our homestead: our official house plans

Here she is! Our beautiful house! She'll be a 24x24 foot, 864 square foot house with 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a loft. We had Duane at Design Lines draft our official plans. Duane was awesome to work with- he helped bring to life our funny little sketches and thought up some really creative details we hadn't considered before. We LOVE our house plan and are super close to getting our building and clearing permit. I'll write more about that process later, but for now, here's the house and some descriptions:

 

The North: Both bedrooms will be side by side on the lower level. The view from these windows will be woods and our neighbor's horse trails. Shady and private.

The West: Our front door. Our driveway will end here. We'll eventually have a small porch that wraps around to the larger entertaining porch to the right/south. The view from this end of the house will be partially wooded with our vegetable gardens and greenhouses providing privacy from our neighbor's lot above. Sunset light. 

 

The South: Eventually we'll have a large entertaining porch here. Thick, wooded views from this side of the house. Two large windows (one from the lower living area, one from the loft) to take in the woods and a glass sliding door for flowing in and out of the kitchen (great for entertaining). All-day daylight.

The East: This end of the house overlooks more woods with the potential for a partial ...sliver of a lake and mountain view from the loft. Morning sunrise light ideal for a bright kitchen (lower left window) and for sipping coffee on the loft deck. A shaded bathroom window too (under the deck)- I'll probably grow some vines on the deck for privacy.

 

 

 

 

 

Main Floor Plan: Everything important is on this floor- bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen, laundry, etc. Small but functional, exactly what we wanted. Our downstairs living area will have a vaulted ceiling and will probably just include a small dining table for our little family and a small couch and coffee table to quietly enjoy the view of the woods and the woodstove fire. We'll also probably have a small pantry underneath our stairwell (we are still deciding if we'll do traditional stairs or a spiral). And, we'll have a nice soaking tub in the bathroom.

Upper Floor Plan: The fun part of our house. All media (movies, computer) and Joe's wrestling mats will be up here, with lots of windows to take in the woods and perhaps a sliver of the lake. A large 14x8 foot east-facing deck to take in the sunrise. We'll probably put a futon-couch up here for overnight guests. The loft is the same size as the 70s room in our current house, which is where we spend the majority of our time. People up in the loft will be able to look down to the living area.

 

A side section of our house, showing the stairs up to the loft.

 

A side section of our house showing the "storage shelf": e.g. our daughter's future play loft/bunk bed with railings tall enough that she can't roll out of the bunk, yet low enough to slip a twin mattress over. The railings will allow her to peek down to her bedroom. I'm super jealous- I wanted this as a kid! A built-in bunk bed will also free-up floor space in her room.

 

 

Oh, and did I mention? We're having a girl!

 

We are due with our first baby August 6th and couldn't be happier. It'll be a memorable summer!