Would anyone like to help me design a future barn/house combo?

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

That is cute and very much what I have in mind! The big difference with my plan is I want the entire second floor to be full height as in your second photo. Then there would be a wrap around overhang on at least 3 sides. This is overkill for 3 goats, 2 pigs and a dozen chickens but we all know how animal math works. Apartment would need to be at least 3 bedrooms as I have 3 kids. They’ll all be in college by the time this happens but I’d like for them to still feel like they have a comfortable home. It’s actually the size of the house that’s driving barn size so I’m just trying to fill in the “basement” with animal space. LOL

Do you have interior stairs or just the deck? I once lived above a barn that connected to the center aisle hay loft through the second bedroom and had a ladder down but I’m too old for that now. It was nice to toss hay in my PJs while the coffee brewed or get to the horses without shoveling snow, and I’d like to have a similar setup without the dust and smell. No idea where I’ll end up so zoning is an obvious consideration.

Would anyone like to stake a stab at driving home after a long day of work, putting away groceries and running out to feed/water animals in this set-up? I’m more interested in the actual flow of where key things are placed than building design (above or connected) at this point.

[Weezer]

Twice in my life I have rented apartments in horse barns and I didn’t like that absolutely everything in my home smelled like the barn. Even going out for a fancy night, I smelled like barn. So I think ventilation is really important to address that.

[candyappy]

An older couple we knew converted their horse barns loft into a home and the horses were underneath. They said it was wonderful and years later when they sold the property after the husband died, they had no problem doing so.

I like the look of the A Frame one above.

[Simkie]

If you’re wedded to this idea vs a separate structure, absolutely consider a bathroom–at least a powder room–downstairs. Especially if you’re thinking of having boarders.

Where are you storing hay?

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

Ugh, my power went out twice while trying to respond so here’s the gist.

I’m not wedded to anything other than easy care for me/sitters and a system where animals still have some outdoor space in bad weather or when potential sitter only comes once a day, i.e. chickens have free access to a protected area 24/7.

Bathroom would be easy to add in feed room since kitchen and other bathrooms are directly above.

I have zero interest in high input/high output animals long term so any horses would belong to someone I know who is probably staying in the house with me anyway. Weekend getaway, layover type of thing and they’d be doing the heavy lifting.

There would be a separate building for equipment, hay and bedding. Daily use would go in the storage area next to feed room but goats don’t require anything near the amount of hay horses do.

[jawa]

My barn is 36’x36’. If you were to bump out both sides of the roof line with full dormers, you would have a 1,296 sq ft to work with for living space. If 1/3 of the upstairs wasn’t a loft/storage area, we could easily have 3 bedrooms and 2 baths upstairs. The den, kitchen and dining spaces would be tight for 5 people, but it’s doable.

In a 20’x 24’ area we have a kitchenette (no oven), a dining table that seats 4, a large full bath, a 13’x12’ bedroom (king size bed), a 12’x12’ bedroom, and a den that has a sofa, loveseat and oversized chair. We didn’t put ANY closets in the space because we knew we only wanted short term visitors.

There is a hallway that leads to the loft space. From there you can access the feed room via a set of stairs. The stairs are not to code, but are FAR safer than a ladder. The treads are slightly narrow and the rise is slightly steep. We do have a VERY sturdy hand railing installed. I insisted on stairs and a second exit from the apartment in case of an emergency.

I have a toilet in my tack room so I don’t have to go upstairs just to use the facilities.

Make sure you REALLY research what’s required for an elevator. I have friends that had one installed (years ago) for a mother in law suite upstairs. It has been a nightmare of issues from the beginning.

The dumb waiter you mentioned sounds good as long as it can send up the groceries from the biggest shop you do in a month. You will have to go up to unload each amount the dumb waiter can hold. Also think about the weight it is able to lift. A case of waters or beer is heavy. It’s certainly better than having to carry it up the stairs, but it sure would be nice to be able to stack lots of groceries on top so you don’t have to make extra trips up and down the stairs.

One thing we added to the loft area was the ability to use an electric winch to hoist 300+ lb loads up to the loft. It required some reinforcement of the trusses, and it may never be used, BUT we would be kicking ourselves in the butt when we needed it Nd hadn’t planned for it.

[B_and_B]

A variety of thoughts. First off, in terms of ‘flow’ it would seem that two of the three bedrooms need to be above the stalls. I’d suggest bedrooms all on one side, that would let you have a living space opening onto the overhang on the other half. The reasoning for this is to create a good utility stack. Keep your kitchen and bath above your mudroom/laundry/water spigot for animals. I’d probably put the kitchen/dining above the garage.
Interior and exterior (that do not go into the animal space) stairs are a must. The interior can be spiral to maximize space, check out tiny homes for how to work that.
Also, absolutely have at least a half bath downstairs!
Overall living space layout is going to be ruled by ventilation. Nobody wants the prevailing wind to blow the scent of chicken and pig manure into their bedroom on a balmy spring night when the windows are open. Also consider that animals when enclosed create a humid environment. More ventilation is better.
That being said, drainage becomes critical, really, really critical.
I know you aren’t thinking about construction, but build with an eye towards keeping the areas separate: drainage, ventilation, temperature. A firebreak is probably going to be needed for insurance, but this will also help with the ventilation/temperature issues if correctly done.
I’m personally more of a connect the dots on a single level fan: i.e. single floor house connected to barn, but with planning above can be done as well. It just usually isn’t planned well…

[Simkie]

@CrazyGuineaPigLady

There would be a separate building for equipment, hay and bedding. Daily use would go in the storage area next to feed room but goats don’t require anything near the amount of hay horses do.

I see no way to unload from a truck or other vehicle directly into your storage space. Perhaps add a garage door to the front? Having to hand carry everything through a people sized door doesn’t sound like fun.

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

@jawa

Make sure you REALLY research what’s required for an elevator. I have friends that had one installed (years ago) for a mother in law suite upstairs. It has been a nightmare of issues from the beginning.

We looked into elevators for my ILs many years ago. They dragged it out and ultimately didn’t last long enough to get one installed but I learned a lot about the mechanics and which are least problematic! Good thoughts on the dumb waiter, too. It might be best to put money into a good elevator from the beginning.

@B_and_B

A variety of thoughts. First off, in terms of ‘flow’ it would seem that two of the three bedrooms need to be above the stalls. I’d suggest bedrooms all on one side, that would let you have a living space opening onto the overhang on the other half. The reasoning for this is to create a good utility stack. Keep your kitchen and bath above your mudroom/laundry/water spigot for animals. I’d probably put the kitchen/dining above the garage.

I’m not loving the stair location in this design (believe me, I’ve done 100 over the last year LOL) but the kitchen will be above the feed room. I really, really want some kind of outdoor cooking space and a place to grow herbs so I’d like a covered balcony above the storage room. All rooms that need water or drainage will be in the laundry/feed room area.

@Simkie

I see no way to unload from a truck or other vehicle directly into your storage space. Perhaps add a garage door to the front? Having to hand carry everything through a people sized door doesn’t sound like fun.

There will be a garage door at the end of all aisles, so one a few feet to the right of storage room for trucks to unload. I can make the door any size or put it wherever it needs to go but we’re talking about 10 bales or bags at most. The bulk of deliveries would go to a separate building where I’d pull out what I need for the day or an entire week.

FYI - I use a crafting program because it’s easy to edit and color block. Each square = 1 foot

[Simkie]

@CrazyGuineaPigLady

I can make the door any size or put it wherever it needs to go but we’re talking about 10 bales or bags at most. The bulk of deliveries would go to a separate building where I’d pull out what I need for the day or an entire week.

I hand carry grain through doorways. It sucks.

At least make it accessable for a gator type vehicle. But seriously, unloading from the back of the truck into your storage stack, taking as few steps as possible, makes a lot more sense if you’re custom building…

I don’t get making this all in one building for ease, if you’re storing all your grain/hay in a separate building and have to hump it all over DAILY. You’re not saving foot print, you’re not saving steps, you’re still going outside in bad weather. Might as well build a house and a barn instead of a house/barn combo with all those inherent challenges and costs, and separate storage building.

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

@Simkie

I don’t get making this all in one building for ease, if you’re storing all your grain/hay in a separate building and have to hump it all over DAILY. You’re not saving foot print, you’re not saving steps, you’re still going outside in bad weather. Might as well build a house and a barn instead of a house/barn combo with all those inherent challenges and costs, and separate storage building.

I wouldn’t keep several months of hay in the barn anyway so another building would still be needed. I’m not understanding why you feel a Gator or even a full sized truck can’t back into a 16 foot wide aisle and unload right in front of a 4-6 foot wide door. In the sketch above I just threw door openings in to demonstrate how you’d get from place to place but they aren’t set in stone.

You lost me with the bolded part. The feed room is already 24 X 16, which I think is plenty big for most anyone’s needs, so I portioned out another spot for extra storage. Unless I become a hoarder or go off script and get horses 10 bales of hay, 5 bags of grain and 5 bags of random items like bedding and supplements will last 30 days so that’s likely the amount I’d keep in the barn. While I might grab some hay (daily) to put in a field for goats in nice weather, I certainly wouldn’t be working out of a shed in pouring rain or a foot of snow.

[Simkie]

You posted above:

@CrazyGuineaPigLady

The bulk of deliveries would go to a separate building where I’d pull out what I need for the day or an entire week.

I don’t see the point of going to great lengths to custom build an all in one building for yourself and animals, that will require extra insurance, not be particularly marketable, and require considerable extra design work to work, when you’re planning an entire extra building for storage anyway, and see yourself going to it daily for supplies.

Building a barn (with appropriate storage) and a house (separate from the barn) is not only not marketable to a wider swath of people for when you’re ready to move on, but is likely cheaper to construct because you’re not reinventing the wheel/dealing with fairly disparate needs (barn vs home), is less costly to insure, and allows you to have ground floor living.

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

I get that you don’t like the concept and find my afterthought of a storage area problematic. I’d prefer a separate building to store 6-12 months of hay and equipment that runs on gas but you can make a different choice.

[Bluey]

Have you consider some part of that, since you are not in flatlands, but have some elevations to work with, to put the barndominium on a slope and build it as some kind of part bank barn?

If you can make the upstairs on some side have their own entrance at ground level and the barn it’s own below, that would solve many of the access problems dwellings over a barn tend to have.

I have lived in all kinds of places, some apartments over a barn and it was ok, except the time I was injured and those stairs were like climbing the Himalayas, many times a day, for every little thing, ugh.

It is super handy to live right where you can just walk directly in the barn, don’t have to first brave the outdoors to get there.

Sounds like you will have fun just researching all about this.

[B_and_B]

I’ve seen some really awesome bank barns over the years. Including some gorgeous conversions from full barn to barn/living space. Might be something to consider for OP?

[clanter]

What is the concept for the upper living quarters layout? As it is all plumbing would be in the front part of the structure

… and a second and/or third way out the second floor (other that jumping out of a window)?

[Bluey]

@clanter

What is the concept for the upper living quarters layout? As it is all plumbing would be in the front part of the structure

… and a second and/or third way out the second floor (other that jumping out of a window)?

Or a rope ladder.
You better not have a broken leg mending, as with one you can’t get up or down even thru regular stairs.
That elevator is looking better and better and a large generator to run it in storms

Another option would be having main rooms, kitchen/living room bathroom and one possible bedroom at floor level, other bedrooms and storage above.

[clanter]

@Bluey

That elevator is looking better and better

but should not be used if there is a structure fire… and the shaft for the elevator really need to be built correctly otherwise it can become a chimney

[Bluey]

@clanter

but should not be used if there is a structure fire

Right, they are a fire draw that expands fires much quicker and if they quit working and you are stuck between floors …

[CrazyGuineaPigLady]

I would love a bank barn. No idea where I’d end up buying land or if it will be a blank slate but the only thing I’m ruling out is pancake flat and treeless for miles. I’ll definitely have a generator that powers everything.

@clanter

What is the concept for the upper living quarters layout? As it is all plumbing would be in the front part of the structure

… and a second and/or third way out the second floor (other that jumping out of a window)?

Everything shaded in gray would be living space above. The kitchen and two bathrooms would be above or surrounding the feed, laundry and front entrance. I’m still not sure about stair location in this draft but it can be tweaked later.

The area above “storage” and possibly north of that (the aisle) will be a second story, covered balcony off the kitchen to grill and grow food. There would be an exterior set of stairs going down to the barn aisle door.