Its actually kind of cute. Simple is beautiful.
I don't think the first floor bath really works as drawn (is that a shower in it at the end?)

And I don't see a chase for the chimney to get up to the roof. I believe it would be near the linen and clothes closets upstairs.

I agree it is fun to play. It is amazing how difficult it really is to do this well. I guess that's why architects have 5 years of schooling followed by countless hours of more learning throughout their careers!! :)

good luck with your project!

I really like your exterior drawings. I dont know if it can be done or not for that price. I could see this house on a very woodsy lot. Does the 200k budget include the lot price? The only thing I might change in the plans, and i really am not good at critiquing home plans (but someone will chime in), is that I would want a second bathroom upstairs. THen maybe you could push the fireplace into the shower area. Could you delete the downstairs shower to save some money and add another bathroom upstairs? Can you call some contractors who build homes to get an idea of cost per square foot to build in the area?

I know your area very well - both DD and DSIL are Cornell graduates! Yes, Ithaca is very expensive. I know that many faculty live some distance away due to cost. An hour commute in that area in the winter would be no fun at all.

But you may well have to do that for the time being. It might be better to enlarge your existing home and save to build what you really want and need sometime in the future. Life often involves major tradeoffs.

The OP wrote, "...So my ideal house is a folk colonial that looks like it was built in the late 1800's but has been very well updated since then..."

Have you studied true Colonial homes--their plans and exteriors--to see what makes them what they are? They are small and very efficient, and often multiple levels, often including a basement and occupied attic.

A Google search on "colonial homes" will produce a variety of photos and plans which may be helpful. Three- and five-bay houses are often the most graceful and well-proportioned of the many examples.

Good luck!

Thanks for replying! Yeah, that downstairs bathroom is awkward. It's 4ft wide, which I'm not even sure is up to code, but I've seen smaller ones in my life. What I was imagining is that the shower would have a curtain rather than a door and you could walk past the toilet straight into the shower. I think that shower would rarely be used. Maybe if a kid was a huge mess and I didn't want them to track the mess up the stairs, or if hubby waits until 5 minutes before we have to leave to take a shower ( he does that) and the kids are occupying the upstairs. Also, if someone in the family is no longer able to use stairs or we have an aging parent live with us for a time, I thought we could use the office for a tiny temporary bedroom and the downstairs bathroom would be adequate for them. I was also thinking just today that if someone was residing in that room due to mobility issues, it would be great to have a door directly into the bathroom. Like 2 doors to the bathroom on opposite walls, one of which would be locked most of the time. Also... Next to the downstairs shower is a 3ft x 1ft black space. It continues up to the second floor next to the toilet. I don't know if it would work because I am certainly not a plumber, but that is where I imagined the wood stove pipe, shower fan exhaust, and plumbing being put. As it is a wood stove it doesn't need a real brick chimney, but I would put a fake chimney surround on the roof.

Virgil, I've been learning about architecture as I go with this. The first thing I did was look at pictures and determine that an early georgian period saltbox is what I consider probably the most beautiful simple house and I started designing around that. As I went, I couldn't fit everything I really wanted in a well proportioned saltbox without any bumpouts so I changed it to a regular roof and full second story. That made the roof slope much shallower for the same footprint, unless I wanted to make a really tall attic, which I don't. The shallower roof slope makes it look much more of the Greek revival period, which is common around here, so that's good. There aren't any real early georgian period houses around here... it wasn't settled until early 1800s. So greek revivals are common and beautiful. I see beauty in all the ornamentation that many of them have, but I also like simple plain lines and don't think all the ornamentation would fit in my budget. As I look at the old houses around here I see that most of them don't fit into a category completely, because they are folk houses. I thought my house could be a folk house with nice proportions and comfortable light and flow inside. I guess I would want to talk to an expert before deciding what kind of exterior ornamentation we could afford.

The classic Saltbox and Cape Cod houses of New England are models of residential efficiency and good living. Have you looked at Classic Colonial Homes web site for ideas?

Look at comfortable clearance of walking by a toilet. It's more than you think. I just did an upstairs 4 ft wide bath. 3x4' shower across one end, toilet on the other end, as close to the wall as possible with codes, and sink with long counter in the middle, counter running to toilet end. It's tight but doable. You have to walk in to the center of bathroom. Door opens out.

I'd keep in mind that things like moulding can be done later- if your budget is tighter, that's an easy thing to just put in your main spaces, and do bedrooms/bath/etc as-you-go.

I enjoy modest and simple plans more than anyone here probably ;) What exterior dimensions are you shooting for (Ideal square footage?) I've drawn a few ~1100 sq ft plans that also include full basements. My goal is to be around ~1100sq ft and not more than 1150. In my plans, I have all living essentials on the first floor, but it doesn't look like you are worried about that.