I work as a consultant to owner builders and encourage creative, small, green homes. I have access to a variety of great designs. If you want, you can contact me direct and we can see if anything I have will meet your needs.
Ron
owner.builder@yahoo.com

I guess it depends what you are used to. Our house is under 1600 sq ft, with no basement or attic, and the three of us have plenty of room. In fact, there are a couple rooms we don't use at all. Our next house will be about 1200 sq ft, with only one bedroom on the main floor. But we will have a full basement, even if we don't finish it. It is hard to find nice small plans- I've found very few I like, and I'm working on my own design.

Our son designed his own home to his specific desires. The mainfloor is living, dining, kitchen with a small den/guest room with no closet. The master bedroom (small) and bath are also on the main floor. There is a half bath between the kitchen and laundry/pantry/mudroom which is off the garage. The second story is two bedrooms and an open family room plus full bath. No basement, but full front and back covered porches the length of the house. I'm not sure of the sq. footage, but it is not very large. He worked with his design until he came up with what worked for them. You might try working up your own plans and then go from there.

That describes my home. Let me go see if there's a floorplan online. Mine is a timber-frame cape cod...so that might not be the 'style' you want, but the floor plan might be a place for you to start.

Here you go. You can stick the garage anywhere. We also switched out the windows to casements, the front door to the left (as a French door), and threw a quick wrap-around-porch on it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Classic Post and Beam

Thanks so much. I'll check this plan out tonight.

patches,
I saw where you requested, on my other thread, a drawing of our house. We're retired, and basically wanted an 'efficiency' floorplan with a few 'big house' features. My wife and I designed our cottage just for us and our lifestyle, which includes some traveling in our big motorhome (it's parked in our own backyard with full hookups, ready to go). Plus, I had to have the big garage in order to house the bassboat and small shop area (I like to fabricate and tinker). It's all on one ground floor (slab), no more steps to climb, plus wheelchair-friendly just in case. I was owner/builder on it, and actually ended up doing quite a bit of the work myself. I built two storage areas in the attic, and a little 10 x 12 barn out back (for my little tractor). I'll post an exterior shot after I installed the railings/ballustrades for the front porch.

Thanks Willie for posting your plan.
Wow, that is so very close to what I am looking for. Big garage, big MBR and then an open living plan. Even though we are young, I do want to include many universal design principles. I'd love to know about your owner/builder experience.

Can't wait to see the exterior. I loved the interior pics you posted by the way.

Jasonmi - did you use the building services that the company offered that you linked to? They had some interesting plans that might work.

I'm sorry...do you mean the design services? In that case; yes. I had them switch out windows/door locations, types, etc, then had the whole package shipped here to Michigan. I'm the builder.

So, they modified the plan a bit and then you bought all the materials from them and are building it yourself?

Reason I ask, is they are the first company I have seen that will not only sell the plan, but also all the building materials, other than a local modular home company, which I am considering.

I was curious to see how its working for you? Would love to see the progress and any tips or advice you have.

When we build we plan to be the GC and sub out things that we choose not to do ourselves. For example, we have no desire to personally hang drywall.

I've been here for about 15 years now, and it seems to be working out fine. I might actually go smaller next time, and I'll certainly go more modern in design next time...but other than that; it's good.

The one thing I did find was that the materials package was significantly nicer than anything we get around here; for instance....framing lumber and plywood all come out of either the NE United States or Canada; so straight, knot free 2x4s which would be called 'clear' here, 7 ply plywood, etc. We don't get ANYTHING like that locally. All the materials were top notch; probably higher than I would have bought, had I put the package together myself here.

Shipping was fine, but even back then, it was 2K for shipping; it'd be significantly more now. Nothing was damaged at all. SIP panels, timbers; everything was pristine when I got it and before I ruined it....er...I mean built it. No problem finding subs or getting them to work on it.