Basic house plans… that can be easily changed to suit your requirements, circumstance and where you live.

 

First timers:

When we first move onto a smallholding and there are no buildings or farm equipment, etc it is hard to start from scratch. Ten to one, our capital budget is stretched to the limit. 

So we have to plan our moves. What we need to do first. What is important and what isn’t as yet important.  

Our needs change:

Most times we start with a small house and wait until everything is up and running smoothly, before stretching out to create a bigger nicer home. 

So you need to think of a house plan that you can adjust and adopt to your needs as time goes on. 

Here is a convertible house plan:

The ground floor plan can be used as a start-up, and later add onto it. Ether build upwards, or used the ground floor plan as a basement floor plan. Let me show you what I mean: 

The ground floor plan:

The ground floor area is about 65 square metres: 

• The smaller rooms can be used as bathrooms, dressing room, pantry or laundry areas, depending on your personal needs and costs involved. 
• To use the small room next to the kitchen as a laundry or pantry are, you can break through the wall from the kitchen area and close off the inner wall close to the bedroom door. 
• You can put a beam across from the length of the inner wall and above the setting counter area to the outer wall off the kitchen, to take the weight of the upper floor walls. 
• Sink and fridge can be moved into the laundry area, if that is what you decide to do with that space. That means you can also move the position of the back door, to give you more unit counter space in the kitchen area. 
• With the stairs starting in the lounge area, behind the front door, there is space under the stairs for storage… or stairs going down to a possible basement. 
•  And as I said before kitchen windows don’t have to be large to give light. They can be narrow and horizontal between the upper and lower kitchen unit cupboards. Thus giving you more cupboard space. 

The upper or basement floors:

 

• The four small rooms can be used as you please. Perhaps for dressing rooms, storage or little office rooms, other than bathrooms. 
• Where the lounge was on the ground floor plan, here on the upper floor plan you can have a large spacious main bedroom. Or if you have more than two children with the same sex, you can use it as a dormitory. 
• Just make sure there is enough air vents to prevent heat building up in the upper floor, because heat rises, and it could be very unpleasant in summer. 

As to the type of roof:

• That all depends on your budget and style of house you want. In this case possibly an A frame or lead-to.  
• But note, since the bathroom, etc rooms are small, the ceiling to those rooms in the upper floor plan, must be regular height (eight foot) from floor to ceiling. You can’t compromise there to cut costs on building walls, etc. 

Conclusion:

I could give more house plans, but the four house plans I have provided up till now in this homestead series, I feel should suffice for now.  

They are basic ideas you can use and change to suit your personal needs and budget, according to where you live and the climate there.