For some homeowners, small and charming has always held a certain appeal. How else to explain the enduring popularity of the so-called "kit" home? Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s catalog-based "Modern Homes" program delivered more than 100,000 home-building kits to empty suburban lots between 1908 and 1940.

It's no surprise, then, that the diminutive Katrina Cottage designed by New York architect Marianne Cusato as an alternative to those bleak-looking FEMA trailers that popped up throughout the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina would reach a second audience: those looking for an inexpensive vacation home or backyard studio.

Replacement shelter is usually pretty dull stuff. Yet the Katrina Cottage, which debuted as a 308-square-foot demonstration home at the International Builders Show in Orlando in January 2006, quickly became the darling of the housing industry because it was so, well, darling. Building professionals and regular folks alike were charmed by its simple yet visionary design, and before long, Lowe's Home Improvement recognized its commercial potential.

In December 2006, the big-box building supply company signed a licensing agreement with Ms. Cusato to sell plans and related building materials needed to construct a series of Katrina Cottages. Now available nationwide, there are 19 floor plans ranging in size from 308 square feet (the original cottage) to 1,807 square feet (a five-bedroom, two-story house with a first-floor master suite). Other architects designed half of the cottages in the series.

Lowe's has yet to sell any of the cottages in the Pittsburgh area, perhaps because marketing largely has been restricted to the company Web site and in-store brochures. Even so, interest has been strong.

"I've quoted a lot of them out," says Wayne Olexa, a commercial sales specialist at the company's Robinson store.

One big reason for the interest is the way they look. Patterned after the picturesque, English-style cottages of the 1700s, the houses feature covered front porches, steeply pitched roofs and lots of paned windows. Some models also have sleeping lofts and vaulted ceilings; a few, including the two-bedroom, two-story KC 936, are designed to "grow" with additions to the side or back when time and money allows. (A closet door under the stairs converts to a doorway leading to the optional 12-by-14-foot master bedroom suite.)

Adding to their appeal is that they don't require a lot of property. The smallest one measures a mere 30 feet long and 14 feet wide, including an 8-foot-long front porch. The largest is 26 feet wide and 55 1/2 feet long. Since most of the cottages are just one room deep, cross ventilation is not a problem. And their 9-foot ceilings allow hot summer air to collect overhead, lessening the need for air conditioning.

Unlike sheds and other outbuildings, Katrina Cottages are considered permanent structures and require a foundation. Whether or not you can do all the work yourself depends on your skill as a contractor, since the cottages are stick-built rather than kits.

Blueprints cost $700 and a base building package for the smallest cottage -- which consists of items used to frame in the structure -- runs about $10,500. That price excludes costs for a foundation, roof, siding, heating and cooling systems, septic or sewer systems, labor and permits.

You can buy a material package that includes everything you need to build the house from the foundation up, including Hardieplank lap siding, Galvalum metal roofing, windows, doors and kitchen appliances. Depending on customization, a 544-square-foot, two-bedroom design will cost you between $29,920 and $35,360 ($55 to $65 per square foot). If you purchase all your materials from Lowe's, you receive a $700 rebate in the form of a gift card. Depending on size and style, the smallest Katrina Cottages can be built in as little as six to eight weeks, leaving you plenty of time for landscaping and planning your outdoor decor.