Starting a New Company.

[MsPony]

I have the tiniest, most ridicolous kitchen, its no bigger then a hallway. I find that space is super limited, I'm always knocking things over and have to reorganize.

I find the heart of SS is your food and kitchen. So, a nice, big kitchen with big pantry. It can be incorporated nicely so its not ridicolous big. Full amenties, a deep basin sink, oven (wood stove?), stove, counter tops, storage, etc.

 

[VickiLynn]

We built our house in the 1980s -during that energy crisis. Its 24x28, 2 story with a basement. 1st floor is an open design with kitchen, dining area and living room all one area. Upstairs has 2 bedrooms on one side and the other side open to the cathedral ceiling over the living room. We have a loft over part of the living room area, which is used as my office and a spare bedroom. So, about 1100 sq. ft. in all. We installed in a wood stove, with electric heat as back-up.

Thing Im glad we did:
*2 sets of patio doors facing SW. On a sunny winter day, we can turn all other heat off.
*Planting deciduous trees, which shade the house in the summer, but allow sun through in the winter.
*The open balcony over the living room lets heat upstairs. We almost never use the upstairs heaters.
*Lots of closets: both bedrooms have big closets, plus 2 linen closets, broom closet, coat closet.
*The kitchen isnt very big, but feels big because its open to the dining/living room.
*A HUGE kitchen sink perfect when I come in with an armload of veggies from the garden.
*A built-in shelf for the microwave, so it is not taking up counter space.
*10 miles from the nearest town (close enough without being too close).
*About 2 acres of yard, enough room for fruit trees and a big garden, small shed and a chicken coop.

Things I wish we would have done differently:
*The bathroom is in the coldest corner of the house, and the shower is against two outside walls brrr.
*Put the exterior electric outlet and water source in a more convenient place for use with dogs, chickens, garden.
*I wish I had a pantry and utility room on the first floor (everything is in the basement now).

Things we have changed:
*The wood stove is gone. After a chimney fire, I got so nervous I couldnt sleep at night.
*Half the basement is finished and used as a family room - a nice cool place to be on hot summer days.
*A small gas heater in the basement family room, which is enough to heat up the whole house on chilly fall days or keep the house reasonably warm when the power goes out and electric heaters wont work.
*Ripped out the carpets and installed hardwood floors.
*Covered the drywall in the kitchen area with painted beadboard SO much easier to clean and looks nice.

Things we plan to change:
*An addition to the main floor (bedroom, 2nd bath, pantry, utility room) for when were too old to climb stairs.
*Take out the ceramic tile floors (bath and kitchen area) and replace with something thats not so hard and cold.

 

[dragonlaurel]

Natural water on property or well included. Metal roof sends rainwater to cistern.
Zoning allows chickens and small farms. Easy, year round access to property.
Within 20 miles of shopping, local fire dept, and hospital.
Lot sizes from 1 to 20 acres. Skip the normal "landscaping" - fruit trees work better for us. Or include a gift card for a garden center.
Use LOCAL resources for building. Homes should look individual - not cookie cutter houses.
Passive solar design with wood stove for backup heating. Chimney on South wall so attached greenhouse gets the radiant heat.
Active solar system should be available as an option.

Living space and a bedroom on 1st floor + loft/2nd floor to use as needed.
L or U shaped stairways with storage underneath. Circular stairs are a pain.
Tiled entry-mud area with room for a bench and coat rack.
wood/linoleum floors depending on areas use.

Lots of kitchen shelving. I wish the highest shelf was near shoulder height for easy access.
Space between the stove, sink and frig.
Wood or metal rail between wall studs for hanging pans and utensils.
Root cellar, and pantry in part of basement. Access from kitchen.

tankless or solar water heater
Master bath has big tub. Separate bath for guests or kids.
Bathroom windows for natural light and fresh air.
composting toilet available as an option
Plumbing sends grey water to garden area.
Clothes washer in or near greenhouse for graywater use.
Clothes lines outdoors and under porch roof for when weather is "iffy".
Buried utility lines
high speed internet available

 

[AnnaRaven]

We just recently moved. Some things we were looking for (some of which we got):
master bathroom with a bidet (we ended up with a Toto toilet with a built-in bidet)and a big shower. We installed handicap bars in the shower and next to the toilet, which came in handy when my hip went out on me.
Fireplace.
Hardwood floors. (The kitchen was wood laminate, and we replaced carpet in another with real hardwood.)
Kitchen with good cupboards and workspace. (Our kitchen isn't ideal but it's pretty good for a compact space.)
Pantry with room for a freezer and shelves for canned and dried and the big buckets of rice and beans. (We have a huge garage so that's where my pantry is, right off the kitchen.)

Since we're in California, we don't have a cellar but I'd love a root cellar and, since I'm dreaming, a wine cellar.

I would love to have an instant-hot water-heater instead of the tank-style waterheater we have now.

We did just install solar electric panels and a gas furnace. (The house was heated with electric baseboard heating!)

Rain-water-collection and grey-water system would be great.

I would love at least an acre of usable land, up to 10 acres. For now, we're on a 1/4 acre.


One thing that would be really nice that we don't have right now, is a porch or covered seating area that could be used even if it's raining.

ETA: I assume washer/dryer area.
A clothesline would be great.

And yeah - high-speed internet, of course.

FWIW - a "smart house" system would be great. One that I can ping from my phone to turn on the outside lights when I'm coming home and turn on the heat so that I don't have to heat the house when not there. Shades that can be lowered easily to block sun in summer but raised to allow heat in winter, automatically.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Here are what I see as needed in a home that lends itself well to traditional food prep and sufficient living.

The kitchen is central to this lifestyle.
I envision a home, where there are no hallways.
The LARGE (more then a one butt kitchen, lol!) kitchen is at one end, with two rooms at its back.
One is a large pantry/food storage room. Butler pantry style, to an extent. Plenty of shelving and cupboards, for long term food storage, extra dishes, and short term storage.
The other is the laundry room, with built in ironing board, counter space for folding, shelves for baskets, and cupboards for linen storage.

The kitchen would feature a large island with an extra sink and stove top and oven for summer use. Pull out bins for bulk foods would also be a good idea.
And a beam overhead for all the pots, pans and cast iron to hang on.
There would be space devoted to a wood cook range as well, for winter usage.

Dining area would be the center, allowing room for two large tables.
This area would also have the Masonry heater as well.

Living room will take up the other end.
Bedrooms and bathrooms will continue on down the back from the laundry room.

The front of the house would have a full greenhouse/sun room.

Off the kitchen, would be the kitchen garden, and easy access to the root cellar.
And the possibility to have a butchering/processing room attached to the kitchen as well, would be fabulous!

 

[dacjohns]

Mudroom.
Two sinks in the master bath.
12' X 12' minimum for bedrooms other than the master bedroom.
Master bedroom big enough for a king size bed and accompanying furniture.
Ample closet space (did I already say that?)

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

Mudroom.
Two sinks in the master bath.
12' X 12' minimum for bedrooms other than the master bedroom.
Master bedroom big enough for a king size bed and accompanying furniture.
Ample closet space (did I already say that?)

Oh yeah...walk in closets in every room.
The house we bought, has the poorest excuses for storage and closets.
Well, its just a weird house anyway
Cheap and we qualified. That's what counts right now!

 

[Wallybear]

WOW. This is great. I did not get any responses for the first little bit and was afraid that I wasn't going to get much feed back.

All this information is great. Please keep it coming.

Some of the things that we are looking at and may or may not be included and at some point down the line may be options. Price is the big deal for us. We really want people to be able to afford where they live and not have to stress about keeping a home.

Bamboo, cork, tile, died concrete floors- There does seem to be a trend to move away from carpet. It is dirty and not a healthy situation. Also vacuums use a lot of electricity and carpets take a lot of time to keep up with and care for. To us this is a waste of living.

Natural light - I really like solar tubes for adding natural light in rooms. I also like strategically placed windows. There must be a certain amount of windows for egress and so on, but extra windows up high and in locations that add light with out heating up a room too much is very important.

LED lighting- LED lighting is the wave of the future and the new lights that will be out later this year has fixed the color problem. 1/6th the electricity use and last for 50k hours.

Large Pantry- Large pantries seems to be a big need and common with everyone. That is a design detail that will definitely put into our designs.

I have a design idea that I want to add as an option, because I have found that not all people like it and those that do like it, love it. This is a large insulated wooden garage door as a wall in the living room. This will be installed in such a way that the rails are hidden and the door when raised will hide in the ceiling. This allows you open the wall up on nice days and extend you living room onto the covered patio outside.

On demand hot water heaters are nice and will put them in as an option for those who want to use gas or propane.

Rocket stoves with mass storage benches are a desired design. I am working on one right now that also integrates a boiler to provide hot water in the cooler months and operates a small steam engine to provide some electricity in the winter months when solar is less effective. Back up electric heat is available by code. In floor heating is an option

Solar and wind generators are options that we want to offer on new homes.

Home designs are all single story homes, with the addition of underground cellars as an option. All home designs are banked above ground style earth ships with living roofs.

The front of the homes all have 2 foot thick walls. This allows the use of the front south facing windows to be used as green houses. The sills all have copper trays with a drain and a cedar grate above to allow plants to sit in the windows and allow water to drain without causing problems. A sun room can be added but the expense is tough to swallow. The window and wall design allows for the best of all worlds and keeps the cost way down.

Cooling for the homes is done with a shallow geothermal cooling unit. and uses the natural airflow of the home to operate.

Mud Rooms- Mud rooms seem to be another popular theme on here and will be added to our designs.

Large kitchen sinks are a must. Poured concrete counter tops are also a design I want to use.

One of the design ideas that I will be putting into all my kitchens is an exterior heat exchanger that heats water and air for use when needed. It will also double as a dehydrator when needed. This will use the sun and a 12 volt fan. You will have access from inside the kitchen just as any another appliance.

Now for the kitchen I want to run something by everyone and get some feedback. There was a time and in certain parts of the country when a separate dining room was not the norm. How do people feel about a large kitchen with room enough for a dining table in the middle? We have lived in several country farm houses where this was the case. My wife liked it a lot and so did I. It gave a lot of room when you wanted to to do processing or canning. I know that it is not a show piece dining room that many in today's world want, but what about for SS's? Is this desirable or is it not a good idea for most?

I really like the idea of a gift certificate to a local garden store. I also think 6 fruit trees of choice will be planted for the new owners. Because of the living roofs I will be using for energy efficiency and for space efficiency this will not allow for rain water collection. Grey water collection is a very viable option and I will look into a cost effective system.


Any and all feedback is welcomed, even criticism.

 

[Bubblingbrooks]

No table in the middle.
It can be in the front or on the side.
The added chairs and having to walk around an object that is not a work station would drive me batty.

 

[AnnaRaven]

Tables are too low for most people as a proper workstation. An island is more useful.