Couldn’t afford a big house, but still have to provide a home for your large family?

 

Starting from scratch:

When you buy a smallholding farm or plot and there is no house on the property, you have to start out small. Usually it’s because you have to stretch your budget.  

You not only have to build a house, but out-buildings too. Then there is fencing, farm machinery, water pumps, plants and seeds, animals and their food, etc, etc. 

So things have to be thought out carefully, before you do anything. And keep costs down wherever it’s possible. 

But your family comes first:

Make your family as comfortable as possible. Because they’re your backup team, if you and your family is under pressure and are stressed out, you’ll see your whole venture will collapse! 

Housing is your top priority:

Start out with compact house plans. But have enough mode-cons to make the living conditions bearable, because things may take longer than you think to set up your farm.  

You can always add on more rooms at a later date when the farm is up and running nicely. 

I have a few economical house plans:

But to start with, here is one that has a lot for the compact (about 70 square metres) ground floor square meterage. 

Ground floor design lay out.

• You see the space for the stove, next to the back door. You can build a chimney there, if you don’t have electricity yet. 
• Note all the things that need water are built fairly close together. That’s to save on pipe and plumbing costs. 
• When you look at this plan, I’m sure you’ve noticed there aren’t enough kitchen cupboards. See the window above the sink area? It’s in fact a long horizontal narrow window. Placed in between the sink surface level and the upper unit, it allows light to come in where your hands are working and also flood the kitchen area with lots of light.
• The kitchen sink allows space underneath it for washing machine, dishwasher or dryer, if you can afford them. 
• Never build small bedrooms. If all the rooms are small, people feel hemmed in. And that tension soon gets to them. You want your family to feel free and relaxed. 
• The bottom of the stairs starts near the front door. At this stage there isn’t a pantry, but you can place the fridge under the stairs. 
• As the ground floor layout plan is, without stairs and upper attic bedrooms, this would suit a couple without children. But if you have children it will cost you less to create the attic bedrooms for them above. 

What the attic rooms would look like:

• Note there is storage space under the lower eaves. You can never have enough storage space. It could be for tools and children’s toys, or for extra furniture you’re not using right now, etc, etc. 
• Also notice there is a possibility of an en-suit bathroom and walk-in wardrobe you can set up at a later date. In that case, it’s advisable when first building, to place a concrete slab over where the upper bathroom is going to be. 

Side elevation view of the attic & roof slope:

• Here you can see the slope of the lean-to roof. As you know heat rises, so put in air vents to release hot heat that builds up in summer. You can always close them in winter.
• The air space and head room in a room is important. The left side wall is slightly higher than normal to ceiling height, to accommodate for the diminishing slope angle. And the lower side of the roof’s slope in the bedroom area is high enough for people to walk there comfortably. 
• And the storage space is still not too small to organized things in there. 

Conclusion:

You would have noticed that the plan has no fancy extras as you would see on TV. There is no fancy décor here. Just the basics! 

The plans I’m providing are for starting out from scratch, and building up your resources, as you go along, one step at a time. 

• Some plans have three rooms and some two or one, depending on the size of the family or your available capital funds. 
• Even though some plans seem too basic, with not enough bedrooms, when you eventually build your dream home, you can rent out the smaller houses or put staff in them.  
• It all depends on what your plans are for your farm. Whether to use it as a tourist destination as a game farm or just B&B accommodation, those smaller housing will never be wasted. 
• Even your extended family can live in them when they come to visit you. Such as young married couples or grandparents. 
• You may have electricity and water piped to your plot or not. The house plans I’m providing, can be altered according to your needs and circumstances, and your provincial building department requirements.