Does anybody have some floorplans for a barn with breezeway and attached living quarters they want to share? Looking for layout ideas for the house.
Looking for ground level attached apartment not above the barn.
First you need to decide how much space? Number of bedrooms, how many people will live there? Bathrooms? Budget? What is important to you. I like a big kitchen and open space.
Here are a whole bunch of them, found them under the Horsemans Ranch floor plans, the equestrian community in TX:
Whatever you do, consider very seriously to have the house and barn as attached structures, on the same ground floor.
Living quarters above horse stalls are not that good an idea for several reasons, but if someone is determined to have that set-up, well, it is their house and barn, so that is ok also, just not ideal.
Bluey- can you elaborate on the disadvantages of living quarters above the stalls? Clearly non-smoking is a given and having any horses that kick their stalls would be annoying. What else? How about a barn manager apartment in a boarding barn?
We are definitely not interested in having the LQ above the barn
Bluey, also curious why? 
Since it’s kinda my dream (even though I’m pretty sure my county won’t allow it…)
Also, that link was mostly Pintrest links, so I can’t view them. Sad face 
We don’t want the stairs.
I searched google aready. I was looking for input from people that have built one and / or live in one.
I lived in both kinds, in all kinds of barns, in Europe and in the US.
If you work around horses, if you are just alive, you will at times be sick, injured or just impaired in some way where stairs may become a huge problem.
The problem with mice/rats, bugs of all kinds and smells and noises with quarters above a barn is huge, with quarters at the same level much, much less.
The danger of fire, with an up to code firewall between barn and house, is more acceptable.
Some builders won’t even consider that kind of structure, their permits are way more complicated.
Some insurances won’t go there, maybe because there are not many such to compare, or not familiar with such, insurances being risk adverse themselves.
A friend bought an old RV and parked it in the barn and lived in there for some years, until he married and then had to move to a real house, because of his family.
He still prefers, if he were to live alone, his old RV.
A friend cutting trainer build a big training barn and a two story apartment right in it.
The upper floor was the arena viewing room and porch, nice to sit there and watch the horses being trained.
He and his family ended up selling out because they just didn’t have any privacy.
The clients were always coming and going, one after another, just didn’t work for them.
As a private barn, it may have worked.
As a horse person, we would like to have our room right by the stall and the horse looking into our living room from it’s stall, don’t we.
We have to decide what makes all around sense, what we want in our house/apartment and in our lives 24/7 and where we want separation from our horse life and personal one.
Also, consider resale value, because sooner or later, we will have to sell and move on.
I build to ground level apartment attached to my barn. I absolutely love it and if I was ever to build again I would do the same thing. The only drawback is the insurance is much higher.
I don’t really have plans as I just drew it out on graph paper and pencil. I have a 10 stall barn with a garage in between the barn and the apartment. The garage is only used when I need to unload grain or groceries or if the weathers going to be really nasty otherwise I don’t park in it. I definitely like having the garage because there will be times that I have a load of hay and don’t feel like unloading immediately, yet it’s undercover.
My bedroom is it the furthest end of the apartment away from the barn. I have a fabulous kitchen that is full-size high end appliances because I really like to cook and entertain.
I have a small office that can be converted into a guest bedroom and my tack room is attached to the apartment, however it’s on the other side of the firewall.
I had the barn first and lived elsewhere so would have to drive and my horses got used to seeing me come down the lane. When I first moved in, The horses could not believe I appeared behind a closed door. Now they must have their ears perked listening for any movement in the apartment knowing that breakfast is ready to be served. I absolutely love my apartment and barn.
I built this in the south. It’s absolutely wonderful to be able to go out in the middle of a hot hot sunny day and still be undercover and not have the sun beating down on you. On the other hand if I ever was to build again in the north I would build this type of arrangement.
Other than the insurance this is such a great way to go.
It sounds great–do you have pictures?
fivehorses: sounds like what we want to built. how many sqaure feet do you have for your LQ?
Here is one plan:
Look at Horseman’s Ranch, if you scroll down it shows some of the homes. I thought there was a tab for floor plans but couldn’t find it.
http://www.horsemansranch.com/amenities_horsemans_ranch.html
They are smaller homes with attached barns via a breezeway.
The barn where I’m currently boarding is a barn/living quarters.
It is set up under one big roof. On one long side are the horse stalls - 8 of them, all with runs, tack room, bathroom. Then there’s an aisle way, a storage area (hay, etc.), arena.
On the other long side of the arena is the garage, and a “mini arena” where the dogs romp and play during bad weather. On the other side of all that, is the apartment.
I’ve been in it once, and it’s quite nice. Perfect for 2 people.
Also on the short side of the arena is covered RV parking.
BO says she can still hear horses at night if they are kicking, but also admits to being a light sleeper.
Like fivehorses said, you can go from house to barn without being in the weather. It’s a really nice set up; I’d love to have something like it when I retire!
I’ve also lived in an apt over the barn. It was nice too, but I agree with other posters about the downsides.
I wonder if you could just alter barn plans that are under one roof, to suit your living quarters needs? I am sure you’d need to know about the codes involved and the firewalls, but that might be the simplest thing to do?
we rented a farm where the house was attached to the barn, and it became a requirement when we were looking to buy!
I wouldn’t want to do above-barn housing (huntbox) as I’d get tired of all those stairs, especially on grocery-shopping days! We have our barn attached via large sunroom area (converted garage), and there are SO many great things about having them connected:
–don’t have to go out in rain/snow/cold to do night check or monitor a sick horse
–water/power come from house, so keeps it simpler
–heat and a/c can come from house, making a climate controlled tack room feasible
–I can go feed breakfast in my PJs
here is a copy of the floor plan, and the front and back views so you can see how it looks. The house is just under 3K square feet, and we do have an 900 sq ft apartment over the barn that we don’t use but would be great for live-in barn help, trainer, or MIL suite.
If I could change anything, I wish I had a 6 stall barn instead of just 4. We have a very large run-in that can be converted to shed-row stabling if needed, but having additional “main” stalls would be nice.
Morton Buildings has this…
www.mortonbuildings.com/reference_number/3716/
And I love this… stalls on the left With a nice overhang, LQ on the right.
www.chronofhorse.com//forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=40612&d=1421078262
You can also go with a barn plan and a house plan, especially one with a side garage, and have a breezeway built between them. If you finish the exteriors of both in the same wood / surface and colors, you can get the custom look.
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