Floorplans

The footprint is 20 by 32 feet. The two floors add up to about 1200 square feet, depending on how you figure square footage (there are low ceilings upstairs, making the place technically only a story and a half, but then there's the dormer, so who knows?).

First floor. Click on the image for a bigger version.

• The walls are 8 feet tall.
• Summer breezes come from the west, so there are more windows on that side.
• I have only base cabinets in the kitchen, except for the tall pantry.
• The water comes up from the slab under the stairs.
• The plumbing in the kitchen runs on the surface of the wall, behind the cabinets. Pipes run upstairs in the wall behind the woodstove. (It's a challenge to run plumbing inside SIPs and a bad idea to put plumbing in an outside wall in Indiana.)
• If I did this again, I'd put the water heater under the stairway landing. I had intended that spot for a heat recovery ventilator but I ended up not getting one.
• There's no ductwork except for a short, insulated run under the stairs that provides outside air to the woodstove.
• The wall behind the woodstove is covered with slate for more mass. It's also filled with insulation to protect the pipes and fridge from the stove's heat.
• There are three cedar trunks acting as posts in the living room. The one nearest the kitchen supports the 2nd floor post, which supports the ridge beam. The post at the bottom of the stairs supports the bathroom. I put in the third trunk just to balance the second one and create the sense of a foyer.
• I hang coats and such on the wall and on bits of branches sticking out from the cedar post. I stash my bike bag and other bulky things in the trunk/seat by the door.
• Living room furniture is sparse and easily moved to accommodate musicians, dancing, and dog romping.
• In the winter, I start garden plants under lights below the north end of the dining table, as well as in the sunny living room.
• If I wanted to expand, I could add a room or screened porch to the west of the dining area.

Second floor. Click on the image for a bigger version.

• The ceiling is vaulted (no trusses required thanks to SIPs).
• The east and west walls are 4' tall, with a long 8' shed dormer on the west. This means that most of the west side has a "normal" height wall with windows, plus low, sloping ceilings on either end. The entire east side has a low wall and no windows.
• The bathroom ceiling is 7 feet, while the office ceiling is vaulted. That leaves room for storage above the bathroom.
• There's no heat source on the second floor. It's heated by the first-floor woodstove or radiator. I considered putting a curtain across the stairs to control the rise of heat but it hasn't been necessary.
• Some heat rises to the peak but not a lot. I won't install the ceiling fans I had planned to get.
• The air conditioner is a small, efficient window unit installed through the wall.
• I installed a shower instead of a tub because I prefer showers and have a deep soaking tub outside.
• The mystery space north of the shower could become shelves accessible from the stairs. It's currently shop vac storage.
• The "project area" is room to keep an ongoing, messy project, the kind of thing you don't want to put away every day.
• I'm not sure which way the bedroom door will open, so I didn't draw it. It will be a dutch door--I'll keep the bottom half closed to keep pets out of the bedroom and the upper half open for light and ventilation.
• I've put wire shelving in the closet for the kind of things normal people put in dresser drawers. That means less furniture and no groping around in drawers.
• There's a round window above the door to the balcony to let light deeper into the second floor. I might put a window above the bedroom door for the same reason.
• The office could be walled in to make a second bedroom and short hall to the bath.

Main ideas behind the house