Build Shed: Small Cottage on a Beautiful Lake in Vermont

Small Cottage on a Beautiful Lake in Vermont

This waterfront cottage in Vermonts Northeast Kingdom is less than 500 square feet. It also happens to be where my wife and I stayed for our honeymoon almost 14 years ago. It has a galley kitchen, three fixture bathroom, gas fired "wood stove", sunken living room, and screened-in dining porch. Its decorated in a rustic style with furniture by Old Hickory. The lakefront location with its own dock on one of the prettiest lakes in Vermont is hard to beat.

Sunken living room decorated in rustic style.

Essentially the only thing this lakefront cottage lacks to make it a viable full-time home is a washer and dryer.

The massing, steep roof pitches, and covered porch of this little cottage make it look bigger than it is.

The kitchen is probably 6 x 8. It looks like the stove is only 24 inches wide, but thats big enough.

Im featuring this little cottage because as I said above, if you added a compact stacked washer and dryer, you would have pretty much everything a normal full-time single family dwelling has, except of course, more bedrooms and a lot of wasted space. Id sacrifice a bit of the bedroom closet to squeeze in the washer & dryer. If you feel you must have a dishwasher, you could fit a compact 18 inch wide one on either side of the sink, depending on your preference.

The one bedroom. Its probably about 12 x 12, including the closet.


Nice screened-in dining porch with a million dollar view!

If you were to build something like this for yourself, think of how much money youd save by giving up that extra 1,500 square feet found in most homes built today. Then think of all the money youd save on heating, cooling, lighting, maintenance, and so on. Raise your hand if you want to be a mortgage slave. Yeah, me neither.

That million dollar view I mentioned.

I just made a quick, hand-drawn sketch of the cottage based on what I can recall from 13+ years ago coupled with information gleaned from these photos. I never measured the place, but I think its pretty accurate. I know its just a sloppy sketch, so please forgive me.

The floor plan, as I recall it.

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Small Cottage on a Beautiful Lake in Vermont