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CHAPTER 1

Plans: 50 Designs for Compact Houses

The 50 designs in this chapter are meant to serve as a starting point for folks who want to have a hand in designing their own space.

The designs are not intended to be final plans. Even if you fall in love with one particular design shown here, you'll want to tweak it to make it work for your site, living needs, and aesthetic, and you should work with a builder, architect, or construction engineer to arrive at a working building plan.

The designs are roughly organized first by the number of floors (single-story homes followed by two-story ones) and then the square footage, from smaller to larger. Each design notes the square footage of the home, the number of bedrooms, the number and size of bathrooms, and any unique features, such as a fireplace or an open living plan. Feel free to mix and match elements, incorporating those you like into whatever turns out to be your dream-home design. Kitchens and bathrooms are particularly interchangeable. And don't feel limited to using these designs just for new homes; many of the ideas suggested here can be incorporated into existing houses (see chapter 4 for more on that topic).

Each floor plan is accompanied by an outside view of the home, an illustration showing one style in which the home could be built. Keep in mind that these drawings are just ideas. Any floor plan can be executed in numerous styles, with any number of siding materials and roofing options. What you see here is an interpretation of the floor plan, not a mandate. This is your house, and it should suit your style and needs.

The designs are named for sites and natural places in my home state of Pennsylvania. Many were inspired by those specific locations — a home with a 270-degree view named for a hilltop, for example, or a home designed for a wooded setting named for a state forest. You can call them whatever you like, of course.

Note: These floor plans are meant to serve as design inspirations, not decrees. They can — and should — be changed to suit individual aesthetics and needs, along with the peculiar demands and limitations of the specific building site. Though each of the plans lists its interior square footage, this is an approximate measurement. Any changes you make to the plans will, of course, change the dimensions and square footages. Even if against all odds you decide to follow a plan exactly, your builder's construction decisions — using 2×6 versus 2×4 framing, for example — will affect the exact square footage. Here again, I can't emphasize enough the importance of working with a reputable, experienced builder, architect, or construction engineer.

First Fork

A super-compact design with great potential for energy efficiency, bundled into a home with a modern aesthetic and stylish details. The open-concept living space is easy to heat with a fuel-burning stove, and operable clerestory windows allow for natural ventilation in warmer weather. For a similar but slightly larger layout, see Cook Forest (page 16).

Features

814 square feet
Sand Spring

This very compact home blends privacy and openness to the outdoors, with minimal windows on the side walls facing the neighbors, an expansive but high wall of glass facing the street, and a beautiful stacked double deck out back, complete with hot tub.

Features

884 square feet
Cook Forest

This design, similar to First Fork (page 12) sets the bedrooms and bathrooms in a private wing. The rest of the house is an open-concept living space, with the kitchen and dining area integrated with the living area. Skylights and clerestory windows bring light into the core of the house.

Features

912 square feet
Cherry Springs

Both the sunroom and the fireplace area can be isolated from the rest of the home with glass sliding doors, cutting down the floor space that must be heated in colder weather. This is an ideal home for a young couple just starting out; it can easily be added on to later.

Features

940 square feet
Big Spring

This is a great house for raising kids. The sliding door between the two back bedrooms allows the space to be converted into a large playroom, perfect for days when it's cold and wet outside. The open concept maximizes the usable space for a growing family.

Features

961 square feet
Saw Mill Creek

This modern design has a double-pitched roof, angling in from opposite sides; a water catchment system installed here could easily provide for all the landscaping's irrigation needs. A deep closet adjacent to the bathroom can hold the mechanical systems (hot water heater, furnace, and so on), allowing you to build this home on a concrete slab, rather than a full-depth foundation; this can save money and expands your siting options.

Features

988 square feet
White Haven

This long, narrow design lends itself well to modular construction; it can be built off-site and trucked in. With its front wall given a southern orientation, it becomes a passive solar home. The windowless back wall can be built into a hillside for its insulative and protective capacity.

Features

1,000 square feet
Allegheny Front

With its flat roof, this house is designed for a warm climate. Operable clerestory windows encircle the house, shielded by a deep roof overhang, providing for plentiful natural ventilation even in wet weather.

Features

1,011 square feet
Rock Pass

This is a wonderful design for warmer climates, with natural ventilation provided by sliding glass doors surrounding the central garden. With the open side of the house oriented southward, passive solar heating keeps the house warm during the colder months.

Features

1,014 square feet
Canoe Creek

This open-concept home has clerestory windows on three sides and a cathedral ceiling over the main living space, making the interior feel quite bright and roomy. When oriented with the sunroom facing south, it has possible passive solar applications.

Features

1,039 square feet
Ruxton

Sliding panels throughout this home allow for flexible living arrangements. The dining space can be separated from the living space by a shoji screen, and the garden atrium can be accessed from any side by the sliding glass doors. The atrium functions as a central light well, allowing sunlight to penetrate the core of the building.

Features

1,056 square feet
Pine Ridge

This bright and comfortable home offers both a garage and a sunporch. The fireplace in the living room corner can be designed as an eye-catching focal point, with a fieldstone chimney and adjacent masonry seats, or as a more petite woodstove, with an unobtrusive stovepipe chimney.

Features

1,100 square feet
Buffalo Creek

This design is set up to use solar panels on its roof; if you replaced these panels with skylights, the home could also have passive solar applications. The master bedroom affords a great deal of privacy.

Features

1,136 square feet
Rothrock

With a deck and a patio, this open-concept one-level house lends itself to outdoor living. It has the potential to be a very energy-efficient design, particularly if the fireplace is replaced with a woodstove.

Features

1,157 square feet
Oxbow Bend

If oriented southward, the glass "light well" bump-out in the dining area allows light to flood into this house. This feature makes this home appropriate for a wooded lot, allowing maximum light into the structure while at the same time providing an expansive view of the outdoors.

Features

1,176 square feet
Caldonia

This home wraps itself around an outdoor courtyard that could accommodate a garden, lap pool, or fish pond. The sliding glass doors on all sides of the courtyard provide excellent summer ventilation, and if the open side of that outdoor living space were oriented southward, the home could take advantage of passive solar heating.

Features

1,190 square feet
Bald Eagle

The sunroom adds living space and the potential for passive solar heating. With bedrooms in separate "wings" and two bathrooms, this is an ideal design for a growing family.

Features

1,277 square feet
Bucktail

This is a variation of the Bald Eagle design (page 44), with a higher roof line, less glass in the sunroom (for better privacy), and landscaping in place of the front patio.

Features

1,277 square feet
Blue Knob

Unlike many compact home designs, this design offers a spacious living room separate from the noise and bustle of the kitchen. Either of the bedrooms could be adapted for use as a home office.

Features

1,280 square feet
Clear Creek

This home features spacious bedrooms, including a master bedroom suite. It's designed to be built atop a full basement, with stairs in the kitchen leading down. Built-in storage in the living room conceals an entertainment center.

Features

1,310 square feet
Briar Ridge

This unusual modern design features a very private master bedroom, with the kids' bedrooms at the opposite end of the house. This is an excellent passive solar design and can be situated to take advantage of a spectacular view.

Features

1,366 square feet
Elk Ridge Park

The mudroom near the back door is a place to store gear and wash up, with the laundry facilities located conveniently in the room. It could do double duty as a powder room with the addition of a toilet.

Features

1,400 square feet
High Point

With two decks and a hot tub, this design emphasizes outdoor living. The front entry shelters beneath the roof, protecting visitors during inclement weather, while the open-concept living space invites conviviality between the chef and the rest of the household.

Features

1,420 square feet
West Valley

With its open, high-ceilinged living space, this house feels much bigger than its 1,430 square feet. The design has great potential for energy efficiency: If oriented so the back of the house faces south, it has possible passive solar applications; if the front of the house faces southward, the roof over the bedroom wing could support solar panels.

Features

1,430 square feet
King's Gap

This compact house puts an emphasis on living space, with the entire first floor given over to a great room. One side of the roof is pitched to take advantage of the sunlight with photovoltaic panels.

Features

832 square feet
Clarion Crossing

This is a small, efficient house, perfect as a first home or vacation home. The double decks offer an ample view behind the house, making this a good choice for a waterfront or hilltop property.

Features

920 square feet
Pine Grove

With its circular traffic flow on the first floor, this is a great house for young kids, with plenty of outdoor living space for running around. Either of the two spacious upstairs bedrooms could accommodate bunk beds.

Features

950 square feet
Raccoon Creek

This is a comfortable, inviting home for a single person or couple, with a single bedroom and a gracious morning room or reading area on the second floor. The open concept of the first floor makes it ideal for entertaining guests.

Features

956 square feet
Denton Hill

A wall of windows and skylights frame a light well in the front of this home, making the living room and second-floor reading area bright and inviting even on cloudy days. Orient the pitched roof toward the south to accommodate solar panels.

Features

979 square feet
Sugar Run

A compact take on a classic colonial, with generous storage closets in the bedrooms. Though the smaller bedroom is designed for kids, it would also work well as a master bedroom, with a fireplace using the chimney that runs up the outside wall.

Features

1,000 square feet
Tyler Creek

Walls of windows flood the home with natural light, while solar panels mounted on the roof above convert that light to energy. With three full bedrooms, this design graciously accommodates a good-size family in a compact footprint.

Features

1,052 square feet
Old Bull

This compact plan allows a surprising amount of light into the core of the home while preserving privacy. The galley kitchen provides generous countertops.

Features

1,080 square feet
March Creek

The loft design of this small house makes it feel bigger than it is, and it could easily be adapted to post-and-beam construction. With its open concept, the home could easily be entirely heated with a woodstove in the main living area.

Features

1,150 square feet
Warriors Path

A surprisingly spacious small house with a third-floor loft. The glassed-in foyer protects the living space from cold and wind when the front door is opened, while still allowing natural light into the core of the building.

Features

1,177 square feet
Ridgeway

The glassed, angled bump-out is designed to focus a great view, while allowing maximum light into the living space and an upstairs bedroom. The pitched roof can be oriented southward to allow the use of solar panels.

Features

1,180 square feet
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Compact Houses"
by .
Copyright © 2013 Gerald Rowan.
Excerpted by permission of Storey Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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