A design should be flexible enough to accommodate different lifestyle changes that occur over the time a person lives in a building. This post shows how those changes can happen in the previously posted Contemporary House Plan 1 without any change in the buildings footprint. No matter how carefully a house is designed for a particular client, changes in their life over time may necessitate modifications to the building. This design allows a house to start out as a 1,600 sf plan and expand up to 2,600 sf within it's foundation. This is important if the house is on a tight site where local zoning regulations may preclude, due to setbacks or site coverage limits, the ability to expand or add on.
This example converts the garage space into a family room by opening to the kitchen and the rest of the ground floor as well the interior courtyard. A "catch all" storage room is retained for stuff usually stored in a garage, such as garden equipment or snow tires. Upstairs, two bedrooms are created that share a full bath along with an additional storage closet. This would be a very cost effective remodel to accomplish since it involves very little site work, no breaks in the exterior skin (other than two windows), and does not involve disruption of the main living areas in the house.