Cottage Garage Apartment

Many people are now finding it very advantageous to have more than one family living together, whether it is because of the declining economy or the declining health of parents who now need to be closer for assistance or even a young family member who is starting out that needs some help.

For this reason, many are looking at parcels of land that doesn’t have restrictions as to how many residences can be placed on that piece of land. Rural areas of course offer you those options much more so than city dwelling does.

Here is a great little house plan that will work for any age group that needs a starter or retirement home from The House Plan Shop.

This little dwelling is 582 sq ft and has one bedroom and one bath plus a two car garage, which is 426 sq ft and has laundry facilities tucked in it. You can call it a garage apartment or a carriage house, but it is designed to give freedom and independence to senior members of your family, a young single adult or a married couple the privacy that they deserve and want.

There is a welcoming front porch to enjoy cool summer breezes and company of family and neighbors. The bay windowed dining area not only brings in sunlight and views from the outdoors but creates architectural interest and a feeling of spaciousness. There is a serving bar between the kitchen and dining area, providing additional room for seating or buffet serving for a get-together.  The open flow floor plan, linking the living room, dining room and kitchen together also creates a feeling of spaciousness and is extremely functional, especially if someone has some disabilities.

The bathroom is tucked in the short hallway, adjacent to the kitchen and next to the spacious bedroom.  With the floor plan of this house, it would be very easy to create two nice sized bedrooms out of the garage area for someone who might have a family.

With the layout of this home and it’s size, it would be very reasonable to heat and cool. You could actually even use a small portable solar panel system to supply all the electricity that you would need and not be dependent upon the utility company. If there is a well on the property, that could also be used to bring water to the home and basically take the structure totally off the grid system. I would certainly install ceiling fans in both the bedroom and the living room to assist the air conditioner and the cost of cooling. For winter heating, I would be sure to have a small pot-bellied stove fireplace put into the living room area so in case of power failure, there would be a way to heat the house and to cook.

I could see myself living in this little house very comfortably either exactly as it is or with slight modifications. I might be inclined to convert half of the garage into additional living space, so that I could have a little more room for a home office and my large collection of books and still have a one car garage for my vehicle.