Small Cottage on a Beautiful Lake in Vermont

This waterfront cottage in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom is less than 500 square feet. It also happens to be where my wife and I stayed for our honeymoon almost 14 years ago.   It has a galley kitchen, three fixture bathroom, gas fired "wood stove", sunken living room, and screened-in dining porch.  It's decorated in a rustic style with furniture by Old Hickory.  The lakefront location with its own dock on one of the prettiest lakes in Vermont is hard to beat. 

Sunken living room decorated in rustic style.

Essentially the only thing this lakefront cottage lacks to make it a viable full-time home is a washer and dryer.  

The massing, steep roof pitches, and covered porch of this little cottage make it look bigger than it is.

The kitchen is probably 6' x 8'.  It looks like the stove is only 24 inches wide, but that's big enough.

I'm featuring this little cottage because as I said above, if you added a compact stacked washer and dryer, you would have pretty much everything a normal full-time single family dwelling has, except of course, more bedrooms and a lot of wasted space.   I'd sacrifice a bit of the bedroom closet to squeeze in the washer & dryer.  If you feel you must have a dishwasher, you could fit a compact 18 inch wide one on either side of the sink, depending on your preference. 

The one bedroom.  It's probably about 12' x 12', including the closet.

Nice screened-in dining porch with a million dollar view!

If you were to build something like this for yourself, think of how much money you'd save by giving up that extra 1,500 square feet found in most homes built today.  Then think of all the money you'd save on heating, cooling, lighting, maintenance, and so on.   Raise your hand if you want to be a mortgage slave.  Yeah,  me neither.

That million dollar view I mentioned.

I just made a quick, hand-drawn sketch of the cottage based on what I can recall from 13+ years ago coupled with information gleaned from these photos.  I never measured the place, but I think it's pretty accurate.  I know it's just a sloppy sketch, so please forgive me.

The floor plan, as I recall it.

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Categories: a, beautiful, Cottage, in, Lake, on, Small, Vermont

Wood Tex Adirondack Cottage

Every time I drive past the Wood-Tex place in Himrod, NY, I stop in to see if I can get some photos of the interior of this cottage.  I've been trying for months, but this model is always locked-up tight, so I was happy to finally get in last weekend.  

Front view of Wood-Tex Adirondack Cottage

Wood-Tex advertises the model as 16' x 40', but those dimensions include the 16' x 6' front porch.  The enclosed space is more like 16' x 34' which by my calculation is 544 square feet.  Their brochure calls it 510 square feet, but I'm not sure how they calculate that.  They are probably subtracting wall thicknesses or something from the square footage.

Kitchen view

As you can see in the photos, the place is nicely finished and furnished.  I did a post on a smaller Wood-Tex model called the Adirondack Cabin ( click here to see it) previously.  The cabin model had distinct log cabin features both inside and out, whereas this model is slightly larger and as it name implies, it has more cottage-like finishes inside and out.  I also did a previous post on a very nice 768 square foot Wood-Tex log cabin with a loft, called the Gatlinburg cabin.  Click here to see that post.

Dining area

This model would certainly be nice in the backyard as a guest cottage, in-law apartment, granny flat, or place for a returning adult child.  It would also make a nice vacation home or full time stand-alone residence (where permitted) for a single or couple.  It has a separate bedroom that's about 10' x 15' with a nice closet.

Adirondack Cottage bedroom

Bedroom closet

There's also a three fixture bathroom that is about 5' x 8' and includes a combination tub/shower.

The photo below is taken from the bedroom looking out past the bathroom into the great room which is a combination living room, dining room, and L-shaped kitchen.

Great room

A sign posted inside says that you can buy this model as a shell for $24,370.00.  The way it is in the photos includes $25, 295.00 in options including finished walls, ceiling, floors, insulation, bathroom, kitchen, electrical, heating, and modular home certification.  The whole package comes to $49,665.00.  UPDATE:  AS OF JUNE, 2013, THE NEW PRICE FOR THIS MODEL IS $56,350.

A few more exterior shots appear below...

Adirondack Cottage rear view

The video below is one I shot of this cottage...

 

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Categories: Adirondack, Cottage, Tex, Wood

High Quality Bungalow Cottage on Wheels

Bungalow Cottage Exterior.

Todd Miller is an Oregon based architect who founded The Oregon Cottage Company.  It appears he's been bitten by the tiny house bug.  The photos and plan depicted here show what he calls the Bungalow Cottage, which seems to borrow heavily from the Fencl model designed and produced by Tumbleweed Tiny Houses (featured in my 02/25/2011 blog post, see the Fencl post by clicking here).  It is significantly different in it's interior layout than the Fencl however, and some people may find this variation suits their sensibilities better.  The unit is 8' x 20' and has about 130 sq. ft. of habitable space, plus a sleeping loft and a storage loft.  I like the way the loft ladder slides in a track and folds so that it can hang vertically when not in use, thus minimizing it's interference with usable space.

 

He also sells complete plan sets for $250.00 to anyone interested in building this design themselves.  You can learn more about this model and his other work by visiting;

toddmillerarchitecture.com 

View from great room toward kitchen.  Bathroom door (red) in background.

Kitchen detail.  Hot water heater is in cabinet under cooktop.

Interior Looking Toward Entry

Dining Area

Kitchen detail.

Floor Plan

Bathroom.

One piece shower with recessed lighting above.

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Categories: Bungalow, Cottage, high, on, Quality, wheels