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.

Enjoy this post? Share it with friends using the social networking buttons below.  "Like" the FaceBook page, facebook.com/smallscalehomes, and join the conversation, or start a new one in the comment section.  Thanks!

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

Tiny Home In Stowe Vermont

I love Vermont and I visit whenever I can.  It's a beautiful state.  When I'm there, I frequently find myself in the town of Stowe.  I spotted this tiny house pretty much right in the center of town.

I honestly know next to nothing about it, but I think that it's possible to more or less infer its floor plan based on external clues.  I'd guess it's dimensions to be about 12' x 20'.  That would make it about 240 square feet. It appears to be a free standing apartment associated with a much larger house, and it echoes its neighbor by sharing similar proportions and details.  The roof looks like a 12 in 12 pitch (45 degree angle), common at this latitude due to heavy winter snow accumulations.  The very simple, understated detailing is typical for a  Vermont dwelling.

One interesting and unique feature it has is a second floor deck, visible when you view the building from behind.  This is particularly striking given that the little house does not seem like it actually has much of a second floor.  My guess is that if it does have one, then it would be tough for an adult to stand up fully anywhere other than directly under the peak.

The back features two small awning windows.  I'll bet the one on the far left is in the bathroom, and the other one is probably over the kitchen sink.  On the far right of the back you can see a metal structure sticking out of the wall.  It's a gas vent, probably for a gas heater on the inside.  In fact, if you look closely, you'll see a bit of copper pipe coming out of the ground and then bending to enter the house a few inches above the base of the wood siding.  That's likely to be where propane is being piped-in for the heater.  You can also see  the balusters  around the deck on the far left.  I guess there is a flat-roofed portion of the house over the bathroom area.

 

All in all, it's a pretty cute tiny home in a prime location, easily seen from the main
road in downtown Stowe. 

 

Enjoy this post?  Please share it using the social network buttons.  "Like" the FaceBook page, facebook.com/smallscalehomes, and join the conversation, or start one in the comment section below.  Thanks!

Categories: Home, in, Stowe, Tiny, Vermont