So I bought a cottage on the lake. The cottage on there is kind of crummy so we're designing a new one to tear down what's on there and build. The gotcha is that the lot is skinny. It's only 55 feet wide (200 feet deep).  So the house has to take that into account with 10 feet of space on each side (so we're talking about a 35 foot wide house.

So here's the lower floor as we try to find ways to squeeze it into 35 feet.  My wife really wants an out door bathroom so that kids who get sandy from the beech and such aren't tracking it in the house when they come in to the bathroom.

The other unusual aspect about the house is that it is into a hill. So when you drive to it, you're actually facing the upper floor. So the garage is above.  Now, one way to look at that is to say that the "top" floor is your main floor and then to have a walk out basement.  But I really wanted to have the kitchen and hang out area on the floor that is on the same level as the beech (the lower floor).  So I have the garage connected to the upper floor with stairs leading down to the main floor.  I'm still working on it.

So that's where I'm at with the cottage design.  Right now it's looking like it'll end up being around 2200 square feet. So it's a pretty big cottage but I want to make sure that it is something that someone could live in.