Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Dec 12, 2012 10:02 pm Hello, I am new here but me and DH have been planning to build our dream home for a long while now... My question to you is about the number of living/private areas in your house and what is ideal? At the moment we are a family of four, Me, DH, Scout and Fox but we are expecting twins next year and we hope to one day be a family of 7 and so we want to plan our house accordingly... We don't want to plan our house to be too big or too small for our family. Our idea is to have an open plan lounge and kitchen area with a large island, then a seperate dining room and family room, which would mostly be used as a craft room and a small play area near this... What do you think of our main idea? Too big? Too small? We just want opinions and ideas for what may work for our family TIA Rose & Sam with Scout, Fox and newbies 2013... planning our "dream" home and looking for help on how to do so... Re: Living Areas 2Dec 12, 2012 10:32 pm Hard to comment as we only plan on having one if we are blessed enough! But perhaps consider a parent and children's wing, theirs could include their own activity space which could in the long term be used for computers etc. If you want a craft room perhaps that would be better then an open plan area. We have friends with 3 kids and they live in a 4x2 which technically has a second living area which is the kids video/play area and an open plan living/dinning/kitchen. Even when we visit it never feels crowded, though they have nice outdoor space for them to run around. Also budget is always a deciding factor on what you can afford to do.... Re: Living Areas 3Dec 12, 2012 10:38 pm Family of 7, wow you're keen! I'm guessing that's you, DH, twins, 2 dogs and another baby? I'd have as much open space as you can, open space is cheaper than building cavity walls and lots of different rooms however I would still have a closeable living/family room that you can shut the doors, preferably glass so you can see what the kids are up to without having to listen to their un-muffled noise. Or an activity room with an opening in the wall, so you can see them without the cost of installing double doors. JMO. A small retreat area off your master bedroom is a good idea. I think your idea is good, I'd have open plan kitchen/dining though because you'll be going back and forward from the table to the kitchen and it'll be easier if it's on the other side of your big island bench. Re: Living Areas 4Dec 12, 2012 10:56 pm I like the idea of having a childrens and parents wing and we were planning this on some kind of level by having them seperate. Of course budget is the deciding factor of what we build but our plan is to design our dream and then cut back on some parts to fit the budget... busybusy 2 dogs. Hahah Scout and Fox are our children, their real/full names are Scarlett and Felix... I like you ideas for glass door and open plan living ideas... the oe thing hubby and I are adament about is that we don't want to have a dining table in our main living area, we want out island to seat 5 for breakfast and then have the dining room close to the kitchen, but not in veiw of it... Thanks for your help and ideas Rose & Sam with Scout, Fox and newbies 2013... planning our "dream" home and looking for help on how to do so... Re: Living Areas 5Dec 12, 2012 11:00 pm Don't know what state you are in but check lots of builders sites and check their plans and pick up what you like and don't like. We are building a 3x2 on a very narrow block. Most of the plans had all the bedrooms together but I wanted the master away form the minor bedrooms. Also with a narrow block I didn't want the house to have one very long corridor! Looking at different plans you will get a feeling for what you do and don't like and don't restrict it to builders in you state, I'm in WA and looked at eastern states builders plans. Re: Living Areas 6Dec 12, 2012 11:15 pm I am in WA also and we have looked at many plans and house ideas, not just Australian but also American plans and nothing really has jumped out at us yet... Rose & Sam with Scout, Fox and newbies 2013... planning our "dream" home and looking for help on how to do so... Re: Living Areas 7Dec 12, 2012 11:19 pm The other option is to speak to a few builders as they might have stuff that isn't on the website. Or even start sketching your ideas up and get an idea what you like/want Re: Living Areas 9Dec 13, 2012 8:32 am Posting a sketch ( or better still a survey ) of your site showing North as well as road access and site slope is a probably the best place to start regarding placement of your dream home for living areas, alfrescos etc. The rest of the design will most likely fall into place around those rooms. There are numerous threads on these forums about this. Stewie Re: Living Areas 10Dec 13, 2012 9:07 am How long do you see yourself living in this house? For us, our new house could possibly be our last house and is not just a stepping stone. So something we thought about was having a space that was flexible enough to suit the different ways we might live with small children and then when they start getting older. We have four bedrooms and three living areas for DH and I, plus baby on the way. We know we will be having more kids but undecided on how many at this point. The key considerations for us were having bedroom space for 3-4 children if needed we could convert the third living area to a fifth bedroom by adding a door and a separate parents wing for when they are older, but also some combined living areas for when they are younger. Our third living area is very flexible - while the kids are young we can gate it off and use it as a playroom that can be supervised from the main living area but we could also add a door later if a fifth bedroom is needed. Tender /1/12 Contract 14/6/12 Planning 12/10/12 Site 23/10/12 Piers 27/11/12 Slab 12/12/12 Frame 15/12/12 Trusses 17/1/13 Roof 24/1/13 Bricks 13/2/13 Plaster 1/3/13 Re: Living Areas 11Dec 13, 2012 11:29 am From experience we have 2 littlies and 2 teens - a kids zone is a must especially for the little ones and their toys so the idea of bedrooms and an attached activity area works really well. Also keeps most of the toys away from your main living zone - most of the time . Also an extra Theatre/ TV/ relax room for either you or this kids to chill out watch TV, play x- box without disturbing others or without you getting disturbed. If you want a craft room look at doing a study that can cater for craft and computers. Goodluck I would be wary. Is you site demilished but nothing else done? Sounds like liquidity problems to me. Our builder did the same. Got hundreds of thousands of dollars of… 2 15393 3 5588 Can anyone suggest a house layout where the kitchen-dining - living runs the length across the rear of the house left to right where our best view will be we… 0 4348 |