work in -- as in a large country kitchen with an area off of it for a sofa and several bookcases. In addition, I'd like a "utility" area somewhere for the freezer and tons of shelving for the canning, etc.

Where, oh where, might one find something like this? Any suggestions?

-- Tracy Rimmer (trimmer31@hotmail.com), October 15, 2001

Answers

Tracy- You just described the house which I designed for some property I was going to build on! Like you I tried to find floor plans that matched what I wanted, but could not so in the end drew it up myself. I only needed about 1400 sq ft of space, which was part of the problem. I also added an attached garage with a large mudroom/laundry and utility room/pantry connecting it to the house. It was kind of cool and I'm sorry I never built it.

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), October 15, 2001.

Uh, Elizabeth, any chance we could get our greedy mitts on your plan?

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), October 15, 2001.

How about an article and a submission to CS magazine so we can ALL see it? :-)

-- Joyce Dingman (FriendsPatterns@juno.com), October 15, 2001.

Tracy, I think you can design your house yourself. I did ours! It's basically a 30x30 foot square house, walk-out basement with large storage room, large bathroom/mud room and workshop, main floor is a large kitchen, with living and dining rooms off that - all open space concept, we do have one small room on the main floor with doors that close: my husband's work at home office (and the small bathroom off the kitchen has a door that closes also) the upstairs is a loft covering 3/4 of the main floor, again all open concept with 2 bedrooms and a weaving studio. We started this by talking to a local builder who was willing to work from my plans. A good builder can do this without expensive architectural drawings. He gave us a lot of tips on trusses, weight bearing walls, what would work and wouldn't, what would add to the cost, etc. He built the shell of the house for us and did the plumbing, leaving us with 2x4 stud walls and some dry walled. We did all the electrical (my dad's an electrician) and everything else from insulation to panelling, floors and window casings while living in the basement. While you may not want to do the amount of finishing construction work that we did, I encourage you to design the house yourself. Even if you do the initial drawings and take them to an architect or builder to be finished, you're more likeley to get a house you can live with. Start by drawing a square or rectangle (less expensive than other floor plans) then think about how you live and what you're daily activities are and start drawing rooms from there. Hope this helps.

-- Rose Marie Wild (wintersongfarm@yahoo.com), October 15, 2001.

I saw a simple design once that configured the house sort of like the shape of a saturn v command module side view when the plans were viewed from an above perspective. The center of the house was a common room/kitchen 40 ft wide at the great room outside wall, 28 ft wide at the kitchen outside wall. to the left and right of the greatroom/kitchen was a bedroom,bath and storage area. Fireplace was a centered freestanding stone unit between the two room areas.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair67@yahoo.com), October 15, 2001.

I've seen several books with fantastic, very practical house plans (no frills or fluff)at my father-in-law's house. They are reprints of old plans from a century or so ago. I'll see if I can find them and let you know the titles. One for sure was called "Craftsman Homes."

-- Elizabeth in e tx (kimprice@peoplescom.net), October 15, 2001.

tracy here is a website that is awesome they have adds in countryside that is how i found them. homesteaddesign.com/frame.html They have liveable house plans and even supply lists so you can cost it out. elly

-- elly snyder (firelitca@yahoo.ca), October 15, 2001.

Hi Tracy, Go to www.archwaypress.com They have a wide variety of sizes and styles. They also have a section called farm houses. I found a few things there that I like. The one I plan to build is a variation of one of those. Hope this helps..

-- Ria in Ky (MinMin45@aol.com), October 15, 2001.

My father is a draftsman. He has drawn up a multitude of these type of plans. If anyone is interested, I'd be willing to get copies to them.

-- Matthew Ramey (mramey@gc.cc.wy.us), October 15, 2001.

Tracy, you're in Canada, are you not? Beaver Lumber here in Canada has a book/catalogue of floor plans to sell they're "put it up yourself" package houses and cottages. If you have one close to you, you may want to pick up a book. I think they cost about $6 cdn, and have as many as 100 floor plans shown. Everything from 400 sq. ft. cottages to over 3000 sq. ft. homes. Don't know if it's online. Hope this helps.

-- Rheba (rhebab@hotmail.com), October 15, 2001.

Borderbund makes a $35.00 software package that you can use to design your home. It is very easy to do. We used it when we designed our new home. The software comes with picture layouts, so if you see a design you like, you can say "put that bathroom in my plan". It will produce a "bill of materials" that you can use. We used that feature to see if we wanted 9 foot ceilings and 6 foot windows. Because of the beautiful view of our lake, we chose to do so, knowing what the upgrade would cost.

When done you can print your scale design and take it to a blueprinter to have copies made for you builders.

If you are having trouble finding an off-the-shelf deisgn, this software may help.

Good luck... Rickstir

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), October 15, 2001.

Tracy, if you're going to build new, do yourself a favor and take a look at structural insulated panels (SIP's) for your exterior walls. An SIP consists of a solid foam core sandwiched between two pieces of OSB. SIP structures are quieter, better insulated and more airtight than conventional stick built structures. You can order SIP's in sizes of 8' by up to 24' with door and window openings pre-cut to your specifications. You'll spend a little more on them than on the material for the same size stick built wall but should make up for it in labor savings. Something I really like with SIP's is that you can be closed in and under roof in one day. That really cuts down on materials 'walking away' from your site, too.

This is not pre-fab or modular construction. You do the design however you wish. Do a search on the internet for for 'Structural Insulated Panels' or 'SIP' to learn more about them. I think they're a really great way to build. I hope this helps.

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), October 15, 2001.

I used a computer program called 3D Architect when I remodeled and added to our house. This program is great!! Very easy to use, easy to change things around. It will give you a 3D look plus draw a floorplan with or without measurements, draw up a materials list, etc. After I changed everything about 200 times to get it just right I printed the floorplan out, took it to a copy shop with an oversized copier and made enough copies for the building inspector, electrician, etc. It made it so easy to see what I was doing ahead of time. I am very happy with the final results.

-- cathy in NC (planet10@gloryroad.net), October 15, 2001.

Gary, Is it possible to build a "home-made" SIP using the OSB and 5 1/2" poly? Any thoughts on this would be great.

-- Marky (anick1@erols.com), October 15, 2001.

Gastineau Log Homes offers a Back-to-Basics series that's really affordable, with 6 or more choices of floor plans, at www.oakloghome.com... brenda

-- Brenda Smith (bks_42@hotmail.com), October 17, 2001.

Tracy how we did ours was very high tech :) We have all been in homes who have rooms we love, lived in homes we hated, loved so and so's Kitchen etc. We sat down with graph paper and made it ourselves. We needed 3 bedrooms 2 are 12 by 12 one 12 x 16, two bathrooms (one of which has never made it into one, is a home office, a laundry room which left the rest for a huge living area devided in two visually by a large beam and a kitchen dining computer area that is only visually defined by a kitchen bar with no upper cabinets. Most folks are very surprised our house is only 40 x 40, which also includes a porch under the main roof in the front and side. We have added a sunroom/porch/canning room. I did things like, make sure my hallway was 4 feet wide, so my ample butt and laundry basket on my hip could fit down it. We have all exterior size doors in every room so we don't have to squish in furniture. We got our windows second hand so we built the rooms around the window sizes. I had a nice lead glass window I wanted in the house somewhere, it is above my front door, the only architectual challenge of our square home. Now with our building skills honed, we actaully build for others now, we would change things, but we love our house! Think closets and storage!!! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), October 19, 2001.

Speaking as an architectural draftsman, I can say for a certainty that you can design your own home yourself. Here are some ideas you may want to keep in mind:

Design on a 4'-0" grid.

Most building materials are designed on this size. Any walls with strange dimensions, i.e. 9'-6", 12'-3", etc. will need materials to be cut; the remains get thrown out as landfill materials. If you use a 4'-0" dimension, no cuts, goes up much faster.

Stick with a 8'-0" ceiling.

With this dimension held, you can quickly add a wall where you want it; just cut carpet off floor, add plate at top and bottom, and sheet rock at your convenience.

Clerestory windows.

If you have looked at a window from the inside of a building, the reflected glare often blinds you, and makes everything else look dark. Short but wide windows with a bottom sill of 5'-0" h. min. let you move furniture virtually anywhere in the room, and let light run across the ceiling and disipate in your room. You do lose a view but gain comfort; weigh this carefully.

DO NOT MOVE A LARGE AMOUNT OF THINGS INTO A SMALL HOUSE!

Self explanatory. Sell your excess things, get rid of things you know you will never use. Many of us keep things we know we will probably never need. This spare room costs in the neighborhood of 10,000 - 15,000 dollars extra. Storage room is nice to have; just be sure the things will be used later on. Many times, it is cheaper to rent for occasional use rather than own for occasional. Your call.

End of sermon; feel free to amend or add to my suggestions, these hints are only my opinions.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), October 23, 2001.

My wife and I designed our house ourselves because there was no way we could find anything even remotely like what we wanted - a two story rectangular, with 12/12 peaked roof (for large rooms in attic), front and back porches etc - rather plain by today's stanards. We based our house on a 150 year old design we saw in many of the fishing communities here in Newfoundland, Canada. I bought Broderbund's 3D Home Architect and set to work on our design. Using this software we managed to figure out exactly what we wanted. We took our printouts to an architect who redrew them for the blueprints. Very little was changed in the final drawings. This was five years ago. A few months ago I was browsing through this architect's book of plans (which he publishes and distributes nationally) and what did I see but our plan - just slightly modified. I was of two minds. This was our plan being touted for sale everywhere - YET - the designer thought our design good enough to be included in a publication with his name on it.

The moral of this long rant. If you put enough thought into it, you should be able to come up with your own designs. These software packages, like 3D Home Architect, make it so that you don't even need to know how to draw a straight line.

Sean

-- Sean Dawe (seand@mail.gov.nf.ca), October 29, 2001.

Hi Tracy

Well, I just searched for you and came up with this http://countryplans.com/grandfather.html Check it out. Also, if you get the basic idea, most architects will usually charge $1 per square foot instead of the regular $2 per square foot rate. You can go to www.google.com and put in your desires into the search. A good thing about google is that actually checks and corrects your spelling. If you spell something wrong, it will say "did you mean this?" I would say that google is probably your best search engine source for finding most anything on the internet. The search I did for you was "simple home plans small homes" of course enter it without the quotations. Good Luck Spencer

-- Spencer Davis (spencerdavis2000@yahoo.com), February 10, 2002.

We too designed our own house. Acutally houses, as the one we currently live in we gutted completely (only original exterior walls and rafters and some subfloor is the same). With this one we stayed limited to the original size and shape because we wanted it to be resaleable (only planned on being here about 5 years). We just bought land and will (hopefully, waiting on permits and finances) be building our new house beginning in March. For us, with four kids, it was impossible to find a house with enough bedspace (didn't want to be limited to bunks with kids who will eventually be 150 lb teens-- at least the boys anyway) that wasn't a mansion. We looked through several old books of house plans, especially at victorian and prairie style houses. Using some of those rooms, we made our own floorplan and kind of fit rooms together like a puzzle. The end product is 2 story, about 900 sq ft per floor, and has a walkout basement (dh's luxury) with an attached 8 x 16 unheated cellar (my 'luxury'/need).

What we came up with is probably bigger and fancier than the average homesteader wants, but it will fit the needs (and some desires) of our 'large' family. Best part is my huge kitchen that will accomodate all my canning activities! Bedrooms aren't huge, but will fit two twin beds and two dressers. Toys will have to go in the heated part of the basement. We will also have a 'study' for the computers and bookshelves on the main floor, separate from the livingroom for schoolwork and research.

-- Kris in MI (ckarmom@ivillage.com), February 10, 2002.