RE: very small/ compact housing | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: stuart (stuartcaercoburn.org) | |
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 2006 11:21:40 -0800 (PST) |
Lynn, Please see below for my contributions. > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [C-L]_ very small/ compact housing > From: "Lynn Nadeau" <welcome [at] olympus.net> > Date: Tue, January 17, 2006 3:13 pm > To: cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org > > > I'm seeking resources for housing design. It's not hard to find > small-to-tiny prototypes for singles or the sort of couples who can live > together in a boat or schoolbus. However, we also want to attract families. > So we want sample houseplans for 2-3-4 bedroom housing, so that a family, > say, of two adults and 2-3 kids, with a home-office-based business or two, > could look at a plan or model and say, "Why, yes, we really could live in > xxx square feet, if it were arranged like THAT!" There is a local company that a friend told us about called First Day Cottages. They make inexpensive house kits that are designed to be built by folks with no building experience at all. The houses are energy efficient and use dimension lumber to make up posts and beams for a timber frame house and real wood for sheathing and siding- there is no plywood in the house. I find the system very impressive. We went to see one a couple of sundays back and even though it was a cold Vermont Winter's day, the house was comfortably warm and the only heat was a pellet stove. Veda and I are going to get one of their kits for ourselves and there are other members of Caer Coburn that are interested as well. Here is their web site: http://www.firstdaycottage.com/Main.html > > What is the smallest 2-3-4 BR housing in your experience that can "work"? > "Work" meaning people don't then feel the need to build storage buildings, > garages, or move away for lack of space. Do you live in a house that's > particularly compact? We are space intensive because of our work. Veda has a sewing room for her historical and custom clothing business and an art studio for her Calligraphy and Illumination, Graphic Art, and Illustration work. I have an office for my online businesses and I need a studio for storage of my magic equipment and rehearsal space. Right now we live in a 3 Story Queen Anne Victorian, so downsizing will be a challange. I want to figure out the minimum square footage needed for our actvities, living spaces, etc. and then we will be designing the house from there. > > Can you suggest books (Japan? Europe?), actual plans, cautions, First Day has plans online, but David Howard, the architct and owner, will also work with a buyer to design a house that suits them. Here is another site that sells plans using conventional building methods (except for the log homes): http://www.houseplans.com I found them by a link in 3D FloorPlan, which is a house design program for computers. I want to play around with floor plans so I got an older version pretty cheap at Ocean State Job Lots, but I have seen similar programs on e-bay, just make sure that the program you get works with your computer's OS. You can find more sites with plans if you do a Google Search for house plans and home plans. I figure these sites are a good place to start getting ideas and then modifying the plans to suit yourselves if there isn't one that is perfect already. I hope this answers some of your questions and gets you started. If you do contact 1st Day Cottages, please tell them I referred you as I like to keep my relationship on good terms. Good Luck! Stuart Joseph, 802-463-1954 Project Director Caer Coburn, a traditional village based upon intentional communities and co-housing Rockingham, Vermont, USA http://www.caercoburn.org
- Re: very small/ compact housing, (continued)
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Re: very small/ compact housing Maggi Rohde, February 2 2006
- Re: very small/ compact housing Sharon Villines, February 2 2006
- RE: very small/ compact housing Prescott Nichols, February 3 2006
- Re: very small/ compact housing Dave and Diane, January 17 2006
- RE: very small/ compact housing stuart, January 20 2006
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Re: very small/ compact housing Maggi Rohde, February 2 2006
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Re: very small/ compact housing Hyghroad, February 4 2006
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ceiling heights (was RE: [C-L]_ very small/ compact housing) Jenny Williams, February 4 2006
- Re: ceiling heights (was RE: [C-L]_ very small/ compact housing) Sharon Villines, February 4 2006
- RE: ceiling heights (was RE: [C-L]_ very small/ compact housing) Fleck, February 4 2006
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ceiling heights (was RE: [C-L]_ very small/ compact housing) Jenny Williams, February 4 2006
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