What is Southern Cottages?

Happy New Year!

 

You might wonder what Southern Cottages is and what this blog is about.

Mike McLeod, an architect in North Carolina, owns an architecture firm called Michael R. McLeod Architect, PA.  He has a small side company called Southern Cottages House Plans.  It is there that he sells a few of the house plans he has designed over the years at a fraction of the cost of designing a custom home.  So, potential customers can get house plans that were designed by an architect but at an affordable price.

This is from the Southern Cottages website:

Southern Cottages is a house plan service offering architect designed houses, cottages, and beach houses for a gracious informal lifestyle. The plans are a collection of exciting home designs which blend traditional southern coastal home styling with more contemporary architectural forms and open plan floor layouts.

What you’ll find on this blog are pictures of the SouthernCottages houses, FAQ, customer letters, info on building materials, and other information about architecture, the beach, and houses.

I hope this post has shed some light on this blog.

Here’s to a brilliant new year!

Plantation Cottage Interior

Sometimes we get requests from people who want to know what our cottages look like on the inside.  We received these pictures of the Plantation Cottage exterior and interior a couple years ago.

 

The Plantation Cottage has a large, covered, wrap around porch with detailed railing. This house has extensive windows throughout to let the outdoors in, a basement garage and four bedrooms.  

 

 This picture exposes the "drive-in" garage area in the basement of the Plantation Cottage. You can see how the front porch wraps around the house to provide shelter from the elements and relief from the summer sun. The detailed porch railings give this home southern charm.

 

 The Foyer of the Plantation Cottage is open to the second floor and has an L-shaped stair. It provides a large welcoming space to greet your guests.

 

The open living room and dining room of the Plantation Cottage provide plenty of space for your family to spread out for their various activities.  A built in wall cabinet provides additional storage.

 

 The open floor plan of the Plantation Cottage gives you views to the front and back of the home and provides a great space for a family to live and grow.

 

 The Plantation Cottage kitchen is open to the living room and dining room.

 

 The open kitchen of the Plantation Cottage has a large island and lots of cabinet space. The island provides a great place for a snack or a space to lay out your buffet. 

 

 The stairs in the foyer are open to the living room of the Plantation Cottage and connect you to what's going on upstairs and down. The living room's built-in wall cabinet provides storage for this large spacious room.

 

 The upstairs den of the Plantation Cottage provides a family space at the top of the stairs. It is a perfect place for your family to relax and spend time together.

 

The back of the Plantation Cottage includes a spacious covered porch off of the dining room. It is perfect for entertaining.

If this looks like your ideal home, this house plan can be purchased on our website at www.southerncottages.com.  Once there, you can also look at the floor plans, see some of the room sizes, and find out the cost of the plans.

The Value of A Porch

 

A porch can make a world of difference if the sun is shining or if it's a downpour outside. A porch will provide a shaded place to sit, relax and watch the world go by. It's perfect for grilling dinner and spending time with friends and family. If this is your lifestyle, the Shelter Cottage is perfect for you. It has two large porches--plus a deck--available for "outdoor living". It would be perfect at a lake, beach or beautifully wooded lot. Inside you will love the open livingroom/diningroom/kitchen, four bedrooms and extra space. Check it out! All of the Southern Cottages House Plans are designed by an architect to give you style with a comprehensive design at a price you can afford.
 
Let us help you create a building to serve your needs at www.mcleodarchitect.com.
View our architect designed house plans at www.southerncottages.com.

A House For A Family

 

Shingle Cottage with Balconies

If you have a large family & are looking for more space, the Shingle Cottage w/ Balcony Option is the house for you. The Shingle Cottage has 4 spacious bedrooms - plus a den - with 3 1/2 baths. No more arguing over who's taking too long in the bathroom. The Shingle Cottage includes a living room & a family room to separate the formal space from the family space. Also included are a generous dining room & kitchen, laundry room (with laundry chute) and a master suite. If you're looking for a family home, the Shingle Cottage with (or without) Balcony Option is the house for you. All of the Southern Cottages House Plans are designed by an architect to give you style with a comprehensive design at a price you can afford.

Let us help you create a building to serve your needs at www.mcleodarchitect.com.
View our architect designed house plans at www.southerncottages.com.

Room To Entertain

 

Winds Cottage with Shed Roof

If you have beach front property & love to entertain, the Winds Cottage will give you everything you need: a large living room with ocean view & adjacent kitchen & dining room. It has 5 bedrooms on the upper two floors for weekend & summer guests. The spacious back deck is perfect for enjoying your evenings with friends. Check it out by clicking this link. All of the Southern Cottages House Plans are designed by an architect to give you style with a comprehensive design at a price you can afford.

Winds Cottage first floor.

Winds Cottage with Gable Roof

Let us help you create a building to serve your needs at www.mcleodarchitect.com.
View our architect designed house plans at www.southerncottages.com.

The Views You Love

Island Cottage living room.

If you have property in the mountains, on a lake, at the beach or anywhere else with a spectacular view, you need to check out the Island Cottage. The open concept plan has windows that provide a 180 degree view of your surroundings! Imagine living in a home that gives you the kind of views you imagined when you first saw the property. If you want to see more interior pictures of this house, click this link to our post "Island Cottage Interior". All of the Southern Cottages House Plans are designed by an architect to give you style with a comprehensive design at a price you can afford.

Panoramic views in the living room and dining room.

The Island Cottage on Crawlspace Foundation.

A Letter About the Mountain Cottage

We received the following letter and picture from the owner of the Mountain Cottage: 

Hello Mike and associates,

We return to our island cottage or as you refer to it the mountain cottage on your website, in a few days, for the tenth year. It was over eleven years ago when we purchased your house plans with some minor modifications to accommodate Canadian winters.

 We lived four thousand kilometers (2,486 miles) away during construction. With your excellently detailed plans and a distinguished local builder there were few issues as it was being built. We did visit the site every several months to monitor activities.

The layout works. We can accommodate our family of 16 and 4 dogs for summer weekends and at Christmas. It is a great place to reconnect, with lots of get away places if someone requires a bit of down time.

 In August we have friends over for an annual pot luck supper, numbering over 40, without feeling too crowded. There are lots of conversation places to share news. After 10 years of enjoyment we would not change a thing.

 The structure goes through a full 4 seasons. Temperature can hover around +35 C (95 degrees F)  during summer and it has seen -35  C  (-31 degrees F) in winter.  No issues. During the hot days in July we open all the windows and enjoy a cool breeze off the lake in the evening. The design sheds snow so we do not worry about snow load during the winter months.  Attached is a picture we took during December of 2012. The structure looks capable of embracing winter.

We want to thank you for having had the privilege of enjoying your architectural skills. 

We love to get letters like this from our customers!   We are pleased that our clients are still happy after 10 years.

The Mountain Cottage is a modified version of the Island Cottage.  Both of these homes were designed for gracious informal living and include wrap-around porches, roof decks and a roof-top observation loft.  Curious what this house looks like on the interior? Please visit our blog post entitled the Island Cottage Interior.   

All of our Southern Cottages Construction Plan Packages are detailed, professional, architectural drawings with framing plans, wall sections, and construction details. They will save you many thousands of dollars over custom designed plans and save innumerable hours of time, money, and mistakes by your contractor if he were left on his own without the benefit of well-coordinated plans. Furthermore, with our plans, you will be able to get accurate contractor bid prices from bidders since all construction items are specified and detailed. Bid documents and bidder instructions are included in the project manual.

If you have built one of our Cottages and love it, let us know by emailing us at mike@mcleodarchitectpa.com.

Let us help you create a building to serve your needs at www.mcleodarchitect.com. View our architect designed house plans at www.southerncottages.com.

The Island Cottage Survived Hurricane Sandy

Last November we received the following email from a client who built the Island Cottage.

Island Cottage with crawlspace foundation

Hi Mike,

I built your coastal cottage design over ten years ago. My family and I have enjoyed the home very much and live on a point on the bay with water on both sides. We have weathered many bad storms in this house and we really owe its success to your design. The roof plays a huge role in protecting us from nor'easter storms which hit us often. This is our primary residence. Recently we were hit with hurricane Sandy the eye hitting our community directly. Homes on either side and many more were destroyed by the ferocious wind and waves. We were left with some cosmetic damage lost stairs and railings but structurally we were ok and are currently up and running in our home while unfortunately most of the community is abandoned. Thank you for designing a heavy duty house. Check out YouTube put in Tuckerton, NJ sandy you will see your design under direct attack in the storm. Also the picture was on Fox, CNN and many other news cast around the country. Most of this community calls our house the blue lighthouse and use it as a landmark and GPS and radar setting for their boats. Anyway thanks Mike.

Please watch this portion of a newscast after hurricane Sandy which shows the Island Cottage spoken about in the letter above (the home with the blue roof).  We believe that the Island Cottage would have gotten more air time if the damage hadn't been so minimal.  This is proof that the Island Cottage was designed for both style and strength.

All of our Southern Cottages house plans were designed to meet coastal conditions and codes in the state of North Carolina at the time they were designed, with a basic design windspeed of 130 mph, to make them storm resistant.  Our houses on piling foundations were designed to withstand hurricanes by meeting coastal and flood plain and high wind zone construction in the state of North Carolina at the time they were designed.  To see more storm resistant home designs for coastal conditions by Michael R. McLeod Architect, P.A., please visit the Southern Cottages website.  We have a number of house plans for the beach or any waterfront property.

Let us help you create a building to serve your needs at www.mcleodarchitect.com.  
View our architect designed house plans at www.southerncottages.com.

Island Cottage Available on SimCity

SimCity, a popular city-building computer and console video game series, was first published in 1989. Since then, the popluar game has gone through several different editions which have sold worldwide. One of there spinoff games, The Sims, became the best selling PC game in history after selling 6.3 million copies worldwide.

It was recently brought to our attention that one of the Southern Cottages was modeled and made availbale on SimCity. The Island Cottage can be downloaded on Simtropolis from the user onlyplaces4. In his description he says:

[The] Island Cottage is based on an actual building that has been designed by the architect Michael R. McLeod. You can actually buy the plans to have this house built...

Thank you onlyplaces4 for making us a part of the popular SimCity world. View his model of the Island Cottage here. Or check out a few of his pictures below.

He did a pretty good job don't you think? And here are a few pictures of the actual house availabe at Southern Cottages House Plans.

How to Draw a Floor Plan

A few months ago we posted a three part video on our YouTube channel titled "How to Draw a Floor Plan". Architect Michael R. McLeod takes the viewers through the beginning steps of drawing a floor plan. The process of creating and drawing a floorplan can be really fun and easier than you think.

How to Draw a Floor Plan

Part 1 - Tools and Materials - This video focusses on some the tools and materials needed to start drawing your design.

How to Draw a Floor Plan

Part 2 - Creating a Bubble Diagram - This video discusses the process of creating a bubble diagram, a technique used to scale and organize your living spaces.

How to Draw a Floor Plan

Part 3 - Adding Detail - This video goes over adding detail to your floorplan.

What is LEED?

You may be hearing more and more about LEED Certified houses and buildings being built in your state, community, or even neighborhood. And in case you were curious what LEED is, we came across an article that sums up what this green movement is all about.

What is LEED?

LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. The United States Green Building Council (USGBC) created LEED as a rating system for green building.

Green building refers to the design, construction, and operation of buildings in an environmentally friendly way. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. The rating system is specific to the type of project being worked on. Some of the specific programs are LEED-New Construction, LEED-Existing Buildings, LEED-Commercial Interiors, LEED-Core and Shell, LEED-Homes, LEED-Neighborhood Development, LEED-Schools. The rating systems are broken down in to points for each type of credit. Certification levels within the systems are:

•Minimum points: Certified
•Second highest points: Silver
•Third highest points: Gold
•Fourth-maximum points: Platinum

For more information check out the USGBC website.

Barbara Buffaloe, Architectural Studies, College of Human Environmental Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia

If you have a project you would like to consider for LEED Certification, feel free to contact the owner of Southern Cottages House Plans, Michael R. McLeod, Architect and LEED Accredited Professional, for more information.

New Video!

We recently added a new video to our YouTube Channel. This video feature some of the projects completed by Michael R. McLeod, Architect, PA. You can find a complete list of his completed projects at http://www.mcleodarchitect.com/.

We would love any feedback you may have for us regarding and of our projects. Thanks for checking out our blog!

Stevenson Mazda, Wilmington

If you live in the Wilmington area, and have driven down Market Street lately, then were sure you have seen the eye catching Stevenson Mazda Dealership. At night it is hard to miss the dealership's "jewel box" double-stack car display. The facility was based on the Mazda national prototype image program and represents the latest cutting edge of auto sales and marketing.

Stevenson Mazda Wilmington, NC

mCafe

Stevenson Mazda at night

For more information on this project or others completed by Michael R. McLeod please visit our website at http://www.mcleodarchitect.com/.

2010 Azalea Festival Fun

A few of us from the office headed down to the Azalea Festival this weekend and participated in some of the shows and and activities offered downtown. Here are a few pictures from what happened this past weekend.

Stacey and her daughter Lana ventured out to the annual Garden Tour which featured 12 different gardens and the famous Azalea Belles.

The Bellamy Mansion

Lana won over the hearts of all the Azalea Belles she met on the Garden Tour.

Mike and Laura took their grand kids out to see the elephants, tigers, clowns and others perform at the Cole Bros. Circus.

Cole Bros. Circus

A circus would not be complete unless there were some face painting. Pictured above is Mike and Laura's daughter Jenny, and her husband Scott, and their three children: Landon the Pirate, Braden the Zebra and Laura Kayte the Tiger.

Jody braved the Saturday afternoon crowds with a few friends to watch the parade and wander around the many booths and exhibits.

We all had a great time in Wilmington this past weekend and look forwards to nexts years Azalea Festival.