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The 12x14 Little House Office

A 12 by 14 foot home office, built from the Little House plans by its owner and set on a new deck that reaches out over a steep ravine.

Updated 12-15-09

the finished 12x14 home office with a shed roof, seen across the deck
Here you can see the finished project with the deep shed roof rafters supporting the plexiglass covering for the deck. That way you can get between the office and the house without getting wet!

Here are photographs and the story of a large deck built over a ravine to support and connect to a new home office.

These photos came from CountryPlans and PlanHelp member Jeanne Howell

I got an email the other day:

“I finished my office, built using your somewhat modified Little House plans, in September. I built it atop a deck that was in some ways the harder of the two projects, extending as it does over a very steep ravine. The sheer drop, plus lots of soft fill and hard to find bedrock, made locating and installing the footings in the cold rain last October - November dicey. I got the deck supports in by the time we got that big snow last winter.”

footings and a drain line going in on the wooded slope beside the existing house
Getting footings in place for the office and the deck extension. Main house and existing deck is on the right.
posts, braced bents and main beams framing the deck over the slope
Getting in the posts and main support beams.
the deck framing standing above the fern covered drop into the ravine
Can you see the steep drop-off?
the owner nailing off framing at the outside edge of the deck after dark
Working in the dark is fun!
joists in place for the office platform and the deck extension
Platform for office and deck extension almost complete.
new deck railing with wire mesh panels, and the plywood subfloor down for the office
New railings on the deck and the subfloor platform down for the office.
two walls of the 12x14 office standing on the new deck, windows already in
Side walls of the 12’ x 14’ modified Little House are up. The roof will be a low-slope shed.
the inside of the office with batt insulation in the walls and ceiling and two big windows
Lots of nice big winows let in the light. Insulated and ready for wall board.

The finished office

the finished office looking in from the entry door, with a glass desk along a row of tall windows
Now we have a functioning office!

“It seems odd to some that I did all the building myself, even while chronically sick and hurting. I do many such odd things.

In some ways, working like this against all odds has helped keep me alive and glad of it.

Even five foot three inch, sixty year old ailing grandmas like myself can move mountains with enough feistiness!”

the small bathroom built into a corner of the office, seen past a wall of bookshelves
My tiny bathroom.

“Now my attention needs to turn to using the new office for the business I built it for.

Which involves finding ways to use my career skills (licensed clinical counselor and Presbyterian minister) online somehow, now that I’m homebound with severe chemical sensitivies, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.”

Comments from John Raabe: Thanks for sharing your fine project Jeanne. We all wish you the very best in your new office!

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