5 bedrooms in a 2700 -2800 sf home?
tikilyn
12 years ago
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meldy_nva
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agonini804
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Local Architect with 240sf home
Comments (26)I wrote a lengthy reply to this thread the other day, and it got lost! I'll try again. Small homes are fascinating to me, not only because we are on a desperately tight budget, but because I think they are actually better in many ways. I read somewhere that 500 sq ft per person works well, and that does seem to be about right. Our first house in FL was 800 sq ft, and it was fine for two of us. It had an over-size garage and a big back porch. Coupled with FL's year-round nice weather, it was very livable. The same thing in the Great White North might bring on a bit of cabin fever! I think people living together need to have a way to get away from each other from time to time. Some kind of space that is your own. That would be very hard to do in a tiny house, although a loft would help. One snag with tiny houses is zoning and building codes. Many of the things you see in tiny houses (and old houses) simply aren't legal in much of the country these days. Many communities have 'anti-shack' laws which flat-out eliminate the tiny houses. Many of the properties we looked at in SC had minimum square footage requirements; one lot required 2400 sq ft minimum! Stairs, my nemesis, are very tricky in small houses. That cute little winding staircase in that old house is way out of code. In my mother's old house, the rise was greater than the run! It was almost ladder-like. Even a loft ladder is taboo unless the loft is designated 'storage'. A really easy way around all this is to build your tiny on a trailer, in which case it is no longer a dwelling. Of course many places won't let you park a trailer on your lot, either. Aaaarrrggghhh! I'm SO tired of being told what is good for me! In designing our future house, I've added two luxuries- a second bathroom, and stairs. We will have a walk-out basement, so stairs are a necessity. Yes, you could enter the basement from outside, but that doesn't make much sense. I also will not put the laundry in the basement- too many stairs to run up and down in our old age. If we take the 500 sq ft per person rule, and add the 2nd bath, the stairs, and a main floor laundry, it keeps coming up 1200 sq ft- exactly what I keep hitting in my house designs. I've shrunk plans down to 800 sq ft or so, but always wind up giving up things. In the final analysis, every house needs the expensive stuff- land, water, septic, kitchen, bath, heat and A/C, windows. Once those things are paid for, a few hundred extra sq ft is pretty cheap. Living in a tiny house permanently would require a huge paradigm shift for most people. You would have to get rid of all of your stuff. Buying, building, or renting storage space kind of negates the whole tiny house ideal. If we are forced by finances to build a much smaller house, I'm going to build several small outbuildings for various activities, and only heat them when in use. My wife would love a tiny 'Sewing House', and I could practice trumpet til my heart's content in the 'Music Cabin'. These would be small enough to be classed 'sheds' to the zoning folk, and luckily I have plenty of room for this scenario. Regardless of what we build, the barn will be first, and 1/3 of it will be closed off and set up as a summer living room, with A/C, paneling, and windows. That will give us a great room for a crowd, and we don't have to heat it when not in use. As you can see, I could go on and on about this stuff!...See MorePlease help to review a bid for new house in SF south bay area
Comments (12)This seems to have turned into a radiant floor heat discussion. I have no experience with floor heat in the USA, but we worked/lived in Asia for a few years and had electric floor heat as our only source of heat in the house (I don't know the intricacies of its mechanisms of operation). It was set up to only work at night. We could not make it turn on in the day, but the house had huge whole wall windows on two sides to take in the sun. It had a learning curve because you had to anticipate how cold the next day would be so you could get it warm enough over the night, but we grew to really like it. We didn't turn it on in the bathrooms because it would make the tile hot enough to burn your feet (even at the lowest setting). You would have to keep towels on the floor if you wanted to use it. The rest of the house had wood floor and it would not hurt your feet no matter how hot we set it. We spent the least on energy of anyone we knew there during our stay, but we are also frugal....See MoreFeedback on 600 SF one bedroom layout and 2 car garage
Comments (91)@3onthetree How do your normally raise the floor level for slab to get the sewer slope correctly? Do you just add sand or 3/4 gravel? The clean-out in the back of the house is 4" pipe that is 16" deep. If I put the bathroom toward the house (North side) as @cpartist suggested it will be 45' away from the house(clean-out). If I put the bathroom in the back (south side, it will be 75' from the house (clean-out). I talked to the contractor who I know, and he said that he fellow whatever the plan specifies regarding the slope or whether to add sand or gravel. I got myself in the schedule with the architecture. He suppose to start on August... Everyone is busy down here. If I go from the main connection in the front of the house, to get the correct slope, it will cost about $10k more ( about 120' from the main sewer). This is a southern California price:) Thanks for your help. I do really appreciate it....See More2.5 or 3.5 BA in a 6BR home?
Comments (13)Not much info, and it's kinda a loaded question. I'm guessing 4Bed/1Ba 2nd floor, Powder 1st floor, and 2Bed/1Ba basement that were added later and are questionable whether they qualify as actual bedrooms. Agree 1 overly-large disproportionate bathroom on any floor is a waste. And having, if my layout assumptions are correct, 2 bathrooms in the basement, when you do not have a Master Suite, is very odd and will be a detriment to future value. From my experience in the market for large families, the sweet spot is 6Bed/4.5Ba or 5Bed/3.5Ba. Having said that, you should provide the amenities that you are comfortable living with. Most commenters here would not be comfortable living without a Master bath after having spent the money, time, and trouble putting an extra one in the basement that is associated with small bedrooms....See MoreJanilyn
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agobuckheadhillbilly
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoaidan_m
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agochisue
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worthy
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoscrappy25
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotikilyn
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agomountaineergirl
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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