A Modest House

Over the past several years there has been considerable focus on micro units and designing highly efficient living space. However, these efforts have been focused on the needs of millennials and move-down baby boomers who choose to live in smaller efficient units in urban locations.

The needs of lower middle class and blue collar families that are less attractive financial prospects to for-profit development have not been addressed, even though terms like work force housing do occasionally resurface in the dialogue.

In this memo I will present what I refer to as a modest house, not “The Modest House”, but simply an example of a modest house that is not especially innovative, but is a straightforward economical house.  The goal was to establish a baseline which begins to address the needs of lower income families in a minimum square footage.

This particular design is traditional, and includes the following programmatic features that I believe address some of the needs of a working family.

• There are two “children's bedrooms” that are shared bedrooms. This house can easily sleep 4 children by placing two twin beds or a bunked pair of beds in each room.   For families with more than two boys or two girls, combinations of bunk beds and twin beds can accommodate more.
• The master bath has 2 lavatories in the vanity, as does the 2nd bath for children, so parents who both work can share their bathroom if needed, as can the children.  
• The main floor is open and has several gathering spaces for the family to share time together: in the living room the furniture grouping around the entertainment center, at the kitchen counter/bar, and at the dinging room table.  

The house is approximately 1220 gross square feet. Land costs and construction costs vary across markets; however, in most markets a production builder should be able to build for less than $100 psf and if the lots are modest sized and not in premium locations, a house like this should sell for under $250,000 and require a mortgage of $1,500 per month or less. It can be developed as a stand-alone single family home, but to mitigate land and land development costs it can be combined into duplexes or strings of three townhomes. I believe accessibility requirements may require an accessible half bath on the first floor once a string of four or more townhomes is linked.

This is a first attempt and was designed to establish a baseline. I’m sure this plan can be improved upon and I plan to revisit my efforts periodically and improve this plan as well as develop other designs.

Some issues with the current plan resulting from the goal of minimum square footage are:

• There is insufficient storage: closet space is by no means ample, especially in the children’s bedrooms; there is no linen storage on the second floor; and the attic is available for storage via a pull down ladder at the upper landing, but that only provides inconvenient long-term storage.
• There is wasted, not well used space on the first floor near the entry. In a 1200 sf house, any inefficiency should be avoided.
• Plumbing does not stack. The second floor bathrooms are not located over the kitchen resulting in slightly more pluming than preferable.
• There is no mechanical service space, but I am assuming a mini split HVAC system that does not require floor area for an air handler, and hot water can be provided via an instantaneous wall pack that can be located in the pantry. With all that said, I may be optimistic in believing I have satisfied mechanical needs.

This is the beginning and not the end of an effort to design an efficient, inexpensive house that adequately serves the needs of a working family. Please feel free to comment or post your own solutions or ones you have seen. If you are in a position to develop housing addressing the needs of low to middle income families please freely borrow any ideas you think are worthwhile and contribute further to this dialogue.