Have you looked at houseplans.com? Just a quick search turned up loads of houses that meet your criteria. I don't know what exterior style you are looking for but most of them look okay.
Here's a link to one of them: 1608 sq ft, 3 bedrooms (1 being perfect for an exercise room), utility room, no formal areas, garage...

Here is a link that might be useful: Ranch plans

You may want to browse the Allison-Ramsey Architect plans. We almost used one of their plans but we couldn't quite get it to work with our lot setting. We chatted with them on the phone and in email and they are were very responsive to modifying their plans for reasonable costs. They mailed us photos of the house that we were interested in modifying.

They have some traditional southern style homes. They have great exterior looks, too. You can build a "new Old House" with their plans. They are located in South Carolina.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: some possibilities

Oh, here's a 1600+sf plan that would look great in Texas (IMHO).

Here is a link that might be useful: southside cottage

Say more about what makes a plan simple and well designed. Or do you just know it when you see it? If that's the case, no one here can help you.

And by "accessible" do you mean uses Universal Design, is wheelchair accessible, etc? Do you want it all on one level?

What exterior style and features do you want and consider appropriate for your climate? Roof slope not too great because of no snow loads? Do you like and want to pay for multiple gables?

More info. will help us here. Also, looking online I found some plan websites more helpful for certain things I was looking for. To just do a quick-look thumbing through of lots of layouts, I went to coolhouseplans.com which lets you switch to the 1st floor plan feature and not even bother with seeing the exterior, etc. first. Other sites let me sort for other features in a quicker way.

We bought a plan, with the idea of a few tweaks. Ended up changing it drastically. Had to hire an architect because there were a couple of areas we couldn't work out ourselves. Then had to ride herd on her to keep from getting roped into a bunch of unsuitable ideas for our needs. I was exasperated. Our builder is helping us finalize the design to bring costs down (architect's design was 50% over our budget). Then we'll be done. It's only been a year of design work. SO...decide just how picky you want to be. Lol!

Okay, here's a link to a small ranch by Donald Gardner. He hasn't got the space to use his usual excess of dodads. Very flexible layout. Don't build the bonus room and you pick up enough floor space from that stairway to have a better laundry room. Enlarge that BR on the end; remove the other BR and get a bigger DR or move the DR to the left and take in some of the porch to get a bigger Great Rm.

Do you want your BRs together or a split-BR plan?

Pueblo? Mission? Tiled roof?

Here is a link that might be useful: universal design ranch 1541 sq.ft.

stephanie_plum-

We were in the market for a 2 bedroom, no formals, under 2000 sf plan (albiet a 2 story one) and could not find what we wanted, so we went architect. It was not cheap but we are very pleased with the results. Total fees (including electrical plan) were about $7500 and worth every penny IMO.

Also, I'm dying to know, are you nesting with Ranger or Joe?

sandyponder

I had the exact same problem. I wanted something really plain and traditional that would be similar to the old central-hall plan farmhouses in my area but with some modern updates - two bathrooms, bigger, more central kitchen, etc.
Sounds simple enough. Ha.
I looked at plans online and in magazines for a while and HATED everything I saw. So, finally I just drew something up myself, showed it to our builder, and he's building it. It was NO big deal.

I went on some historic home tours in my area and made mental notes, and I visited a beautiful old house in our county that was sort of my "inspiration house." The owners let me come in and poke around and measure, which helped reinforce my ideas about the layout and some details. I took pictures of that house, and my builder and I refer to them occasionally when making decisions about details.

It seems to be working out OK for us.
Good luck with whatever you do!

Here is a link that might be useful: Owl's progress blog

I was thinking along the same lines, Sandyponder (about Ranger and Joe), LOL!

I've been frustrated trying to find the right home, too. We are likewise planning an empty nest home, but only want 1200 sq. ft., all on one floor. We plan to have 2 bedrooms, and no 'formal' rooms. Most plans I've seen try to stuff 3 bedrooms into small homes. To complicate things further, we have a nice view out the back of the house, so I'm trying to get as many rooms as possible to face the view. Since we'll have a full basement, I'm not worried about storage, which helps. I'm trying to design something that incorporates our needs, and still has some style. After living among block ranch houses here in FL for 27 years, I'd like to get back to something with charm and personality. There's also a 'Smaller Homes' forum here you can check out for ideas. I've pretty much committed to designing my own home. It's fun, but harder than it looks!

stephanie plum,
DH and I were in the same boat as you....I didn't think there was a house plan out there for us. We had settled on 2 previously and downsized from them to this one which we will be building next spring; it is not perfect but I like the flow,etc.www.globalhouseplans.com/plan_details.asp?id=370&st=10
See if you can copy and paste this if not maybe one of these computer pros on this website can get it to the right link? Hope this helps!

I'm not a computer pro, but here's the link from Twotogo...

Here is a link that might be useful: Global houseplans...

Shoot! Why didn't I think of that user name?LOL!!

Sandy

(altho, I'm glad I don't have to choose between Joe and Ranger- I think finding a house plan might be easier-LOL!!)

Sandy

hoosiergirl,
Thanks, to me you are a computer pro, LOL!

OK, this is undoubtedly none of my business, but if choosing between Joe and Ranger is as hard as choosing a house plan, then I'd like to meet them. No competition from me, ladies, at my age the only thing they'd be interested in would be my money! (I wish!)

stephanie_plum: how are you doing? I also noticed a couple of threads not too old over on Smaller Homes where people are discussing smaller plans.

stephanie_plum, we are building in Texas also and our city doesnt require an architect stamp on our plans. So what we did is hire a designer. We paid roughly $660 and will have to pay about $200 to have an engineer seal them. So far so good. The engineer charges .10 a sq ft and our home is about 1994 sq ft. We went on homeplans.com and choose an elevation. We for the most part, didnt care what size the house they had was, if we liked the elevation it became one of our options. Choosing the elevation is the hardest part but once you've done that, it is the designers job to scale it down to your size and the layout of the rooms you'd like. We selected a house that was almost 3000 square feet and got it down to 1994 sq ft. We took out a bathroom and an extra living room..generally things that we didnt think we would need. It really wasnt that hard and we interviewed a few designers. None of the designers worried about copy right infringement because they stated that after the number of changes we made it was no longer the magazines original work.

Great info! Keep it coming. Thanks for the link to the AllisonRamey architect. I particularly like the bluff cottage elevation. The plan would need a little tweaking, but it's closer than anything I've seen so far.

And as to the Ranger version Joe issue, I've only been looking for houseplans for a few months - been wrestling with the other issue for years ;-)

I had the same problem. I wanted a house with 2 bedrooms (but not teensy ones) and nice sized common areas with no formals. I couldn't find anything even close to what I wanted, so I drew my own plans. We used attic trusses so there is room above the master for an office or exercise room if I wanted and room above the garage for storage. The rest of the house has vaulted ceilings. We also put a huge sunroom on the back (47' x 14' with vaulted ceilings). I love my plans!! And since I am also the builder, I can understand them completly. Getting county approval was very easy since it's one story and I used trusses for the roof. They are engineered by the truss company and there are no internal load bearing walls.

ccoombs1 - do you have pictures or plans that you could share?

pinktoes - I know that I want a metal roof. I know that I want covered deck/porches on at least 2 sides. I want to build a house that if well-sited, will reduce summer heat gain. I like an open floor plan with little wasted space for foyers/hallways, etc, but would like an exterior elevation that has a rustic look, but doesn't look like a bbq theme restaurant. I do like a little modern edge to my Texas folk vernacular architecture.

I want wide doorways. I will sacrifice some living room, kitchen space for a larger master bath - actually I'd really like split masters with a no-lip big shower in on bath and a tub for two in the other bath. Oh, and for reasons that I'll never understand, the Guy wants a urinal in the MBath. And all on one level - with the possibility of the exercise room/3rd bedroom up on a 1 1/2 story.

I want the exterior to be low/no maintenace. I want to incorporate some stone/rockwork. Perhaps a little cedar - a little Spanish-influence wouldn't be bad.

Re Ranger vs. Joe: Haven't we ALL wrestled with that issue? I think what Sandyfeet said was right: Houseplans are much easier!!

We built a Don Gardner home plan (the Evergreen). The plan is a bit different and has an angle to it, but otherwise fairly simple. We built the house on a crawlspace. It has a large deck across the back with a screen porch and open floor plan. Square footage is 1680 (includes the screen porch).

Here's a picture (I hope!)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1486471}}

i have read this thread about a dozen times and used it to search for house plans too. looking for much the same about 1800 sq ft and 3 bedrooms 2 baths single story energy efficient as the wife and i are down to one 16 year old and now living in a two story old charmind house that has high utilities. the plan i foud really suited us i made the master suit a bit bigger to 16' x 28 feet and the center section increased its width by 2' and our builder really liked it passing this on as it may help some one

Here is a link that might be useful: this plan

Sorry I am late to the party, have been busy the last few months. Here is the elevation of the home we just built in Texas. Floorplan is fairly open, about 2200 sqft but could be modified and exterior is low maintenance.

Here is a link that might be useful:

hey alwaysgolf nice looking could u direct us to a floor plan or post one ty

Yes, please, alwaysgolf, I like looking at floor plans.

I think I may have found the house of my dreams, but I don't know that I can afford the plans. It was designed for someone else, won a bunch of awards, and now the architect is famous. My daughter tells me that she doesn't feel he will sell the plans, so I don't know how to proceed ethically. The house itself is so simple that nearly anyone could duplicate it, but I want to do the right thing.

by no means a legal authority but posting a florplan of a hous is now considdereda violation of any law. but i do understand your concer. it there were awards soomeone must have done and article that may contain references to the plan or contain them and possible sources ?

Late to the party once again. Busy on weekends in the fall--golf and football. Here is a pic of the floorplan, it is kind of blurry but you can make out most things. We did make a few mods from the floorplan, notably the kitchen appliance layout and we extended the patio and enclosed it. Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful:

thanks will study it