Take a look at Southern Living houes plans. Lots of charm there. Too bad you can't visualize very well. Comes in very handy before/during construction.

We used an architect, so I can't give you a specific plan.

Good luck on your project.

Thank you! I have gotten their magazine and looked at some of their plans. I guess I should say I can imagine how it will look but want it to be perfect so we have become obsessive with making sure the plan is right!

We have 3 kids, plan on more, so I feel our house plan is very family friendly. I would love to share it with you, but we designed it ourselves and I don't have it on the computer. I might be able to find something similar.

Here is a plan I had liked, except we wanted higher than 9' ceiling in the great room.

Here is a link that might be useful: how about this plan? (good site, too)

One way to get a feel of how a plan looks like in real life is to go to house tours. We went to many home "parades" for years while thinking about what we wanted to build. In our area, the parade of homes is in the spring and they publish a booklet with house plans - we'd pick out plans we liked with about the square feet we wanted and then visit those houses.

This taught us a lot - we found that some of the plans that looked ideal on paper just were not what we wanted when we saw them in person. We got to see how different sized rooms felt in real lifeand how small some rooms really were with furniture. It also let us see the work of many of the leading builders in our area, which helped when it came time to pick a contractor. Quite a few had poor work even in the high end homes they were showing off!

Check with the local builders' association for when there will be a home show in your area. If there will not be one, talk to contractors and realtors about looking at plans and the houses built from them.

Anne

Anne,
Thanks for the ideas. We also have been talking about building for 5 years. We live in the St. Louis area and find most of the local builders are only doing big cookie-cutter boxes. I am truly wanting a more southern porch home so it is hard to find displays!
Thanks again,
stacey

We liked this website (linked below) and went with a plan similar to the one pictured.

Good luck in your search!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cool House Plans Dot Com

Welcome mommyofthree! You sound exactly like me. LOL When we started looking at lots I wanted some acreage that would work well with the southern/traditional/cottage feeling that I envisioned. We found the lot, but boy was the floorplan a booger! I am really drawn to the stylings of the homes by Gardner & Betz too, but never found exactly what I wanted, so I bought a program for the computer and designed my own. It was based on several of Don Gardner's ideas.

We knew that we wanted one level (except for a bonus room over the garage for my office). In our current house we have 2 staircases and it didn't take long to tire of it. It's like a racetrack above your head with three boys going round-n-round-n-up-n-down. I learned my lesson. LOL I love two-story homes, but they just don't work for us. :o)

Living in the South we love to spend lots of time outside on the porches, so we wanted a couple of them incorporated into the design. We are going to be building ourselves, so we knew we had to keep it pretty simple, but I didn't want it to be boring. It will eventually look fairly similar to the house in the photo below, although we'll be using Nichaha shake siding rather than the Hardiplank that's shown the picture and much heavier trim work around the windows. Charming...no?

Above all, we wanted it to designed around family time, so we have a really large kitchen and den since that's where we spend most of our time. I tried to keep them open to each other, but wanted a definite division between the two areas. This is the first floorplan that everyone here on the boards helped me with (you guys are so awesome!!!). There have been many changes since this version, but you can still get an idea of the inside. We're getting bids from subs now and hope to start this spring.

We have a local architecture firm that does some beautiful work. Today I checked and they have a great photo gallery that might give you some ideas.
Hope this helps.

www.mascord.com

we are in process of building the southern living plan called "willow bend." it has 3050 sq ft and a wrap-around porch--very charming. we've added about 400 sq ft because we wanted a larger kitchen and great room which altered other areas also. we found this plan when we ordered a set of plans called the hometown collection. you can type "hometown collection" into a search on the southern living website to find it. it is described this way: "Time-honored styles of the 1920's make up this portfolio. With 20 designs by Stephen Fuller, Inc., of Atlanta, plans range from 2,000 to 3,800 square feet." each plan comes with its own brochure and from those, you can decide and order blueprints. we paid $25 years ago, but price has now gone up to $35. the blueprints are excellent. we fell in love with the "willow bend" and actually drove from oklahoma to north carolina 12 years ago to see it already built. when we walked in the door, it felt like home! now 12 years later, we have made some changes in the floor plan and are building it on our family's farm. i am pretty sure that southern living has several of these types of collections available. (please excuse my typing--i have a broken wrist) i
susan

Thanks for all the ideas! I love this board. I checked out Macord-I liked that there were real pictures and some virtual tours. I have liked Stephen Fuller houses for years now! I have never been in one but looked at his website and plans at southern living. I would love to see pics of your Willow Bend.

Persnickty LOVE the house you are doing. It has so much character. My hubby would love a ranch we are in a 2 story now. But do to cost I don't know that we can afford one so we have been thinking a 1 1/2 story is a good compromise. I also want a family house. I think that is what makes this so difficult. We want a large kitchen/family room too! Once you start building you will have to post pics!

Stacey

We are building a William Poole design, Homestead, slightly modified. He has a lot of traditonal plans.

Here is a link that might be useful: William Poole

Stacey,
We started with a William Poole design but ended up changing the plan so much it no longer resembles the original version at all. Our house will be a sort of Southern Craftsman with 2162 sq. ft. downstairs and about 600 sq. ft. upstairs.

I haven't updated my blog for a while, but here is the link to the downstairs plan. I'm waiting on the prints of the final version so I can post those.

Here is a link that might be useful: Unofficial last version of house plan

Would love to see your final version Woodswell. That is about the sq. footage we are looking at. Thanks for the William Poole idea. I hadn't found his website. Love his houses!

blsdgal--i would love to see a picture of your neighbor's willow bend home. if it's not ok to post it here, maybe you can email it to me. my email address is on "my page"--thanks so much!
susan

keep in mind that many of don gardner and frank betz homes with two-story great rooms can be converted to one-story great rooms by adding a room above the great room. (I love those plans, too.)

We built a center hall colonial which was traditional & spacious. Now, this time a Frank Betz design, we purchased plans and have them at the architect for changes. As mentioned Don Gardner & Wm Poole are lovely as well. Try this site for a good selection. Its an easy to use website.

Here is a link that might be useful: dreamhomesource

We are building a Donald Gardner plan. The living area is on the first floor. We added a walkout basement. Our upstairs is huge!! I will be using some of the area for a studio and the rest for storage. There is plenty of room to expand. I am so excited I will not have to pull down a ladder to get into the attic.
Good Luck!!

Here is a link that might be useful: Dragonfly Photos

Dragonfly what don gardner plan are you building? I know a lot of is plans have the style I want-porches, ect. I loved that he does bonus areas to get the most maximum space!

We are building the Zeller with some changes.
I had to have a porch, but I wanted something different than the usual front porch.
We added another garage bay then added the additional back space from the garage to the master bedroom and bath. Eliminated the screen porch which is not practical for NE. The first floor has approx 2200 sq feet. Perfect for us empty nesters.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Zeller

dragonfly, love the floorplan and the porch! I love his plans!

Dragonfly what is the approx cost per sq foot to build the Zeller?