Ideas for barn off house garage?

[Starting-Point-Stabl]

After 17 years at our current location, which includes a rather large 8 stall shedrow barn with a bathroom, feedroom, tackroom, and enclosed office we are looking at relocating and starting over on new land.

In 17 years here in NC we have not used the stalls in our barn much. So at the new property we’d like to just put nice sheds in the pastures. We plan to have a total of 6 horses on the property, with 3 of them being boarders. I also give lessons.

I’m racking my brain to come up with an idea for a ‘tack room / feed storage / place to bring the horses up to groom’ building. We’ll also need a bathroom for the boarders and students.

The few pieces of land that we have on our long-list are all sloped and all of them have house sq ft requirements of 2000+ sq ft. We picked out a house plan for a cute ‘colonial’ style 2 story basic farm house with 1700 sq ft. The house builder we are talking with has suggested a walk-out basement given the land slopes and the need for more heated sq ft.

We are empty nesters - kids grown and loooooong gone. We are currently living in 1300 sq ft quite comfortably. I have the to use the walk-out basement as my office and the bathroom for the boarders and lesson students. Then we wouldn’t have to have separate septic or an HVAC’d office out in a barn. So that would save us some money and use space in the house we probably wouldn’t have utilized. The riding arena wouldn’t be far from this location so it would work.

Now I’m thinking about a place for tack / feed / grooming.

I believe we are also leaning towards a semi-detached garage (attached to the house by a breezeway).

Has anyone built anything off / used their garage?

If I do a Google or Pinterest search for ‘attached barns’ I get these HUGE elaborate houses with HUGE barns that are way out of our range.

But I was thinking on the much more modest side of this (we won’t need space above the garage) … https://smhttp-ssl-66659.nexcesscdn…_prettybig.jpg

and more modestly… http://www.oldhouseguy.com/wp-conten…on-600x293.jpg

[clanter]

here is a link to the same line of discussion from 2014

https://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/f…-pics-or-plans

[Bluey]

Horsemans Ranch, a developer housing project around horses, has the kind of houses you ask about:

images for Horsemans Ranch houses with barns photos and plans

You can see the plain, but very nicely appointed inside houses with a barn attached.
I think that is what you are talking about?
Maybe some of that will give you ideas.

You could have a couple stalls maybe for lay-ups or a friend traveling overnight stay, for a couple horses and the rest of that structure be your storage/tackroom/bathroom and an aisle to work with the horses.

The idea of a basement you can walk out and use for office etc. seems good also.

We too have had a few stalls for decades now that we just never use.
Our horses have been living outside and coming to the overhang shed to the barn for most we need.
Not having stalls to clean, just pens, is a great time and energy saver.

[Hunter_s_Rest]

My mom had a neat colonial house here in rural northern Virginia and retro-fitted the 4 car garage into a 2 car, 3 horse garage. She put up a half wall between the left and right halves. SHe only had one car, so the front bay of the car space was a junk area/workshop.
The other half she put in two half walls, making 3 stalls (you did have to go through one or the other stall to get to the middle one, but it was NBD. There was a little area at each end (there was a garage door at each end of this structure) where she could put a little tack bay at one end and a little hay storage, tie/grooming area at the other.
It probably cost $2,000 total and worked great for many years. She put mats over concrete, sawdust over (horses were never/rarely in for long), and since it was already sloped it was NBD for drainage.

[Jim_in_PA]

Even if your horses love to live outside 24/7, you still may want to incorporate at least one stall or space that can be configured as a stall into your new barn design in case you face an equine medical situation where stall confinement is indicated or makes care easier to handle.

[Pennywell_Bay]

Check with your insurance company. Some are fussy about what they will cover with barns, distance to dwelling etc.

[clanter]

@Pennywell Bay

Check with your insurance company. Some are fussy about what they will cover with barns, distance to dwelling etc.

some cities such as the one we live in also are fussy about distance between dwelling and stables …there is a minimum separation distance

[Pennywell_Bay]

@clanter

some cities such as the one we live in also are fussy about distance between dwelling and stables …there is a minimum separation distance

oh right on. Our township is VERY hard on that, as is some insurance companies. Zoning for your township is a big deal. People tend to forget about it.

Not to mention future possible resale…

[Starting-Point-Stabl]

@Pennywell Bay and @clanter

I’m not keeping the horses in this building, or using it for hay storage. My idea is having a combo garage (which can be attached, semi-attached via breezeway or completely detached from the house) as a place for a tackroom / feed room (not for hay, but for feed storage and feed prep) and the cross ties area. There is already electric, plumbing and hot water in the house. I can’t imagine that use could be any differently viewed than an attached garage for parking a car with a ‘shop’ inside of it? Hmmm.

The horses’ housing will be out in the pasture in the form of sheds, well away from the house / garage (shop). Hay will also be stored elsewhere (in a shed).

[clanter]

my daughter took over the den to store her tack. She had eight or ten saddles and a bunch of bridles plus two tack trunks …then to make tacking up more covenant she added four cross ties just off the patio … the garage was used for the more of the tack… then she built a small barn next to the main barn… covering one of the small barn stalls into another tack room …

Regarding a walk out basement, when we lived in Kentucky our basement was walk out also…wife kept her pony in the basement much to the questioning by a few neighbors …but after complaints to the city animal control and the humane society inspected the setup giving it a passing grade… animal control check the city’s ordinances which had nothing about a pony but only limited chickens … I guess it help to have the pony whinny at the inspectors

It was odd to go to the front door to see the animal control office and the humane rep there at the door … “I have been told you have a pony in your house?”… well, yes we do.

[beau159]

My aunt built a barn that had living quarters in it … and then it turned into their house ! The main living space was essentially a garage in design. Upstairs in the loft they had a kitchenette, bathroom, and bedroom. The loft overlooked the “garage” area. Through a simple door, they had 2 horse stalls and their tack/feed room. Out the back door of the “garage” area was the horse’s paddock. It really was a neat little setup.

I know it’s not quite the format you were asking about OP, but just know you can design anything you want!!

[susanne]

In keeping with what beau159 has mentioned, there are many plans for garages with apartments or studios overhead, including some with workshop space on the ground floor adjacent to the garage. Do a search for garage apartments and you may find some good ideas for your needs.