WBA's House.. Clothesline installed.. new pics 2/8

Hi All,

We are going to build with JG King homes.. It is our first home, currently renting and decided why not build for a first home. The total size of the house is 212m2 (23sq) including garage and alfresco. Our block is 405m2 and is certainly big enough for the 3 of us for our first home.

Below is the design of our house. Which is based on JG Kings Caraway but they have allowed us to modify it however we like.

Things we have changed are:

• Where it shows theatre room was originally an alfresco but I wanted a theatre room so changed it to that (although only a tiny one). The windows on the theatre room south wall will be removed and one small window will be put on the east wall on the north side.
• Putting double sliding doors on theatre room so furniture can sit as far back as possible since it is only 4.2m long.
• We put an alfresco on the north side of the house. 5x3m
• Made fridge cavity 1000mm wide and put water point in for future fridge with icemaker!

Just wandering if there is anything we have missed as we still have time to make changes.

Cheers,

Andy

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff285/agardner5/floorplan.jpg

I honestly don't think you can go wrong with that design - it's great for a house that size. The only thing I'd consider is that if you can extend the garage to the fence line to make it another 0.5M wider I'd do it. 5.5M wide for a garage is the absolute minimum you'd want. The only reason why I'm suggesting it is I noticed the meter box is on the garage wall and the alfresco extends further than the garage wall. So if thats the case I'd move the meter box to the other side of the house and extend the garage to the same distance as the alfresco. Just an idea..

P.S. I'm also living in Kilsyth at the moment

I agree with Mozzie; this is a fairly standard design for this size house on a narrowish block.
Our house is similar size although a wider design with lounge and main bedroom at front, separated by front hallway.

Anyway, just one minor point from me, the ensuite door and shower door are likely to get in each others way, perhaps change shower opening to one which opens diagonally into centre of room?

I was thinking that maybe you could steal a tiny bit from the laundry to make the theatre a tiny bit bigger.

I'm also not a fan of toilets in their own little room if they don't have a basin. I think it's a bit gross to use the toilet then have to go through two doors before you get to a basin to wash your hands, so I would suggest either adding a small vanity to the toilet or integrating the toilet into the main bathroom. This last option might get you a bit more space for the theatre too.

With the theatre, if you are having double doors centred to the wall, say 1600 wide, that will only leave you 700mm on each side of the doors which I don't think is enough for a lounge. I think you might need to move the double doors so that they aren't centered to the wall so that you have enough room for a lounge. It's also probably not so comfy to sit right on top of the door.

thanks mozzie for the idea of the garage. Cetainly makes sense to make it a bit wider. My current garage is quite a sqeeze at the moment as I have a territory and a falcon, so two large cars.

As far as the toilet goes, that is the setup in every house I have lived in and haven't had a problem with it and prefer it to being in the bathroom as then no-one can use the toilet whilst someone is in the shower. Also with the ensuite and shower door won't be a problem as I wouldn't be opening them both at the same time.. Ie ensuite door will be shut before I get in the shower.

In the theatre I won't be having a lounge. It is 3100mm wide so just two recliners near the back so there will be a gap between them to walk through.

Thanks for the ideas..

But if someone is in the shower does that also mean that the person using the toilet can't wash their hands? How about a small vanity? hehe I'm being pushy now, just ignore me, it's just my pet hate.

Ah right, I was imagining the screen on the west wall of the theatre room

Still, although you sound pretty comfortable iwth the idea, the 750mm on each side of the door won't be big enough for a recliner on each side, and not particulary cosy to watch a movie with someone on either side of a door, but that might be just me, I like to snuggle up on the lounge together.

I'm not sure if you have already, but I'd chuck a roller door on the back of the garage. I'd also put a door on the opening into the corridor to the two minor bedrooms, that way noise from the lounge won't wake little ones.
Also personal preference, but I'd put a door on the WIR but I'm messy.

Very practical and workable plan. Ideal for the three of you!:D

Jo

Rachelle, the laundry is right next door too, you could wash your hands in there.
Easy to hang a small hand towel in laundry for this purpose.

chairs will be sort of turned inwards in the middle and the front of them will be only about 30cm gap so not completely against the side walls. Sort of hard to explain but I have set up my chairs in my current room to test it out. And yes screen will be on south wall so that I can maximise the distance from seating to fit in a larger screen (92-100inch).

Ideally I would like the theatre room to be about 5.5m by 4m but 4.2x3.1 is all I can fit in. It is really like a 4th bedroom that I am turning into a theatre room.

I have also put a door on the WIR. That was the first thing my wife wanted added.

Will def look at widening the garage as the lot is 14.2m wide and there is about 2m from garage wall to fence and only have to be 1.2m off fence so can add up to 800mm.

Great looking house wakeboardandy, if you love entertaining insure that you get put a gas point on the alfresco so that your bbq can hook up the gas mains of the house. Also dont forget a fan on the ceiling in the alfresco.

I'd leave the garage the size it is, alot of people say bigger the better, and I say I'm not prepared to pay an extra $10k-$15k so my cars have a big bed at night time (plus you dont want the garage to be the focal point of the facade do you).

Anyway best of luck, I love Laurimar beautiful estate.

Hi, its a perfect first home.

Maybe a sliding door on the ensuite will work?

My main bathroom has the shower door and bathroom door opening onto each other and we haven't had an accident yet - so you should be fine.

Hi Andy,

Welcome to the JGK Club

My biggest gripe with your plan is the layout of the theatre room. Although it may be acceptable to you, it's not going to go down well should you decide to sell & upgrade at a later stage. You also don't have an informal living/ family area, which is probably more important than a formal lounge for a house of this size.

So here's my suggestion ...

Put a wall on the south side of the lounge (with double/ triple sliding doors) and convert that into a combined lounge/ theatre room. You can leave the doors open when using it as a lounge and close it off when using as a theatre. If noise to the minor bedrooms is an issue, ask them put acoustic insulation on this wall (cost just $150).

Combine the exisiting theatre and meals into a single open plan family/ meals area. Have a large window on the eastern wall to get sunlight into the southern part of this living area.

One of the good things about JG King is that they don't charge you an arm and a leg for the changes, so my advice is to make the most of it.

Ooh great idea Duminda!

I think you could try to get a bit more room for the back "family" room so that it lines up with the bench by snitching 10cm here and there from the the other rooms.

I originally was going to have the lounge as the theatre room but really would prefer a closed off room that is not a walkway. And didn't want to close off the lounge with another wall.

I hate open plan living hence why I made the lounge seperate to the meals. The lounge will actually be the informal living area.

If I sell the house then the theatre room could be turned into a study/rumpus.. hence the reason for the double doors so I can open it up into the meals area.

I love the idea of stealing 10cm here and there for the theatre room to be lined up with the kitchen bench.. I will get my ruler out tonight and see where I can steal it from.. maybe from the laundary and ensuite/WIR.

I agree that you probably need both a separate lounge and a family/meals area.

I would do the following:

-Put the 'Theatre' where Bed 2 is now, and slide the bedrooms, bath etc down to the end. Make the theatre your lounge room as well.

-Swap the kitchen and the lounge room (so that the kitchen is near the garage). Then the lounge and meals area can be one big open space, which will get heaps of lovely sunlight from the North. It will also be easier to get the shopping into the kitchen from the garage this way.

Well we signed our contracts today. Most of the plan remained the same apart from some changes to some windows and the electrical plan.

All in all we are pretty happy with the speed. We first walked into the JG King display at Mernda Villages 6 weeks ago and today we signed our contracts.. have rsi from signing all those bloody pages!!!

Site costs still have to be confirmed and will probably be about $2000 more as the fall was slightly more than he thought. He had $4000 as provisional.

Now we should be able to get the finance changed to unconditional and can now settle the land as soon as we can get a start date....

Congratulations on signing... hopefully the site costs aren't to much more!

6 weeks... the speed is unbelievable... well done!!

That's brilliant ... ours took 6 months

We are lucky to have got a really good sales consultant that is very knowledgable in all aspects of the building process!!!