Single-Level Shouse Plans: A Shop House You Can Live In for Life
TL;DR: A shouse (shop + house) puts your home and a big shop under one roofline. The best ones keep the living space on one level, with no stairs and no loft, so the house still works as you get older while the shop keeps up with your work and hobbies. Our Oak and Rose Mount designs do exactly that.
What is a shouse?
A shouse is a home and a shop built together, sharing a wall or a roofline. It's popular across rural Missouri because one building covers both how you live and how you work: equipment, a truck, a woodshop, a tractor, an RV.
Many shouse plans put bedrooms upstairs, in a loft over the shop. That saves foundation, but it puts stairs between you and your bed. If you plan to stay in this home for decades, keep the living space on one level.
Two single-level shouse designs
The Oak
- 2,210 sq ft of living space on one level
- 3 bedrooms, 2½ baths
- A 3,059 sq ft shop alongside
- Open great-room living with the shop steps away
See the Oak →
The Rose Mount
- 1,800 sq ft of living space on one level
- 3 bedrooms, 2½ baths
- A 3,820 sq ft shop, the biggest in our lineup
- Room for equipment, vehicles or a full workshop
See the Rose Mount →
Both sit on a slab with a zero-step entry and no stairs anywhere in the living space.
What to plan in a shop house
- Sound and smell. A shared wall between the shop and the bedrooms carries noise and fumes. Put a mudroom, laundry or garage between the shop and the living space.
- The door between them. Make it wide (36 inches or more) with no step, so you can roll a cart, or a wheelchair someday, straight through.
- A mudroom with a wash station keeps shop dirt out of the house. Some owners add a dog wash here too.
- Heat and cool them separately. The shop doesn't need the same comfort as the bedrooms. Separate HVAC zones save money.
- Shop doors and wall height. Plan the overhead doors and wall height around your biggest equipment before the design is final.
- Fire separation. Ask your county and your insurer what they want between the shop and the living space.
Why SIP walls suit a shouse
Solid-core SIP panels insulate and seal far better than a typical metal building, so the house stays quiet and comfortable even with a working shop next door. The panels arrive factory-cut, and your GC sets the shell in days.
How to start
- Get your free estimate with your living and shop size.
- Book a free 30-minute planning call to talk through your land, your shop and how you want to live.
- Reserve your design. Your $9,000 design package adapts the Oak or Rose Mount (or another single-level design) to your land and your equipment, with a Walk Your Plans visit to walk your full-size floor plan and make final changes. The plans are yours to keep, no matter what. We're only taking on 10 new design clients through December.