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In the event you’re a homesteader wanting to construct your individual home, you possibly can’t simply select any previous home plans. It may be actually tempting to browse Pinterest and discover plans that appear practical or have a farmhouse vibe (ask me how I do know).
However most “regular” house plans don’t actually accommodate the wants of homesteaders.
In case your purpose is to construct a life that permits you to:
- escape the rat race
- enhance meals and power independence
- produce your individual house items
- protect the harvest
- homeschool
- have a home-based enterprise
- be extra ready
- and a lot extra!
Then it is best to think about house plans which have been actually created with homesteaders in thoughts.
On this submit, you’ll be taught find out how to discover homestead home plans. We’ll go over what you should search for in a top quality homestead home plan. We’ll additionally spotlight a few of the greatest designs on the market for any aspiring homesteader and level you in the direction of particular plans that may meet your distinctive wants.
What to Search for in a Homestead Home Plan
1. Think about your potential homesteading actions.
Each homesteader is totally different. “Homesteading” as a verb encompasses so many various actions and pursuits. The actions that talk to YOU might not communicate to each single homesteader on the market, and that’s okay!
On our homestead, we now have small-scale meals gardens, a fledging orchard of varied fruit and nut timber, and bees. We don’t have chickens or any four-footed livestock (until you depend our goofy canine). I’ve realized find out how to make cleaning soap and stress can meals, however don’t do both extensively (but). We homeschool, I work at home (operating this weblog!), and each little bit of it’s solar-powered.
Now think about you and your loved ones. Do you want house in a house plan for the next?
Storage and pantry house for:
- home-canned meals
- dried meals
- chilly storage/root cellar
- bulk meals
- seed banks
- oils, herbs, and medicinals
- toiletry objects
- batteries, candles, water, and different preps
- storage containers, luggage, instruments, and associated supplies
Workspace for:
- butchering
- cheesemaking
- soapmaking
- woodworking
- metalworking
- stitching, knitting, crotcheting
- homeschooling
- home-based enterprise
- crafting
- homebrewing
- and many others. and many others.!
Suppose long-term on this! It’s possible you’ll solely pursue one or two of these actions now, however you could add many extra down the road.
For instance, our two greatest regrets in our house design are the dearth of utility house and our small pantry. Earlier than we went down the homesteading rabbit gap, we didn’t understand simply how massive our photo voltaic elements had the potential to be, nor had been we as apt to develop and protect our personal meals or preserve extra prep objects round.
Associated: 9 Suggestions for Designing Your Good Homestead Structure
2. Take a look at any “non-standard” utility wants.
Relying on the place you purchase land to construct your homestead, you may need totally different utility wants than you’d for those who in-built a standard neighborhood. Is there an opportunity your private home can be “off the grid” like ours is? Then it is best to most likely account for the place your energy elements is likely to be. What a few cistern or a effectively? Will that require you to have a massive stress tank to produce water to your home?
Suppose by way of the next future wants and account for utility house:
- water heater
- effectively or cistern pump and stress tank
- effectively or cistern filtration system
- propane tank
- wood-fired boiler
- wooden range
- photo voltaic panels
- electrical breaker field
- off-grid battery financial institution, cost controller, and energy inverter
Associated: Our Off-Grid Radiant Warmth Setup
Associated: Off-Grid Rainwater Harvesting Setup
3. Account for the dimensions of your loved ones and any projected development.
Each household is a bit totally different. It might solely be YOU setting out as a person to construct your dream homestead. Or maybe you’re a younger household with just a few children and also you’d like to have extra. Or possibly you’re a longtime household heading in the direction of being empty nesters.
Past that, values and priorities can change! For instance, what you thought was the best small home for a minimalist couple seems to be not so nice for a small household working in the direction of better self-sufficiency who wants house for bulk meals and homeschooling.
Associated: Ought to You Construct a Tiny Home?
4. Be sensible about your price range.
It’s particularly essential to be sensible about how a lot cash you possibly can spend on a home, particularly in at this time’s market. Supplies and labor costs preserve going up and up. Contractor bids have been identified to double in a brief timeframe merely due to how the market is behaving.
The excellent news is there are a lot of methods it can save you cash once you’re constructing your individual house. You may choose to turn into an proprietor builder by doing your individual contracting and even doing a lot of the work your self. It’s possible you’ll choose to construct with an unconventional pure methodology (like we did with cordwood), or use as many reclaimed supplies as potential.
I encourage you to take a look at these useful posts about constructing on a price range:
However earlier than you even get to purchasing supplies, it’s a must to know what you’re going to construct. Let’s check out your choices:
The place to Discover Homestead Home Plans
As I mentioned, it may be laborious to adapt an ordinary home plan to a homesteading way of life. And when you’ve got the chance to construct your private home from scratch, there’s no purpose to not account for all of your homestead prospects in your good plan.
Again once we had been designing our cordwood home, we seemed primarily in house plan books, on inventory web sites, and on Pinterest for concepts (you possibly can view our Home Plans board right here).
As a cordwood builder, I additionally actually favored looking the plans over at Dream Inexperienced Houses.
Our last product was really borne out of a design we noticed and favored on Pinterest. We despatched it to a cordwood draftsman and created the plans from there.
However in doing that, there was so much that we missed. We missed out on a greater pantry, off-grid utility house, and practical kitchen. Figuring out what I do know now about homesteading, I may not have chosen this similar house design.
The Greatest Homestead Specialty Plans: “Homestead Home Plans”
Of all of the books and on-line choices on the market, that is my new favourite. Homestead Home Plans didn’t exist once we had been looking for plans and if I needed to do it once more, I’d use certainly one of these in a heartbeat.
Homestead Home Plans are constructed with the wants of precise homesteaders in thoughts. No have to adapt a “regular” plan!
For instance, our purpose was to construct a smaller house to save cash each whereas constructing and on heating/cooling/repairs over time. However we additionally know we wished roughly 2-3 bedrooms and a pair of loos to accommodate our household’s wants. It was actually laborious to discover a plan we favored and now that I see the “Homesteader Cottage”…I’m legitimately mad that I can’t journey again in time to construct the home with this plan.
They’ve a great deal of different plans too, and have the choice to each alter present plans OR create new plans from scratch for you (good for us unconventional builders!).
All plans, together with customized plans, present:
- 21 Sheet Professionally Designed Homestead Home Plan
- Enhanced 2×6 Framing Choices
- Non-obligatory Insulated Concrete Kind (ICF) Building
- BONUS #1: Storage Attic Structure
- BONUS #2: Slab on Grade & Crawlspace Basis Particulars
- BONUS #3: Proper Studying Reversed Plan Set
Listed below are another nice choices:
Small Footprint: Craftsman Cottage
- Craftsman type
- 2 bed room 2 tub
- 1312 sq. ft. design
- Massive kitchen island has room for a 6 burner range prime for bulk canning
- Contains house for an additional full-size freezer.
- Outsized hooked up pantry has ample room for long-term meals storage
- The easy footprint of this home plan is ideal for steel buildings, straightforward ICF development, or any DIY house builder.
Medium Household Residence: The Homesteader Victoria
- Farmhouse type
- 3 bed room 2 tub
- 3030 sq. ft. design
- Mud room off the again of the home features a sink, hanging room for clothes and counter house, in addition to house for 4 freezers
- Kitchen island has room for a 6 burner range prime for bulk canning
- Massive hooked up pantry has ample room for long-term meals storage
- Bonus house off the entry manner may very well be used for a examine, homeschooling room, craft room, or sitting room
Spacious Household Residence: The Apothecary III
- Cottage type 4 bed room (fifth bed room non-compulsory) 2 tub
- 3324 sq. ft.
- Massive kitchen island has shelving on the eating room aspect for further canning storage
- Deep, hidden pantry has much more room for long-term meals storage; can double as chilly room/fake root cellar
- Room for 3 freezers
There are dozens extra to select from. I extremely advocate checking them out right here.
If in some unspecified time in the future you select to buy certainly one of their home plans, as a particular thanks you possibly can obtain our Homestead Planning Bundle for FREE (a $72 worth) to assist take advantage of your private home constructing journey.
The Homestead Planning Bundle consists of each The Proprietor-Builder Residence Planner and The Homestead Land Purchaser’s Guidebook.
And for those who’re not fairly prepared for that, I encourage you to subscribe beneath to seize our FREE PDF planning guides within the Members Solely Useful resource Library that can assist you get began:
Study extra about our authentic cordwood homestead challenge right here. And be sure you be part of us on Pinterest, Fb, and Instagram for extra homesteading goodies that don’t essentially make it to the weblog. Thanks for studying!
