Our Sea-change Adventure - Garden Photos

PS4314 · Dec 21, 2011 11:15 am

Hello everyone.

Following my recent introduction, I now have some plans to share so have started my own thread.

We (hubby and I) have sold our place in Sydney and are heading for a sea-change, moving to the beautiful Sunshine Coast on 4th January. We have exchanged contracts on a fairly flat 600 m2 plot of land and have paid an initial deposit to PJ Burns for their proposal on a custom designed house. We received an initial sketch of a plan a few weeks ago and now have the more detailed first draft plans which we are very pleased with (although inevitably will want some more changes).

The plans are below and I would love you all to cast your expert or otherwise eyes over them and let me know of any comments / suggestions. Hubby is a "big picture" man so it's down to me to think about the more detailed stuff and as I'm a complete newbie at this, I really need some help / reassurance that we are getting it right.

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff435/RuthnPhil/New%20House/SitePlan-1.jpg

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff435/RuthnPhil/New%20House/FloorPlan.jpg

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff435/RuthnPhil/New%20House/Elevations.jpg

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/ff435/RuthnPhil/New%20House/Perspective.jpg

All help gratefully received,
Thanks,
Ruth

bashworth · Dec 21, 2011 11:29 am

It looks a well thought out plan.

If it was me I would delete the west facing windows in the two bedrooms for the following 3 reasons.
You should have plenty of windows as it is
The additional windows make the rooms less flexible when organising furniture
West windows are the worst for making rooms hot at night

kiwi · Dec 21, 2011 12:04 pm

you have a powder room..LOVE IT! (cant be doing loos on their own)
love your large pantry too.

looks a gorgeous home and good luck with the seachange.
(I did sydney to nz...ha ha)
all the best.

HappyCamper_au · Dec 21, 2011 12:21 pm

My suggestion is to replace hinged doors with cavity sliders on toilet/bathroom/WIR/etc they save so much space. Like Kiwi, I'm all for a handbasin in the loo as well, can't imagine not having one. Also I would put a sliding glass door in the laundry to exterior, I put one in this house and the laundry and hallway is so bright and airy.

Love the exterior, it's what I wanted but couldn't find a builder who knew how to do skillion roofs....strange eh??

Enjoy the ride~!~

PS4314 · Dec 21, 2011 9:21 pm

Thanks for the replies and suggestions, very helpful.

Bashworth we did wonder about the two west windows but in the end will probably keep them because of the airflow they will allow through the rooms.

Thanks HappyCamper, yes we are changing the laundry door and adding some sliding doors. However hubby does like a " proper" door wherever possible for loos and bathrooms so not sure where we will end up on that one.

THanks Kiwi and yes, the handbasin in the loo was a must for me as well. I just can't be doing with moving from one room to another to wash my hands.

The pantry is a bit of a question mark at the moment. It seems a bit big when there's just the two of us so we may shrink it a little in order to bring the fridge more into the kitchen area.

We're aiming to get to contract by end of Jan so we get the Qld $10k builders boost, it will be so much easier once we have moved up there.

Ruth

kiwi · Dec 22, 2011 7:20 am

The pantry is out in the eave...maybe bring it back and you have some shading being able to use the eave?
Might be cheaper too...

I like doors too...sliders feel like a wardrobe door, going into narnia as you go to the bathroom or a caravan to me. I changed our ensiute to a door from a slider, not much room, but no caravan thoughts! But they are good in their place and do save space. You just can't have a real handle...maybe that is why I like doors more...

JLD · Dec 22, 2011 9:28 am

kiwi

I like doors too...sliders feel like a wardrobe door, going into narnia as you go to the bathroom or a caravan to me. I changed our ensiute to a door from a slider, not much room, but no caravan thoughts! But they are good in their place and do save space. You just can't have a real handle...maybe that is why I like doors more...

I think they are ok in the right spot but I'm with you Kiwi nothing like a real door. Oh and sliders are noisy!

kiwi · Dec 22, 2011 11:53 am

They scrape shut and then scrape open ay!

But they are a good alternative and we had then going from wir to ensuite and brilliant...in the old house. We have a 2.4 high one in this home down a hall, but it fits right into the wall so you can't see it, unless you want to block the kids off

HappyCamper_au · Dec 22, 2011 11:59 am

If they are noisy and scrape then they need adjusting because they should be silent and smooth running...at least every one I've had in a house over the last umpteen years has been that way. They aren't an alternative here and used in the main living area, everyone comments how great they look and how easy it is to close off parts of the house. Different strokes for different folks!!

Deemaree · Dec 22, 2011 1:22 pm

I would be looking at adding soundproofing around the powder room as it's location means that every noise will be heard in the living area-not a pleasant experience! :shock:

I think the pantry is a reasonable size-it would be a benefit if you ever have to look at resale. :th:

Matt+Jo · Dec 22, 2011 1:39 pm

Deemaree

I would be looking at adding soundproofing around the powder room as it's location means that every noise will be heard in the living area-not a pleasant experience! :shock:

Deemaree hit the nail on the head with this comment. In my current house, the ensuite backs onto our family room. Therefore, if someone goes in to the bathroom, every single noise is heard through the family/kitchen area where the remainder of the household are.... quite embarrassing!

kiwi · Dec 22, 2011 5:05 pm

And funny......!

PS4314 · Dec 24, 2011 9:12 am

Thanks again everyone.

hmmm, hadn't thought about the powder-room noise. Our current one is quite close (but not quite that close) to the living area and we don't have any problems. On the other hand, maybe all our guests just sit cross-legged all evening and avoid going :oops:

Was actually thinking of making the pantry smaller so that the oven wall tower and fridge moved down the wall a bit - I'm concerned that with the current layout it may feel as if the fridge is kind of outside the kitchen. On the other hand we once had a huge pantry but still managed to fill it with all sorts of useful things so maybe I just leave it as it is.

Latest costings put us over budget so I'm afraid the bi-fold doors will be sacrificed and replaced with stacker doors. The latest thought is to change the location of the stacker door in the living room, putting it on the wall at right angles to the dining one so that the whole corner opens up (no pillar between them). I love this effect and it would really give us that inside/outside feel we want. Then I can swing the TV onto the Alfresco wall with two tall windows either side. What do you think? Any disadvantages to doing this?

Thanks,
Ruth

kiwi · Dec 24, 2011 9:18 am

No, it looks fab and I was going to do that on one of my plans too. Danrts has it on his house, do a search for cairns build or something .....danrts... it looks MINT
We have stackers, they are great cos you can let in a little air or open them right up, you can't do that with bifolds and you can get fly screens for bi folds but can with stackers . Do the no pillar thing, it will be awesome

PS4314 · Dec 24, 2011 12:02 pm

Thanks Kiwi, I've just been right the way through that thread - what an amazing house. Also it really helped me see how this would work in our plan.

One of the big questions will be what colour aluminium for the doors and windows. Hubby wants black or chocolate and I want white. We need to visit a few show homes which he juuuust loves - heavy sarcasm.

kiwi · Dec 24, 2011 3:22 pm

black...DUST

hellooo..is he going to clean the dirt off em outside and the dust inside? I think not.
also black doesnt always go with your colour scheme inside. deemaree has white birch I think it is on her home...I have titania which is a white and we have big stackers and I love the paler whites (white is too stark, IMO, these colours..birch and titania are a pale white)
you can have 2 tone..so black outside for drama and effect but pale inside for calm and serenity.....

(nice house that danrts one ay... I wanted to marry him but he said no)

PS4314 · Jan 12, 2012 10:28 am

We're here, in fact we've been here for a week. We're in a rental on the Sunshine Coast & settled on our apartment sale in Sydney on Monday of this week.

So now it's full-on meeting with the builders architect to finalise the plans, selecting tiles (nearly done, second appointment today), initial meeting with the builder's interior designer today and then probably finish colour selection next week.

I love how flexible PJB's are being - they're happy for us to make lots of amendments and are also pointing out things where we can deal directly with the supplier to save some money. Every supplier we talk to has positive things to say about them (even people who are not a preferred supplier).

Hope to sign a contract fairly soon and certainly before the end of the month so we get the State builders boost.

Will post final plans once we've stopped making changes

Ruth

juski · Jan 12, 2012 4:12 pm

Hi Ruth,

I love the look of your roof. Will you have clerestory windows through the gap? I've just learnt what they're called from Google

I was thinking of looking into something like this for my house as the terrace style means we won't get a window in one of our bedrooms.. Their solution is a skylight but I'd prefer a window that is still vertical... but I wonder if it would blow our budget? I have no idea what something like that would cost.

Mclaren · Jan 12, 2012 4:21 pm

Hi - looks great - love your plan - looks like it will nice and airy - and the elevations are awesome ... must be so exciting moving to a new area and building your dream home .... :z:

PS4314 · Jan 12, 2012 11:07 pm

Thanks Both.

Juski, no we decided against those windows (great word though, hadn't heard that before). We figured we had enough light already and it would be a pain to clean them if a bird pooped etc.

Mclaren, yes, so very excited about it all and even more so now we are finally up here.

Very productive day today. We've chosen all our tiles and carpets after a great session at our builder's preferred supplier, Norm Evans. Sharon was amazing and really helped us with our choices. Then we met the PJB interior designer, Amanda, who is lovely and has such a good eye for colour. She spent an initial 30 mins with us looking at exterior colours but we're back with her on Tuesday for 4 hours to go through all of our selections. What was impressive was that in the 15 mins it took us to drive from Norm Evans to the PJB office, Sharon had emailed Amanda with all our choices so she knew what we had picked and what our colours were beginning to look like before we even got there.

Then we called into Reece Plumbing to look at bathroom stuff. Made good progress initially but when it came to tapware we both began to get tired and started making "that will do" decisions. So called it a day and will go back there next Tuesday to finish off.

However it was all a lot less stressful than expected and I'm really pleased with all our choices so far. Don't have samples of everything yet but will post photos as soon as I do.

Not planning to do any house stuff tomorrow. It's my 50th birthday so breakfast on the beach and lots of chill out time - we both need it.