Browse Forums General Discussion Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 62Feb 17, 2009 6:50 pm Helyn, I think from all you reports, you had a fantastic standard inclusions list with your builder. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 63Feb 17, 2009 8:46 pm If I didnt have family where we live now...
1.Move to Blackburn and buy a 1/4 acre block with 100 year old gum trees. 2. Have a ensuite for every bedroom! Mrs B Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 65Feb 17, 2009 8:48 pm Mrs B 2. Have a ensuite for every bathroom. Must be special bathrooms to have their own ensuits! heheh 'A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world.' Louis Pasteur Vegie garden: viewtopic.php?f=19&t=27637&start=0 My Backyard Adventure Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 66Feb 17, 2009 8:59 pm lisanne Mrs B 2. Have a ensuite for every bathroom. Must be special bathrooms to have their own ensuits! heheh hahaha...it actually took me a few minutes to realise what I just said of course I meant bedrooms Mrs B Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 67Feb 17, 2009 10:49 pm Has anyone built with the stove cooktop in the middle island bench as apposed to the back? Do people regret having it in the island bench? Idiots are fun, that's why there is one in every village! - Dr. House - Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 68Feb 18, 2009 7:24 am wonderland Has anyone built with the stove cooktop in the middle island bench as apposed to the back? Do people regret having it in the island bench? This thread has heaps of pros and cons about it. https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.p ... land+bench I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 69Feb 18, 2009 8:24 am Thanks Jo, I was actually in that thread. But from what i remembered, people were just speculating that it would be a hassle to have the cooker in the island bench. I just wanted to know from people who have had it in their house, whether they would change the location if they could.
thanks Idiots are fun, that's why there is one in every village! - Dr. House - Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 70Feb 18, 2009 8:24 pm Quote: This was one of the very few things that we got right the first time around! The "allowance" for electrical was **** (about $4k) which generally allowed for one double power point per room. We laughed at that and got our own sparky in. $11k later we had just what we wanted, which included an average of 3 double power points per room, and about 5 spots in the house that have quad powerpoints (the "TV" spots, basically.) So far as things we are going to do different next time: 1. Get a custom architecturally designed plan, not a predefined design. (Most of the rest are corollaries to this). 2. Actually step out the room sizes to make sure they are big enough - ours, especially 2nd and 3rd bedrooms, are small. 3. Include outdoor living and landscaping as part of the overall plan - our decks and landscaping (which involved a 2+metre high retaining wall) cost us an extra 50-75% on the house cost. 4. More bedrooms, less separate living areas. We have at least 5 rooms in the house which could be called a lounge/living/family area of some sort, due to the semi-open layout. And they are all small! 5. Do NOT have the garage at the back of the house. It sounded like a good idea at the time, and appeared necessary due to the slope of the block. But you lose so much space to your driveway. It also makes it harder to separate your backyard. 6. Take block direction into account - because of our house being a pre-defined plan, the side with the best view has the least windows. The living and kitchen are on the opposite side. (see 1) 7. Allow plenty of storage room. Take what you need, and double it. 8. Get a builder who actually gets the block surveyed before pegging the house out, and as a result, doesn't require you to acquire additional land from the block next door in order to make your driveway fit. (see 5) 9. Get my own tradies, instead of the builders "cheapest-you-can-get" mates. 10. Think about how we are going to use rooms, rather than just look at a plan and see that it has the desired number of rooms and going, "that'll do". (see 1) 11. Make sure the builder doesn't excavate too deep. I wanted the first floor of our house to be level with the street, the ground floor below that (sloped block). We ended up having about 5 steps down from the road level to our deck which is level with the first floor. If it had been level our views would have been better. 12. Sliding doors on cupboards/robes. Regular hinged doors get in the way, especially with small rooms. (see 2) 13. Think about the future. 7 years ago (we moved in Apr 02) we never even considered that we would be having kids, I mean we planned to but didn't take it into consideration when building the house!) 14. Don't even think that a 2.5m by 2.5m laundry with THREE hinged doors opening in to it (external door, door to hall, door to toilet) is a good idea. 15. If you want to fit two cars in your garage, get a three car garage. (see 7). 16. Walk in robes need to be almost as big as your room. This wasn't as much of a problem until we found that robes in the other bedrooms would not be "our overflow space" for ever! (see 13). 17. Similar rule applies to the pantry. The kitchen as a whole, for that matter! 18. Start thinking about the layout and design of the new house a couple of years before you will be building. That's what I'm doing now Ditto to all the above, except for the sliding doors on robes etc. I won't have any more sliding doors in our next house, a few of them (to the ensuite and WIR) have come off their track or whatever, they basically just suck. Els ~ A day without wine is like a day without sunshine ~ Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 71Feb 19, 2009 1:36 am wonderland *tv points in each bedroom if you have adults living with you or teenage kids All our children have their own computers and don't have/need separate TVs at all. Using the computer network, they can all connect to the media computer with its inbuilt dual TV tuner. Mostly, they tend to watch programs that have already been recorded rather than what's going live to air. Skipping the advertisements saves considerable time! So, we have arranged to install conduit to all our bedrooms for Cat 5e computer network cable. Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 72Feb 19, 2009 6:04 am Els Quote: Ditto to all the above, except for the sliding doors on robes etc. I won't have any more sliding doors in our next house, a few of them (to the ensuite and WIR) have come off their track or whatever, they basically just suck. I thought I was the only person who didnt like sliding doors We have just the normal hinge doors in all bedrooms and the study....yes they do take up space and yes they probably do bump into some sort of furniture. The reason I do not like sliding is because we have them in the rental where we are now and I find them so annoying and hard to use effectively. Its the noise I hate, some items are hard to reach because you have to close one slider to get to the other side so I am forever sliding this way, sliding that way and when you have a full load of washing to put away, I actually have to sort out items according to what side of the sliding doors they are on. Even thinking about the sliding, crunching noise it makes irritates me So, this new house we changed all the doors that will allow me to open both at the same time, take a step back and be able to fully utilise the wardrobe properly. Mrs B Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 73Feb 19, 2009 6:15 am Mrs B Els Quote: Ditto to all the above, except for the sliding doors on robes etc. I won't have any more sliding doors in our next house, a few of them (to the ensuite and WIR) have come off their track or whatever, they basically just suck. I thought I was the only person who didnt like sliding doors We have just the normal hinge doors in all bedrooms and the study....yes they do take up space and yes they probably do bump into some sort of furniture. The reason I do not like sliding is because we have them in the rental where we are now and I find them so annoying and hard to use effectively. Its the noise I hate, some items are hard to reach because you have to close one slider to get to the other side so I am forever sliding this way, sliding that way and when you have a full load of washing to put away, I actually have to sort out items according to what side of the sliding doors they are on. Even thinking about the sliding, crunching noise it makes irritates me So, this new house we changed all the doors that will allow me to open both at the same time, take a step back and be able to fully utilise the wardrobe properly. Mrs B No it's not just you. This is one of the favourite arguing points between Helyn and I. Especially about wardrobes. I hate sliding doors doors. Hate them with a passion. Any door that can be changed to a hinged door will be. If it can't be changed, I will think about changing walls on the plan so it can be hinged. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 74Feb 19, 2009 8:29 am well i love my sliding doors so http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m93/bassgirl1970/Emoticons/tongue.gif
I think it depends on the quality of the tracks, ours are fully chrome and slide beautifully. I do have to make sure I vacuum the tracks otherwise I'm sure they'd start getting scratchy and noisy, but otherwise, they're great! "Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." — Elizabeth Gilbert Living in our new house. Currently scaping the land. Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 75Feb 19, 2009 9:59 am joles Mrs B Els Quote: Ditto to all the above, except for the sliding doors on robes etc. I won't have any more sliding doors in our next house, a few of them (to the ensuite and WIR) have come off their track or whatever, they basically just suck. I thought I was the only person who didnt like sliding doors We have just the normal hinge doors in all bedrooms and the study....yes they do take up space and yes they probably do bump into some sort of furniture. The reason I do not like sliding is because we have them in the rental where we are now and I find them so annoying and hard to use effectively. Its the noise I hate, some items are hard to reach because you have to close one slider to get to the other side so I am forever sliding this way, sliding that way and when you have a full load of washing to put away, I actually have to sort out items according to what side of the sliding doors they are on. Even thinking about the sliding, crunching noise it makes irritates me So, this new house we changed all the doors that will allow me to open both at the same time, take a step back and be able to fully utilise the wardrobe properly. Mrs B No it's not just you. This is one of the favourite arguing points between Helyn and I. Especially about wardrobes. I hate sliding doors doors. Hate them with a passion. Any door that can be changed to a hinged door will be. If it can't be changed, I will think about changing walls on the plan so it can be hinged. God I love this forum ! I really hate sliding doors. The noise, they never shut properly or always roll shut, the fact that everyone and everycreature can open them. Also is it just me or do the majority of them look cheap ?. Building Upside down house in Wantirna VIC Current Stage: Procrastination... it's just all too hard.... Blog: http://thereluctantbuilder.blogspot.com/ Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 76Feb 19, 2009 10:06 am I don't like sliding doors as if you have something wider that the opening size to put in the cupboard, you can't put it in! You're limited to one opening where with hinges you can have 2. And it's soooooo annoying pushing them back and forth if you need to put away stuff on both sides..... And yes, coming off the hinges are a pain too! If they were standard, I'd be changing them. Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 77Feb 19, 2009 10:07 am - I want that sticking out tongue emoticon, donuts! And I'm with you - all of our kids' ensuites have sliders ( actually, they had nothing we added them, and they could only be sliders) Our laundry has a slider, which means I have more room, and can fit an extra side by side fridge freezer.
Ours are fine - and silent, too - I didn't realise they could be noisy, tho now it's been pointed out, I understand why! One thing I would probably do is have the upstairs ceiling ducts moved away from the windows! Ours are ok, but I'd prefer them a little further from the window - I just wonder if the cold, or hot air escapes a bit...??? We had them moved away from directly over where the kids' heads would be, but I would have a close look at exactly where they position them at planning stage! Solidarity, not solidity.......The Lexicon of Life Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 78Feb 19, 2009 10:15 am Quote: No it's not just you. This is one of the favourite arguing points between Helyn and I. Especially about wardrobes. Oh yes, I love wardrobe sliding doors!!!! Our bedroom now has a WIR but in old house we installed sliding door BIR's in all bedrooms, quite apart from appearance and space saveing, I can't say I had any problems with noise, or them not shutting properly or anyone being able to open them. What do you mean by anyone?? - nobody tried to open them except us? - do you mean they can't be locked or children can open them when you dont want them too? Only problem was occasionally they came off their tracks, mainly if kids slammed them in a tantrum , I have them in minor bedrooms here, I think DS is past the tantrum stage I don't think they look cheap - guess it depends what you have them made from, our old house had timber ones in main bedroom, laminate in others, in this house we upgraded to stanford customwood sliders. Sliding doors, sliding doors!!!!!::cheerleader:: (thought I'd jazz up the argument, Joles) Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 79Feb 19, 2009 10:26 am I think sliding cavity doors look abit funny!
I dont know, its something about it, looks unfinished. I much prefer the hinged doors. Idiots are fun, that's why there is one in every village! - Dr. House - Re: What changes would you make if you could build another house 80Feb 19, 2009 10:47 am mrs_smith I don't like sliding doors as if you have something wider that the opening size to put in the cupboard, you can't put it in! You're limited to one opening where with hinges you can have 2. And it's soooooo annoying pushing them back and forth if you need to put away stuff on both sides..... And yes, coming off the hinges are a pain too! If they were standard, I'd be changing them. That's a good point, thanks to everyone who made the comments! I guess if I had larger rooms it wouldn't be a problem. I plan to have more cavity slider doors in the next house. The fact my laundry looks like this may explain my hatred for regular hinged doors (at right hand side of plan): http://beta.floorplanner.com/projects/18162163/embed In my opinion just a few more indoor plants and you're done. It's already a lovely space, you've managed a classic style without being too cluttered and that creates a… 1 18059 I posted the floorplan on Houzz.com forum and got some really good ideas and advice from people there. Then we reached out to a couple of renovation companies and one… 5 10018 Not sure who you're building with, but I moved in recently to a 11month scheduled, 8 month actual build on the South coast/Illawarra NSW 3 5908 |