How to Find an Old House Plan for a Cottage

Check your local bookstore or library. Bookstores, especially large chains, carry architectural books such as George F. Barber's "Victorian Cottage Architecture: An American Catalog of Designs, 1891," or R. W. Shoppell and Francis A. Davis's "Turn-of-the-Century Houses, Cottages and Villas: Floor Plans and Line Illustrations for 118 Homes."

Large libraries often have old home plans in the architectural subsections of their nonfiction collections. Visit one to locate free plans and pictures of the type of cottage you want. Even if the plans are incomplete, pictures of the cottage you like will help your architect get a solid idea of what you are looking for once you are ready to build.

Search for plans online at websites such as Antique Home or Authentic Historical Designs. Both sites provide visuals and history about the many cottage plans they offer. For example, Antique Home reports, "The Tudor and English Cottage style is notable for its steeply pitched, cross-gabled roof. Decorative half timbering is common in the gable and second story." Antique Home offers design plans for bungalow, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival cottage styles.

Authentic Historical Designs offers plans for French, farmhouse, and saltbox cottage styles. This site even lists features of the homes, such as the number of bathrooms and bedrooms each style contains, the type of lot that would work best for the cottage and the number of square feet of living space each house provides. As with those on Antique Home, Authentic Historical Designs' plans come from architectural books published in a much earlier era.

Visit an architectural firm. Sarah Susanka, author of the best-selling book "The Not So Big House," is one prominent architect who sells stock house plans to those who cannot afford a one-on-one consultation with an architect. The architects at Ahmann Design also specialize in predesigned house plans as well as custom plans. Call a local architectural firm and ask if they sell stock plans. if not, they may be able to direct you to those who do.