Hillside House Plans & Small House Floor Plans From

This house was designed for clients who had a beautiful hillside that looks westward into a gorgeous bay in Maine. Granite ledges stepped away down the hill to the west, and a grove of mature spruce trees made the site private and gave it a great sense of place. Because the granite ledge was so erratic, the architect knew that it would be tough to find a place to build, which resulted in trying to make as compact a house as possible.

Hipped roofs are a natural for this kind of square plan, and that worked well for this house because it seems low and ground hugging as you approach it from the southeast and look down on it from higher on the hill. The building gets tucked into the ledge on the east, then the ground falls away to the west and the building becomes three stories tall with a walkout basement. It could handle being this tall on the water side because it is surrounded by a grove of 60-foot tall spruce trees which frame it and keep the house in scale.

The architect concentrated a great deal of glass on the south side in the kitchen and the dining room so the house would be sunny and warm, then concentrated another cluster of windows on the west where the view is best. On the east side that faces into the hill and the north side that faces into cold winter winds, the roof comes down lower to the ground and the glazing is minimized. You can feel the house embracing the south and the west, and turning its back to the north. Likewise, the south and west are wrapped with porches and decks because on this difficult site, the clients needed decks and porches in order to enjoy being outside. This is not a site where you can step out your door onto the lawn.

In order to keep the house sunny, a pergola of sloped beams is placed over the southeast end of the porch instead of a porch roof. This allows the roofline to run through and minimizes the impact of a two story high wall. The pergola makes it comfortable to sit out on this deck, but the kitchen and dining room inside won't be made dark by too much roof. On the southwest a screened porch anchors this corner of the house and focuses on the best view. This is an outdoor room that will be the primary living space on many long summer afternoons in Maine, and the architect wanted it to have prominence. Since it's right on the corner you can look out past it to the south and west from inside the house, and it doesn't seem in your way.

Upstairs, two bedrooms and a bath are wrapped around a slightly expanded stair hall that doubles as an office. Placing a roof window in the east roof at just the right height, allows you to look out and see who's coming when you're upstairs in this office. These upstairs bedrooms are small, but both connect to an upstairs balcony over the screened porch, giving them an added dimension.

Although this house was designed to meet the challenges of this rockbound Maine site, it would do fine anywhere with a strong southern and western focus and an easterly approach. A hillside sloping steeply to the west would be nice, but with some modifications to decks this house could be built quite nicely on a flat site as well.

Foundation Info
This house was originally designed to have a basement foundation. However, if you prefer a crawlspace or a slab foundation, these are fairly simple and inexpensive changes that your builder can often make for you. If the basement design is not displayed in the Floor Plans, it's because it is unfinished.

Please Note
Due to licensing agreements, this home may not be built in Hancock County, Maine.