Hi all,

We are going down the path of building with H3nley and have chosen the voyag3r floor plan, as it suits our street-end lot (crossover is on the side of the lot in the bottom left hand corner). The backyard faces north.

This is our first build and would be interested in your thoughts on the plans so far. We have chosen a few of the options to make it a little bigger.

Let me know what you think! (This is also my first post with a picture too, so go easy on me if it does not work!!)

http://img83.imageshack.us/i/roughsketchofourhousepl.jpg/

DL

wow! that's a fantastic plan, i love the way you can close off the entire back half of the house if you close the kid's retreat doors.

Maybe one suggestion though. Have you considered putting in a separate toilet or powder room somewhere near the general living area for guests to use? Otherwise guests will have to walk all the way to the back of the house (possibly past sleeping children) to use the toilet.

dilla,

Thanks for the feedback, we like the idea of closing the kids off at the back of the house too (hopefully will not have to doo that too often!!!).

I agree with the need for an extra toilet, with such a large entertaining area we would be sure to host a few parties.

Will see what we can ask for from H3nley. If this fails, we will try to put another door to the other side of the ensuite toilet leading to the hallway, so guests do not have to walk to the back of the house or through the master bedroom.

Thanks again...great idea!!

DL

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For it to come up as a picture you just need to click the Img button above the text box and post your link in between.

I agree about adding another toilet. I'm not sure about the hallway coming into the kids retreat. I think it's taking up too much space. If it was me I would delete that hallway and just extend the wall coming off bed 5 to the same length as the width of the hallway if that makes sense.

Congrats DL! This house is gorgeous, it's the one display (other than our own Panorama) that we visit the most often in Craigieburn as it has a kitchen very similar to ours (but without the cooker on the island). I love the layout, but I do agree with sammy's comment about the hallway in the retreat, you could probably do without it.

Thanks Sammy and Aaron4Erin.

We have been thinking about that hallway wall since picking the design. I like that it shields the bedroms from some noise that might be generated in the kids retreat. We were actually thinking of adding a wall 600mm further into the kids retreat so that the top-left corner of the kids retreat near bedroom 2 is a right angle, and adding another linen closet facing the hallway, for kids to put toys and stuff in, or for kids linen...

We also liked the Panorama (it just wouldn't sit right on our block, and have been reading your blog and threads too! You're all settled and ready to rock... How exciting! (For the record, I think the Mocha brick colour is very nice and you will still be very happy with it).

We title in October/November... but not in a rush...

We had our colour appointment this morning (2.5 hours) , and I am glad of two things:
1. we went a few times before and refined our choices, it was much easier to pick with a good idea of what we both liked ; and
2. we had our colour appointment on a weekday, it was so quite and easy to concentrate... Having a colour appointment on the weekend is a disaster waiting to happen!

We are bracing ourselves for the tender appointment, the upgrades we picked are already making me dispairingly eye off the jar with all our loose change in it!!

Must get around to setting up a blog or thread for it when I get the time....

DL.

hi DL,
anything more been happening since your colour appointment?
hope it's all going well for you...

Hey dilla,

No action yet. Waiting for block to title, which might happen in around 2-3 weeks.

Chasing up whether we can do soil tests now and get on with the tender appointment. Hopefully should hear back during next week.

Fortunately for us we are not in a mad rush (not first home buyers) but would be good to get things going...

Will keep you posted on progress (via a thread) once we kick off.

Dave

I'm sorry I missed this one, have you been able to come up with any satisfactory arrangement for the kids area and bathroom? I would have done something like the following:

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Sorry for the poor quality, I've just reinstalled my operating system and dont have everything else installed yet, therefore I'm having to use Paint!

Well, looking at it again, maybe not quite like that because there arent any windows to the bathroom now... lol

Oh well, I hope you work something out to your liking anyway

Hey D&SG,

I hadn't got any further with it... At our colour appointment, we chose solid timber doors for the bedrooms and insulated the internal walls of the bedrooms to sound proof them better as an alternative. It was not a deal breaker for us...

Thanks for the suggestion, its got me thinking again about it... Maybe I could push the bathroom up against Bed 5 and the external wall on your sketch so that it will get a window... But will keep thinking about it though, was also considering swapping the laundry and the bathroom/toilet around...

Dave.

Hi all,

Had another thought... maybe if I sacrifice one of the linens in the laundry, I could add a powder room there..

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It is located well away from the kids rooms, still leaves a big enough linen in the laundry (around 2.3-2.5m long), and provides a little extra wall space for hanging up coats etc just inside from the garage.

What do you think?

yes, great idea. away from the bedrooms, close to living areas and alfresco for guests to use. And it would save you having to open up the ensuite toilet to the hallway.

it's also close to the entrance from the garage which is handy for those times you get home busting to go

You'll have to make sure it has a good fan in there as it's not against a window - but lots of new houses have toilets not against an exterior wall so it shouldn't be a problem.

Great house design. Looking forward to following your build.

Dilla,

I never thought of how close the powder room would be to the garage internal access door... Good point!

Seems like this might be the way to go, sacrifice a little storage for powder room... Will make sure each of the WCs, bathroom, ensuite and the laundry has a ceiling fan.

Thanks again for your help.

DL

Hi all...

OK, so after 4 months of not posting and delayed settlement on our lot (which was expected), we had a little more time to think about house designs, and consequently we changed everything (the block is still the same).

So we have now changed from a single storey to a double, still with the same builder, but one of their newer designs .

So here we go.. the run down :

House siting:
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Ground floor plan:
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First floor plan:
[ img ]

Elevations
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Ground floor electrical plan:
[ img ]

First floor electrical plan:
[ img ]

We went overboard on electricals!!! But it is exactly what we want...

It has all happened so quickly in the last 6 weeks so:
- land settled;
- colours re-done;
- tender done;
- council consent and report and developer approval obtained to encroach on a setback; and
- contracts signed .

Now waiting for approvals and valuation for finance and then ready to go .

Let me know what you think ... I will update on colours in the next day or so, and then get a blog up and running soon .

I am looking forward to the ride, after seeing so much progress on other builds over the last 4 months!!

DL

Great to see you back here. The SOHO is great. How did your colour selections go? What did you pick???

Hey Aaron & Erin,

I have been checking on your progress, you must be so happy with how things have been moving... and nice detective work on the plasterers too!

OK so the colours we chose, after two complete colour selection appointments......

EXTERNAL
Facade: "Broadway"
Roof: Colourbond "Monument"
Bricks: Boral "Hawthorn"
Mortor: Flush off white
Feature Render: "Jarrah"
Entry Door: Madison MAD104 920mm with translucent glass stained mahogany
Garage Door: Colourgrain Caoba
Windows: "Merino"
Spouting/Fascia/Downpipes: Colourbond "Monument"
Colourbond Panels: Colourbond "Paperbark"
Architectural Cladding: "Jarrah"

BATHROOM/ENSUITE/POWDERROOM/LAUNDRY
Benchtop: "Cashmere" CaesarStone (except laundry which has Laminex Diamond Gloss "Stipple Seal")
Cabinet doors: "Licorice Linea" Laminex
Showerbase/wall/floor tiles: "Sandstone Beige" 600x300mm (except laundry which has "Gloss Ivory" 200mm x 300mm wall tiles)

KITCHEN
Benchtop: "Ice Snow" CaesarStone
Splashback: Glass "Tridar"
Cabinets/Overhead Cupboards/Pantry doors: "Licorice Linea" Laminex

OTHER
Internal Paint: - Dulux "Hog Bristle" with quarter strength trim
Window coverings: Timber Venetian Blinds (we think)
Flooring: Bamboo (downstairs), carpet (living/study and upstairs) haven't decided on colour yet. Will do an engineered bamboo deck under the front porch and for the deck at the back as well.

I cannot find the photos I took of the colour selections we made... Might have to pop in and take photos again next time I drive past...

We deleted the wardrobe fitout for each robe and the dressing room, we will get these fitted out to maximise storage after handover. We added a couple of other things like ducted vacuum, smart wiring and a spa in the ensuite.

I can't wait for it to start now, but a little way to go yet!

DL

Whoa the SOHO is so deluxe! I've never looked at the new H double storey plans, now I'm going to check out the rest of them Very nice! I hope looking at our pics isn't what turned you off the Voyager...

Hey Felistopher,

Your voyager is coming along great, I love the pics!! I also appreciate the little quiz on your missing brickie!

We hit a snag with the minimum setback on our lot, so with the voyager (and the options we picked) the house was going to be long, wide and pushed right back into the lot, leaving not much backyard.

This prompted us to consider (again) a double storey to maximise yard space, but we had already looked for so long before picking the voyager that we went a little cold on the whole process. Plus we had done colours, and did not hear from our admin and were getting a little frustrated. But our lot was delayed in titling so not much pressure to make a decision.

Whilst I was on annual leave they opened new display homes in point cook. We went on opening day, and walked into the S0H0 and thought... this is perfect for us!! The next day we got a call from our "new" administrator saying that they had taken over our case because the old admin had transferred elsewhere, and was looking for a tender appointment date. We had to break the news that we were changing houses, which meant that we had to re-do colours again.

Our new admin has been absolutely fantastic right from the start. Quick email responses, remembers all our details, explains everything in language we understand, gives updates on everything... quite impressive... Hopefully it will continue through the build.

Anyway still had a small problem with the setback (as you can see on the site plan), but our admin guided us through the process of getting council and developer consent to encroach on the setback a little. One of the municipal surveyors was very helpful on the phone answering questions as well before I submited my application.

Good luck with the rest of your build, I look forward to seeing how it progresses. I still think a spa behind your garage with some mood lighting and tropical plants would be soooo nice.

DL