need shingle style floorplan 2500-3k sqft

14 years ago

Hello :) I'm a long time lurker here and would love some advice. We've purchased 10 acres of pasture in IL and are hoping to build in 2-3 years. I love the look of shingle style and craftsmen homes. The problem is most of the floor plans I've seen are HUGE! We're a family of 5 (kids 6, 4 & 2) and will probably be in this house for the next 10-15 years at least.

I don't want a huge mansion, I just want an average sized house with lots of nooks & crannies (built-ins, dormers, window seats, etc...) Here's some of our wants:

2500-3000 sq ft

master on the 1st flr

kitchen with exterior windows

screened porch

2-3 bedrooms upstairs

large mudroom, homework space off kitchen

3 car garage

if anyone knows of some floorplans that might fit my criteria, I'd love to see them! I'd also love to see pics of anyone else building a shingle or craftsman style home. It seems I've looked at a thousand floorplans and am hoping one will just grab me, but I might have to fork out the $$ for an architect. I love the look of some Visbeen Assoc homes, but I'm sure his services are super pricey. Has anyone built any of his designs or worked with him?

thanks for your help!

Here is a link that might be useful: Visbeen Assoc.

Featured Answer

macv

14 years ago

If you study the Stern plan you will see that it is configured to save space and cost while still having some strong architectural features and I think it is quite successful. Of course, this house was designed for Life magazine not for you or anyone else. The design program from Life Magazine was for an affordable dream house with maximum charm. Stern did a far better job than the other architects that submitted in previous and later years.

If you add the typical family rooms, dens, dining rooms, etc. that are commonly desired by most families, you will inevitably increase the size of the house over 3,000 s.f. and increase the cost proportionally. I suggested this house because it is the only well designed Shingle Style house I have seen under 3,000 s.f. This is not style that is well suited for small or single story houses.

I find that the critical dimension in this steep-roofed style is the distance between the rafter supports because beyond a certain distance the ridge becomes too high and a lot of wasted space is created in the attic.

You might want to review your program and budget and be more clear about function of the different living spaces.

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Comments (31)

macv
14 years ago
The Shingle Style and the Craftsman Style are quite different if you look beyond the common use of shingles and stone.

I would start with the site characteristics (defects and opportunities) and what you like about each of these distinctive styles. It sounds like you want a strong roof which makes me think you would prefer the Shingle Style.
drjoann
14 years ago
macv - could you expand on the term "strong roof"?

Thanks - Jo Ann
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can you suggest a stock floor plan?
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Comments (33)
If your lot is really 129 feet wide, you probably do have room for a side entry garage. Usually the setback requirements for the sides of a lot are 15 to 20 feet even in developments where all the lots are several acres. And most places allow driveways and parking pads to be within the setback zone. Thus, with a 129 ft wide lot, you could have a 79 ft wide house set 20 feet from one sideline and 30 feet from the other side with the driveway and parking pad going right up to the edge of the lot. A 30 foot deep parking pad gives you plenty of room to make the turn into a garage. My parking pad is 32' x 35' and I can turn my Toyota Tacoma pickup completely around ON the parking pad. Anyway, I found this 2008 sq ft plan on eplans.com that I think could meet all the requirements you listed with some minor modifications that would NOT entail changing the footprint. It's 78 ft wide and has a side load garage but if you really can't use a side load, you could move move the garage doors to the front quite easily. Here is the floorplan (as shown on eplans) and I've linked to the plan below: The modifications I would suggest are: 1) Divide off the 'sitting area' portion of the master bedroom and make that area the laundry room. I don't know of anybody who ever actually spends time sitting in their master bedroom. When I go off to my bedroom for some peace and quiet, even though I have a very nice chair in the room, I always wind up crawling up in the bed and getting comfy with pillows and bolsters. The chair is just for looks and typically gets used just as a place to lay out clothing when I'm trying to decide on an outfit. LOL! Put the washer and dryer up against the dining room wall so noise isn't transmitted into the master bedroom. 2) Divide the 'flex room space vertically to create a 3' x 6'8' powder room on the left (next to the dining room) and a 3'4' wide hallway on the right so you have a way to get to the laundry room. Use a pocket door on the powder room. You might want to make the laundry room a little bit smaller than the sitting area was so that the powder room can be a little longer but 6'8' will work fine if you'd rather keep the laundry larger. Note that with the laundry against the back wall of the house and a powder room next to it, you might want to put an exterior door in the laundry room to accommodate kids needing to use the bathroom when playing outdoors. 3) Move the door to the master bedroom around the corner so it is in the short hallway just created. This gives your masterbedroom a little bit of privacy because folks no longer have to walk right past it on their way into the house from the family entry. 4) Now, drop a wall down from the corner of the bedroom to where the original laundry room door was. 5) Turn the space that used to be the laundry room and half-bath into a walk-in pantry and a mudroom. 6) Move the door from garage into mudroom space to get rid of the door conflict between entry door and staircase door. 7) Pull the staircase toward the left so that you can use the space under the staircase to enlarge one of the master bedroom closets for HER clothes. He can have the smaller closet. (Note that a 6'4' wide closet is NOT really wide enough to hang clothing on both sides. You can however hang clothing on one side and at the end and have room for 12 to 15 inch deep shelves on the other wall for storing shoes, sweaters, etc. With modifications suggested above, here is what the floorplan would look like. The exterior would not be changed at all. If you wanted your kitchen open to the great room, that could be done do too by putting cabinets under the front window, moving the range closer to the front of the house, replacing the peninsula with an island and then opening up the wall between kitchen and great room...maybe use columns like those beside the foyer at the point where the great room roof peaks. The folks over on the kitchen's forum could give you advice. And, if you don't want/need the bonus space above the garage, you could save quite a bit of money by getting rid of the fake dormers, removing the front porch entirely, and cutting the pitch of the roof to 6/12. The front porch is too shallow to be useful anyway. Such changes, along with maybe putting a sliding patio door in the great room leading to the back covered porch would turn this design into a much more authentic 'ranch style' home. You could still have vaulted ceilings in the great room and master bedroom. They just wouldn't vault quite so high! Plus, without the stairs to the bonus room, you could move the family entry back to where it was and have room enough in the mud room for two sets of cubbies facing each other AND a small closet where the bottom of the staircase originally was. (While a door conflict between a closet door and the family entry is not ideal, it does not pose quite the issues that having a door conflict with a door at the bottom of a staircase does. Finally, one thing I don't like about this plan is that the secondary bedrooms are both rather small. At about 11x11, they're "okay" for kid's rooms but certainly not spacious. It wouldn't cost that much to pull the left hand wall out by 2 ft to enlarge those rooms to about 11x13 which is a reasonably nice sized child's room. You would only be adding about 60 sq ft and since you wouldn't be making the roof or foundation any more complex so it would be pretty cheap additional sq footage. Anyway, your original post asked if anyone could suggest a stock floor plan and instead you've gotten a lot of comments about what is/is not a ranch. So, I thought I'd throw this one out there... Here is a link that might be useful: farmhouse This post was edited by bevangel on Mon, Feb 11, 13 at 16:55
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AlexHouse - This isn't quite the first floor plan, it's probably the 20th or so. It's just the first one done not on paper and that I felt was closer to what I'm striving for and therefore 'worthy' of being posted on the site. I've been looking at plans for about 8 months, following this forum for about 4 months (slowly learning from summerfield and many other great posts here) and will still continue. Your comment isn't overly negative at all! It's exactly the type of feedback that I was looking for. While the 3D views certainly help me see how they relate to the human body (at least better than my paper drawings), they're still a bit misleading and I'll continue working on that. Excellent suggestion for saving variations! I already have a few and will continue! Kitchen entry - I overlooked it and will definitely expand. I read that 3 feet for hall space was normal, 4 ideal, should I stick to that or somewhere in the middle for the kitchen? Right now it's pretty flexible by shrinking the island and that spare area across from the pantry. Master closet width - I never considered the aisle width. I can easily expand it and take up more space in the master. Right now the width is 5'3". How wide to avoid the shimmy? Toilet - Another measurement I didn't consider. It seemed that since the program doesn't allow the toilet to be right up against the wall, it was automatically putting in the code requirements. I'm pretty small, so on a 3D view it didn't look bad to me. I'll definitely expand it and look into code requirements. Second floor - The second floor is directly over the garage. I decided to put it here for various reasons. I wanted to take advantage of the view of the backyard wooded area rather than just my neighbors and garage (which would have been the view above the main portion of the house). I also wanted some distance from the kids rooms, but still be on the same floor if needed. The kids floors will be added later in the unfinished area. The second set of stairs (in an enclosed room, if that makes sense), go to the attic. I don't care for the pull down stairs. Hall - I can reduce the wall on the first floor to shorten the hallway, leaving the living room more open, but I don't see how I could reduce the hall space to the master.
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I'm short on time today but I didn't want everyone to think I had bailed. I'll work from the most recent post back. Rhome is correct. The squares are 2x2 so the dishwashers are 2 ft, the fridge and freezer are 30" each, the sink area is 48" but I will probably use a 36" farm sink. Microwave placement has yet to be decided, since this is a very preliminary drawing but I was thinking in the island. I have concentrated the items that will get the most use...range, fridge and sink at one end of the kitchen, so that there is no need to go round and round the island, or at least that was the idea, other than an occasional trip to the freezer, which in our current house is in the basement, so I don't think I will mind a few steps. Our current kitchen is 12'6"x14 and excluding the prep sink and the fridge (which we don't have in this kitchen) is almost the exact same setup. Our current island is 7' and the work area is concentrated on one side. I located the fridge in this area so that anyone coming in for just a drink would not get too much in the way. Kelbrad, thanks for the link. I will check it out later this evening, along with researching what other options are out there. ChapNC. I am working in excel, using a graph paper template that is 2'x2'. When I drew the bathroom I had a shower on that outside wall, but then thought that a tub would be a better idea for a guest room. However, I failed to lenghten the room to accommodate a tub. Thanks for pointing this out, as I had missed it. meldy nva. I will look at the kitchen again. I'd prefer the laundry near the kitchen, as that is where I spend the most time and makes switching out a load or folding more convenient. The master is large, but as mentioned above, we do have several pieces of furniture. We could definitely make do with smaller. Do you have ideas on how to rework that end of the plan and still access the guest bedroom? I would love to see your ideas. Rhome410, I really like your kitchen layout. It is similar to what I have drawn and I am happy to hear that it works for you and your family. It gives me hope that mine will work someday too. Okay back to work now. I will try to address the rest later.
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I understand, but desired budget is going to be important. Also if you plan to age in place, or if that is not a concern. For the kitchen -- do you entertain often or are you home-bodies. (Do you LIKE cooking, or do you prefer Lean Cuisine nuked?) Actually, I started out something like you -- I have 52 acres mostly wooded and I am keeping them almost entirely that way. I checked out my own needs (probably not the same as yours), discovered I hate dealing with my knee issues, so the laundry will be on the main floor. Discovered on my own lot a walk out basement would suit me and I can keep the mechanicals down there with little problem, and not have to go down there as often as I do have to do laundry!!! I'll be able to do a root cellar and a workshop, but your needs will likely differ. (
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macv
14 years ago
I would consider a steep roof with long dramatic rakes, well integrated dormers, and cross gables to be visually strong. I would exclude common repeating or staggered gables and overly dramatic trim from this category since they so often erode the strength of the roof shape IMHO.

Here is one of my favorites in Salem MA. It has seven rather well known gables and is considered a Post medieval English design but it has much in common with the later Shingle Style.
thisishishouse
14 years ago
Sounds like we're looking for much of the same things. Here's a couple plans I've got saved which might be close to what you're looking for:

This one is more Prairie/Craftsman, but has many of the elements you seek.
http://www.eplans.com/prairie_house-plans/HWEPL11086.hwx

This one is a Visbeen (a fav architect of mine) called Beaconsfield. It's bigger that what we're (and you're) looking for, but trimmed down a bit, the essentials are great.
http://www.eplans.com/shingle_house-plans/HWEPL68883.hwx
marthaelena
14 years ago
Do you want a full basement?
I am working on an incredibly similar home, same size and amenities and one of the options will have the same style. It's a custom design.
I think you have nothing to lose contacting Visbeen. Seems like it is worth it and most likely they have a plan that fits your needs. I thought that they were only custom designers but they also have stock plans according to the link.
macv
14 years ago
Where are the dormers?
laurensmom21
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for your help everyone! I really appreciate all your comments.

macv - There's not much to our site really - just 10 acres of open Illinois pasture, so no restrictions there. I guess I'm not really sure what I like about these certain styles. I just wanted something a little different than the standard basic 2 story that is so common here. I like the look of a courtyard (?) style garage or a garage off to the side with an enclosed breezeway/mudroom and the shingle styles seem to be sprawling like this (am I making any sense?) :)

oicu812 - thanks for posting those plans - I do like the Visbeen one, but unfortunately it looks too narrow for us. We need something wide - but I do LOVE the home mgmt, mudroom area! Exactly what we're needing w/ 3 kiddos!

marthaelena - yes, we do want a full basement. We probably won't finish it right away though, but love to have the option of additional space (not to mention we're in a major tornado area). I'd love to see your floorplan if you can share it! I think you're right and I might just shoot Visbeen an email and get some info. Wouldn't hurt, right?

Here's a few links to some plans we like (but all would need some sort of tweaking)

love this one, but would need to cut 1k+ sq ft:
http://www.eplans.com/shingle_house-plans/HWEPL64900.hwx

like this one too, but again too big and I'd really like my kitchen to have an exterior window
http://www.frankbetz.com/homeplans/search_results.html

again, thanks for all the comments. Keep 'em coming!
booboo60
14 years ago
laurensmom21,

I found this website....http://www.theplancollection.com/shingle-house-plans
booboo60
14 years ago
Oh, and this looks good :)

http://www.dreamhomesource.com/shingle_house-plans_DHSW40306.hwx#floorplan
thisishishouse
14 years ago
On that plan you say you like but is too big (http://www.eplans.com/shingle_house-plans/HWEPL64900.hwx), I'm wondering how they officially calculate sq ft'age.

When I do the math on many of these plans by summing the products of the given room dimensions, they rarely match the sq ft'age listed.

Also, most Visbeen plans include finished lower levels. Do those count in total sq ft? If so, you could omit that in the initial build.

Speaking of sq ft'age, our current home is ~1700 sq (and abt 25 yrs old) Same builder is now building the same floor plan across town, but with a 2car garage and 12x12 sunroom, and listing them as 3300 sq ft. What sort of ruler did he use to get those figures? Are builders just allowed to claim whatever size makes a home sound more profitable? Do buyers even question whether the claims are accurate or inflated?
joyce_6333
14 years ago
I'm a huge fan of Jon Rentfrow homes. I realize that these plan are probably too large for your needs, but there are alot of pictures that may give you some inspiration, or just fun to look at.

Here is a link that might be useful: Jon Rentfrow Designs
macv
14 years ago
You might like the 1994 Life Magazine Dream House designed by Robert A. M. Stern.

It appears to still be available through Southern Living.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stern's affordable Shingle Style house
macv
14 years ago
Here is more info.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stern house
laurensmom21
Original Author
14 years ago
thanks again everyone for posting more sites - I think I could look at houses all day long (which is not good as my laundry pile indicates!) It's going to be really hard to narrow it down I think, I'm such an indecisive person and even more so if this is going to be our home for the next 10-15 years. We usually move every 2-4 years (dh has rehabbed several of our homes for flips)

oicu812 - that's crazy that a builder is trying to pass the same house off as 3300 sqft. Does it have a finished basement or something? Even so, you cannot technically list the basement as part of the overall sqft in the MLS. I'll have to have dh take a closer look at the plan I posted. He used to be an appraiser, so he should be able to come up with an accurate sqft amount. And no, builders cannot just claim whatever sqft they want (although some are off by a small amount). When they go to sell the house, the sqft must match with whatever the appraiser measures it to be or it could really throw off the value/comparables and chance to secure a loan.
laurensmom21
Original Author
14 years ago
macv - WOW that is gorgeous! Definitely love the exterior! I'm off to check out the floor plan. Thanks so much :)
macv
14 years ago
If you care, you could not find a more prestigious architect than Stern to design your house and he is the master of the modern Shingle Style IMHO. I went to one of his lectures and got the impression that he holds that opinion as well but doesn't limit it to a particular style.

I have often thought of buying the plan set but I don't know if it is the set his office produced and if it is complete. If you like the house we should talk.
macv
14 years ago
Here is the link to his house projects.

Most folks are familiar with his hotels at Disney World.

Here is a link that might be useful: Stern's houses
lsst
14 years ago
We, too, have a builder in town that is coming up with his own numbers on sq. footage. I always thought that a finished basement is quoted as a separate square footage from the main square footage. For example- main square footage 2000 plus a finished basement of 900 square feet.
macv
14 years ago
Perhaps you clicked on the wrong thread.
marthaelena
14 years ago
Macv, I like your designs better than the Stern one that you just posted.
You posted it before and now I like it a bit better than the first time.
lsst
14 years ago
macv,
I was just responding to Oicu812 who was asking about accuracy of sq. footage and I am curious ,too.
By the way, great link!
LSST
laurensmom21
Original Author
14 years ago
macv, I do love the look of the Stern home, though the floor plan isn't really for me. I think I'd like the front door more centered (with a porch) and dh and I would like a separate living space (family room?) bumped off the back of the house somewhere (with lots of windows). Similar to the plan I've linked below by Garrell Assoc. I like the Garrell home below although the ext. may be a little too farmhousey for me and the kitchen isn't on an ext. wall. It seems like whenever I find a plan I sort of like, something is amiss. So I end up trying to move everything around in my head or on graph paper. We built our current home almost 3 years ago and we pretty much drew it up ourselves on graph paper then took it to a local architect and he gave us final plans to go from. I just didn't have a really good experience with him though, since he didn't offer any advice - just plugged in what we had and that was that.

Our current home is a basic ranch w/basement with the wide open great room, kitchen, dining combo. But with kids, we're finding that it's a little TOO open for us. If the kids are running around crazy, we're all in the same room together and it gets very loud - hence we'd like a little more separation in our next home :) I'm not too picky about prestige or anything, although I do really respect great architecture. I just have a feeling someone like that would be WAY out of our price range.

thanks for all your feedback - are you an architect yourself?

Here is a link that might be useful: Garrell Assoc
sandiandjerry
14 years ago
Our house is in progress. It has a lot of the same specs you describe.

Here is a link that might be useful: House with Same Specs as Described
laurensmom21
Original Author
14 years ago
sandiandjerry - I'd love to see your plan but the link is taking me to blogger and I can't access it for some reason.

macv - thanks for your help, but I guess I'm just not a purist to any particular style. I love certain looks, but if the floorplan isn't right, then I'll have to move on to something that is, kwim? I like the exteriors of shingle homes, but might need to mix it with a more country or cape cod interior, etc... I understand where you're coming from though and appreciate the advice.
macv
14 years ago
It's a matter in interior volume. When a house gets too wide the roof pitch must be lowered to control volume. IMHO it is difficult to design a charming house with a low roof pitch since a Shingle Style can quickly become a Prairie Style. The hallmark of a Shingle Style is that that the roof and the exterior walls act together like a cloak of shingles with long rakes tying the stories together and gables/dormers and classical detailing peeking through the cloak and classical detailing with ganged windows and bays adding a note of elegance. The hallmark of the Craftsman and Prairie Styles is that the roof sits on the house like a lid with extended or decorated eave overhangs and no classical detailing.

To control the volume of a Shingle Style it is usually necessary to organize the plan in a relatively narrow main element with cross gables. If the house has a center beam/bearing wall the main stairway usually must be placed parallel to it which is a layout challenge. You can see all of this at play in Stern's plan.
mizmcd
14 years ago
What a great thread. I learned here that Shingle Style is my favorite style here--after cutting out and starring many picture of these. Great links and ideas. Thanks to all of you. We bought our land in east TN on Loudoun Lake, but putting off retirement (and building) a few more years because of this iffy economy. Sigh. Ah well, more time to learn from you all.
ohwhatabeautifulmorning
7 years ago
great info macv!
ohwhatabeautifulmorning
7 years ago
Is the stern plan available for purchase anywhere? Its not on southern living any longer. thanks
PRO
Anglophilia
7 years ago
This is a VERY old thread and the house was designed over 20 years ago. Mr Stern, the architect, is a very prominent architect and was the Dean of the Architecture School at Yale (they have a tradition of having a Dean who is a working architect). If the house was designed to be built (without all the extras that give it charm) for $250,000 in 1994, today it would most likely be over $400,000 just to build it - probably closer to $500,000. It's an odd house upstairs - no closets in the bedrooms so they are called "offices". The LR and DR are actually quite small, as are the bedrooms - it just looks "big" from the outside. Prominent or not, I don't like the interior of the house at all!
ohwhatabeautifulmorning
7 years ago
Thank you Anglophilia for your comments! I was not looking at the date of the thread - definitely would not want to build for 500k!

need shingle style floorplan 2500-3k sqft

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