The pilot property sites were separated from the main facility (the trading establishment), and were built from 1900 and onwards. Each site had livestock, such as a cow and a few sheep. Comprising each property was a residence and a small cow-house/barn, which was situated on uncultivable ground by the boathouses. This arrangement formed an outdoor area, providing a favourable climate between the buildings and the boathouses. Lush garden vegetation still characterises this area. The green plots carpet the areas between the knolls and buildings.

The pilot residences in Tranøy were built following a central chimney plan principle, often referred to as a cross-plan solution. Such a plan solution was common throughout all of Norway, in the first part of the 20th century. This was an approximately square plan divided into four rooms with a chimney in the middle. Typically a hall with a stairway leading up to the first floor comprised one room

while a kitchen, living room and a chamber room made up the other three rooms. Sometimes there are two living rooms instead of a chamber room. There is often a large dormer with a window on the main façade, which provides three separate rooms on the first floor beneath the steep pitched roof.