Good ideas from the
past on how to plan and design an attractive, easy-to-build and
easy-to-maintain home in the country.
Pioneer log
building has its limitations. The length that any wall could be
was limited by the height of straight tree trunks on the land
and the weight of a log that one or two people could lift. It’s
rare for an old log building to have any walls that are longer
than twenty feet.
When a barn or
cabin needed to be larger than twenty feet by twenty feet,
pioneers built a series of small rooms and joined them under the
same roof. One of the most common arrangements was the
"Dog-trot." It was two log rooms, really two separate
cabins, connected by a roof. The space between them was an open
porch.
This type of
cabin became popular throughout the south. Dogs and their
masters found that the open bay, between two long flat walls,
acted as a funnel for cooling breezes. The exact same
configuration, a covered, open space between a home and a barn
or garage, is the common "breezeway" of New England
and Midwest country homes.
If you’re building in the
South, or want a cool outdoor space in summer, consider a Dogtrot.
Country Home
Outbuilding Plans Plans, prefabs and
easy building kits for horse barns, garages, sheds, pole barns,
work shops and country outbuildings.
Free Plans for Rural Homes and Country
Buildings Explore a great selection
of free, downloadable plans for cabins, small country homes,
barns, garages, sheds, workshops, solar homes, horse barns,
garden structures, playhouses, dog houses, birdhouses and more.
