Reading the results

With a number of plans to draw inspiration from, we needed to set some criteria for how we would categorically short-list the results. Our first condition was how the exterior structure looked. We wanted our cottage to blend somewhat with the surroundings – we wanted it to match buildings in the area, meaning that the architectural style would need to echo the aesthetics of the early to late Victorian era, the Colonial era, or perhaps the ‘cape cod’ style. While some of these options may not seem very ‘cottage-like’, the reality was that as we were looking to now build a home and not a ‘cottage’, we might as well go for a style that we liked and echoed our neighbor’s designs.

Our second criterion was floor plan. Ideally we wanted to have the bedrooms on the second story of the house, and we wanted a kitchen that allowed for some form of entertaining. We get together with friends often, and the ability to casually entertain without disturbing sleeping children is a big priority. As well, we cook a lot, and the kitchen is a focal point of our current home, and we wanted to preserve this focus in the new building.

Finally, we wanted to ensure that the design allowed for efficient building practice, and was cost effective. An example of this is found in a plan that has a first and second floor with similar square footage. A second floor that has same footprint as the first means that the foundation has the smallest possible perimeter and the roof’s overall area is reduced. Likewise, plans that include many knock-outs or extravagant window arrangements add to overall cost, so those designs that gained little in function at the expense of form were deemed unfavorable.

In the end, we decided that plan #79-122 was the most appropriate for our needs. It’s not perfect, however it does offer some exciting possibilities, and we felt that it would be a good staring point.

(Out of respect to the copyright statutes placed on the images at coolhouseplans.com, I haven’t included the image here, but I will do so once I have redrawn it.)