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Farmhouse Huntin

A

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member
I need to replace the old farmhouse.
Can't find decent house plans for a real farm.
Whatever happened to the back porch (back door/entry way) with room for mud boots, coats, cover-alls, calving supplies, guns and a hound dog. How about a laundry within 30 ft of the bedrooms. Whats up with more bathrooms than people living in the house. Do people enjoy cleaning toilets? Worst of all, on most plans, if you turn the house so the front door faces the east or south as they should, all the bedrooms end up on the south side and giant windows and living rooms face the North winter winds. Or if you turn the house so all the big windows face the southern sun, then the front door faces the north. I just don't get it.
 
Ah, but having that bedroom on the south side when that cold north wind is blowing sure is nice. Think, you will spend more time in that bedroom than in any other part of the house.
 
I hear you, just looking at the newer houses out there.

Bedroom on the north, you got a blanket on anyhow might as well be the cooler room of the house. :) If the living room is the coolest, then always fiddling with the thermostat. If the bedroom is, you just pull up the blankets tighter & go to sleep.

--->Paul
 
As mentioned, find a local designer and have them draw up the design you want. You can build a house in any configuration you desire.
 
Some like a bathroom right next to the side of their bed for some reason. I never liked having sombody drop stuff right near where I was sleeping.

A house should have as many sides as there are people in the family so when Winter hits they each have a side window of their own to look out of.

Don't attach the garage to the house. Garages stink and occasionaly burn down so keep some distance.

Bring back the outhouse and locate it halfway between the house and the barn for easy access from both.
 
Utility rooms have become laundry rooms with only enough space for washer/dryer. Where are ya supposed to put the chest freezers, incubator, shelves for canners and canned goods, dog food, old worn out bath towels for drying off calves/foals/pups, all the stuff we need out here?
 
And more fundamentally, make sure it has eaves and gables that stick out more than 6 inches. Modern houses are crap, and mostly designed & built by people who never intend to live in one.

Since you seem to know what you want, draw it up as well as you can - then you can make the choice (unless you live in a very strange location for a farmhouse) of just hiring a structural engineer to make sure it stands up, or involving an architect (most of whom will try to change everything you want so it's like all the houses you don't want). If you involve an architect, you may still want to have an engineer check it over unless the architect does - some of them are a bit weak on real life.

Two suggestions, take or leave as you will: Look into structural insulated panel (SIP) construction. If you have plenty of money and like post and beam, you can hang them on a post and beam frame, but you can also build the house out of them with no post and beam.

Think long and hard about sticking to one story. Stairs take a lot of space, and may become a hindrance as you age - height also slows down construction as staging becomes required, makes the roof more dangerous to work on, and makes leaving in the event of a fire more difficult.
 
I may have a house plan for you. Years ago, James and I were thinking about building and I started looking for plans. Found a plan that was close to what I wanted, then "manipulated it" some.

It has a nice long porch, large, functional utility room with door to the porch, spacious kitchen (room for folks to sit and sip coffee or a cold one) also with a door to the porch, den with fireplace and door to the porch, good farm design.

I'll look for it when I get home tonight. If I can find it, I'll scan it in and post it.
 
Do what I did have them come and measure the old farmhouse draw plans change what you want then build it. They tried to get me to build a box but that was not what I wanted. If I showed you a picture of the original house and then the new house you would swear they are the same building except that I have pictures of the burning of the old house to prove it. Well that and from the inside it is obvious that it is new construction.
 
It sound like you need to move to the southern hemisphere to set the house the right way, just kidding. Most house plans are from developers to sell in allotments not rural areas. As far as large windows and location of living rooms modern house are constructed much tighter and better insulation along with thermalpane windows so most of the tried and true construction method are no longer a consideration to the designers.
 
We built our house ten years ago. You enter the house from the garage through the laundry room. We put a side door in the master bathroom so I can come in through the garage greasy and grimy, ditch my clothes into the washer, and take a left into either the shower or jacuzzi. It's worked well.

The bad news. The thermostat wound up in the family room across from the fireplace. When we use the fireplace, the thermostat warms and doesn't turn the furnace on for the rest of the house.

My .02.
 
Have you wondered through some "pre-manufactured" houses? They are built off-site and can be modified, reversed, added to, etc and assembled on your property in two or three semi loads. You will NOT be able to tell the difference between one off them and a site built home. I have seen some as large as 3700 SF and they are about 67 to 75% cheaper. The designs are modifiable and they are built much quicker.
I went through a couple of really nice "farmhouse" houses that meet all your needs.
(I am NOT in the business, just offering opinion)
 
You could have a small bath with shower in mudroom/utility room, so you can clean up without tracking through house. Makes mama much happier, cause when mama ain't happy, aint't nobody happy.
 
A friend of mine built a new house and had a laundry room between the garage and the kitchen. He had an old cast iron sink in there that was about big enough to climb into and take a bath. Said it made mama real happy that he could clean up out there before he came all the way in the house. Wish I had room for one.
 
Sometimes momma makes me undress in the back yard. . .

Thank God we're out in the sticks.

Paul
 
We bought one in 2004. Pretty good home for the money. The biggest issue we have is that the seller didn't have a clue what he was selling and a few of the basics are missing like house wrap (seller assured us it was included since it was code - it wasn't).

The seller's set up crew cut every corner they could. I fixed several things they didn't do and modified some of their work to make it right. The house itself is pretty good - 2X6 walls and roof trusses, everything is well insulated and a 90% efficent furnace.
 
Any north window will cost energy I don't give a rats kazoo who builds it, Just as , any south window will absorb sun energy ,, My farm house has west front door and a east back room door , plenty windows and skylitesfacing south with overhangs that allow the lowe glass o work as the engineers intended,. my north windows areinsulated tothe teeth and i waspleased withall the visibility ,til my wife insisted we need c,CURTAINS , .old indian adage..white MAN BUILD HOUSE WITH GLASS TO SEE OUT THAN PUT CLOTH OVER GLASS SO NOT TO SEE OUT.does that make sense ?
 
(quoted from post at 11:28:22 02/23/10) You could have a small bath with shower in mudroom/utility room, so you can clean up without tracking through house. Makes mama much happier, cause when mama ain't happy, aint't nobody happy.
Click to expand...

I was going to do that, but ended up just putting it in the shop, so it's not really needed at the house. Having grown up with a house that had a long path from outside to the john, the john is right next to the man door for the shop. Floor drain for easy floor cleanup - expect mud to get tracked in there. Shower is a separate room that backs up to that to keep the plumbing short and sweet. Utility sink for the shop backs up to the other wall. Does assume heat & plumbing in the shop, but simplified the house a bit.
 
There are heritage farmhouse plans for sale in many places. Old and new. Just cost more. They are not something that are mainstream because of "residential building code" requirements that don't allow most old designs. New York residential code, e.g., requires a certain amount of natural light intrusion for each room, two exits from each room, etc. It never ends when it comes to new regs. I don't know how many areas in the USA allow building a new house without meeting the newest code requirements (with wh state is using).

I have two old farmhouses. If I wanted another, the last thing I'd to is build from scatch. At the least, I'd find an old one, tear it down and replace it - and then not be required to meet latest (and rediculous) code specs.
 
No need to go with a pre-designed package. I designed the house we built 13 years ago. Garage is to the outbuildings side, can go from garage to office and utility room- no messing up the rest of the house. Also access to main hall from garage, only two steps up. Main wide hall runs the length of the house, plenty wide when I was in a wheelchair and on crutches. Any retirement house we build will be minimum 3 foot wide doors throughout, all on one level.
 
I'am curious as to why you don't agree on the front of house facing North or west.On a quick thinking,maybe 50-60% face North and maybe 85-90% face either N or West.I don't care but it is a interesting thing.
 
Have a guy going to use two Menard two car garages hooked end to end with heat in the floor. Using the kits now talk about mother cheap? Modern shot gun house in the mid west.
 
That may be so nowdays and mostly in town because somebody has to live on the south side of the street. But I can tell you up here in the northern plains, 99 percent of farm homes built in the days before good insulation, would never, ever put a front door facing the prevailing northwest winds. A back door to the west maybe if its inside an enclosed porch, but I can't think of a single farmhouse in my township or county built before 1960 that has a north facing front door.

Another thing kind of related is how most mature farmsteads on the plains will have a tree grove on the north and west side of the farm but nothing on the south and east to allow full sunlight and some cool summer breezes but protects from old man winter who will usually come from the north/northwest.
 
The winter weather is the same reason all livestalk barns are for if possible the open doors for them are always on the south or east sides and if you can you always put any door on a machine shed or even your garage door on south or east.
 
Cattle sheds mostly are south facing,but machine and garages are mixed N&W.Leaving towns out of it,what I said is true on houses around us.As far as the age(when built)doesn't seem to matter.Every house I have lived in(all early 1800s)faced North.Why I don't know,but like the numbers I gave,that seems to be the way they were all built.I was just curious and didn't mean any disrepect to anyone.Yes I'am in the snowbelt.
 
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