A Review of the 2,030 Sq Ft Country Craftsman Plan (135188GRA)

Contents

• Floor Plan Analysis
• Exterior: Materials, Proportions, and What Actually Works
• Interior: What the Renderings Tell You, and What They Don't
• What This Plan Gets Right
• Points to Consider Before You Buy
• Facade Variations: Which One Fits Your Site
• Who This Plan Is For, and Who It Isn't
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Sources & Further Reading
• The Short Verdict

Floor Plan Analysis

Main Level

Main Level with Optional Basement Stair Location

The plan runs on a classic split-bedroom diagram: primary suite and Bed #2 sharing the left wing, Bed #3 on the right beside the hall bath and laundry, and the great room and dining running front to back through the middle with the kitchen at the rear right. That layout suits households with one of two profiles: empty-nesters who want guest rooms kept at arm's length, or parents of younger children who want sight-lines across the whole home from the kitchen island. It does not work as well for a family with two teenagers, for reasons covered in the points-to-consider section below. For a near-peer comparison at almost the same footprint, see our review of a 2,085 sq ft split-bedroom modern farmhouse. Same diagram, different architectural language, and worth reading side-by-side if you're torn between Craftsman and farmhouse styling.

A few details reward a close second reading. The primary walk-in closet opens off the primary bath, while the laundry sits across the house beside the garage entry, so laundry trips cross the great room. The kitchen works around an L of counters with a short peninsula off the sink wall, a corner pantry in the back wall, and an open view across the dining room to the great room. The garage door opens into a short hall beside the laundry and kitchen, a practical drop point even though the plan draws no separate mudroom bench or cubbies.

The optional basement-stair variant slots the stairwell into the short hall beside the primary bath, where a linen closet and the primary shower would otherwise sit. It's a cleaner location than most, but you do lose that closet, and on a plan this size, every piece of conditioned storage counts.

Exterior: Materials, Proportions, and What Actually Works

The rendered front elevation is doing a lot of quiet work. Three moves, specifically, separate this from a generic Craftsman: board-and-batten vertical siding breaking up what would otherwise be a very horizontal roofline, stone veneer bases that stop about a third of the way up the columns (that one-third proportion is the classic Craftsman rule, and it reads correctly here), and heavy timber trusses under the porch gable rather than the thin decorative brackets most plans at this price use. The standing-seam metal roof is the fourth move, and it's the one a builder is most likely to try to value-engineer out. Don't let them. The architectural language of this plan is built around that roofline, and an asphalt-shingle substitute flattens the whole composition.

The outdoor living area is unusually well-considered for the square footage. The 50-foot front porch spans the full width of the house, and the rear has both a vaulted covered porch off the great room and a second covered porch off the kitchen side, a feature more often seen in coastal and Southern plans than in mid-market plans of this size. If you build this plan anywhere between Charleston and Atlanta, those porches will quietly become the most-used rooms in the house for eight months of the year.

The two-car garage faces the street from a wing set slightly behind the house front, which keeps the overall width to the 81 feet printed on the plan, and that width is the single biggest regional filter on whether this plan works for your site. More on that in the FAQ.

Interior: What the Renderings Tell You, and What They Don't

The interior renderings come in two finish schemes. One pairs white shaker uppers with slate-blue lower cabinets and peninsula, pale stone-look counters, matte black hardware and dark stained ceiling beams; the other keeps the white uppers but switches the lowers and peninsula to light oak, with brass pendants and whitewashed beams. Neither shows an indoor fireplace. The stone chimney visible in the great-room and dining views stands outside on the rear covered porch, framed by the sliding doors and the gable windows above them, which is how the exterior stone carries into the interior view. Wide-plank wood-look floors run continuously through every communal space, which is the right call for a vaulted plan (carpet in the great room would read as an afterthought and absorb sound in a way that fights the ceiling volume).

What the renderings won't tell you is the HVAC load. The plan gives the great room and the dining room cathedral ceilings while the kitchen keeps a flat one, so the vaulted volume runs front to back through the middle of the house, and that is a commitment. Depending on your climate zone, expect to upsize from a standard 3-ton system to a 3.5- or 4-ton (with a dedicated return high on the gable) if you want the space to actually hold temperature in July. That's not a dealbreaker; it's just not a conversation the plan PDF has with you. Talk to your HVAC contractor early. For a smaller-footprint plan that carries a similar vaulted volume and the same considerations, our 1,677 sq ft vaulted-great-room farmhouse review has a fuller breakdown of how the HVAC math changes at a smaller scale.

Furniture placement in the great room takes some thinking. The plan draws no indoor fireplace, since the only one stands on the rear covered porch, so the great room needs a media wall or a strong seating group as its anchor. The working arrangement is usually a sectional facing that wall with a pair of swivel chairs across from it, keeping the path from the front door through the dining room to the rear doors clear.

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What This Plan Gets Right

The primary suite is well buffered. It takes the rear left corner, and its bath and 10-foot-1-inch by 8-foot-7-inch walk-in closet sit between it and Bed #2, which shares that wing, while Bed #3 is across the great room beside the hall bath.

Outdoor space is generous for the size. There are three covered outdoor areas instead of one: a full-width front porch, a vaulted rear porch off the great room and a secondary covered porch off the kitchen, and two of those are unusual at 2,030 sq ft. The front-facing garage sits in a wing set slightly behind the house front, so the porch still leads the façade.

The daily-use rooms are honest too. The garage leads into a short hall beside the laundry, close to the kitchen for groceries. And the kitchen is open to the dining room across a short peninsula, with a corner pantry tucked into the back wall.

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Points to Consider Before You Buy

The two secondary bedrooms share one hall bath. That works for guest rooms, for a toddler plus a guest room, or for two children under ten. It becomes a morning bottleneck with two school-age children and actively difficult with teenagers. If that describes your household, budget for a future expansion to add a second bath, or consider the two-story Country Craftsman plan reviewed here, which solves the teenage-bathroom problem at the cost of a second floor. There is also no dedicated home office. The secondary bedrooms can take that role, but then a home-office user and any overnight guest end up sharing one bath.

Those cathedral ceilings over the great room and dining room have real HVAC implications. Plan on a slightly upsized system and a high return, and expect that tall central space to feel cooler than the bedrooms in winter and warmer in summer unless the ductwork is designed around it. Lot width matters as well: the plan prints an overall width of 81 feet with the garage, so side setbacks push the lot toward 95 feet, and narrow infill lots will force a compromise.

Two smaller items affect the budget. If you take the optional basement, its stair removes a hall closet, which is the only piece of central conditioned storage, so set aside money for a built-in elsewhere to replace it. And the metal roof is a spec the builder will push back on. Budget it from day one, because an asphalt-shingle replacement changes the whole character of the façade.

Facade Variations: Which One Fits Your Site

Dark Modern Craftsman

Smooth charcoal panel siding, a black standing-seam roof, glossy black column bases in place of the stone, and timber trusses left warm, with a strip of light tracing the gable so the wood glows against the dark envelope. Reads best on a lot with mature trees behind the house, because the contrast between the dark façade and green canopy is the whole point. This one belongs in Nashville, Asheville, or the Northwest suburbs of Atlanta; avoid it on an exposed coastal plain where the heat load on the dark surfaces becomes an issue.

Coastal Cottage

Pale grey cedar shakes, white trim and a light grey metal roof turn the house into a beach cottage, and the porch trusses are left to weather toward the same silver as the shingles. The garden follows the Low Country: blue hydrangeas, clumps of dune grass, crushed shell scattered through sandy beds and a weathered boardwalk standing in for a paved path. Mount Pleasant, Kiawah and the Gulf Coast are where this version makes sense, and it is one of the few finishes here that improves with salt air, since shake and raw timber look better silvered after five years than they do new.

Rustic Timber & Stone

Weathered vertical siding, a heavier dose of fieldstone on the foundation and garage, and the trusses doing the most work in the composition. This is the mountain version for Blue Ridge, Cashiers, or anywhere the house needs to answer a forested setting. Would look forced on a flat suburban lot; earns its keep on grade.

Warm Wood & Lighter Stone

Clear-coated vertical wood, lighter stone, stained-to-match timbers, and a restrained planting scheme with a Japanese maple as the focal point. The most refined of the eight variations, and the one that photographs best. Best fit: a semi-rural Nashville or Franklin TN lot, or a lightly wooded Charleston infill.

Industrial Minimalist

Dark architectural panels with exposed fasteners replace the board-and-batten, the column bases and retaining walls are board-formed concrete, the timbers are stained nearly black, and agaves fill weathering-steel planters along the porch. This one departs furthest from the original Craftsman language, arguably so far that it stops being a Craftsman at all. If you love the floor plan but dislike the style, this is the facade to order. Right choice for a Denver or Austin lot with strong HOA design guidelines that favour modern.

Southwest Desert

Terracotta stucco, stone, copper-patina metal roof, weathered timber. Xeriscape planting of cacti, succulents, and gravel. This is the variation for a Phoenix, Tucson, or Santa Fe lot. The one caution: the heavy timber trusses read slightly out of language here. A builder in the Southwest might reasonably simplify them, and the house would be better for it.

Monochromatic Black

All-black envelope: siding, trim, trusses, roof. White gravel beds, birch trees, concrete pads. High-contrast, high-maintenance (black absorbs heat and shows everything), and it photographs well enough to justify both. Reserve this variation for a homeowner who specifically wants it; it's a statement, not a default.

Modern Natural Craftsman

Keeps the original warm wood siding, stone veneer and metal roof, and updates the grounds with curved terrazzo-faced planters full of agave and succulents, a breeze-block screen beside the front steps, simple concrete paver walks and lower-maintenance plantings. The safest of the eight, with the Craftsman language intact and contemporary grounds. If you want the plan exactly as drawn but with a 2020s landscape vocabulary, this is it.

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Who This Plan Is For, and Who It Isn't

A strong fit for: empty-nesters looking to right-size into a single-story home while keeping room for grandchildren to stay; couples with one or two young children who want all sleeping spaces on one level; down-sizers from a two-story who aren't willing to give up the great room volume; any buyer building in the Southeast where the covered porch program will be used eight months a year.

A weaker fit for: families with two teenagers sharing the secondary wing; buyers on a narrow infill lot under 90 feet wide; households that need a dedicated home office plus a guest room plus a children's room (you only have three bedrooms and one is the primary); climate zones above roughly 6,500 heating degree days, where the vaulted great-room volume becomes an expense rather than a feature.

If you land in the last group (home office plus guest room on a smaller footprint), look at our review of the 2-bed Craftsman cottage ranch with a dedicated office. Same architectural language, different program, under 1,800 sq ft.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How much does this plan cost to build in the Southeast?

For the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee over 2024–2026, a reasonable turnkey estimate at this size runs $380,000–$460,000 with builder-grade finishes. Building it as drawn, with the standing-seam roof, real timber trusses and the stone-clad porch fireplace, moves the range to $460,000–$560,000, and the pricier submarkets (the Charleston peninsula, central Nashville, Asheville) start around $560,000+. Land and sitework come on top of every figure, so treat these as planning numbers and compare written bids from at least three local builders before you sign.

What lot size does this plan actually need?

The footprint is 81 feet wide including the front-facing garage, as printed on the plan. With typical side setbacks, plan on a minimum of about 95 feet of lot width, and more if you want a relaxed driveway. Depth is less constrained; 80–100 feet deep is plenty for the house plus the rear porch and yard.

Can this plan be built on a slab without the basement option?

Yes. The primary drawing is a slab-on-grade or crawlspace layout. The basement is strictly optional and is provided as an alternate main-level drawing that relocates one closet to make room for the stair. On a flat lot in the Southeast, we would generally skip the basement; on a sloped lot anywhere north of about Knoxville, the basement is often the better call because you get daylight on the downhill side essentially for free.

Is 2,030 sq ft enough for a family of four?

For a family with two children under twelve, yes, comfortably. For a family with two teenagers, it's tight, and the single shared hall bath becomes the real constraint rather than the square footage itself. Worth considering: the plan's secondary bedrooms are normal-sized, not oversized, so storage-heavy teenagers will outgrow them faster than the kitchen will outgrow the family.

How does the vaulted great room perform acoustically?

It will be livelier than a room with a flat ceiling, because the cathedral volume and the long run of glass at the rear bounce sound around. Soft surfaces fix most of it: a large wool rug under the seating, heavy lined curtains across the sliding doors, and upholstered chairs and sofas rather than leather. Budget for them with the furniture, so the echo is handled before the first evening in the house instead of being discovered on it.

Does the price of the plan include modifications?

No. Architectural Designs sells the plan as drawn. Modifications (mirroring the plan, moving a wall, changing the foundation type, modifying truss spans) are a separate service and are quoted per change. If you know you'll want changes, budget $2,000–$6,000 for a modification package in addition to the plan price.

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The Short Verdict

Plan 135188GRA is one of the stronger 2,000–2,100 sq ft single-story Craftsman layouts in the Architectural Designs catalogue. The bedroom layout is sensible, the primary bath and closet buffer the suite from Bed #2, and the three-porch outdoor program is unusually generous. The genuine trade-offs (a shared secondary bath, a vaulted-volume HVAC load, and the lot width needed for an 81-foot footprint) are real and worth discussing with your builder before you commit, not after. For an empty-nester or a young family in the Southeast, this plan belongs on the short list without hesitation.

If you've read this far and decided it's the right plan for your site, the affiliate link below takes you straight to the listing. If you've read this far and decided it isn't, that's a good outcome too, because the right rejection is worth more than the wrong purchase. To see how a Craftsman-leaning aesthetic can carry through a whole house, our concept piece on transforming a builder-grade suburban into a modern farmhouse is a useful companion: different plan, same vocabulary of vertical siding, stone accents, and warm wood interior.

The Layered Homes editorial team

View Plan #135188GRA on Architectural Designs