Side Hustle House was designed around a basic premise: a home should be able to adapt as your life does. Beginning with an affordable footprint, the design allows for future expansion — making room for a growing household, adding workspace, or generating rental income. This is housing that’s been designed to endure.
Buying a first home used to be a given. For many Americans, it no longer is. Housing costs have outpaced wages, inventory is limited, and the options that do exist often don’t fit how people actually live and work. The result: young professionals, families, and long-time residents are being pushed out of the communities they call home.
Many are bridging the gap with side work—rental income, freelance gigs, small businesses run from home. Others need room for a growing family or an aging parent. The Side Hustle House was designed with all of this in mind—it’s housing that can adjust to accommodate life’s demands.
We designed the Side Hustle House with the simplicity of a classic cottage and the flexibility to support many ways of living—families, roommates, multi-generational households. Living spaces are oriented to one side, so units can sit comfortably in a row without sacrificing privacy. The form is familiar, the construction straightforward, the design built to adapt.
The Side Hustle House is designed to be straightforward to build. The footprint has four corners for simple foundation work, dimensions follow two-foot increments for easy formwork, and the framing uses standard stud heights and pre-engineered roof trusses. Window variety is minimal.
The design supports energy-efficient specifications and is conducive to panelized or modular construction for those looking to save on materials and build time.
Any licensed contractor should be able build the Side Hustle House by using conventional methods, readily available materials, and intuitive details.
One plan set. Three components. The Side Hustle House starts with a Base House and can expand with a Side Addition, a Tail Addition, or both. All three are included—build what fits your life now, and add on when you’re ready.
Explore the three components below —click to see descriptions and floor plans for each
This is where it gets interesting. The Side Hustle House can be configured in multiple ways depending on your needs—now and down the road. What you see below are a few examples of what your home could become, starting with the Base House and expanding from there. How it actually comes together will depend on your goals, your contractor, and local requirements.
Explore each configuration below—click to see dimensions
The plans were designed to be easily customizable by a licensed contractor. Work with yours to tailor your Side Hustle House even further—floor plans, porch layouts, roof forms, exterior materials, and more.
The Side Hustle House is well suited for small-scale development, village-style clusters, and mixed-income communities. If you’re exploring affordable or workforce housing, ADU-friendly zoning, or incremental development strategies, the Side Hustle House offers a flexible framework to build from.
This drawing set has everything you need to build the Side Hustle House—base plan, side addition, and tail addition including:
Structural, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical plans are not included—these should be completed locally to meet your area’s codes and requirements.
Side Hustle House is a pay-it-forward initiative. We offer these house plans as our contribution to making homeownership possible for more people.
$400
The Base House includes the complete architectural drawing set needed to build the original two-story Side Hustle House (1,105 SF total). This is the essential home — compact, efficient, and designed to grow.
The side addition connects directly to the main house while allowing for separation between living and working. Like the tail addition, it is fully documented and designed to be added now or in the future.
The Tail Addition attaches to the back of the Base House and is designed to flex with your goals. Two plan options a and re included—Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) and Bedroom Suite Expansion
Base House Dimensions: 18’ x 32’
Base House Dimensions: 18’ x 32’
Side Addition Dimensions: 14’ x 22’
Base House Dimensions: 18’ x 32’
Tail Addition (ADU Option) Dimensions: 18’ x 24’
Tail Addition (Bdrm Suite Option) Dimensions: 16’ x 20’
Base House Dimensions: 18’ x 32’
Side Addition Dimensions: 14’ x 22’
Tail Addition (ADU) Dimensions: 18’ x 24’
