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.

Sloping Sites

Our unique house plans include this selection of home designs for construction on a sloping lot. Our hillside house plans provide an excellent opportunity to use the basement as a garage or to provide a walk-out patio from the basement level. The house plans below are specifically designed as hillside house plans for sloping lots.

Island Cottage Basement Foundation

Available in 2,058 sf or 2,470 sf sizes, plus basement square footage

The Island Cottage House Plan is a playful, coastal cottage getaway with a wrap around porch, roof decks and a roof-top observation loft. The basement version is designed for a sloping lot.

Mountain Cottage

The Mountain Cottage is a variation of the Island Cottage and illustrates one of the many customizations of this versatile plan. In this example, the Mountain Cottage is built into the side of a hill which slopes down to a large lake providing wonderful views.

Country Cottage

The Country Cottage has all the amenities of a larger house designed in a compact space. The basement version provides a rear drive-in garage in the basement which works well with a hillside sloping lot.

Hip Cottage

The Hip Cottage Basement Option extends living space into a basement with access to an outdoor patio which blends this house into a sloping lot.  It is compact, yet has all the features that make for comfortable living including a separate laundry room, large closets and kitchen opening into the living spaces. 

Plantation Cottage

The Plantation Cottage draws upon the southern, coastal, low country vernacular and features large, wrap-around porches and a full basement. Designed for a sloping lot, it provides for a side drive-in garage in the basement of the house.

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

Pleasent Outdoor Living on the Wrap Around Porch

Weekend Weather Forecast for Hampstead, NC

Looks like it is going to be a warm weekend here in Hampstead, North Carolina. There may even be a chance for scattered thunderstorms on Saturday. Most people would agree these conditions make for a perfect evening to sit in their rocking chairs, enjoy a cold lemonade and take in the views from their wrap around porch.

Our selection of house plans with Wrap Around Porches are designed to enable you to enjoy the outdoor views and breezes. Wrap Around Porches are a great asset to a house because they extend the living space to the exterior, they shelter and protect the windows and doors from water damage and they shade the exterior walls and windows reducing heat gain and thereby reducing energy costs. You can also screen-in a portion of the porch for pleasant outdoor dining.

The Island Cottage House Plan is a playful, coastal cottage getaway. With it's wrap around porch, roof decks and roof-top observation loft, it's a great coastal house plan.

The Plantation Cottage draws upon the southern, coastal, low country vernacular and features large, wrap-around porches and a full basement.

The Country Cottage has all the amenities of a larger house designed in a compact space. Its wrap-around porch extends the living space to the outdoors.

The Mountain Cottage is a variation of the Island Cottage and illustrates one of the many customization's of this versatile plan. Its wrap-around porch is a key element in its design.

The Lookout Cottage is a magnificent treehouse with roof decks, balconies and a rooftop observation platform perfect for overlooking trees and rooftops to see the coastline.

The Nags Head Cottage draws upon the characteristics of the historic, rugged, beachfront cottages found along the coast of Nags Head, NC. The wrap around porches protect the walls and window and door openings while also providing shade from the heat.

Legend of the Widow's Walks

If you have visited our Southern Cottages House Plans site, you may have noticed a few of our cottages featuring the popular widows walk. But have you ever wondered why they call it a widows walk? You may be surprised where this architectural detail actually originated from.

You may be familiar with the most common legend of the widows walk. It goes something like this:

"The faithful and dedicated wife, performing her daily circumambulations on the cold and lonely widow's walk: The next sail to top the horizon may well carry her husband, gone to sea these many years. But not today. the sun sets, bring to a close her lonely vigil for this day. Perhaps, though, the much anticipated vision will appear tomorrow and if not tomorrow, the next day."

Recently we read an article from the Fisherman's Voice titled Widow's Walk which discusses the evolution of this popular architectural detail. The author, Tom Seymour, believes that the legend of the widows walk may be nothing more than a "sentiment-laden myth". Here is a summary of his article and his idea of where the widow's walk originated.

Originally, widows walks served as an access point in the roof located near the chimney. Back when houses were generally heated by wood, the residents ran the risk of chimney fires. The widow's walk provided a quick and safe route up to the chimney in which water or sand could then be poured downed the chimney to douse the fire.

The actual appearance of the widows walk has gone through a lengthy evolution. On most colonial structures the widow's walk was nothing more then a simple hatch opening to the roof. At this point in time the widow's walk was strictly used for practicality and lacked any aesthetic appeal.

When the New England economy had begun to improve in the late 1800's, and budgets for building increased, more stylized and ornate widow's walk started to become the trend. These newly altered widow's walks were generally fully enclosed with windows that were able to open to allow for ventilation during the warm summer months. They also provided a great place for people to have their afternoon tea or evening cocktail while enjoying the view.

In the late 19th century after the advances of highly stylized widow's walk came about, the legend of the lonely wife waiting for her captains safe return from sea came about as well. Since then this has became the most popular origin of this popular architectural detail found in many historic homes, and homes still being built today.

The modern version of the widow's walk can regularly be seen in seaside towns. Since the price of ocean views comes at a premium, many have chosen to build a little farther back from the shoreline, and still take in the ocean view a top the widow's walk.

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.

Island Cottage

Mountain Cottage