The Design goal for the Outback was to create a sunny, well-insulated living space that could serve as winter quarters, or as an adjunct space for an elderly parent, or simply as space to house family gatherings. It was to have a living room, galley kitchen and bath on the first floor, with two bedrooms and a bath upstairs, with doorways into the main house on both floors.
The layout of the Outback started with a bare shell, 20’x30, with a slight bump-out and a door on the North side. A small room had been framed in the North-East corner on both floors and a set of construction stairs had been been built through an opening cut between the first and second floor.
The first decision was where to put the stairs. Given that the outside door and a future door to the main house were in the middle of the North wall, and a desire to not obstruct the South wall, we decided to put a U-shaped staircase in the North-West corner, from the basement to the attic.
Then we went through several possible layouts and settled on this. It seemed the best in terms of utility, traffic flow, sight lines and safety.
We found a way to fit two bedrooms, a full bath and closets into the 600square foot second floor. The door into the existing house opens into the laundry room.
I used SketchUp to model the layout. The models are rough, but aid in thinking about how the space would feel.
The end result is a 1200 square foot living space with two bedrooms and two baths. It features radiant heat, plus heat pumps on both floors for auxiliary heating and air conditioning.