Here's the ground floor plan (again, extremely rough). The north section will be separated into a mud room that in the future will connect the main house.

Something is screwy about the stairs and they look too narrow and they don't agree with the double run on the lower level. Also, for future, I'd think you'd want the stair run to start in or by the mudroom for easy access from the main house. The closets are not functional as they are. Replace the W/D with a stackable at least so that you can fit in a tub/shower combo instead of just a shower. If that's a fireplace in the LR, I'm assuming it's a fake one as there's no foundation underneath. Is there room to open the doors once you pull a car into that 3rd bay?

I think the kitchen is too generous for the size of the apartment....get rid of the island and change to a peninsula if necessary, plus the appliance layout isn't very useful.

You might want to nose around for small home plans or condo or apartment plans to give you some other ideas for layout... you might also check out the small house forum as there are lots of people living in compact spaces there.

Your plan sounds good, but I think your scope is off. You're looking at a whole house on top of a garage, which is unrealistic, if your goal is to save money now.

I suggest you google house plan sites online -- eplans, or similar -- and look at the garage/apartment plans. You'll find some ready-drawn. I've looked at some that I thought looked pretty good, and you'll save time and effort by using a stock plan.

Examples:

This is a 482 sf studio, which the computer says can be built for 43-82K.

Link: http://www.eplans.com/house-plans/epl/collections/garage-plans-with-apartments/hwepl75840.html

This one is much more attractive. Dormers on the front, and it has a real bedroom and a real kitchen, and it's 1280 sf. The computer says it can be built for 114-214K.

Link: http://www.eplans.com/house-plans/epl/collections/garage-plans-with-apartments.html

This one is more attractive yet and is situated over a three-car garage. It has two bedrooms, and they're a decent size. The square footage is 914, and the computer says it can be built for 176-333K.

Link: http://www.eplans.com/house-plans/epl/collections/garage-plans-with-apartments/hwepl73401.html

Before we added on, the main level of my entire house was 2 bedrooms, bath, LR, kitchen/dining and a set of stairs (I have a cape) in under 800 sq feet.

I agree your kitchen is too large for the size of the stated apt.

Our interior dimensions are: 23deep by 34 long (782 sq feet).

Being a cape style house, the garage is the same depth at 23 feet interior--so that length can work.

Check with your local municipalitie's code office first before deciding to go this route. Most will have issues with one or another component of your plan. If they allow you to live above the garage, they probably won't allow you to turn it into a rental unit in the future. That's pretty tightly regulated in order to keep up the neighborhoods.

You also really won't be saving all that much money if you plan on such a large living space. You'll still have to pull power to the property, do the septic for a full sized house, have the well full sized for the future house. All of the expensive developmental components will remain.

Nothing beats an almost zero outlay with living with relatives in order to build up a bank account. There's no way that your idea of spending money now will allow you to save as much as you think you can.

And yes, that kichen is HUGE. 3x the size it needs to be. A simple one wall kitchen would be more than sufficient for the space.

I agree that the kitchen could be smaller, and you should also combine the plumbing into one wall and put the range on an exterior wall for easier venting.

You will need almost the entire area for the stairs shown in the garage reflected in the upstairs space. Only the first couple of steps up can have any floor encroaching over them, the rest is needed for headroom.

It seems to me that I remember someone posting that it is very difficult to heat and cool space above a garage.

Might want to check that out.

I think it would be worth investing in an architectural plan instead of drawing this on your own.

You might be surprised how affordable it is.

I don't blame you for wanting to get out of your parents home and on your own, but is this the best route? Perhaps it is...but make sure.

This is a fairly common living arrangement where I grew up. The floor of the apartment/ceiling of the garage has to be heavily insulated and/or most people heat the garage to some degree. I grew up in a cold climate.

The upper and lower plans are shown at different scales so they are confusing.

A switchback stair is an inefficient use of space and there is not enough headroom at the intermediate landing (12 steps usually required).

If you do this arrangement you should spray closed cell foam insulation into the floor cavity from below to minimize air leaks and also to protect the occupants from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Lots of good comments above. Basically, you are trying to get 15 pounds in a 5-pound bag!

If you absolutely must have 2 bedrooms upstairs, then you need to relocate the access stair to the outside of the garage (it can be in enclosed space, but it simply won't work inside the garage the way you have shown it).

Here's a good source for some study and reference: http://www.allisonramseyarchitect.com/Search.cfm?planbook=3

Look closely at the designs with the stairs external to the actual garage space.

Good luck on your project!

Thanks everyone! This first round of advice has been excellent and I'll have an amended floor plan up soon after I make quite a few changes! I thought I should also post the floorplan that has been my favorite so far, there's just too many rearrangements that I need with the bedrooms to make it modifiable.

http://www.architecturaldesigns.com/garage-plan-3849ja.asp

annie - At the moment I just used the "auto stair", so I'm not sure why they're coming out too narrow. I'll play around with them though and probably go back to the original idea of just a standard straight stair rather than including the landing. I do like the idea of the stairs coming in by the mud room since the space in the future will be more of an in law/guest suite. I had a hard time deciding on going with a shower or tub, but I think I like the idea of stackable W/D to get the extra tub space (or just playing around more that entire arrangement in general). I can easily give the 3rd car a bit more room. The fireplace would be fake (I put it there just to get an idea of space). I wasn't aware of the small house forum, so I'll definitely check that out! The kitchen is the only thing that I think needs to remain large (although some space can be cut down. Cooking is quite important to my bf so he wants the space (I will be redoing the layout though, that was a very rough section). I'll look into some peninsula ideas though to see if they'll suit his requirements.

MrsPete - I'd really like to check out your second link, but it won't come up (404 not found). The third option is okay, but I'd like to stick more to the $125 mark which is why I'm trying to get my plan under 1000 sq feet of living space.

Greendesigns - I'll be double checking, but the only potential hindrance is that it needs to be connected to the house to be a rental property. The space being a future rental property in the future isn't extremely important to me. It's use as a guest suite and potential in law suite will work fine. My property already has the power and septic for a full sized house on it (there was a previously demolished house). There will still be many developmental costs, but it's still significantly lower than building a 2000+ sq ft house. My goal of this first post is to significantly reduce the size of the current layout. Some parts of the kitchen can be reduced, but since we'll be living here for probably a couple of years, having a decent sized kitchen is quite important to my cooking bf.

palimpset - I thought the U shaped staircase would give me some more upstairs space, but from everyone's opinion it wont, so I'll make sure to fix that.

red_lover - So far I haven't found an architectural plan that's even close to what I'm looking at. I'm still searching, but there's nothing that's close/modifiable that I've found yet. I'll be moving out soon, so it's either build the garage apartment or buy a house and delay building at all for several more years.

renovator - I'll be changing back to a straight staircase, I didn't realize the headroom issues (the camera software makes it look like there wouldn't have been a problem), but the U shaped staircase wasn't something I had fallen in love with. The scales are the same, the first image is just zoomed in. We'll definitely be doing heavy insulation.

virgil - The link didn't work (it goes to the site, but not the plan). I'll continue playing around with the 2 bedroom arrangement(mainly 1 bedroom and an office), but having an outside staircase is not going work. I'll be redoing it anyways to have a standard straight staircase, which should solve some problems.

Cats, go to: http://www.allisonramseyarchitect.com/

Once there, click on "residential" and thereafter click on "outbuildings"

The examples there will save you a lot of time and effort. Look closely at the various options for access stairs, since the size of the garage and occupied space above can be easily varied.

If you do this, you will need to pay close attention to your insulation plan, if the occupied space is to be comfortable and economical to heat/cool. Most folks don't think twice about insulation in a garage and/or the space above. Basically, you will have to insulate the entire garage with tight-fitting, weather stripped doors.

Good luck!

Here is the link

Here is a link that might be useful: Ramsey link

No, I meant take your ideas to an architect.

red_lover - Oh I will be taking them to an architect, once I get more rough drafts done.

I found a plan that I mostly like, then modified it a bit to my liking. Any input would be appreciated!

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/build/msg0107390830739.html