Shotguns and Dogtrots

9 years ago

I've always been a fan of these two regional building styles. The shotgun house with one room placed right before another was fairly ubiquitous in New Orleans back in the day, and although no one I know would build in that manner nowadays, there are many people who still live in a shotgun house with a porch on the front.
We've lived in Texas for many years now, and have had the pleasure of visiting dogtrot homes in historical parks. Even stayed at a B&B that featured a modified dogtrot as one of its guesthouses. The owner screened in the center trot and accomodated guests on either side.
Did anyone get any inspiration from a regional style when building their new homes? There have to be innumerable examples to draw inspiration from-

Featured Answer

tabbycat

9 years ago

Here is a recent pic of the house with the grading freshly done. Sorry that it took me so long!

Jane was very easy to work with :-) and I found their charges to be very reasonable. We were able to handle everything by email and I truly LOVE the floor plan.

We added a laundry room to the Master side of the house and turned the space that was a third bedroom into a terrific office (mine, all mine) and a storage/utility room. We lined both the laundry room and office with casement windows and both are really great spaces.

My ONLY regret is not expanding the screened porch outward another 8 feet - it would not have botched up the proportions one bit to have done that.

Comments (11)

bus_driver
9 years ago
My family once owned a shotgun house but we never lived there.
The shotgun would offer the most actual usable space within a given footprint. But it would not be popular if one needed to sell. The dogtrot and variations are from the time when cooking was on a woodstove. The isolation of the cooking area in the Summer made conditions more tolerable in the rest of the house. In Winter, the rest of the house was often unheated as wood cutting was all done with muscle power. People piled on the quilts. Often the well would be in the dogtrot for convenience to the kitchen.
tabbycat
9 years ago
We are just finishing our build that is a dogtrot style. Our plan is the Ezzie Pearl from Hot Humid Solutions but with some custom modifications. The trot is enclosed but is designed to be opened up - 2 sets of double doors open to a screened porch at the back and full-height windows can be opened to an inset front porch. It is amazingly cool inside while temps are hovering at 100F - A/C is not having to work very hard.

Here is a link that might be useful: Hot Humid Solutions
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musicgal
Original Author
9 years ago
tabbycat- that is so cool... in a variety of ways:-)
moselem
9 years ago
tabbycat - Do you have any pictures of your build? Would love more details on it! Also, how was hot humid solutions to work with?
lmwright
9 years ago
tabbycat, that is very cool! I have looked at this plan several times and communicated with the architect as well. I would love to see photos of your build if you have any you'd be willing to share!
energy_rater_la
9 years ago
very nice tabbycat!

and thanks for the link to the plans, I'd not
seen this plan before.

where did you build?
hot humid climate folks aren't the larger
percent of posters here, although we do
have a few.

best of luck.
ILoveRed
9 years ago
Tabby cat...I love it too. Very nice.
moselem
9 years ago
Tabby cat, I love your house! Any chance you can post more pictures of the inside and out and the finished floorplan?
lmwright
9 years ago
Thank you for posting, tabbycat! It is beautiful. I would also love to see some interior pics!

This post was edited by snuggie on Wed, Aug 6, 14 at 22:04
Angela Albanese
3 years ago
Everyone is interested in Tabbycat’s house. Some of that interest seems to come from the design aspects that aid in comfortable living conditions while using less energy. Y’all should check out Auburn University’s Rural Architectural Studio. They have several different types (both style and proposed usage) of buildings that focus, not only on low energy costs, bur low construction costs, too.