The Burrow Floor Plans

Of all the projects we’ve done, The Buffalo Burrow is our most exciting yet. Y’all know I’m so passionate about the making of home. So designing the home our family is going to live and grow in for some time has been both daunting and a dream come true! Thank y’all so much for all of your sweet feedback on our exterior elevations. I’m thrilled for the charm this place is going to have!

We’ve poured and poured over these floor plans and I am so excited to share them with you today! As I shared in my style inspiration post, I want this house to feel like an old country house. Very collected, plenty of texture and quirk, and nature inspired. Building a house to truly feel old can be very expensive, but we wanted to add as many old house elements as possible. And that greatly influenced the floor plans.

Okay, let’s take a look at the first floor!

Annnnnnd, I’m giddy.

Y’all may remember a big debate on Instagram about a separate dining room vs. open concept. People are PASSIONATE about this topic one way or the other and it was so good to read through all of the ideas! We have always had open concept…as in one big room that everything is in. It’s worked well for our small mill houses and has always been the only “right” answer for our projects.

But I’ve always been drawn to old houses. And as a part of that, I’ve always wanted a foyer with a stairwell and a separate dining off of it. This is traditionally referred to as a “formal” dining room and so many said they weren’t formal people. Haha, we aren’t either! I don’t see it as formal at all for our family. It’ll be collected and lived in, but a distinct dining space. I was hoping to achieve this old house feel with a little separation, but still have good flow and some openness. Separate, but open…sound impossible? I thought so at times! But I really love how we achieved that with big cased openings into the living. The dining room will have a six foot opening and the kitchen will have an entire wall open to the living room.

Remember, our hope was to get this footprint as close to the required 1,200 sq. ft. as possible while still meeting our space goals. That meant really scrutinizing every foot of space. We don’t have space for a breakfast nook, but I didn’t want one. I really wanted to have one true dining space that we use for all of our meals. But the island will have some seating at it for kids and congregating in the kitchen.

Speaking of separate, but open, I’m in love with what our architect worked out for the foyer! I really wanted a foyer with a stairwell inside the front door. But I also love a stairwell and railings in the living room like my parents have for pretty views (and let’s be honest, Christmas garlands!). I love how he achieved both. The railings will be open for an entire wall in the living room, but it still feels like a distinct foyer.

I could write a novel about all I love about this floor plan, but a few other things to note. We tried to get as many windows as possible. I love the triple windows in the dining and kitchen and the full wall of windows (doors will be full windows too) in the living room.

For me, designing this house was MAJORLY about views (both views of nature and views of things within the house). As we were designing placement of things, I spent a lot of time picturing myself standing at different spots and imagining the views. The views played a big role in where things are placed. For example, the master bath. We really wanted a window in the master bath, but one thing we’ve found from all of our houses is that separate closets are really important to us. And closets off the bathroom vs. bedroom are too, if at all possible. We’ve had both and off the bath worked so much better for us. So all of those things combined sort of nailed down the master bath floor plan. I pictured the view from the door of the window at the end with light streaming in, a row of cool lights overhead and a runner all the way down the center and the idea of that view sold me on this placement and the hallway down the center it creates.

There are still small tweaks we’ll make to the layout of each space like the laundry and mudroom cubbies and spacing of certain things, but this is a solid plan we’re working from. A lot of people had passionate opinions about laundry placement too. It was so good to read through those and process what we want. I’ve always wanted and preferred a laundry/mudroom combo that we enter through if possible that’s off the main spaces so I can easily work on laundry while going about life throughout the day. So I’m really excited about this hardworking entry from the garage.

One of the biggest challenges with this house was each floor affecting the others. To try and prevent re-work, we got the first floor solidified first and then made the second floor work around that. Here’s what’ll be going on up there!

I pretty well covered what we love about the second-floor above, but one thing I’ll re-iterate: DORMERS! I’ve always loved dormers and the special little nooks they can create. We’ve never had a second story, so this is new territory for us and I have so many ideas for creating neat reading nooks and “secret” play spaces in each. This is going to be the most special place for our little ones and I’m thrilled for them!

Rosie gasped when I showed her the plan and she said, “Oh, y’all made a room for Bubby right off my room!” pointing to one of the dormers. So, yes, one dormer has been claimed as Rosie’s babies’ room. I’m so excited to really play that up and create a little home for them (and for her).

Last up, let’s take a look at the basement. We really debated whether or not to even do a basement because we just don’t want the extra space. For us, this house feels just right and we don’t want any more room to manage. But, we finally decided that with the layout of the land, it was worth the cost of getting the basement structure in place to have the easily-finished future option. We’re thinking mainly for resale potential (whether we finish it before or not) or for using this space for something different than our family’s needs. Regardless, it’s good to have the option.

We’ve designed it to have two beds, a bath, and a living space at the foot of the stairs. We’ll for sure get the plumbing in place and may frame out the separate rooms because that doesn’t add much at all to the overall framing bill. But it’ll sit otherwise unfinished for a long time.

There’s The Buffalo Burrow, friends. I’ve cried little tears of joy many times over how sweet this place is going to be for us after so much moving and I can’t wait to share how it unfolds. The grader officially started this week, so the process has begun and I’ll share some shots of the cleared lot and build-site next week.

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19 Comments

Love it! So sweet how you have thought about the way you want to live in the space. Also glad you went with the basement option- I think the option to add bedrooms would be great if your family changes. One question- where will the bed go in the room on the upstairs right? To me it seems like two non-centered windows would work better on the long wall so a bed can go between!

Yes, I can’t imagine putting kids down there, but maybe one day when they’re older! Or even just for guest space too! We considered putting two windows there, but they didn’t work spacing wise with the pitch and how shallow the house is…but that room will likely one day have two twin beds or bunk beds instead of a double, so I’m still figuring out that bed placement 😉

I love it, and I’m so grateful that you’re sharing your build! It will be so much fun to watch it rise and come together.

I just designed our future home, and I agree with you on so many points!

Like the laundry downstairs combined with a mud entry. It’s convenient to where I spend my day time, laundry-doing hours, and really muddy clothes from working with our planned farm animals can be dropped at the back door.

And the old house idea of main living spaces that are separate yet open to each other, with a real dining room. Coziness + flow! We’re not formal either, but a separate room for meals make them comfortably intentional.

Then there’s always thinking of views and light. Two of my organizing principles were the desire to stand at my kitchen island and see green pasture through windows on three sides and the determination to bring in the maximum light possible. All decisions had to flow from those principles.

So happy for y’all. Our contractor says that we’ll probably feel like our heads are going to pop off a couple of times during the build. My prayer for you and your family is that those times are few.

Also, you’re making me want to blog our build, too. 🙂

Oh my goodness, I WANT you to blog your build so I can see that take shape! That kitchen view sounds so so lovely!!! “comfortably intentional” – oh my goodness, I love how you put that! And that may just be my new goal for this! Thank you for sharing all of that, Ann!

Oh my heavens… It’s perfect! I agree about the dormers ? we just built our first home last year and share so many points with you! Prioritizing the views, keeping a (much) smaller footprint, screened porch and mud room! Yes ma’am!! I can’t wait to follow along!

Aww yay, so glad someone else can relate to the smaller goal…which it’s ended up being a bit bigger than we intended! But others think this is really small so to each their own, I guess haha!

How exciting! Love the floor plan sounds like it will serve your family well! Looking forward to seeing everything unfold!

I have had a mudroom entry in both of my last two houses and loved that; one thing both of them included is a closet for hiding hanging clothes and laundry baskets on the floor for sorting.

I would be somewhat hesitant about placing the fridge where it shows in the floor plan. Hard to tell for sure, but does the island block the natural flow to the fridge from other parts of the kitchen?

Yes, a closet in the mudroom is so nice! We have one in this mudroom too and I’m so glad it worked out. Even to just sit the vacuum in! On the fridge, this placement feels right for several reasons, but we’ve gone back and forth between switching it with the cabinet beside it! We may still do that – we’ve got a little time left to decide 🙂

Amazing!!!! I agree with you about the separate dining place without the breakfast nook. I really love sitting at the same place for every meal whether it’s me and the kids or a huge dinner party joining us! And the dormers. Dreams are made of those! Just beautiful. Excited to see it come to life!!

I LOVE it! We had dormers in my childhood homes. In the first, my mom turned them into secret playing nooks, and in the second home it was the reading nook in my bedroom. Your kids will adore them. And I love that you planned the home thinking of views. Such a great idea! It’s going to be gorgeous.

Looks lovely and well thought out!! My only recommendation would be to add a door (maybe sliding) between the mushroom/laundry and the kitchen. I absolutely love my laundry/mud room off the kitchen but my only regret is that it doesn’t have a door. It’s a pain when you want to do laundry and have company and all you can hear is the machines running. Also nice to just close the door on some of the mess and chaos in there if people pop over unexpectedly.

Lindsay,
This looks so wonderful! You have several features that are my all time favorites from past homes we have lived in. We lived in St. Louis for fifteen years when our kids were little. They spent HOURS riding their big wheels in a racing loop in the unfinished basement on snowy and rainy days. The next house had dormers that overlooked the trees in our yard. Some of my best memories was the light from the moon shinning in the dormers as we said end of the day prayers talking to the Lord as a family. The next house had a yard for endless fort building and digging holes! Our present home is my favorite because the entire back or our home is floor to ceiling windows facing the woods. Pines, giant oaks and glorious sunrises across a mountain range. Life is wonderful declaring God’s glory everywhere he takes us. Blessings to you and your family!

My daughter and SIL l built in 2016. Her only regret is that the main floor is too open space. She’d love some walls. And add closets anywhere you can. You’re going to love this home. So happy for you and the family!!

Okay, Lindsay, I confess it’s taken me a while to get on board with this new house because I’ve so loved your little bungalow. However (drumroll) I do see how this layout really is perfect for your current season in life. And I’m so glad for all of you! My observation has to do with that unfinished basement that you didn’t really want. A family we knew had just the same feature, (also on a wooded lot, also a walk-out, daylight basement). The unfinished space turned out to be a fabulous indoor playground for the kids on cold winter days. They hung swings from the floor joists, put the kids’ bikes and trikes down there, had fort-building materials that didn’t have to be put away… You get the picture. I’m sure you’ll find a zillion ways to use the space, but thought you might enjoy this idea.