Final Stamped and Approved Plan for Our Modular Cabin

We are having a modular cabin built by Westwood Cabins. It is a single modular pre-fab cabin that is being built in South Carolina to be moved to our land in North Carolina. We made revisions to the plans, so they had to be reviewed and approved to “assure compliance with NC Codes.”*

We finally got back the stamped plans with all of the final measurements and information. Before we can pull permits to build a foundation, we have to have approved plans. “all plans must be sealed by a North Carolina design professional.”

Each page of the plans must bear the dated approval stamp of the third-party approval agency and the approver’s name must be legibly indicated on or adjacent to the stamp (written or stamped name is acceptable). Also, each page of the plans must be numbered (Sheet 1 of 6, Sheet 2 of 6, etc.) or be referenced by sheet title to an index on the cover sheet. A list of sheets that could be but are not necessarily applicable (systems drawings) is not adequate.

There are some circumstances where you don’t need an architect to mark approval of the plans. If the house is small enough and cheap enough, you can move ahead without the stamp. “…a design professional seal is not required if the building is either valued at $90,000 or less or has a gross floor area of 2,500 square feet or less.” But this will be valued over $90,000, so even though this is just a small cabin, it has to follow the same rules as any other house.

So… we finally got the plans back, approved, with all of the modifications we made. We can pull permits and build a foundation ready to put the cabin on.

This is the back according to the plans, but this is the side that will face the front. We will put a front porch here.

The left elevation is the bedroom window. The outside part of the heat pump is mounted to the wall here. It is supposed to be silent, but if it isn’t, we can build a deck for it and un-mount it from the wall. We did that for our house.

This shows how the floor plan lines up with the windows. This will be the side of the cabin with the carport.

The kitchen and living room are open. The ceiling is lofted.

This is the living room plan. There is no window on the wall to the carport.

This give you the basic scale of the kitchen.

The finalized cabinet and countertop plans.

The laundry has a door so it will be quieter when you do laundry.

The hot water heater and breaker box are in the laundry room. The door is as close to one wall as possible to give more storage space on the other side of the room.

The bath is small, but not tiny. There is room for storage. It is ready to add a wall heater later.

The hall has vaulted ceiling like the rest of the house.  The ceiling over the bathroom, laundry room and bedroom closet is not vaulted. The space is used to add a loft. There is a rail to slide the ladder to access the storage.

This is the bedroom plan with all of the measurements. It got smaller because we gave some of the space to the laundry room.

The cabin is from Westwood Cabins. You can see more photos and floor plans at www.westwoodcabins.com and www.facebook.com/westwoodcabins.

*All quotes are from NC Modular Manufacturer Approval Procedures unless otherwise stated.