These are the exact house plans that we designed in SketchUp and used to build our own 600 square foot home. I laid the plans out similar to (in my own childhood experience) LEGO instructions to simplify the ease of construction. Using the plans also allowed me to create an accurate pricing and materials list for ordering. These plans can be used for creating your own small home, or to start your planning process.
While we were searching for small house plans, I was abhored at the unreasonable cost many of them had. That’s why we decided to create them ourselves. Because of the effort involved in creation of these plans, I’ve decided to post them with only a nominal fee. I wanted to keep the fee low so that it’s not a “make-or-break” deal in the event you decide to go another route.
I truly hope that these plans may be of benefit to you; it’s still somewhat unbelievable to me to think of what we’ve accomplished from the first time I sat down to create these plans. Now I’m writing this post in the house we built from them. Included in the download are the 17 images I used from the plans to build our house.
*Update: I have decided to discontinue sales of our plans. I hope to relist them in the future when the time is appropriate.
Hello!
I love the video on youtube, and my husband and I have been thinking about building our house on our own for a while. I have a few questions for you guys. How long did it take from start to finish? Around what price rage was the cost to build it? Did you guys have to get any special kinds of licenses or contracts to build? What kind of hours did you guys put into it?
Thanks!
Rebecca
Thanks Rebecca!
We started building June of 2016 and had it finished enough to move in as of May 2017. We built 95% by ourselves, and it would have gone much faster if we hired some of it out or just got more help, but I was enjoying the work. For just the house itself, we spent around $40-45,000. A lot of that was by choice and design as we could have used cheaper materials in many instances.
We did not need any special licenses to build it ourselves, but make sure you check with your zoning authority as that is dependent upon where you are.
As far as time goes, from the time that we were framing until we had the exterior weather tight I spent 8-10 hours a day working on it. I work 56 hours a week so i had to work around that. After the exterior was complete I could relax a little since we didn’t have to worry about the weather. At this point it was more like 6-8 hours a day. I think it took me around 120 working days from start to finish, so roughly 1,000 hours. If you have any further questions please let me know. Thanks!
Hi, it’s glad to see your effort as a product called Home. I want know from where you belong.
What did you decide to use for cooling and heating and how is it holding up ?
Amazing job!!!
Thank you David! We went with a Mitsubishi electric mini split to provide our heating and cooling. Due to the small size of our home and the spray foam insulation, the mini split runs really efficiently – even in the dead of winter.
I love your video as well. I am about to build a small house as well this spring and need to do it for the cash I have on hand which is 30 grand. Do your plans come with budget breakdown of where your dollars went as this would be super helpful. Also, I wonder if you built any solar passive features into this design as I suspect you did but cannot tell as hard to figure orientation. Amazing job, and I”m going to buy your plans regardless as I want to support you. Go Twins by the way!
Thanks for the support Mike, we really appreciate it! I don’t have concrete figures broken down in the plans as materials costs can vary regionally. I can tell you that we spent about 40 grand to build this house. 10 of that was for the slab, another 10 for the framing, roof, and rough in materials, roughly another 10 for spray foam insulation and tongue and groove, and the last 10 for electric, plumbing, and appliances.
That said, we spent extra for insulation and tongue and groove, and we also chose to purchase cedar for our posts and timbers instead of pressure treated. So, there are ways to save some money on it.
Yes, the entire structure was built to be passively solar. In fact, that was the driving force behind the design to begin with. Our house is designed to face south, so that the full loft can be exposed to the sun as well as all of the south facing windows/ patio door. We chose to build directly on slab to incorporate the thermal mass of the slab instead of flooring over it. It saved us some money, it’s easy to clean, and helps to retain that solar heat. If you have any further questions, please let me know!
Aaron, I am a native Minnesota but grew up on a cash crop and livestock farm down in Cottonwood County so quite different from your area, which I”ve motorcycled through before in my 20s on on old shovelhead. We are going to use some aircrete in this build and I also have the “luxury” of lots of cement experience so can do block and slab work with a friend. Our property is on quite a slope so we’ll also build into a hill to use that gain. Have you written any posts on your thoughts on solar power or is that coming down the road as more money becomes available? I assume you will build a rocket stove or use a woodburner for your shop or outbuidlings? Anyway, you are ahead of us but we have much the same mindset. I subbed to the YouTube, signed up for the blog list and look forward to supporting your work ahead.
Mike, thanks again for all of your support it means a lot to us. Building into a hill is a great design idea not only to maximize the footprint but also retain that thermal mass from the ground. I’m sure you’ve considered that so kudos to you!
We had originally intended to have a wood burning stove in the house. In the plans you can see a little alcove under the stairs near the south wall where it was supposed to go. Once we started unpacking we quickly realized that we needed a large storage space for all of our books so we omitted the wood stove and built a built in bookcase instead. We will definitely use some wood burning stoves in our outbuildings – especially the barn (once we build it).
Solar and wind energy is something that I’m passionate about and I’m hopeful that it will be an opportunity for us down the road. We’re lucky to be situated with massive solar potential and a constant wind so I think both opportunities have the potential to be beneficial to us. As you said though, it all comes down to money. In the short term, next year I’m going to be looking into building solar air heaters for the house to supplement and lessen the use of our heating system.
Lastly, I’ve been procrastinating on this, but I’m really looking forward to getting a video out soon on the interior of the house so you can hopefully see how things ended up based off the plans. Best of luck to you, and be sure to keep me updated on your progress as well!
Hi, I am thinking of purchasing your plan, but I have a couple of questions.. 1, what are the outside measurements width/depth, and also, is the loft the only bedroom? Thanks!
The exterior dimensions of the house are 19’8” x 29’8”. The attached porch is another 8’x30’ so the overall footprint is roughly 28’x30’. And yes, the 12’x16’ loft is the only bedroom that we had planned for, but there is room below if you wanted to add one since it is all open. Please let me know if you have any further questions. Thanks!
So I love these plans, but I had a few questions.
1. With the loft I believe the County I’d be building in would consider that a 2 story house which needs to be 800 sq ft (600 sq ft min for 1 story) – Is the 600 sq ft including the loft sq footage?
2. You would have the taller side of the house facing South for a more passive build correct? Well THIS is the Northern view of my property (https://www.facebook.com/justinwhedonart/photos/a.248787679113694/254069991918796/?type=3&theater). How much would it impact if the windows were facing North? Could put solar panels on the South facing roof then?
3. Deck – I wonder if you could make the overhang for the porch more like a deck?
Just some thoughts, etc. before maybe purchasing the plans!
Cheers,
~ Justin
Hey Justin, sorry it took me awhile to get back to you we’ve been going through some re-branding issues as part of our domain transfer. Since I’m not the most techy person, this has been a bit of a challenge. I’ll try to answer your questions as best I can:
1.) the 600 sq/ft is for the main floor as it’s 20×30. The plans and our house include a (roughly) 12×16 loft for an overall footprint of 792 sq/ft. The reason I don’t include the loft dimensions in the plan description is because the height of the ceiling is generally less than that of a “livable” space. In our zoning area, anything less than 80% of 7′ cannot be described as a livable area. So because the ceiling in the loft is less than 80% of 7′ (since it’s 192 sq/ft, more than 80% of that area has to be over 7′ tall, and that’s not the case), I cannot legally describe it as livable space. That’s a mouthful, but does it make sense?
2.) That’s correct; in fact, that’s entirely why we designed the house this way. We chose to build on a concrete slab for the thermal mass gain, and we chose to build the house south facing with the majority of our windows for passive solar gain. I can understand facing windows to the north for personal benefits. We had a bit of a dilemma in this facet because our river lies to the north of our house. Considering that would be your view to the north, I would totally understand orienting the structure that way. Bear in mind, however, a few ocnsiderations.
Yes, that would optimize the roof for solar panels which would be a huge boon. Depending on your climate, you’ll have to plan for thermal loss from the north facing windows which in our area can be considerable. Also, you’ll have to plan additional windows on the other sides of the house to make up for natural light as the north facing side will naturally be darker.
3.) Yes, you could make the porch roof more like a deck to the loft; however, that would require extra engineering. In our area, we need to engineer for a 45 lb. sq/ft load for the roof; to plan for extra live loads for a deck would require re-engineering the requried lumber dimesions. Not impossible, but just a little extra work and calculations.