Now that we are ready to begin building, I wanted to share our plans of The Little Barn. Everyone has been so kind and so supportive with our house hunting. This journey has been 6 months in the making, and during the times when I felt as if we were never going to find anything that was right for us, I would get a message from somebody telling me about their own adventures and how admitting defeat is not an option. It was exactly what I needed to hear, and I am thankful for my amazing family, friends, and readers for giving me the motivation to keep on searching. I know that this will not be our last home, but I hope that it turns out to be ours for a long time.

Pinterest is something that I really need to sign up for. Do any of you guys have it? In the meantime, I continue to grab ideas for our new home from cabin books, various websites, Instagram, and random pictures that our contractor sends or gives to us. The exterior of TLB was drawn up by Geoffrey and I after we combined a bunch of exteriors that we liked into one that we loved.

We love one and a half storey homes, wanted few windows, lots of doors, and for it to look older rather than newer. Our plans are to use reclaimed barn wood for our siding, authentic barn doors for our front doors (as seen above), a metal roof, and to have either a deck or patio flanking the entire side of TLB.

The main floor will have an open concept living room, kitchen, and dining room. The bathroom will be located in the middle of our house, while the mudroom and guest bedroom will be in the back. The mudroom will also serve as a laundry room and dog room, so I want it to be very big and to have a wood ceiling, walls, and floor (like in this photo above). The bedroom will have its own set of doors that lead outside so that our guests can feel comfortable to go in and out whenever they please.

I want our kitchen to look very farmhouse vintage, like the kitchen found in the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver, Colorado or the prairie kitchen in the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I want old-looking appliances with only a few rustic cupboards. I also plan to buy antique and industrial lighting. I want it to be open and sparse. We are hoping to have our contractor build us bench seating and to purchase a large antique kitchen table. Our shelving will of course be made up of crates.

Here is a photo of the bathroom that our contractor would like to build. With another claw foot tub and antique sink, are sold on it.

Our master bedroom will be located in the upstairs loft, just like in Little Green. We have plans to make the beams exposed (in the above photo), and to make the ceiling, walls, and floor wood. 

I wanted to have the overall square footage around 600, but our contractor told me that he wouldn’t go less than 800. After we found and modified a house plan, the main floor ended up being just over 700 square feet, while the loft was over 300 square feet. That makes the total 1113 square feet. I am not getting my original dream of a tiny house, but I am getting a happier husband and a pretty lovely home in the end.

What do you think of our plans thus far?

<3

Emory