Hi, and welcome to the small home hangout.
Just out of curiosity before anything else, may I ask if you are a HORSE ACCOUNTANT? :-)

I'm not familiar with the sources of house plans, but there are those among us who have looked personally for something to inspire them. Some are more talented than others at imagining modifications to accommodate personal needs. So I just want to let you know that they will share what they know when they check the forum. As spring gets closer, I'm noticing that better weather is drawing posters outdoors.

What you are describing is almost an estate. Have you checked the other forum about Home Building? Those posters may have good recommendations sourcing plans for what you request.

I know nothing about straw bale built homes so would not know how to add a mud room onto one. Totally understand the need with dogs and all. We had an outside door added to our over sized master bath to make it function as the dogs first landing into the house. Times like now I leave them in that room to dry off and have cheep rug in their for them. When it is really muddy I put down those big cotton woven saddle blankets to sop up the mess. They are easy to wash.

This is also handy for me to come in from the yard and pop into the shower. So as weird as it seems having our master bath as a mud room really works for us.

The shower is hidden in picture by the open door. I think the room is about 8 1/2 by 12 1/2. The door at the end of the counter goes to the outside.

Here is a link that might be useful: Master bath mudroom

I would never had thought to make an entrance to a bathroom-but it works and is a good idea.

Here is a link to a houseplan I like- it's a timber frame based plan but I'm sure that it could be adapted to straw bale as lots of them use post/beam construction. What this house is lacking for me is a covered porch. Click on the photos of this house built -it's very plane jane on the outside but the interior is stunning -so much in a small space.

How hard is it to add covered porches to plans? I understand that this particular one it might be tough to change the roof line as it's based on timberframe but I doubt I'd go with that elaborate of a frame...

Here is a link that might be useful: The Newcomb Cottage

The door into the bath is wonderful for us. Dogs yard is just out the door. We can open this dog yard to side yard with one gate. Side yard needs to be blocked off in winter because of the snow sliding off the roof would be dangerous for the dogs. Eventually I hope to fence more of our yard off for the dogs. One step at a time.Needed to get lawn going.

Here is our floor plan and we added a 5 foot stretch to it. Manufactured home. It does have the front porch. Unfortunately it is too hot in the summer and I am working on shade. I think with out the stretch the SQ FT would have been about 1250.

I had the tub and second vanity left out of the master bath to create the mud room space. The porch was built on in initial construction to keep the roof all one. Was an added 5K. It could have been added later. We chose to do it right away all one piece.The porch can be closed in if we ever choose to do that. It is on the house foundation.

That hip roof would be a little harder to add a front porch.Not sure how much snow you would be getting in the area of Colorado you will be living in. We wanted main entrance to our house on a gable end. Otherwise the snow slide would just be a total pain to deal with. We still have a three foot deep pile of snow at the side yard door. Which really was supposed to be the front door.

As far as plans go. There are many many plans on manufactured home sites. Find one you like then have your builder transfer it to straw bale style. I imagine some things can not be done straw bale that can be done with stick built.

Chris

Here is a link that might be useful: Floor plan

I like that plan as far as the mud room entrance. Not crazy about having the loft overlook the master bedroom or the closet in the 2nd bedroom though.

Have you read The Strawbale House?

We have lots of windows in living room and kitchen. Furniture has to float in the room away from the walls. You can cick through that whole album and it is a transition from when we moved in here to now. I change things around a lot. LOL We moved in June 26 2008.

I have knowledge of only one hay bale structure, a friend who lives in Iowa. Theirs is not a house, but a sort of work room and it is about 30 x 20 or thereabouts. It has a high open ceiling to a roofline with lots of light coming in. They have textile equipment installed in the space, and a very thick slab floor.

I'll have to ask them how it is standing up to the wet weather they've had for the last two years. In my mind, a hay building would tend to deteriorate in our very humid and hot climate of south Alabama. I do not know how one could keep the hay intact.

I'm sure you have searched through Mother Earth and Mother Jones data bases, where alternative homes are frequently featured. Using hay bales is a most interesting challenge, and I admire you championing this material. I think it will be a challenge though. Are you going to be so far out in the woods that no building codes will tell you what and how to build your house? It seems that the law or the insurance companies, if you want to have it insured, always try to control everything unique and often misunderstood.

Lovely house. Don't know anything about timber homes though.

Two words about idealism and building a dream home in the CO Rockies: FOREST FIRES! Raging, wind-whipped, road-jumping, VALLEY-LEAPING, incredibly fast moving, often inescapable, >>>200-feet-highIn other words, what county are you planning to buy in, and have you checked that straw bale construction is even PERMIT-ted there? Just because you can't see any neighbors from your lot does NOT mean it's laissez faire and there's no laws and restrictions in place.

PS: I used to live in CO, and sail the high lakes of the Rockies... a common wind report was "zero, gusting-sixty", and that's just a regular summer day, no frontal passage or freak storms. The pioneering work of Prof. Giovanni Battista Venturi comes into dramatic play every day along The Continental Divide. ;')

Lots of places in Colorado, and other states, have their codes on line for us to look through. Good call fixizen. I believe straw bale houses are covered in some kind of plaster. Not sure it would protect the structure from fire. I do know one person that had a straw bale house in Colorado.

Here is a link that might be useful: Online codes