One more change (probably the biggest change). I'd like to mirror the image. The east side is where the rest of the house will be connected later on. I'd like to have the stairs opening into a mudroom area on that side to make access easier from the main house in the future. I thought it might also be better to have the kitchen/living room on the adjoining wall rather than the bedrooms just in case there's future problems with noise carrying over (although I'm planning on soundproofing as much as I can).

Comments on this plan:

Yes, shrink the bathroom...make a tub/shower combo so you get both...then move the laundry closer to the left to enlarge the DR area, eliminate the jog where the door is, so you can enlarge the kitchen a little toward the dining room. I'm not a fan of the corner range as you lose valuable space behind it. Moreover, to me, the most valuable space in a small kitchen is a lazy susan where you can fit oodles of stuff in there.

I still have issues with this balcony, esp at 4' wide, it really is just an exterior hallway. Depending on the area of the country you are in, if this has an overhang, it will make the rooms much darker than they would be without it. If you really want an exterior balcony, then devote to it the space it deserves to make it useful.

Here's a rough work up of the changes that I listed earlier (except for the mirror). I agree with the corner range Annie - I don't like it. So I've shifted it to a wall and made the island a peninsula (the left side will be a bar area). The kitchen definitely needs more work, not quite sure if I like how the pantry is futher out in the dining area, but we do need a pantry.

I haven't added the balcony yet, but I dont mind the narrow 4 ft since it it expands to about 6 feet by the master. It makes the whole building look like more than just a garage, which will make the neighbors quite happy I think.

Eh, rooms that don't really need windows on the outside corner where you could have two windows on different walls means that this isn't even a mediocre plan, much less a good plan. Not to mention that this is too much space really for your long term plans.

You're NOT going to avoid using a professional. The building department will at least require a decent building plan, so you might as well pay for someone to do something that is actually workable for you.

I'm not avoiding using a professional, I'm trying to avoid hiring an architect to draw up a new plan. I'd like to use something that already exists and just modify it through the sites architects or my GC (spend a few hundred extra compared to a few thousand).

Window placement can be easily changed. I haven't even put in windows on my rough redraw yet. I'm focusing on the floor plan layout. A 3 car garage with roughly 1000 sq ft of living space was always the aim.

Is there a reason why you keep the bedrooms on the left and the living area on the right? If you want the stairs to come up from the mud room below, you might want the stairs and living area on the left instead and the bedrooms on the right....

I'm wondering why you would make the bedroom larger than the living room, when most of the time you spend in the bedroom will be when you are asleep? Seems like the living room, where you will be awake, might be more useful if it's the largest room in the house.

You could make better use of your space if you would re-position the laundry where the walk-in closet is located(the closet is not very large anyway), and reconfigure the bathroom (it's about 50% larger than needed) making it more usable and efficient. You can get more clothes storage space by adding a full-length closet along the wall that seperates the bedroom from the office.

The result will give a substantially larger dining area, or even a small adjactent space for a computer and work area.

Your desire to avoid using an architect is one of those all-too-common situations here on this forum, where, to avoid up-front expenses for proper design and construction documents, you are going to spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get the "perfect" plan. Perhaps more importantly, by relying on the the builder (or a drafter at the plan factory) to do the construction and permit drawings you will open yourself to the builder's opportunities for extra charges, errors and omissions during construction for things not considered or shown in his drawings. I hope you do not spend more on construction change orders than you would have spend on architect's fees.

Such a common mistake so easily avoided, but so often seen here on the forum.

Good luck on your project.

annie - I haven't mirrored the image yet. I'm still a bit slow with the software and wanted to try the redraw based on the original image first before I tried the mirror. The mirror wouldn't change the basic dimensions anyways.

virgil - With the amount of time I work, my bedroom time vs living room time is actually about equal (perhaps more for the bedroom actually), which is probably why I never really noticed the size difference. I'm not opposed to changing it to make it more suitable for future renters though (thanks for pointing it out).

I'm actually considering cutting more of the dining area out. It's just not an area that I use a lot and could use the kitchen space more (as long as I had a bar on the peninsula)

The GC that I'm using also built my parents house and saved them quite a bit of time and money by making the changes himself rather than going back through the website. While I haven't completely thrown out the idea of just hiring an architect from scratch, if I do, I'm probably just going to have the entire house done rather than just this garage apartment. I'd like to save that money for the rest of the house rather than just this small portion.

Again, you have to design the WHOLE first. Not just the garage apartment and then try to attach the home later. It's a lot more expensive and difficult to do it the way you are trying to do it than to do it the right way from the beginning. If this is to only be a part, then it has to be thought of in that way.

You keep trying to design this as the only space that will ever be on the property, and designing it as a luxury home with too much space and amenities. If you actually do want to build the rest of the plan, then design the whole thing from the beginning with the home having that space and amenities. And don't over design the garage apartment.

Every dollar that you put into the "garage" is a dollar taken away from the rest of the permanent residence. Design it small and utilitarian and put the rest of the money into the house. Or keep living with your parents and save more money. You're not being smart with your plans here at all.

I don't know....a lot depends on if TheCatsMeow enjoys doing this. DH and I spent an inordinate amount of time designing floor plans and we liked doing it so it wasn't a waste for us....even though we were working with an architect...it allowed us to think about every aspect of the house and get just what we wanted. And it allowed us to go through about 50 floor plans for every 1 that we had him design...which would've been inordinately expensive had we had to pay him for them all.

CatsMeow, I think you need to flip the plan and then do your sketching as this way it locks in your thinking on how you'll move and walk through the space.

Also, re the dining room, you can use it as an office space as well...pay bills at the table, use the computer, etc. I would think of it more as a multi function space rather than just a dining room....

Well, I know someone who did this. Designed their barn with an apartment above so they could live there and build the home.

One job loss later, and the only completed structure on the property was the barn, and they couldn't afford the mortgage for that with only one income. And the bank was left with a half built house that wasn't in the best shape because things took entirely too long and there was moisture damage from not getting it dried in in time.

They moved back in with their parents. And the bank was left with a barn that cost 120K to build (only assessed at 10K because it's an outbuilding) on a property with no actual permited livable house. And the "house" had to be demolished. The land cost was around 75K. (Cheap rural living.) So, a 50K loss for the bank. And a 200K loss for the couple. It was lose/lose for everyone involved.

You may enjoy dreaming via floorplans, but unless some of that dream can actually be a reality, you'd be better off just buttoning down and saving more money to make the ultimate build more successful. And get a bank involved now to be able to find out if any will actually finance the project the way you want it done or if you'll have to do the whole thing as a cash build.

I'm wondering a bit about your approach here too. It seems like you are designing this in terms of a main living area and trying to fit features in that would be used in a much larger house and not apartment style. The kitchen would function much better as a u shape or you are making it so only one person can be in there at a time. The master bedroom size and baths are not proportional to the space as a whole. I'd take off at least 2 ft of the master and bath and shift the other bed and laundry over to get that for the main living spaces. Maybe switch kitchen and dining areas after doing this and you might be able to get the island you seem to want.

This post was edited by lyfia on Tue, Jan 15, 13 at 9:35

HollySprings has the right of it. You're basically looking at a starter house (with a few upgrades) set on top of a garage. If your goal is to save money, this isn't the way to go about it.

I don't think building a garage apartment is a bad idea, but if your goal is to save money, a studio apartment is realistic -- not a two-bedroom with a walk-in laundry room and separate kitchen/dining. You're building something that'll cost almost as much as the house you want to build, and the expense of this temporary location will postpone the house you really want.

A more realistic plan is to choose the basic style you want for the main house, then pick a garage that will match and enhance that property. Finally, design a small studio that'll do for a couple years.

Like so many members of the GardenWeb you are thinking of the design of a house as a "plan" that needs to be refined by you and put into construction document form. The design of a house should be more comprehensive than that.

Helping homeowners make smart choices about future needs and the possible phasing of construction is one of the many services architects normally provide to homeowners.

Making poor design decisions now can cost you several times more than the cost of an architect. Other advisors with vested interests will tell you what you want to hear and hope to profit from it. Get a professional involved now.

I've been out of town for the past week, so I haven't been able to draw up any new plans other than hand drawn since my software is attached to my desktop. For now, I'd like to address some of the latest comments.

mrspete - My concern is that I haven't found any pre-existing plans for a 3 car garage with a small apartment on top that would work for what I want to live in the next 3-5ish years. All of the plans are either empty (they just have a playroom space), only have one bedroom (I need a small second bedroom/office) or have absolutely terrible layouts. From what I understand, an architect can cost 15% of the cost of the build. If the structure is going to cost $100k+, I don't want to be spending $15k to get something ideal when for $1k I can get something that I'd like to live in for several years. I'd rather focus that money on the architect cost for the future expansion/actual house. Perhaps I'm just completely off from what I've understood about architect costs.

hollysprings - I don't know if you checked out my previous post that I mentioned before (where I had a general layout for the main house - very rough, but at least an idea), but I'm not treating this like a standalone piece. The apartment will be connected to the house via an expanded mudroom/laundry room that opens up into the kitchen. My lot is a long, fairly narrow corner lot with the garage being deeper to have driveway access via a dead end street (the house facing the main road). If my GC comes back at some point and says that he would want the entire plan before proceeding, then I'll go that route. But that would delay things quite a bit because of the architect costs (as I stated above, if I've misunderstood the average cost, please correct me!)

There's a few issues that have been coming up the last year with continuing to live with my parents. I've contemplated just buying a small home temporarily, but that would again delay building anything for several years. A garage apartment would allow me to at least put that money into my own house rather than paying for something that I don't really want to live in. There's tons of upsides to having that space later too, so it's not like making it nice now will be a waste later.

greendesigns - So because someone else didn't make sure they were in a stable position before building and screwed themselves this is a bad idea? I'm not building a barn/outbuilding, it will have the appropriate living permits. I don't plan on dragging out the build (garage or the main house), so the moisture problems aren't really related. I'm planning this build on one salary as it is. Having the second salary will only help pay things off sooner, but if that falls through for some reason down the road, my salary will still be able to carry the mortgage. I have no other debt whatsoever. I pay off one debt before taking on another - car, student loans, credit cards, etc... are all paid up. In a few months I'll have the land paid off as well. My job is quite stable and if I lost it tomorrow (next to impossible) I have enough spare jobs that I do on the side that could be made full time to pay the bills until I find another position. I realize that there are extreme circumstances to think about, but if everyone on the forum assumed that they'd lose their job during their build, no one would be building. Depending on the cost of an architect, I may still go that route first. But if the 15% is right, I'd rather not spend $50k+ right now on just the plans.

Worst case scenario is that after I build the apartment garage, plans change and I move elsewhere. The property connects to my parents lot, so they can use it as their personal guest house with extra car storage. Or I suppose a worse extreme is that I die of something, in which case I have insurance to cover any remaining debt with the structure and my parents get it. My point is that I've considered cases where things could go wrong.

annie - The second bedroom will pretty much be my office/computer room. The things that the average person would do at the dining room table would be done in there (it's pretty much what my set up is now). I'll still have a dining space, but only for a small table (which technically is still enough room set up a laptop, pay bills, etc...). Also, you're right. I do enjoy drawing various plans (to a point of course). Right now my limitations are more with the software as I'm learning to use it appropriately. I'd rather go through 1000 different plans than to pay an architect to do the same.

renovator - You're right, planning the house will be much more comprehensive. But this is just an apartment, a temporary living space that I'd like to be comfortable for several years but does not have to be idea/my dream house. I can't really justify $15k in architect costs on an ideal apartment.....

This post was edited by TheCatsMeowth on Fri, Jan 18, 13 at 3:05