House plans (floor plans) for extended families living

[Holly IN]

Hello,

 

Hubby and I are talking about the future. Our home is big but not big enough for kids to live here after they get married. We do believe that we are returning to the time of possibly extended families living together due to cost and economy (remember the pre-depression and during depression?). I have tried to search for ideas of home plans that cater to this need. (I would love for SWB to give us her floor plan so we can figure out how to make it work) :)

 

Anyway anybody know of a good site that has this type of thing? Anybody here considering this?

 

Thanks!!

 

Holly

[Susan in KY]

We are considering it for our aging parents. We are thinking of building a house with two wings in the shape of an open V, one side with two apartments and one side for our family, with shared dining and gathering facilities and a courtyard. Money is the issue, of course, but that is the dream. After our parents no longer needed it, our kids would be able to stay.

[Carrie12345]

My aunt and uncle have a ranch-style home. They added an apartment (and additional great room) to the back of the house, forming an L shape, giving access through the house and from the outside. 1 bedroom, 1 bath, galley kitchen, dining/living combo in 8 or 900 sf.

[Ottakee]

Many families around here are doing that. First make sure your zoning will allow it. Many will if it is for family, not rental income but some areas have restrictions on "multi family" homes.

 

I would make at least 1 part and any shared spaced handicapped friendly/accessible.....entry ways with a ramp or zero threshhold, bathroom with a roll in shower/room for a shower chair and a helper, wider doorways all over, etc.

 

Even if you might share many meals I would at least put in a kitchenette in the 2nd living area for newly weds or the elderly who just want to make a snack or heat up leftovers. A full kitchen on a smaller scale (think apartment size stuff) would be nice as well.

 

THink of sound barriers as well between spaces/floors. Having some privacy will go a LONG ways into making this work.

 

My friend has designed a few plans but so much depends on what you are looking for. Ours was 2 bedrooms on the main floor--almost like 2 master suites on opposite ends of the house and then in the basement was 2 more bedrooms a bath and a family room for the main house and then room for a small studio/1 bedroom apartment on the lower daylight level. It was likely too small though to make totally wheelchair friendly but would have been great for an adult child/young married couple or active seniors. We ended up finding our current home for less than we could build so we didn't go with that plan.

[bethben]

I think if you had a walk- out basement with separate access, that could give you two houses in one easily without added expense. You could set up the basement area for future kitchen access or just put one in. I have a friend who did this with her adult son. The only issue they had was that she could hear him through the venting system even though they were separate central air systems. Another idea is how they have made those victorian homes into duplexes. They split the entrance giving an additional set of doors to get into the house with an apartment up and the family space down. We too are thinking this way with our disabled son. Our solution right now is to build a large room off to the side of our home with a bathroom and small kitchen - a little bit of a studio apartment feel.

 

Beth

[WTMCassandra]

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[Amethyst]

We did this years ago with my mother-in-law. I took a houseplan that I found in one of those books with tons of house plans. The original plan called for a 1st floor bedroom. I touched up the plans and made the 1st floor bedroom her bedroom and turned what was originally the family room into her kitchenette/living room. We then took my preliminary plans to the builder. So, I will suggest that looking at lots of those books will give you ideas of what can be done to your house.

 

As far as zoning, we were told that we couldn't have complete separation. So, there was a door (solid) from her bedroom into our foyer. But we never, ever used it. When dh wanted to visit his mother, he walked outside and went in thru her back door. EXTREMELY important to keep that separation there right from the beginning.

 

More unsolicited advice...communication between adult child and parent is vitally important. I am eternally grateful that my dh was able to communicate (some times quite forcefully) with his mom when it was necessary.

[Reya]

We will be adding on for the grandparents.

 

It would be nice if my kids' families could stay here until they have a sizable amount of money for a house of their own. I don't know if we'll have the room for that, though!!!!

[CyndiLJ]

Our family has talked a bit about this as well, as we too see the trend and have read articles about multi-generational living returning. I have no idea if we will find ourselves doing it later with our own kids, but after my own father died, we moved in with my mom for 6 years (we had no kids yet) to help her fix up her house and get her on solid ground financially. It worked and I am glad we did it. As hard as it is these days, I see it as possible that we may find our kids living with us much longer than is currently the norm, in order to save for a down payment on a house, etc. Also, we have one son who just might not be quite 100% capable of living completely on his own, time will tell on that. Surely there is someone somewhere designing plans, as there really are a lot more folks doing this.

[prairiewindmomma]

We house shared with my grandmother when I was a child. She had the basement with two bedrooms, bathroom, a living area, and her own kitchen and laundry area. It had a separate entrance. The stairway from the basement fed up into the garage....to get into the "main" house, you would just walk through the garage. This offered a LOT of privacy for both families.

 

I houseshared with other family when I attended law school. We didn't have any type of separate kitchen setup and it was a bit of a struggle for me as I really wanted a place to keep separate groceries. It also made it more difficult to have a social life outside of the other family's social life as so much of socializing at home revolves around food (at least for me) and so more coordination was involved for when the kitchen was being used. I also needed more sound buffering between us---I got sick of hearing the couple fight.

 

Now that I'm in the position of possibly having parents/inlaws move in....I don't think the separate basement thing would work out even though we have that type of layout here. The needs are different.....and parents/inlaws would need main level living with accessibility.

 

I really like U shaped houses that wrap around a center courtyard. If we were to build, we would likely do something like that and just put in a mini kitchenette (sink, minifridge, microwave) into the inlaws suite. We would have some safety concerns about MIL having access to an oven by herself (she could burn the house down).

[Holly IN]

I have been doing a lot of reading of articles on this topic. Most of them say get two kitchens and two masters. I agree on the masters. But kitchen?? I can understand getting a common kitchen which would be bigger and a smaller kitchen for them but if you have 3 or 4 generation living together.....what then?

 

Here is my idea.....

 

The center of home is the common area with a kitchen, dining and keeping room all in one room. The have a seperation on either side with their own rooms and maybe upstairs have multiple bedrooms esp if you have two children with their families living with you.....I have heard of this in some of the articles. Yes it would require a much bigger home but if you set it up right then it won't be costly.

 

Anybody drew one out???

 

I am going to draw several out this week and figure it out. We won't do it unless we have to so we do have time before kids are grown. I do have a soon to be 18 year old who may go away to college or live at home while in college. Also we have a special needs daughter (HFA) who is a very smart girl but can't handle social situations much and think she will be with us for the long haul unless we find a very special man for her (we do have one in mind but he is wanting to go into military....we have no problem with militiary but my dd can't handle that. This young fella is over at our house every weekend and loves it here.)

 

I love my house but hubby said we can't build on wihout adding or getting a bigger septic as the county will make us do it.

 

Thanks!!

Holly

[Truscifi]

For those wanting 3 separate units, I have seen a cross shaped layout as well. One arm is the entry and living room, kitchen and dining area in the middle, and suites in each of the other arms. The sketch I saw had 1-2 bedrooms in each arm as well as a bath and kitchenette.

[cathmom]

We have discussed moving in with my mom, who has a split level house. Our ideal was to build on another level that would be a master bedroom with bathroom for us, my mom would stay in the existing master, and the kids in the existing bedrooms, with totally shared kitchen.

[BrookValley.]

We've lived multi-generationally with my mother for about 15 years. Our home has a walk-out basement that was finished into a separate apartment. She has her own kitchen/dining area, living area (though she doesn't use this), bathroom, and large bedroom. The only thing we share is laundry facilities. Works pretty well for us.

[Researcher]

There was an article about this recently: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/us/building-homes-for-modern-multigenerational-families.html?hpw&pagewanted=all&_r=2&

 

I believe the developers name is in the article and you might be able to search their website for house plans.

[Anne in CA]

This is interesting to me, because obviously Americans are swimming in living space compared to other cultures, and yet living like other cultures will change Americans. Not to mention what if you don't want to live with your adult children? My 24yo is visiting for Christmas and she is DYING to move back in with us, but she wants us to pay her bills and be responsible for her and it is not going to happen. Yet she sees other young people her age living with their parents and she feels very entitled. It is not easy when you are already having a hard time figuring out how you will retire and your kids want you to keep supporting them. I do understand it is harder for them to find work than previous generations, but we will live longer than previous generations and the thought of facing the future with less retirement because we spent our middle age supporting adult children is scary.

[Rebecca VA]

We recently moved into a split-level house with a recently added wing. The new wing has a very large, suite-type bedroom, a kitchenette/dining room, and a large, handicapped-accessible bathroom. It can be closed off from the rest of the house. The wing has doors which open out into the backyard and also to the side yard (which could enable someone to get to the street without using any stairs). We hope to install a small washer/dryer in that wing to make it completely independent from the rest of the house.

 

Upstairs in the split level part there are three bedrooms. We didn't need all those bedrooms, so we made one into a cozy media room with sofas, a TV, and a computer desk. That still leaves two bedrooms (my daughter's and a guest room) and two full bathrooms upstairs.

 

Downstairs in the split level part there is another room (which we're using for storage) which can be made into a bedroom if necessary. There is another full bathroom down there. The washer/dryer room is downstairs also.

 

So we sort of have three separate living areas, any of which can be closed off from the others. There's a large central area which contains the kitchen, living room, dining room, a half-bath, and the computer room.

 

This all sounds enormous when I type it out, but it's really cozy and nice. It doesn't feel especially large. We love the fact that most of the house (the new wing and the middle area) is wheelchair-accessible. You just never know when that might be necessary.

 

Wanted to add: We're hoping that our daughter will live at home for college and use "her" wing. There's plenty of room up there for girlfriends to come and visit, and for her to set up a study area. This is such a great house -- we didn't go looking for a multi-generational home, but we stumbled upon this one, and we can already tell it's going to be so useful.

[Bear23]

no plans to share but are looking at places with room to add when my parents finallly move in or near us. some places we have looked at have the additional in law suites. we haven't started actual house hunting but will be come 2014

[UrbanSue]

We own a two-family house with a finished basement (including a full bath and small kitchen) and a pretty nice attic that could be converted to living space down the road. Right now, the rental income is the only thing allowing us to own. In several years, as our family grows, we may move into all or part of the second floor apartment as well. When our kids are grown, maybe some of them will remain living in some of the apartments. If not, dh and I will have a more than adequate space for the two of us in the first floor apartment and nice retirement income from the rentals. Being a landlord isn't for everyone but it is normal where we live and provides a lot of long term flexibility in terms of how we use the house.

[cathmom]

We recently moved into a split-level house with a recently added wing. The new wing has a very large, suite-type bedroom, a kitchenette/dining room, and a large, handicapped-accessible bathroom. It can be closed off from the rest of the house. The wing has doors which open out into the backyard and also to the side yard (which could enable someone to get to the street without using any stairs). We hope to install a small washer/dryer in that wing to make it completely independent from the rest of the house.

Upstairs in the split level part there are three bedrooms. We didn't need all those bedrooms, so we made one into a cozy media room with sofas, a TV, and a computer desk. That still leaves two bedrooms (my daughter's and a guest room) and two full bathrooms upstairs.

Downstairs in the split level part there is another room (which we're using for storage) which can be made into a bedroom if necessary. There is another full bathroom down there. The washer/dryer room is downstairs also.

So we sort of have three separate living areas, any of which can be closed off from the others. There's a large central area which contains the kitchen, living room, dining room, a half-bath, and the computer room.

This all sounds enormous when I type it out, but it's really cozy and nice. It doesn't feel especially large. We love the fact that most of the house (the new wing and the middle area) is wheelchair-accessible. You just never know when that might be necessary.

Wanted to add: We're hoping that our daughter will live at home for college and use "her" wing. There's plenty of room up there for girlfriends to come and visit, and for her to set up a study area. This is such a great house -- we didn't go looking for a multi-generational home, but we stumbled upon this one, and we can already tell it's going to be so useful.

 

Sounds like a fabulous house! I love split levels!