Have you thought about putting the pantry where the WIR is (jiggle the fridge space), move the dining area up and put the WIR at the bottom of the present dining area - it would link the dining more to kitchen area but still not full view - could have one of those walls with gaps in it .....
We don't have a dining area - it's meals in the kitchen and family area - 9m long. We have a separate living room tho.

Just putting this here so we can see what planfan is suggesting!

I like plan fan's ideas. I'd also move the door to the dining as I've shown below-it allows the front of the house to be closed off...very important as the children get older!

Kiwi's comments about the toyroom door is spot on-once you've survived your first decade with children you'll understand! The kids will be at the table near the kitchen doing their homework if that's where the parents are!

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I just think that dining room will be really really dark now. You would def need a skylight etc, and I am not too keen re the space between wir wall and lounge wall..wouldnt want to get too wide, after a sunday roast.

I do like the sound of a bigger wir though. Hark at me...like it is my plan!
I might have another idea re making master bigger...
off to have a play

There could always be a cutout with either louvres or glass in the wall between dining & kitchen area and the door could have feature glass inserts. As it's supposed to be a formal dining area the light wouldn't be as important as in the everyday area..

ok, have made wir bigger, added a coat cupboard, moved garage door, given you privacy doors on master and bedroom near bathroom (see downton abbey for more doors like that!) broom cupboard, desk in bedroom, and furniture can now be placed in rumpus.
cavity sliders in dining room and toy room. can be frosted to allow light but hide mess. (esp as you go to open front door..you can close that part of house off to strangers!)

true re dining room dee, not like they will use it for breakfast..well they might, see downton abbey for pics of that too, but a fab pendant light above a SQUARE table (more space around table if square, or oblong or round..whatever wont take up space near master bed door etc) would look the bees cahoonies.

also changed ensuite..I hate seeing a loo with the door open. you could have double sinks, or a double shower and one sink where the shower is now...whoaoaoo!

ok, I think that is it...starting to like it now. prob cos I always have to have my 5 cents...

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or have garage door where you originally had it, but get rid of that wall making a dark hall to your master bed..not neccessary

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Nice work guys! Now if only there was a separate loo!

I'm also watching Downton Abbey - such a melodrama!

Looks pretty close to my plans.

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There are some councils(NSW) that don't allow long walls on both sides of the house - need some sort of articulation.

I got a couple of skylights to combat some dark spaces.

I dont know how big those bedrooms are, but if you shaved off 50 cms each, maybe you could fit a sep loo with a small corner basin in, and a cavity slider door going into it, and then a curved shower (we have 3 of them and they are fantastic so long as you get the 1 m x 1m ones..not the 900 ones..too small inside, and get the moulding for soap / bottles etc on the back corner not on the side, see pic below) a small vanity (600 wide is fine) and a LONG bath so you can enjoy it

you lose that cupboard you had there but you have a large laundry and a cupboard next to laundry for linen etc

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you gain valuable floor space by cutting off the corner and having a curved shower instead of a square.

adgn...YES! very similar.
there you go, copy them!!

ps and then I am going! push the bathroom out into the eaves, that will give you about 600mm extra space too. Just do it for the bathroom...council wont mind.
adgn has done it for his ensuite...you do the same, HEY, why not!

ok, someone else can put their 3 cents in now...

Really like that dining room/wir/pantry option now Nic!

Hi all,

Thanks for the great feedback and ideas.

Re: the bathroom, Kiwi the bedrooms are very small. Shaving 50cm off them would make one 2.5m wide, and another 2.1! This is not a big house. Most of the bedroom are just under 10sqm and the master bed is only 13sqm. So they cannot get any smaller. The idea of the bathroom under the eave space is interesting and can talk to builder about it but may prove too costly (am sure they would charge a premium).

Spoke to the wife about the toy room doors and she is a no-go. I think I will agree with her. In the display homes we have seen, the meals area still got lots of light and we measured the rumpus for our furniture placement with the sliding doors where they are and it fits. From the kitchen you can see into the toy room as the wall between the kitchen and rumpus is a half-wall 15cm higher than the kitchen bench height. We also ahve the option of putting the rumpus TV against this halfwall which changes the rumpus space a lot and may end up doing that anyway (only downer is you can't watch telly when cooking but the world survived without this before...)

Now onto the walk in pantry / robe / dining. I like both Kiwi and Dee's ideas idea and plan to show it to my wife (I have to choose my times as the continual discussion of plans has sometimes resulted in threats involving round man parts and knives!). The only concern I have is there will not be enough room. THe walk in pantry is only 1.2m deep (enough for a door to open then a row of shelves). So to make this big enough for a walk in robe would involve taking a lot of space from the dining room which is only 2.8m now. I worry that it would leave a space too small for a dining table and chairs unless you only had annorexic friends. However I do like the open plan aspect. Will look at it some more and think.

if the bedrooms are little..then the loo might have to be in the main bathroom, if it is a small house anyway, and only 2 kids...there is always mum and dad's toilet to use
a sep loo is good as a powder room so guests dont have to use the kids bathroom EVER

you might find going under the eaves wont be too much more...just some more foundation, but I would only do it if you can then fit a sep loo in, not worth the $$

you are very good being so interested in the plan, my hubby ignored it all till I dragged him to get them properly drawn up then he 'had a look'
maybe he was scared of blunt objects so just let me play till I found what I wanted

Barker-if you can get the doors into the pantry, ensuite & wir as cavity sliders. Might be around $1200 in total for the three, but it frees up wall space which is very handy for extra hooks or narrow shelves.

If the rumpus has a half height wall then that will allow a lot more light through..

Hello guys. I am hoping you can cast your eyes over some floor plans I have drawn up for a proposed double storey residence . I feel quite proud with what I have achieved but it never hurts to get feedback, particularly when embarking on such an expensive endeavour! I drew the plans to a scale of 1:100 so every little faint square you see represents 20cm. The black ink represents the physical dimensions of the house, the blue represents fixtures and fittings and the green represents furniture and appliances so that you can get a sense of the proportions and use of the interior spaces. The numbers in red ink correspond to a description of the item or room (most with dimensions).


A little background information... I designed this house for my mum who wants to have my nan move in with her as she is needing a little more care. My nan lives in her own house in an inner Melbourne suburb and it is proposed that her house gets knocked down and this one rebuilt in its place. My three younger siblings still live at home which means the house would need to have 5 bedrooms. The block in question is 12.2m wide and 34.4m deep. The house is therefore narrow and the garage would need to be built on the boundary. The setback from the opposite side is only 70cm but I am hoping that this won’t present a problem as that is the setback of the current house. The block is flat, North facing and with no real redeeming features- I doubt that we could utilise city views from the first floor windows as existing neighbours would have privacy concerns.


The plan is for my mum to sell her existing home to finance the new construction. We are budgeting around 350K in total and intend to owner build. Can anyone with experience perhaps advise if this is a realistic budget?? It would be my mum’s third home so it would have higher specifications than average. Also, would I take these plans to an architect or draughtsman to get drawn up?? I would want to retain copyright if possible.


Onto the plans... My main concern is that the dimensions of some areas are too small. For instance, the entry hallway is only 1.5m wide and that is on paper, before you account for wall thickness etc. I’m worried that a long narrow entry will not make a good visual impression or do the house justice- you probably wouldn’t even fit a console table. Is my fear warranted?? I suppose the doors to the Home Theatre room could be kept open to create a greater sense of space and let more light in. The ground floor ceiling will also be 9 feet so that helps and I think that if we make a real feature of the staircase opposite the entry that it might just look ok?


Another concern is that the Laundry is too small and odd to be functional. What do you guys think? The only positive is that you can access extra storage space underneath the staircase. The left basin in the Ensuite will probably need to be deleted as the vanity is not wide enough to fit two- the Master Bedroom will be my nans so the extra bench space would suit her better anyway. Is 4.5m x 4.5m big enough for a Home Theatre for those of you that have one? And finally upstairs where my only concern is that the staircase landing leads directly to the Powder room- I think it should be ok though and there is no real alterative access that I can think of without disrupting the proportions of the Kid’s Retreat.


I’ve also had a go at mocking up a facade but I’m not too happy with the result (and yes I realise that it doesn’t correspond exactly to the floor plan). My problem is that the facade is rather flat so it will be difficult to make it aesthetically appealing. We prefer a modern, contemporary look and will have to rely a lot on using different materials and colours to make it interesting I think- like bricks, render, cladding etc. It’s difficult to find inspiration as the majority of new home designs have the garage set behind the house, not in front of it. I think my facade might look better if the pitched roof was flat instead?


Anyway I think I have written enough so thanks to all who had the energy to read this essay and to look over my plans!


Just quickly... Does anyone know of any free architecture software that does the job and is simple to use???


Cheers,
Michael

Ground Floor
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First Floor
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Facade
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good job!!!
I think you have done amazingly and a designer/ draftsman can nut out any real problems. I am sure you will get some advice on here though too.

my 2 cents, I wouldnt worry about seeing a loo at the top of the stairs...maybe have a spring door, so it closes by itself?
the hall (if you can) make it 1.2 after internal walls, esp with all those people living there. One person uses the downstairs bedroom...15 use the hall.

The fridge hiding in a room would drive me nuts, all those people coming into the kitchen to use it, look in it etc...
I would have it facing the kitchen and make the pantry just a pantry.

you wont just have you lot, but grandkids too...opening the fridge, just to look in for no reason.

have it so people can access it easily without coming 'into ' the kitchen and getting in the cooks way

we have a 4 x 4 lounge with tv in, not a theatre but where we watch tv, we dont have doors on, (ours is down a hall too like yours) maybe have cavity sliders intead of doors that get in the way. not sure if 4 .5 is ok size wise, ours is ok, cos it is just a tv room.
then we have a family room/ dining with no tv in.

great job, you should be very pleased with yourself.

well done

Maybe the upstairs powder room would have the basin and WC on the outside wall, so the door would actually be moved to the right.
I wouldn't have the fridge in the pantry either - make it accessible for kids getting drinks etc.
Is this a knockdown-rebuild?

that would be a yes