Comments on: New Sonoma Shanty Floor Plans

By: Di

Di — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:54:33 +0000

If you’re elderly, try a daybed. Store wardrobe and possessions under the bed. Store extra blankets in pillow cases on top of the bed. Coat hook near the front door.

In the kitchen: Place the sink, along with a single lower cupboard, against “one” of the bathroom walls. For more counter space, try a large cutting board over the entire sink as well as a pull-out cutting board. Store dishes and glasses vertically on a narrow shelf over the sink – use mug hooks beneath the lower shelf. Try a small fridge under the sink. Store a portable stove top, pans, dry goods and a utensil jar in the lower cupboard.

Try one-pot recipes. Use a pan as a bowl and a mug as a measuring cup. It’s okay to eat or entertain with your plate in your lap. Hide dirty dishes in the sink under the large cutting board. Dry dishes on a towel on the counter. Dry dish towels on hooks on the inside of the cupboard door.

A thick towel over the counter works well as an ironing board. Iron your outfit the night before and use one hanger.

In the bathroom: Try a towel/cosmetic cupboard over the toilet. Try a full-length mirror and towel/clothing hooks on the inside of the bathroom door. Have the door open onto the remaining empty kitchen wall.

For spaciousness: Vaulted ceiling, recessed lights, more windows, arched windows at the peaks of the house, glass front door, deep window sills. Skylights for longer-lasting daylight and summer ventilation. Computer notebook for all media.

By: Zac

Zac — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:01:39 +0000

Sounds like a plan, I’ll have to wait till Christmas break because I’m still in school, but I’ll make sure you sketch something up for you. My only concern was if taking away insulation could have any drastic problems in the winter? I also have the idea of taking a foot off the side of the building for space to have a fold down patio that when travelling will just fold up along side the house.

By: Kent Griswold

Kent Griswold — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:13:42 +0000

Hi Zac – sounds like a great idea and if you wanted you could get the basic shell from Stephen Marshall at Little House on the Trailer as he builds one on a trailer and it is 8×20. Look at the kits page http://sonomashanty.com/kits/ and at the 2nd picture down. I like your idea with the bed and storage in the loft. You might draw this up and scan it than email it to me and I could post it so people could visualize your idea more. I know it would help me.

By: Zac

Zac — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:06:07 +0000

Hey, I got some ideas that aren’t specific to the above plans, but which I was wanting to get an opinion on. My idea for a mobile home similar to this is to have a 8×20 trailer where one is trying to max out the height at around 13 feet something. The entrance will be on the side farther toward the corner of the building/trailer. No for insulation i though the sing honeycomb would be great. Then once you walk in you immediately are stepping into the shower/toilet/mudroom area. Here you could put some nice tiled flooring with a drain. This are might be 3 feet by 3 feet. I was thinking a composting toliet could be placed in here with the shower. When you want to show just put up curtains or some kind of hard plastic material. To the left when you enter is the back of closets that go from floor to ceiling. I’m thinking the cealing maxes out at 8 feet. Then going through the mudroom/shower room you enter the kithen which is 3 ft. x 5 Ft. Here you could do as Michael says to use a 2ft fold down piece of wood as a temp. counter that could be folded up. The rest of the space can be customized how you want. Thus, in the back of the home you have the kitchen and bathroom taking up a total of 3 ft. x 8 Ft. of the original 20 ft. x 8 ft. The rest can be used as a living room/bedroom/dining room/tv room/office. Thus you would have 17ft. x 8 ft. to work with. Instead of creating a loft for just a bed, I was thinking of rasing the floor a big to put a king size bed underneath the floor boards. When you want to go to bed you would just lift up the floor boards. Additionally, you don’t need insulation because then during the day the bed acts as insulation. To further use the space under the floor boards I figured this space would be great to store your clothing as sort of a dresser under your feet. This way too the clothes can act as a sort of insulator, but you still have a closet on the backside of the shower to hang anything. Additionally, since have the bed underneath the floor boards that means you have no loft, thus I was thinking you could create like a 2 foot attic space for storage that could span the entire length of the trailer except for the space over the shower and kitchen sink which both would hold water tanks. I believe these ideas would make very efficient use of the space, but I did know quite how well not having insulation would work in a place such as this? For furniture I was thinking just use inflatable furniture to adapt to my needs. Let me know what you think.

By: Kent Griswold

Kent Griswold — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:06:53 +0000

Great suggestion Michael. The floor plans are of course just suggestions. The shanty can be designed however you choose. There are many ways to change and improve it and make it your own…Kent

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:44:37 +0000

After reading Dans comment above about wanting to make the kitchen smaller I got an idea you could try. Instead of having the cabinets against the two outside walls with the isle way between them. Put a lower and upper cabinet against the bathroom wall with the sink on one side close to the door and the stove top on the other side also close to the door. Then to provide more counter space when needed place a flip down counter top across the doorway to the bathroom between the two lower cabinets. When you aren’t cooking you just flip it up and latch it in place to provide access to the bathroom. The fridge can go under the counter on the stovetop side and for even more counter space perhaps a pullout cutting board or even a small flip up table adjacent to one of the cabinets along the side wall.

Just a thought!

By: Website Design Kent

Website Design Kent — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 18:07:18 +0000

A very compact and bijuo design indeed.

By: Kent Griswold

Kent Griswold — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:28:01 +0000

I need to talk to Stephen about revamping that floor plan, I suggested having a kitchen on one side or in front of the shower area and storage on the other. Let me see what I can do. I also plan on blogging on some kitchen options here soon…Kent

By: dan rapson

dan rapson — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:10:06 +0000

I love small homes. Very efficient. However, could you think of ways to make smaller kitchens. The Sonoma uses 1/2 of the inside living area for it. Must be a better way. And fold out furniture/bed. Great job!!!

Be well; have fun…
dan