[EDIT] Major rewrite time!

Summary:
My wife and I are building a modern 5 bedroom eco friendly family house in Lenah Valley, Hobart, Tasmania. At the moment features will include a passive solar design, four decks including an internal courtyard deck, an office, home theatre and lots of built-in storage!

Floorplan is HERE!

Blog is HERE!

History:
We built our current house about 8 years ago and although there were a few bad experiences we always knew we would learn from these to build our next house. We were very inexperienced at our first build and kind of rushed into it, but this time we have been thinking ahead since.. well, not long after we moved in! It will all be documented here in good time

We had been looking for land for a couple of years - aiming for West Hobart but it was out of our price range - but when we saw this block it looked perfect! Walking distance to my work and our children's future school, closer to town, large size, quiet, safe area, nice mountain views!

Timeline:

Planning:
29/9/09: Block offer accepted
29/10/09: Block settled - its ours!
12/09: 1st meeting with architect - site visit & specs
14/1/10: 2nd meeting with architect - received floor plan sketch (link)
3/2/10: 3rd meeting with architect
19/3/10: 4th meeting with architect - received first DA floor plan (link)
18/5/10: 5th meeting with architect - cardboard model (link)
24/6/10: 6th meeting with architect - 3D render (link)
27/7/10: Plans into council - public review started
4/8/10: Public review ended
18/8/10: Planning approval received!!
20/8/10: 7th meeting with architect
22/12/10: 8th meeting with architect - received structural plans, updated floor plan, some electrical/plumbing, met with builder! (link)
5/1/11: Met with builder and architect on site at builders home (recently completed renovation)
20/1/11: 9th meeting with architect - (link)
10/3/11: 10th meeting with architect - (link)
24/3/11: 11th meeting with architect - builder as well, went through final details and signed contract (link)

Construction:
30/6/11: Excavation started
22/7/11: Main excavation complete, timber supports for retaining wall construction are done (pics)
30/9/11: Lots of pre-slab work done, including retaining walls and support walls, and a water tank (trapped inside aforementioned walls!) (pics)
10/11/11: Slab done, framing for ground floor done, support for flooring of 1st floor in progress (pics)
7/3/12: Framing complete, window frames in, roof on, most walls wrapped. Close to lock up! (pics)

Future:
23/6/12: Contracted completion date! Has been extended due to poor weather

Congratulations !
Your story reads very similiar to ours.
We also wanted West Hobart as we are currently renting here and love the suburb, but like yourselves
soon realised we had missed the boat as far as affordability.
We had an offer accepted on a block in Blackmans Bay on Monday, soil test is booked in for next Tuesday and
we also have a thirty day settlement.
All the best with your exciting venture,
Kind Regards.
Vaughn

Hi Voogan,

It does sound like a similar story!

We have got our soil test results back. We actually received soil test results from the RE agent, but they were for the block next door - we were told "the results should be the same" but we got them done anyway.

The results were similar. Both are P class slabs due to drop (approx 14 - 19 degrees over the whole block.



I'll have to get the engineers advice on whether a basement level garage is suitable for this style of land. If it was, that would be a bonus!

Latest update...

Block settled 29/10/09. It's ours now!

Met with our architect last weekend and was onsite with him on Friday. Explained what we wanted, he came back to our current place to find out what we did and didn't like with our current house.

Can't wait to see what he comes up with, has done some great stuff in the past - see www.room11.com.au

We've been going through requirements and room specs with our architect, have settled on the following list:

lower level:
double garage (min 6000x6000) -36m2
laundry 2000x3000 proximity to drying-6m2
home theater (4000x4500) no windows? -18m2

main living level:
open plan living/dining/kitchen (6000x 13000) -78m2
multi purpose room- sound proofed (6000x4000) -24m2
office (7000x4000) - 28m2
deck (covered and uncovered areas)

upper level:
master bed with WIR and ensuite (5000x 6000) -30m2
Bed 1-4 (3000x3500) -10.5m2 ea
main bathroom (2500X3000) -7.5m2 (maybe x2)

Plus additional toilets, stairs, entryways, etc.

I'll explain the "multi-purpose room" bit - It is intended to be a room separated from the living area by a large window or other transparent material. When the door is shut, it should be almost or totally soundproof. It is intended to be:
- Children's toy/play room (the window will have a blind or similar on it so the mess can be "blocked out" if needed.)
- Children's/teenager's computer or homework room (to keep gaming etc. noises in, or distraction noises out). Allows kids to be supervised on computer (screens face out "window") without being in their face.
- Quiet room (reading, etc)
- Loud room (musical instrument practice, etc)

We originally wanted bedroom 4 to be a guest suite (like 2 small bedrooms and an ensuite all in one - enough to sleep 2 adults + 2 kids) but it was going to take up way too much space. (approx 30m2) had to cut it down.

We're waiting to see what our architect comes up with, from that list

Sounds like a great plan! I love Tassie, especially around Hobart, such a gorgeous place. Cant wait to see some plans

E

Latest blog post:



Continued at http://blog.chuq.net/2010/01/we-have-floor-plan.html

No pics of floor plan yet - I forgot to get the OK from the architect. Soon, hopefully!

I'd like to know how the architect thinks he'll get away with that - building code says all habitable rooms must receive natural light, or you have to install lighting that will provide an equivalent level of natural light (which basically means searchlights...).

Call it a store room, then the requirements don't matter.

We have a room in our current house that has no windows in it - it also only has a 2.1m ceiling - its generally just a storage/study area so could be classified as a "habitable room".

In any case the plans for the HT room in the new house don't have any windows at all, but it would be easy enough to add one (one wall faces the courtyard). I'll follow up with the architect and see what he says.

Floor plans!

First, some basic info.

Top of the page is north.
Block is fairly narrow - long sides on the east and west.
Views are to the west and south-west.

Block slopes slightly towards the west. Both east and west neighbours are vacant blocks, eastern side is higher up than us (hence no windows), western side is lower down than us.

First floor is 2.7m ceilings, ground floor is 2.4m.

All marked windows are floor to ceiling windows.

Scale may be out of wack, as a guide, the width of the pantry is approx 1m.

Note the "multi-purpose room" is not as originally planned, but we are working on how to spread those 'functions' into the other parts of the house - because everything else is 99% perfect!

Despite being 99% perfect, we have still found a lot of little things that we could change, but before I list them I'd be interested to see what jumps out at other homeoners think!

Now onto the plans!

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No comments? I have a large list but I was hoping to see what others thought before posting it here!

well I think the plan is super=dooper!

great courtyard idea, (of yours!!) and nice layout, very mod!

nice open plan on the 1st floor

Hi Chuq,

Love the design.. I have actually done a few sketches along the same lines as your plan, with the second floor containing the main living areas, and overhanging the ground floor.

With regards to your multifunction space, what had you initially planned for it?

The multi-purpose room was originally planned to be (from a previous post):


As you can see, the spot where it is now doesn't really suit any of these purposes... not sound proofed, not visible from kitchen, not able to be visibly shut off... we must have not specified it in the details

But we have alternate locations planned for all these "functions"!

Regarding the overhang, its not entirely obvious but only the office and dining are overhanging, the right hand side is all fill.

I've made a post in the 'storage' thread with an annotated pic of the amount of built in storage we plan to have - check it here - viewtopic.php?p=400069#p400069

We met up with the architect again last week.

We had a long list of ideas but have settled on the following changes as the main opportunities:

* Bedroom 2/3: Modify locations of doors/robes to reduce wastage of hall space.
* Bedroom 2/3/4: Convert part of robe in each room to a built in desk
* Office: Add some built in storage either down western wall or down eastern wall (Note: Eastern wall is half height and overlooks the entryway)
* Multi-purpose room - become a formal lounge area
* Living room - add cavity slider doors to both sides of entertainment unit
* Kitchen - Narrow door to courtyard deck slightly, add benches on either side. Also add small computer desk area on east end of breakfast bar.
* Laundry - add extra laundry "bay" on north side of walkway to HT room (suitable for eg. chest freezer, bar fridge, and laundry chute from above)
* Guest room - Alter size of "bunk" area to fit a fold out couch we already own (only requires lengthing by 20cm but architect will see if he can arrange room better). Also relocate entrance to ensuite so it is more easily accessible from hallway.
* Home theatre - add a window (not for the "legal" reasons stated earlier in the thread - but because it makes it more multi purpose - an extra office, bedroom or hobby room).
* Garage/home theatre - add extra storage either along the shared wall or on the eastern wall

There are other little bits and pieces but they are the main ones. Note that none of them are definite at the moment, they are just possibilities, he will see which ones work well and which don't.

We also had some discussion about the exterior - e.g. he reminded us that the spaces under the back decks would be available for use for storage and so on.

We'll be clarifying finance situation this week and then contacting architect again to see which of the previous changes are in/out.

[Note: Have also edited first post and subject to make it more descriptive!]

First DA plan in!

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I won't double up on what I wrote on my blog - I'll just link the post here

http://blog.chuq.net/2010/03/house-update.html

it is lovely...yay for architects ay!
he has done a fab job putting all your ideas on paper.
look forward to your build and all the wonderful pics that will go with it!!