Tallaway Farmhouse Plan - anyone built this?

9 years ago

Hello,

I'm new here but have been on the Home Dec, Bath, and Kitchen boards for awhile. We're under contract to buy a large piece of acreage in Franklin, TN and I'm looking at house plans to get ideas for what we want to build. We're long distance but will be visiting again next month to walk the lot with a builder.

I am really liking this Tallaway plan by Mitch Ginn and was wondering if anyone has built this and might have interior pictures or building advice to share? I found a few other threads discussing the plan, but none where someone actually built the home. I posted the elevation and floor plan below.

The HOA design guidelines for the subdivision where we're buying call for farmhouse/country home style with a minimum 3500 sf and the lot perked for a 5 bdrm. Although I prefer the look of 2-story homes, we have a 3000 sf ranch now and really enjoy 1-story living. Also, this will be our "forever home" where we plan on growing old, so I'm looking at plans where most of the living area is on the main floor, with a bonus room on the second level (teen hangout) and possibly a walkout basement for extra recreation and guest space - if the sloping lot allows for it. We have a large family, with only 1 child still at home, but we're expecting the adult children and extended family to visit often so we do want extra bedrooms.

A few things I might change would be to switch the kitchen and keeping room and use the keeping room as a dining room (it would fit my 9 foot table that extends to 12 ft and we don't need 2 living areas so close to each other). We would use the current dining room as an office. I'd also like a larger kitchen pantry, and perhaps enlarge the third bedroom just a bit since the angled closet takes up so much space. This would be DD's room and a walkout closet is on her wish list, but I want her to have enough floor space too. The room may later be used for extended visits by aging parents, so extra space would be nice.

I thought it might be better to switch the garage and master so the master is to the rear, but I do like that you can't see the garage from the front of the house. I also like that there's no obstructed view from the front porch since we will have a really nice view from the front of the house. I'm not a big fan of the style of the dormers though and was wondering if it would be possible to do one large gable (is that what it's called?) instead.

Any ideas on this floor plan? Do you have any suggestions for similar floor plans? To save on building costs, I'm hoping to get a stock plan that can be modified by a local designer or architect if necessary. It's a very large rural lot (20+ acres) with a large building envelope so I don't expect any issues with setbacks if using a stock plan, but I'll find out more next month.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mitch Ginn Tallaway

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C R

7 years ago

We have not broken ground yet, but should be doing so in the next month if all goes well. We have an old small cottage to demolish first.

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Comments (25)

katieb2007
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
I think that this is a beautiful home. I love the look of the individual dormers, looks more farmhouse. I think a larger shed dormer would make the house look more bungalow, or arts and crafts. It looks very welcoming, and timeless. Have fun!
zippity1
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
i like your plan and your ideas for changes sometimes builders will do those kinds of changes and sometimes not good look on that
we had a few changes made by the company the stock plan came from and it was not very expensive at all, but there were really no changes in plumbing, electrical or mechanical which would be where the difficulties came in i suspect
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juddgirl2
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Thanks for your feedback, katie and okok. I think the dormers are growing on me - they do seem to be in many of the farmhouse plans.

Assuming we can do an unfinished basement with at least 1 more guest room, this is the best plan I've seen so far even though the layout of the closets in the second and third bedrooms doesn't seem ideal. Most of the other plans I'm looking at don't have 2 bedrooms on the main floor and we want our DD downstairs with us.

Do you think the interior kitchen would be too dark if it stayed in its current location? I was thinking it might be nice to have a fireplace in the dining room/keeping room, instead of switching the kitchen to that area and putting in all windows instead.

This post was edited by juddgirl2 on Mon, Aug 18, 14 at 17:05
zippity1
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
i really like a lot of natural light in my kitchen, the adjacent rooms have lots of windows and it would be very open to those rooms
the porch ceiling is vaulted so that would provide more light
what direction will the back of the house be facing? that may be the key to whether that room will be light enough or not
also what sort of window coverings will you be using?

we've owned 2 homes where the kitchen was sort of in the middle of the home (no direct windows) and those didn't bother me at all

i do love your plan...
juddgirl2
Original Author
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
okokok - the front of the house would be facing northeast so the rear keeping room and family room should get southwest exposure. My current kitchen only has one sliding door in the attached eat in area and it seems too dark, but it faces north.

The lot is wooded but I expect we would clear just enough trees from the back of the property to have a yard and perhaps a separate second structure for DH's shop. If privacy isn't an issue, I'm not sure if we would have window coverings in common areas - we don't in our current house.
pulliam03
9 years ago
Did you decide to build this house? We are currently under construction using this house plan.
juddgirl2
Original Author
9 years ago
pulliam - we ended up purchasing another property that has an existing 3000 sf house so we'll be remodeling rather than building new.

Love this plan though and would be really interested to follow your progress. We might try to incorporate some aspects of the plan into our remodel since it will pretty much be a gut and replace everything job!
C R
7 years ago
Treehouse

Pulliam03 - we are in final design phase with Tallaway plan. Is your build complete? Would love to see pics.
Kayla F
7 years ago
C R -- I'm very interested in this floor plan and would so appreciate you sharing any interior photos if you have them?
Kayla F
7 years ago
I FOUND SOME INTERIOR PICTURES! Haha here's the link: http://pin.it/FndjDQI (though they mentioned that they turned the dining room into a bedroom so they could have all their kids on the main floor). Hope this helps whoever else is wondering what the Tallaway floorplan looks like! :)
C R
7 years ago
KaylaF, thanks for finding the pictures. It appears to me they built a reverse of the floor plan. Everyone, including us, seem to be using the keeping room for dining and repurposing the formal dining room. We're making it a study/library type space. We are also inserting a breezeway between the garage and mud room that gives better access to the back door for family entrance and backyard. No longer have to go through the garage or porch to get to the back yard. The roof remains continuous so that the breezeway is covered. In Florida, so weather not an issue for us.
lpg1259
5 years ago
We are planning on building this plan in the fall. Would love to see photos of your construction.
C R
5 years ago
Here are a few. Let me know what specific areas/rooms you’d like to see and I’ll add those. We absolutely love this floor plan. We made several changes: master bath configuration, took out butlers pantry and split the depth with another niche in hall and built in shelving in MBR, changed roof to a hip roof, moved entry to bedroom #3 and relocated closet for more privacy. This also allowed for a linen closet in BR#2 ‘s bath.

We
Ben Gobble
5 years ago
Do you any pictures of the back of the house? Did you leave the formal dining or use it for something else? Thanks.
Ben Gobble
5 years ago
Also a picture of the kitchen from the dining area if you would. I love your house.
C R
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Here are two of the back of the house, screened porch, breezeway, and the back of the triple garage, the kitchen from DR, and our music/reading room (formal DR on original plans).
C R
5 years ago
lpg1259
5 years ago
Thanks so much for sending these! We are meeting with Mr. Ginn later this month to finalize our plans. It is a great house!
C R
5 years ago
Congratulations! It’s a terrifically livable floor plan. We made just a few changes to Mitch Ginn’s original floor plan. Have been in about 15 mos. and wouldn’t change a thing! Where are you building?
Ben Gobble
4 years ago
Anyone built this plan lately? We are in the beginning stages of building and would love to see more photos of this plan.
lpg1259
4 years ago
We have just started -- blocks are laid! Can update with photos as we go along.
Ben Gobble
4 years ago
Wonderful where are you building? Did you make any changes?
Ben Gobble
4 years ago
We are hopefully building in Middle TN. Just putting our current home on the market.
lpg1259
4 years ago
We are building in Clarksville, Tennessee. We made a few changes -- closed in back porch for sunroom. added a small garage for lawn equipment on opposite side of garages.