Amazon.com has a wonderful book , The Farmhouse: New Inspiration for The Classic American Home, by Jean Larson. I used to have it myself because it is exactly what it says. Amazing book! It's out in paperback now; price it both ways. You might find a used copy of the hardback to be cheaper than the paperback.

I've seen a full fledged mudroom with full bath, etc. like you're describing. I think one was in the book I mentioned. It's a fantastic idea. Hope you get help here but you're gonna need photos.

One of the houses we toured had a very large shower in the mudroom. I was wondering why anyone would have that. Now I know. :)

Here's a nice rambler. If you didn't need the Study you could use it as the 3rd bedroom. Then just take the plan's BR3 into the laundry room and rearrange/divide that area to get the mudroom you need.

I've found a lot more one story ranch plans when I look for Texas ranch houses than with any other searches.

Here is a link that might be useful: one story texas farmhouse

Try looking at the Progressive Farmer website. I've toured one of their idea homes in the past.

Allison Ramsey is another favorite of plans. I've include links to several home plan sites from my blog link below.

Don't be discouraged! Back "in the old days" I spent so much money buying plan magazines. Now, most of those plans are free to view on the web. It's a daunting task, but worthwhile to spend your time to find the right one. And...plans can be modified. Our exterior elevation is similar to our original plan, but I completely redesigned the interior to where it no longer resembles the original.

Hope this helps.
Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: blog link

Your current house sounds lovely. Hopefully, you can find a plan you love as much. My husband is a grain farmer and we found that we really needed to tweak the exisiting plans to get just what we wanted (or something close). We ended up adding a bump out to the walkout basement to create an office that has a dirct entry to the outside. DH can just pop in from the shed when he needs to do paperwork, etc. I lobbied for a small kitchen area in the office but he didn't want it. (I still plan to put the spare fridge and pizza oven down there) The office opens into a spare room that could be a mudroom (we are calling it a playroom right now) From here you can go up the service stairs to the garage or to a bathroom, which also opens up to the utility area where DH's washer and dryer are located. *My* washer and dryer are in our upstairs laundry / storage room, which is located off a small mudroom, coming in from the garage. Get two laundry hook-ups! None of these things were in the plan we started with. Even non-farm families would use and appreciate a large mudroom/storage area with a shower, etc. Why are these home plans so hard to find? I have the 2005 Progressive Farmer idea house home plans in front of me right now. If it helps, it's a Don Gardner plan. Good luck!

If the 2005 plan is the one in North Carolina, that's the one we toured! I used a lot of the interior colors for our house after seeing that one in person

Cameron

Cameron - YES! And that's the very reason I saved the magazine - the colors are great and it's so helpful that they give you the exact colors used in each room. our contract only includes three colors....we'll have to pay more or do some of our own painting.
jan

I live in a rural area with working farms plus lots of horse farms. The best feature that I have seen was in a house of a horse farm which had a walkout basement with a door to the outside that was the "barn" entrance where there was what was really the bottom of a shower with a spray hose in it as soon as you came in where a person coming in from the barn could put his/her muddy boots and rinse them off. If clothes were particularly wet and dirty they could be shed there too. They also had hooks, etc. for hanging up barn clothes. This entry area was really just for barn clothes. I thought it was a great. The laundry wasn't in the same room, but was nearby.

This is my first experience with a forum. I am amazed at how quickly responses appeared! I would like to thank everyone for their input. Please keep it coming.

Cameron, your blog site is great! I look forward to seeing more pictures as you grow your site. Great information!

Pinktoes, you are so right about pictures being helpful. When I built in 1996, the internet was really just coming into wide use so I was limited for resources. I have spent so much time searching and I am only just getting started. It is so nice to see actual pictures of materials and decorating within the home. You can only visualize so much from a floor plan. I was able to take a peek online at the Farmhouse book you mentioned. I am excited to see more of it. Thanks for the floor plan and the search tip.

Jan, it sounds like you have done a great job with your house, making it work for the way you live. Having a place to grab a bite to eat on the fly is a real plus. Your husband may come around about adding the refrigerator and microwave to his office. A year and a half ago, our son (who farms and has another business) built an outdoor office & kitchen building and it has endless uses. I have always had two washing machines, even in our very old farm house. Unfortunately, back then, the mudroom, laundry room and main entry were all the same very small multi-purpose space. When we built new, I put a washer for the heavily soiled stuff in the mudroom, but use the dryer next door in the laundry room. I run much of that stuff through two wash cycles to be sure it is clean. I will likely buy those front loading machines for the new house. I am sure they would do a better job of cleaning.

I have the Progressive Farmer magazine with the 2007 Idea Home. I went to their website to view previous years and am having trouble viewing pictures. Is anyone else having trouble getting the pictures to come up? When I "choose a room" from the drop-down menu, at the following URL for any of the models, I get the text but not the picture: http://www.progressivefarmer.com/farmer/house/2003_house/foyer.html

Carolyn,
You see, there are great ideas out there for all kinds of needs. You would think they would be easier to find in the form of a complete floor plan that only needs small tweaking, not complete overhauling. The first time I built I created the design, but I was hoping to get by without doing that this time. Who knows, maybe something will turn up, but I will not hold my breath.

Thanks again.
ZipRider

You designed you current home.

You know what works about it, what doesn't.

You know what you like, what you don't.

No faceless stranger that's never met you will ever come close to designing anything half so appropriate for you lifestyle and personality as you can yourself. Doubly so when that stranger's idea of country life is either riding to the hounds on an autumn morning, or a two acre 'mini ranch' with a hamster, a llama and a pot belly pig.

And until you've lived in the stranger's plan for a few years, you won't really know if it suits you or not.

I think pre-planed homes are fine for suburban dwellers with no real tie to thier land. If they build a house, decide they don't like it, they can always sell it, move down the block, start over.

For most rural people, 'home' is a place, not a building. That's why my build has been so incredibly stressful: if I don't get this right, I can't just sell it and move on, I'll have to level it and start over.

I often lie awake at night, wondering if I've overlooked anything... dog area and pet door in the laundry to keep the mess out of the kitchen, coat room off the back door to hold my chore coats, ski coats, town coats. Less lawn to mow, more garden to grow. Natural light in every room. Hydrant by the back door for really dirty boots....

By all means, look at plans for ideas that might not have come up with on your own, but hire yourself as you own chief designer.

Thanks for the encouragement and validation. I can relate to the "awake at night". I am not that far into this build yet, but I do remember how that was. I kept a notebook at my bedside so I could write thoughts down and hopefully let it go for the rest night.

Re: 9-21-07 Post
I needed a download from iPix to view the pictures from the Progressive Farmer Idea Home site. Got it!

Hi,

Find Country House Plans by Natalie on the internet. They specialize in old style farmhouses, this is where I go my plan from.

Good luck.

C

Even if you design it yourself, it helps to see how much space is available with certain footprints and rooflines.

My DH and I fell in love with our exterior elevation, then we literally took the inside apart and put it back together again for us and to suit our gardening interests and the land (4.5 acres with 2 acres of open meadow out front, woods on two sides).

So, I think if you can find an exterior that you like with the about the right size square footage on each floor, you can rework a plan to be your design. Then, an engineer can figure out the load-bearing walls and structrual needs when you create a final blueprint.

Why not build your current house again on the new site? Will it work with the setting? It sounds like you've got a great start with that, then just add and subtract your wants and needs.

Cameron

Zip rider

I was wondering what you have come up with.

We bought a plan- it's a colonial/farmhouse - it has a mudroom and a 19 x 17 clutter room. We live on a farm also. You can enter the mudroom from the garage, the side porch or the the back porch. The clutter room has laundry plus laundry sink, office area, tool area, fridge, pantry and cabinets. It also has built in dog crates under a sorting counter. I have laundry in the basement and in our master closet also. We also have a walk out basement. Almost every single aspect of our house was thought out in the anticipation of dirt and outerwear etc. Lots of hooks, shelves and acsess to clean up before you hit the more formal areas of the house.

Love to hear what you came up with !

PD

Love that term "clutter room." That fits a room in my house exactly. Now that we are almost done and ready to give tours, I'll have the right word to describe the room.

I would like to post that I have signed up for email notifications of new postings to this thread, but have not received any. So, if my reply is slow, that is why. I just sent an inquiry to the "contact us" so maybe they can fix this for me.
Ziprider

PD,
As I posted above, I have not been getting posting notifications, so sorry about the delayed response.

I have not come up with any additional great ideas or plans yet. I visited a few parade homes this Fall but too busy to see as many as I would like. I don't expect to find my house plan at the Parade, but pick up small ideas. It sounds like you have incorporated great ideas into your farm home. I would love to hear and see more specifics, if you wish to share. Did you do a lot of changes to the plan you purchased? If your plan came designed for farm life, where did you get it? Thanks for your post.
Ziprider

Our need to move has been postponed, but not canceled. So, if anyone out there has any input, I am still looking for ideas. Thanks!