Browse Forums General Discussion 1 Nov 19, 2016 3:30 pm Hi, This is the floor plan we designed ourselves for our custom KDR. When I look at it, I feel I am missing something, but don't know what! Can you all experienced people look at at and tell me what you think? My main concern is the layout and size of master en-suite . Entry is facing North. Thanks! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Floor plan ,best solution 2Nov 20, 2016 7:36 am Hi jelena, Firstly i think the plan of the main part of the house is very deep. Those central areas are a long way from any windows. I think you are showing skylights above but for me this is kind of an excuse for bad design, plus they won't help you ventilate the space. Also, you deck faces south! it is going to be pretty dark and cold most of the time, plus it is blocked off on three sides meaning it will almost permanently be in shadow. Likewise the adjacent kitchen and living spaces will be dark as a result. It is also a very big house. Do you need 4 bedrooms? The laundry is as big as the guest suite, and does each bedroom need its own WIR? Do you need three bathrooms? My advice is always to build smaller and better. Remember you can always add on later if you need to Finally, think about zoning the various rooms in your house. Think about quiet and noisy zones, public and private, open and closed. This will help you rationalise the plan and remove all that extra ciruclation space that you have. Maybe check this article out for a few tips: http://www.architectyourself.com/bubble-diagram/ I hope this helps Re: Floor plan ,best solution 3Nov 20, 2016 8:44 am The master robe looks very shallow, will it be practical for you? Also seems to stick out into the entry way to the main area of the room which could prove annoying? I agree about lighting in the main area, it could be a bit cavernous which maybe you are after. Re: Floor plan ,best solution 4Nov 20, 2016 10:40 am Thanks for your suggestions. I'm not sure if you can see it on the plan, but kitchen/dining area has a floor to ceiling window on the South side, 3800mm wide, as well as 2 sets of french doors to deck area 2700mm in height. This should provide plenty of light in combination with skylights. Yes, we do need 4 bedrooms - it is a farm house and when we have guests they tend to stay overnight.The size of the laundry is for the same reason - it is a working farm. We did have some limitations when designing the house, eg. the existing pool house is on the highest point and it's staying, many mature trees around the house , main road on North side... Considering all of this , how would you change the plan to make it work better? I may add that this is the house we will be living in for a long time and there is no resale value in the house itself. Re: Floor plan ,best solution 5Nov 20, 2016 6:39 pm Hi there, it is a bit hard to read the plan, but 3.8m wide windows facing south sounds like a bit of a disaster. Where are you building? Do you need to get an energy rating? You may struggle with that amount of South Facing glazing. You are gonna lose a lot of heat through those windows and you won't get any sun. Orientation and access to daylight is the single most important consideration when designing a home. How far away is the road? You say it is a farm, so I am guessing it is not running right in front of the entry? I would rejig the plan so that your deck and main living spaces have access to the north sunlight. Try and group the service areas (kitchen laundry, bathrooms) together as much as you can and likewise zone the 'quiet' parts of the house (the bedrooms) together away from the main living spaces. Ideally I would locate the bedrooms along the south as you want them to be quite cool, especially in summer. Limit the amount of west facing glazing as this will cause your house to overheat in the summer. I hope this helps Re: Floor plan ,best solution 6Nov 20, 2016 7:16 pm Thanks for those tips. I understand it is hard to give the best advise on floor plans alone, so I will try and 'paint' the picture of the property. North is front of the house, South is our back yard. West is always in shade due to mature trees.All windows and external doors are double-glazed,thermally broken ( Aragon). Although the southern side does not have a lot of sun, it has plenty of light. Our new house foot-print is almost identical to the old one so we spent a lot of time observing where and when we have sun during the day and during different seasons. If you put aside concerns about cooling and heating, and concentrate more on the flow of the plan , is there anything from your perspective wrong with the floor-plan? As far as deck area having north sunlight - why? Build a deck in sunny position only to build a pergola to hide from the sun!? This way , the upper deck will be sunny, this is a pool deck, and lower deck will mostly be in shade which will make it nice to sit on any time of the day. At least this is what I think, no offence. Re: Floor plan ,best solution 7Nov 20, 2016 8:09 pm A few things I noticed looking at the plan. Layout is effectively 2 separate sleeping areas with a large living area in the middle. Not sure if you have kids or not but for family appeal its not a bad idea to have some space for a kids play room away from the other living spaces. Somewhere they can spread their toys, watch their own TV shows etc without interrupting the adults or cluttering the main areas. House looks big enough to accommodate it. Entry could shifting towards the living room and trim down the size of bed 2/3 is one way. Main bathroom is what grabs my attention most if you need critique. Doesn't seem to have a bath, which is another thing lacking for families. Even if you don't have to cater for kids you should consider these things for resale appeal. Buyers will pick up on those things and simply overlook the house as a viable option. Looks like plenty of room in there for a tub. Not sure if the double vanity on opposite walls is necessary. Also assuming each vanity has a mirror above you could end up with the infinite repeated reflections. Would be bizarre experience for anybody doing makeup or shaving. If you do want the double vanities opposite then you should consider a cavity sliding door instead of a swing door. The current design opens onto one of the vanities. Will cause damage to door, bench or both. A door stopper would be in a very inconvenient spot. Plenty of toilets throughout the house. No issues with queuing there. Re: Floor plan ,best solution 8Nov 21, 2016 7:13 am ZoePerth , you are right about the master robe, it does look odd in this plan, but this is only because we moved the pantry wall slightly into the bedroom area to fit all the fridges in there. This will be rectified. arcachon, we considered having a tub in kids bathroom but decided to have more space instead. The mirror issue - I haven't thought of that, thanks for pointing it out. As far as kids retreat goes, the idea was not to have separate areas because it ruins family time. For that same reason we only have one TV in the house. Maybe odd, but works for us even though my kids are teenagers. Re: Floor plan ,best solution 9Nov 21, 2016 8:25 am Are you considering re-sale value of the property or is this your last house? The points I was making were more about market appeal so not really relevant if you intend staying there for good. With our build we're thinking about 15-20 years before the kids are (hopefully) gone then maybe move into something a bit smaller. Not as easy maintaining a large house in your senior years. Re: Floor plan ,best solution 10Nov 21, 2016 9:26 am I think I mentioned earlier that there is no resale value in the house. The property is a working farm, sold as business so the house comes with but has no impact on the sale. That's how we ended up with an old house. This house is for us, long term, maybe even for life - if I can afford a cleaning lady Re: Floor plan ,best solution 11Nov 21, 2016 9:35 am I'm not sure if it can be seen on the plan, but the house is split level. Bed 1&2 ,entry and living room on one level and the stairs lead to the lower level,the rest of the house. It is only 600 mm split, to bring the dining closer to ground level for easy access to lawns and outer buildings, and for double-sided fireplace height from dining area side. The ceiling will be that much higher in dining/kitchen. Re: Floor plan ,best solution 12Nov 21, 2016 9:56 am Yes, I did notice the split level. Thought that aspect looked great. Different tiers (albeit only a few steps) help visually break up the large central living space. Presents a great aspect when you walk in. My only query there was the closed in entry way and needing a right then left turn before you gain this aspect. Tough to say off the plan so didn't really raise it when you asked what was "missing". Re: Floor plan ,best solution 14Nov 21, 2016 10:53 am JelenaK Not quite sure what you mean? Do you think it would be better if the stairs were off entryway? BTW, would like to see your house. Assume you're talking about my point on the entry. I'll describe it best I can as I'm only working off a plan. When somebody enters the front door the have a wall ahead one one either side. They would move forward and turn right and face into the Living Room. From there they need to turn left again to gain what I imagine would be a fantastic aspect looking down onto the main living space and out through those floor to ceiling windows into the outdoor space. I was only looking at ways to maximise that aspect from the entry way. Truth is I don't really have a better option without moving the entry way into the Living Room and that would raise other issues. Means I'm probably not being much help. Re: Floor plan ,best solution 15Nov 21, 2016 10:55 am hey, I have done a quick sketch of an alternative layout. Does anyone know how I can upload the image to this thread? Re: Floor plan ,best solution 18Nov 21, 2016 11:24 am Wow, this is a very nice floor plan. I like the connection between garage and kitchen. Your bathroom is huge ,looks fantastic. I do have an issue , in general, with the come-back of a separate toilet with no wash basin. Practical reason - you have to leave the room without washing your hands! It's probably just me. When are you starting to build? Re: Floor plan ,best solution 20Nov 21, 2016 11:31 am so... my sketch. This is VERY quick, and obviously I don't know your site or your personal circumstances so this is purely a response to your comments and the discussion on here I have tried to locate all of the bedrooms to the south as discusses with the main living areas on the north side, connecting directly to the new deck which will no longer we dark and cold all year round. I have also tried to group the services as much as possible to simplify the plumbing and save money and I have reduced the amount of space given over to purely circulation The dining area opens onto both the deck and the north facing kitchen garden. This could be a good spot for herbs, chilli plants or veggies within easy access of the kitchen , plus they will be sheltered from the worst of the weather. You could enter either from the kitchen garden area or from the deck, its up to you Let me know what you think, like i said it is a super quick effort but I think it is a much better, more practical layout Hi We are building in the Hunter Valley, our soil test is H1, our builder has advised us they need to have a letter signed for Fair Trading as the new drainage standard… 0 3540 Sorry! I'm new to this forum and have made a mistake in my posting! I'm looking for a structural solution to a stand alone wooden pickets fence with no structural rail… 1 3287 i thought the flipped plan initially but bec i want narrow pathway from entry to dining (dont like bend), also cannot fit the… 7 17260 |