House Plans & Commonly Asked Questions!

Many of you have asked to see our house plans so I am finally getting them posted so you can check them out!  

I drew our house on a sheet of white copy paper the day we decided we were going to DO THE THING! From there, we quickly got the ball rolling with just the simple drawing I created(so don't think you need fancy prints to get started!). 

The exterior of a barndominium is typically square or rectangle because it is easier and less expensive to build a simple shape. Knowing we were going to do a large rectangle, I simply drew in all the rooms and where I wanted them to go.  Every time I had an awkward "free" space, I just put another closet there!

Tip:  You can NEVER have too many closets! 

We met with many builders to find one to build our home.  The builder who we ultimately used to build the house only needed a "rough draft" set of house plans.  He then took that rough draft and made official plans for us to give to the bank for our construction loan. He also gave them to the individual contractors to work off of during construction.  Those are the large plans you see with lots of numbers, grid, etc!

We thought we would have to spend $1-3K on house plans, but our builder offered that service included in his price! When he told us that, we were SO glad we hadn't paid for house plans yet.

Takeaway:  Ask around and see if a local builder offers this service so you can save some money!

Here are all the fine details!

4 bedrooms

4 bathrooms

2 living rooms(1 upstairs and 1 downstairs)

1 playroom

1 home office

3 car garage

10 extra closets that are NOT for clothes 🙌

His and Hers closets in Master Bath

HUGE pantry

Laundry room

Mudroom

3700 square foot of living space

Hardie-siding exterior

Concrete floors on entire first floor

Granite counter tops in the kitchen

Foam insulation used throughout

Tank-less hot water heater (has been AMAZING)

Custom paint-grade kitchen cabinets made by a local carpenter

Ikea vanities in all bathrooms built by Yours Truly(me!)

Carpet on second floor with tile in bathrooms

All tile and carpet used was basic in-stock selection from Lowe's

All Paint used was by Sherwin Williams with the builder bulk-discount

Composite roof

1 Large covered back patio

The cupola on top of the house is fake and just for looks(people ask us if you can climb up in there all the time!)

The barn doors on the exterior were made by our builder and are not functioning because he fixed them to the house so they would not move in the wind

Our builder ordered all the barn door hardware for the house off Amazon

Most of our lighting in the house came from IKEA!

The other 25% of the lights came from Costco :)

We used a local builder who also does many remodels when not working on a new-build.  This was by-far the best decision we made in the process.  He was not the "TOP" builder in the area and not well-known, but he did a great job teaching us along the way, offering his expertise, and was available ANY time we needed him!

The house was built for about $73/sq. ft- this included the water well and septic system.

This home was an absolute labor of LOVE.  We worked hard to find a builder who would work with us on price and take the time to budget EACH item.  We had many questions (like how much does it add to the price if we do a 3 car garage instead of a 2 car garage).

All of the other builders we found simply wanted to give us a HUGE price tag due to the size of the home we were wanting to build.  They didn't want to break out all of the costs for us so that we could decide if it was a "need" or a "want".  

Do your research and KNOW what your home SHOULD cost before you get started interviewing builders.  If they quote you double what you think it should be, walk away and keep interviewing. 

Things we have added since completion that were not included- concrete in front of the garage, sidewalks, concrete flowerbed barriers, gutters, an asphalt driveway, backyard fence, security system through Simply Safe, sprinkler system, and sod.

We had to remove the balcony due to the cost **:(

**We decreased the size of the back patio a bit to save some money and moved the entire back wall of the house in several feet(not shown here).  Both to save money

**The bedroom #2 was cut down to a LARGE storage closet instead of a bedroom to stay on budget.