The Country Cottage

The Country Cottage has all the amenities of a larger house designed in a compact space.  We have four versions of the Country Cottage.

1933 SF Standard Crawlspace Foundation

This Country Cottage layout, designed for efficiency and livability, also has special features such as a wrap-around porch and a walk-out roof deck. A light-filled window bay extends the floorspace of the front bedroom.  Included are 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and a screened porch.  The result is a practical, attractive cottage suitable either for a vacation getaway or a primary residence.

 

1927 SF Crawlspace Foundation with Attached Garage

This Country Cottage layout is also designed for efficiency and livability, with special features such as a wrap-around porch and upstairs master suite.  A light-filled window bay extends the floorspace of the front bedroom and an attached (2) car garage provides added convenience. The result is a practical, attractive cottage.

2039 SF Country Cottage with Basement Foundation

This Country Cottage basement plan works well with a sloping lot.  A large basement, downstairs laundry and extra room adds to its liveability. The features include a cathedral ceiling in the living room and a light-filled window bay in the front bedroom. The result is a practical, attractive cottage suitable either for a vacation getaway or a primary residence.

3565 SF with ICF Walls, 5 Bedrooms and Elevator

This Country Cottage layout provides lots of space for a big family including a recreation room and workshop on the ground level. The home is elevated above the ground level giving optimal views to water or other natural features. The drawings provide for an ICF (concrete/foam block) wall system.

Island Cottage Interior

We often get asked what the Island Cottage looks like on the inside.

To answer that, here are some interior pictures from a recent client.  Please note that the client has added some elements that are not in the standard construction document set.

The front door opens to the living room.  It is a wonderful gathering space with plenty of room for furniture.  The fireplace provides a focal-point for the room.

This is a view of the living room as seen from the dining room.  The abundance of windows provide a light and airy space.  The transom windows help to accentuate the 9 foot ceilings.

This picture was taken looking from the living room to the dining room.  As you can see, the wall of windows provides a panoramic view of your surroundings.  This is a wonderful feature if your lot is on a lake, ocean or any other beautiful location.

The dining room has plenty of space for a large table for entertaining.  Yet, it is also a perfect place for your family to share a meal while enjoying your surroundings. 

The dining room is right off the kitchen, making for easy serving access.

This is the kitchen as seen from the living room.  The kitchen is open to the living room and dining room, extending the views and creating an open floor plan.

This is the entry into the kitchen as seen from the front door.  Personal touches such as the selection of accent lights create a truly individualized space.

This picture shows the kitchen base cabinets and tall dish cabinet beyond.  There is plenty of storage and countertop space for all your essentials and non-essentials.  This client chose butcher block countertops with beadboard cabinetry, but the cabinets and counters are fully customizable to your tastes.

From this view you can see the gas range and sink.  The window provides more natural light and a view into the screened porch beyond.

The second floor is accessed via stairs near the front door.  The stairs open to the living room on the right allowing natural light to flow freely between levels.  The spiral staircase to the Observation Room is seen while ascending the stairs.

This picture is of the master bedroom before the final paint coat was applied.  As you can see, the ceiling height varies because the roof slope that gives the Island Cottage its distinctive exterior appearance is expressed in the second level ceiling.  Yet, there is ample ceiling height so that one would not hit their head.

This client combined the two bedrooms upstairs to create a master suite with a sleeping area and a sitting area.  This picture is taken from the sitting area (Bedroom 2 on the standard plans) looking into the sleeping area (Master Bedroom on the standard plans).  The glass door and windows not only allow light to come in, but also provide access to a private roof deck perfect for taking in the surroundings or watching the sunset.

This is a picture of the finished sitting area.  An adjustment to the standard floor plan has provided this client with the feature of an additional fireplace.  Again, the view is amazing from the windows.

This is a close-up of the client-added fireplace.

The Island Cottage is available with a crawlspace foundation, piling foundation and basement foundation to suite your site conditions.  It is also available in two sizes of heated area: 2,058 sf and 2,470 sf. 

Please see our Southern Cottages website for more information on the Island Cottage.

Modern Day Widow's Walk

A few months ago we posted an article about the origin of the popular architectural feature called a widow's walk.   Now we would like to highlight some of our home plans that feature a modern day widow's walk.

Some of our Widows Walk House Plan Designs incorporate a roof-top windowed cupola or "widows walk", which we refer to as an observation loft, accessed via spiral stair from the second story hallway. This observation loft is a great place to glimpse a distant view, to survey the landscape or to find a special place to read a book or to work on a project in your personal studio.

The Island Cottage

The Grand Island Cottage

The Mountain Cottage

The Grand Gazebo Cottage

Our other Widows Walk House Plan Designs feature a roof-top observation deck to provide a panoramic view and provide your own private sunbathing deck or gathering spot high above the crowd overlooking your neighbors roofline for a glimpse of the ocean or distant view.

The Lookout Cottage

The Porches Cottage

Top 5 Beach House Names of Topsail Island

The summer has ended and fall is in full swing.  We would like to commemorate the 2010 summer season with a Top 5 list.  There are a number of great beach house names to choose from, but we managed to narrow it down.

Top 5 Beach House Names of Topsail Island

5. Gritty Britches




An amusing name for a common situation after spending some time on the beach.

4. Sandcastle

A name reminiscent of a favorite beach activity.

3.  No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem

A perfect description of the laid-back attitude of the beach.

2.  Summer Daze




A great illustration of your state of mind as you sit and watch the ocean waves come in and roll out.

1.  Attitude Adjustment



      



This name best describes what will happen to you as you spend time on the beach.

Honorable Mentions: 

All About the View


It's what everyone wants when they come to the beach.


Escape Hatch
 

Just like in the TV show "Lost", we all need an Escape Hatch once in a while.  What better place to escape to than the beach?

License to Chill

One more reason to sit back and chill out during your beach vacation.


If you like a beach house name that we did not mention, we would love to know it!  Please leave it for us in the Comments!

**All of these beach houses are available to rent and can be found on http://www.rentabeach.com/.**

"We truly love the Island Cottage"

We recently received an email from a couple in Texas who were interested in purchasing a second set of plans from our Southern Cottages House Plans website.

We truly loved the Island Cottage we built last time, and received so many compliments. The compliments we got that meant the most to us were the ones by all the contractors that bid on the home and worked on it. They stated how well designed it was, and sturdy. THEN... Hurricane Ike beat up all the homes near the Island Cottage, and yet she stood totally unharmed! Proving this house was well designed! So when it came time to build again, I could not even consider anyone else's plans. We are very excited!

Thank you,
Michelle


Here are some pictures of the Island Cottage Michelle built.

Thank you, Michelle, for your kind words and trust in our company.  We are happy to have customers like you!

Have you built one of our Cottages and love it?  Let us know by emailing us at mike@mcleodarchitectpa.com.

What is VOC-Free Paint?

VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compounds.  They are organic chemical gases that are emitted into our environment from a number of sources, such as carpet and cleaning products, as well as paint.  VOC's are released into the air as paint dries, creating the distinctive smell of a newly painted room. 

VOC's also contribute to your indoor air quality.  A study by the Environmental Protection Agency "found levels of about a dozen common organic pollutants to be 2 to 5 times higher inside homes than outside, regardless of whether the homes were located in rural or highly industrial areas."

They can have an effect on your health, too.  They contribute to headaches, dizziness, respitory problems,  immune system problems and more.

If you are worried about the health effects of VOC's or perhaps just do not want your house to have that lingering new paint smell, here are a few of the options available that are worth looking at:

• Sherwin-Williams has two lines of paint in their GreenSure program:  Duration Home Interior paint (low odor and low VOC formula) and Harmony Interior paint (low odor and no VOC formula).
• Benjamin Moore has a paint called Natura Interior paint, which is virtually odorless and has no VOC.  It has been named as one of the Top 10 Green Building Products by BuildingGreen, Inc.
• Home Depot carries Freshaire Choice paint, which has low odor and no VOC in the paint nor colorant.
• Lowe's carries Olympic Premium Interior paint, which has a zero VOC formula.

Stacey in our office used the Freshaire Choice paint when painting her baby's room.  She said there is a huge difference between using it and regular paint; the whole house did not smell like a room just got painted.  There is an odor while painting, but once she left the room she could not smell the paint at all.  A gallon of the low- or no-VOC paint does cost more than the other paints on the market, but it might be worth it to have breathable air after painting a room.

Have you ever heard of a Lego Architect?

Lego's are the construction toy that a lot of us grew up with.  We built houses, gas stations, airports and towers of as many Lego's we could stack on top of each other.  They came in many shapes and sizes to help you build whatever you wanted.

One architect, Adam Reed Tucker, has taken those pieces and used them to make replica's of famous buildings around the world.  Stacey from our office went to Washington, D.C. to visit the exhibit at the National Building Museum.

This is 11 of the 15 Lego models.  (l to r) Jin Mao Tower, St. Louis Arch, John Hancock Building, Empire State Building, TransAmerica Tower, Willis (Sears) Tower, Trump Tower, one of the World Trade Center towers, Marina City, 7 South Dearborn, and Chicago Spire.

The tallest Lego building at the exhibit is also the reigning tallest building in the world, Burj Kahlifa, in Dubai.  This Lego model is 18 feet high and made out of 450,300 Lego pieces!  That's a lot of Lego's!

These models are of the Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, China, on the left, and Trump Tower in Chicago, on the right.  Most of the Lego models have windows made from clear Lego bricks, as you can clearly see on the Trump Tower model.

Stacey said one of the most interesting facts about the exhibit is that there is a section on most of the buildings where the wall has not been filled in.  This exposes a structural system on the interior of the models, similar to how an actual building has a structural system.  This model is the Jin Mao Tower.

This model is of the Chicago Spire, a highrise that was planned but has not yet been built.  This model is one of Stacey's favorites because of its height, design and the way that Tucker was able to construct the twisting of the spire.  Also, because of the design of the building, when the sunlight hits the clear Lego windows it shines in an intriguing way.

This picture is a close up of the John Hancock Building model showing the Lego pieces (actual building located in Chicago, IL).  It is interesting to us to see how Tucker constructed these models.

Not all of the models are of skyscrapers.  This is Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater.  This Lego model is quite large, with most of it being the topography (white Lego's) which sets the foundation for the house (tan Lego's).  This view of the model shows the detail that was put in to represent the exterior stone walls of the house.

Another of the low-rise models is this one of the White House.  It is not finished because Tucker is progressively building this model at the National Building Museum.

This is a close up of a pilaster on the White House model showing the detail that is included on the Lego models.

This exhibit is a two-part exhibit.  After the 15 Lego models, there is a big section of tables with a bunch of Lego pieces for the patrons to play with.  It attracts children and adults alike!

The Lego Architecture exhibit runs until September 5, 2011 and only costs $5 per person.  It is worth a visit if you are in the D.C. area.