This is a rather unusual design for a house--to put it mildly. That said, exterior walls, using 2 X 6 studs at 16 inches OC is so common as to be hardly worth discussing. Putting them at 24-inches OC may save a few bucks but, in practice, often may not be worth the effort.

FWIW, you need to carefully look at some of your dimensions, as they are unworkable. For example, the 4-foot wide utility room is simply unworkable. I suspect the same holds true in many other areas. The way to check is to always lay out the proposed furniture, fixtures and equipment to see just how they fit or not.

Your computer program is not helping you.

I think it is a good theory that may not always work in practice. Homes are shelters where life takes place, and that function is the priority. As long as how the house is framed doesn't interfere with the function inside it should be fine.

I do not understand what the gypsum board is fastened to in the corner detail in the advanced framing link supplied.

As far as the floor plan, I don't know what the market is for houses with tricycle garages. There also seems to be more inefficient use of space then there would be inefficient use of wood.

What you have here is just a simple rectangle, so almost anything would get the job done. The "advanced framing" is more of a local code issue. If the code guy doesn't like it, don't fight it. The layout needs work.

Is there no living room? It looks like you would have to go into a bedroom to sit down. I would look at lots of small home on websites like archdaily to get a good idea what people are doing. I really like when there is a bedroom on either side and the living/dining/kitchen in the middle.

My husband and I are both musicians, so I can appreciate the home studio, but unless you plan on taking a bath on resale value, you need to consider how someone else would use that space and allow for repurposing. Also, is the recording studio for you or do you engineer sould for others? If people are coming into your home, be sure to carefully consider public and private space.

Even if you plan to live there forever, you may need to refinance at some point and would benefit from designing a home that would also work for nonmusicians. In the first bungalow we owned, we created a rehearsal and recording studio in the basement. When we sold, our buyer was a professional photographer who easily converted it into a darkroom.

The house we just built is very small, but it could easily be added onto with a dogtrot or other addition. We're building a run-in shelter for our ponies that could easily be used as a workshop, and we're placing it so that adding onto the house would not require tearing down the shelter. We plan to live here until we're carried out feet first and we refused to make choices strictly for resale, but considering how someone else would use your home is never a bad thing.

The floor plan has to work for you and how you live... Do you collect tricycles?

Edit: NVM. I don't want to know.

I would do the parking garage later and use that space for an expanded central area (kitchen/eating). Thst can give a little more to the utility room as well.

Good luck. I hope you do it.

Grayson, I'm not an expert on Sketch-Up and Linux, but have you tried Sketch-up? It's a 3-D freeware approach to CADD.

Your rooms and circulation spaces seem a bit small, as I said above. It will be a good idea to sketch out, to scale, all your proposed furnishings, cabinets and equipment to see if the will fit properly. You can do this using CAD or on a paper print to scale. If you haven't done so, place yourself inside your plan and evaluate your movements, and those of guests, for normal daily activities to ensure you have the desired room.

I'm wondering, do you plan to pay cash for the land and for construction?

Apologies if I missed it, but do you have the land or site in mind with this design? I guess not all windows have been drawn? I think that even with more windows, the design has little interaction with the outdoors and will feel very claustrophobic. I second Virgil's Sketch-Up, great program for this sort of thing.

Advanced framing is nice but a pretty small drop in the grand scheme. Try to do plenty more research in building science and include some exterior insulative sheathing (or equivalent building envelope options) for your efficiency goals.

So what you're saying is so far this is just a pipe dream. BTW: Even your pipe dream is not livable as you have it. It's an awful layout.

The two most important questions before I can comment are:

1. Where are you planning to build and what size lot do you plan to build on?
2. As Virgil asked, how are you paying for the house?

I ask because the the plans you are showing wouldn't even approach getting a loan here.

Sketchup can be installed in Ubuntu, but I would caution against the limiting design factor on a home costing many thousands of dollars, being a $300 PC.

You don't need software, quarter inch graph paper will do at this stage. The real problem is the layout, which wastes space, and the lack of real sizes for objects, along with the clearances they need. You don't seem to be making good use of the three dimensional space, e.g. the space under the roof.

You need to do a lot more research about space planning, needs/requirements planning, and specifications. If you have years before you build, you can educate yourself, but it's a lot of work.

What you are designing is a cave and not a house. It will be dark and depressing. A small space needs to feel open even if it is closed off. Right now what you are doing is dreaming because the truth is your lot will dictate how the house will need to be built. Hence my pipe dream comment.

Instead of trying to build something, you'd be better off learning about designing for small spaces. Start with The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka.

What is obvious is having a CAD program doesn't make one a designer.

This whole idea is quixotic. While I agree that everyone is different, banks are exactly the opposite of different. They basically use actuarial tables to make loans and from an actuarial perspective - different isn't bankable. I am not trying to be rude but please understand at Trike garage you lost the financing. All the tweaking in the world isn't going to help this unless you happen to marry the V.P. of lending at your bank.

I've been told by my family that banks don't care what I put in a room.

I am sorry but either you have misinterpreted what your family has told you, or they are mistaken. Banks may not care about your furniture but they certainly care about one room's relationship to another. In the end, while you may not care about resale, it is all the bank cares about.

So you can call your garage, the "Queen of Scotland" room if you want but if it is unfinished with a largish exterior door then your "Queen of Scotland" room better be at least the size of a one car garage.

The whole idea of, "I am building my house and not your house," works for those with cash. Everyone else is limited by appraisal.

Hmmm. If you go for a loan, call the tricycle garage a storage room. Use a regular door a tricycle can fit through. In many areas it is acceptable to park a car outside - not all the houses around me have garages. Check your area. (The bank is going to assume that someone has a car. No matter what you tell them.)

I assume you haven't drawn in windows yet. You'll be happy to have them. You'll need them, anyway, for the loan. For instance for the bank to consider your studio/office a second bedroom, it needs an egress window. I doubt any bank in the country will approve a one bedroom home loan - whether or not you plan to use it as such, the ability for it to be a bedroom has to be built in.

Have the back door open in the other direction, and move the bath door towards the end of the house so it opens against that back wall. Will give you more space in that room.

It remains a hard sell for a loan, and you'll have to keep tabs on zoning requirements for your location.

The thing is, if you go for a loan, the BANK has to keep an eye on its own bottom line. Should you default, they have to have some notion of re-salability.

(I deleted my comments in frustration...)

Okay. I will call it a storage room. That makes sense. And thanks for the advice about the door, although I do have windows. Anyway, I decided to stick with what I have as shown but with the back door opened in opposite direction and even though I have the word "garage," it will be treated as a storage room:

Honestly what this plan shows is you really don't have a concept of what it takes to design a house. Sorry to be so blunt but there are so many things wrong with it, it would take an essay to explain. And the biggest misunderstanding is not realizing you need to have your lot before you can design a house because the lot will dictate what can and can't go on. So will zoning restrictions.

Many of the comments above are spot-on. Perhaps if you engaged the assistance of a local architect the majority of the above comments would be addressed.

Could you explain more about your ideas behind this plan?

Maybe if you would explain about the windows or the lack of windows, and what a tricycle garage is (I was thinking this was for motorcycle -type things so it didn't need to be for a car. What is it about this plan that works for you?

I know the comments sound harsh, but you could get something so much better inside this rectangle if you let people help you plan it.

Some of the rooms are just very inefficient shapes, for example. They are too big to be small or too small to be big. A 7x8 bathroom does not get you any more bang for your square footage than a standard 5x7 or 6x8, depending upon efficient configuration.

Doors and windows in the middle of walls in a small house often make less sense than doors (especially) that open against a wall in the corner.

There are no closets.

My dad built a house for his parents that was smaller than this but had two bedrooms (one took two twins (equals a King) , a full bath, a walk in closet, a galley kitchen with an eat in area and a nice sized living area, with decent windows that allowed circulation and didn't require AC. (It had a detached garage however). The key to a simple build is efficiency. This plan has a lot of waste because the entire left side is just random rectangles filling in the space. There is no interrelationship between the different rooms.

People here can be very helpful, but they will need more information than a plan you've done yourself, that you think will work.

Valuable as it may be, the OP didn't ask for anyone's design input. Even the very seasoned architects contributing gratis!

Advanced framing is not just about saving lumber--very little on the poster's plan, as already noted. It is about energy efficiency: less wood on the perimeter means more room for insulation; and that is more efficient than adding more insulation to the exterior.

Unfortunately, unless the poster is building the structure himself, it may be very difficult to find a carpentry contractor who is interested in supervising carpenters in different methods than what they're used to. Building with three-stud corners, double top plates and the like is something they do in their sleep. Furthermore, local Code authorities may not agree with the changes. I've mentioned advanced framing to my P.Eng, who wanted nothing to do with it.

Advanced framing wouldn't even been legal in my municipality. Our code is 2x6, 16 o.c. I believe our basements have more leeway and can be 24 o.c but that's just odd to us. We stuck with 2x4, 16 o.c interiors in the basement as well (work in progress) That aspect of your build would depend on the code in your area.

As for your layout, I too agree that it needs an overhaul. I'm confident that you can find a plan online that includes everything you want, but that is a more efficient use of space. Architects are also worth every penny. Most people can't view something like this in 3D. Ours literally took us for a "walk" around our home in his program before the final plans were done. It puts everything into perspective.

In many locales, bedrooms require closets. I see those are gone in the current plan?

I see only two windows now. Looks like a bunker. Seriously, consult with a pro. I understand the desire for a small home, but what you want is a small and practical home. It will also make getting that loan easier.

I would also suggest looking up plans for micro-homes if you want to go this small. Surely they can make better use of the space while still giving you all the rooms that you need.

Okay, I'll throw out a partial idea for consideration:

This also gives the bathroom some privacy.

Next I'd go with a double pocket door between the kitchen /dining room and the bedroom /living room ... this allows the rooms to function as one space, when needed ... yet they can still separate, when it suits your needs. Additionally, elimination of the door swing in such a small space is a positive.

I'd eliminate the equipment room and instead line the back hallway with storage. The blue boxes represent bookshelves /cabinets /whatever storage appeals to you. This also provides some soundproofing for the recording studio. In such a small space, every square foot must do double-duty, so you really can't afford two hallways to be nothing but hallways.

I didn't draw it, but a closet between the recording studio and the bedroom /living room would be a good idea.

Two last thoughts:

- The framing technique in which you're interested is all well and good, but it's not worth the sacrifice of good design.

- The people who are warning you about trouble with financing an unusual build are spot-on.

Mrspete if you saw his original comments you'll see this is mostly a pipe dream right now. He has no lot, no idea even when he would have the money to do this.