Browse Forums General Discussion Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 7Jun 05, 2017 4:13 pm The issue with extending forward towards the street from the lounge is that you then lose your main window and light source for that room. That window actually faces North-West (should have included a north arrow, sorry) so would block out a lot of sun, whilst also potentially impinging on the driveway width... Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 8Jun 05, 2017 5:29 pm cbarre The issue with extending forward towards the street from the lounge is that you then lose your main window and light source for that room. That window actually faces North-West (should have included a north arrow, sorry) so would block out a lot of sun, whilst also potentially impinging on the driveway width... Ok. The bedroom in the middle, how about making the left side a hallway, right side WIP. The hallway leads to master suite. Part of that current bedroom could be the WIR also. Because those rooms don't need a window. That way you can put master at front facing north. Then use current toilet as hallway down to another bedroom at back and a new laundry. Remove current laundry to make a big family room out on to deck. And move front entry down like you said. Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 9Jun 05, 2017 5:32 pm MandM+4 cbarre The issue with extending forward towards the street from the lounge is that you then lose your main window and light source for that room. That window actually faces North-West (should have included a north arrow, sorry) so would block out a lot of sun, whilst also potentially impinging on the driveway width... Ok. The bedroom in the middle, how about making the left side a hallway, right side WIP. The hallway leads to master suite. Part of that current bedroom could be the WIR also. Because those rooms don't need a window. That way you can put master at front facing north. Then use current toilet as hallway down to another bedroom at back and a new laundry. Remove current laundry to make a big family room out on to deck. And move front entry down like you said. Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Edit; sorry just looked again and my hallway idea doesn't really work. Maybe entry to master somewhere where current entry is though. And that bedroom still becomes pantry, maybe a toilet or linen cupboard etc Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 10Jun 05, 2017 8:42 pm Sorry, not too sure if I know what you mean but thanks for the thoughts. Sometimes it's hard to imagine without a picture! My other alternative was to turn the lounge into a master bed and open the kitchen up to bed 1 so there is lounge/kitchens/meals in a backwards L shape. The meals would still be small but the kitchen bench would look out onto the lounge. The dining area could either be a walk in pantry (maybe with euro laundry inside so I can open up the current laundry space, or an ensuite for the master. That way I could extend out the back in the future to maybe just include another bed and a second living space..like this Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 11Jun 05, 2017 9:26 pm cbarre Sorry, not too sure if I know what you mean but thanks for the thoughts. Sometimes it's hard to imagine without a picture! My other alternative was to turn the lounge into a master bed and open the kitchen up to bed 1 so there is lounge/kitchens/meals in a backwards L shape. The meals would still be small but the kitchen bench would look out onto the lounge. The dining area could either be a walk in pantry (maybe with euro laundry inside so I can open up the current laundry space, or an ensuite for the master. That way I could extend out the back in the future to maybe just include another bed and a second living space..like this That works, and would be relatively simple to do. By doing that though will mean you have to extend out the back quite a bit in the future. My idea was basically to have the kitchen like that, but use bed 1 as a WIP, linen across the top, and WIR for master. And put a master in front of it, to utilise the northern aspect. But it would moving the front entrance also and changing the bed 2 window to the side. Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 12Jun 05, 2017 9:32 pm And with your layout you could have the top half of your old dining a WIP and the bottom half a small ensuite like this Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ And a wardrobe like this (if you blocked off fireplace) Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 13Jun 05, 2017 9:40 pm Great ideas - i wasnt too sure how big an ensuite would need to be, but that one is about half the Dining space, so the Walk in pantry would be a good size too i guess.Not too sure if the master bed would be big enough to support that WIR layout but maybe. I was thinking to maybe have floor to ceiling cupboard on the fireplace wall, with the bed on the opposite wall - would need to remove the door/window that is there at the moment, but the other window is very large so the window would be plenty big enough. The other idea of extending forward from the bed 2/bed 1 wall is something i was wondering too, definitely appeals to keep the backyard the same size. Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 14Jun 06, 2017 12:10 am This is my VERY rough idea of a possible extension with some of the ideas mentioned implemented. happy for any feedback... http://4.1m.yt/wRScoCs.jpg Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 16Jun 06, 2017 1:21 pm cbarre This is my VERY rough idea of a possible extension with some of the ideas mentioned implemented. happy for any feedback... http://4.1m.yt/wRScoCs.jpg Looks great. I think I'd leave the meals area as is for now then when you do your rear extension put the laundry behind the bathroom. Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 17Jun 08, 2017 10:53 am I hadn't really thought about maximising sunshine but someone has been telling me to think about that more. I have uploaded a pic of the whole site with north arrow for context. Will be getting a survey plan done shortly so I know where the neighbours are. It's a flat block, in a flat area (no overlooking mountain) with single storey homes around. my only concern with NOT removing any of those walls is the width of the meals, kitchen and dining rooms. not only are they a bit dark due to small windows and tr carport being nearby, they are very skinny which means a very small dining table and galley kitchen. The dining room itself is a bit useless – we only plan on having 1 family size table in the house so don't need meals and dining. http://1.1m.yt/zA4Ei_c.png I should say as well that my other concern with extending to make the on the side 'T' shape is that a large part of the land running down the driveway side of the house gets blocked off and made fairly redundant...really only leaving a wedge of backyard in the top left of the page.. Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 18Jun 09, 2017 11:31 am Yeah, thinking about natural light & maximizing the sunshine that enters your house in winter is a very, very good idea. Designing for the path of the sun is called passive solar design. I'll outline the concept below, & more can be found on this very informative government website, http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation The sun crosses the northern part of the sky, higher in summer, lower in winter. You want to design your floorplan around this. Generally, you want your living areas (& a large proportion of your glazing) to face north. These northern windows will receive plenty of sunshine in winter, but will be shaded by eaves in summer, when the sun is higher in the sky. Bedrooms can be located to the south, as they don't need as much light, & it's ok for them to be a bit cooler. Bedrooms should not have west facing windows, as these are very hard to shade, allowing hot afternoon sunshine to enter the house. If rooms must face west, it's better that they are garages & rarely used rooms like laundries & bathrooms. But, although not ideal, if it's a choice between the two, it's better that living rooms face west than bedrooms. This is because warm living rooms can be far more tolerable on hot summer evenings than warm bedrooms. Of course, this is the general case, for much of Australia. But houses have to be designed differently for different climates. Tropical North Queensland has very different requirements to Tasmania. So my first question, where are you located? The perfect passive solar house is rectangular, with the longer faces pointing due north & south, the shorter faces pointing east & west. Unfortunately, along with being an odd shape, you're house faces 45° to the compass points. This greatly complicates shading windows. But generally, with your orientation, you'd want to minimize NW widows (which looks impossible), locate your living areas to the north with NE widows where possible (somewhat achievable), locate bedrooms to the south with SE windows (somewhat achievable). Taking this all into account, I'm not overly keen on your new plan to locate your master at the front of the house, where the living room is currently located. It will rob your living areas/kitchen of natural light, & limit sunlight heating of your living areas in winter. Is is also likely to make your master unbearably hot on summer evenings, as this room has what looks like large NW facing windows. So I'D LEAVE YOUR LIVING AREA WHERE IT IS. As you say, your kitchen & meals area are very dark, because the windows in these rooms face SE & SW. To lighten up the kitchen I'd revert to your original plan, & KNOCKOUT MUCH OF THE WALLS BETWEEN THE KITCHEN, DINING ROOM & ENTRY HALLWAY. This will have a great effect on lighting your kitchen. One thing I do like, is that you've kept your kitchen, laundry & bathroom in their current location. This will help to minimise renovation costs greatly, as moving wet areas & plumbing is expensive. Plus S (along with W) is a good orientation for wet areas, as these are quite rarely used, & don't need to be warm. Now for another question, your family situation. Do you plan on using all 4 bedrooms regularly? If bedroom 4 is a guest bedroom & will be rarely used my plan would be to LOCATE BEDROOM 4 IN WHAT IS CURRENTLY THE MEALS AREA. This room is dark because of it's orientation, perfect for a bedroom. It would be quite small, but ok for guests or a study. If you wanted this room to be larger, you could rob some floor area from the laundry, though I may have other plans for this below. I'll go along with your plans of changing the use of the central bedroom, but instead of making this your living area I'd MAKE THE CENTRAL BEDROOM YOUR RUMPUS. You could decide how much of the walls you want left, deciding between privacy & noise reduction, & daylighting the rear of the house (which wouldn't really be necessary, as it's bedrooms & bathrooms). I would include a door somewhere between the rumpus, new bedroom 4 / kitchen. This door can be used to zone the living areas. Separating your living areas from your bedrooms, so you can choose to only heat your living areas in winter, which is great for energy efficiency & your bills. Like your new plan, I'd EXTEND THE HOUSE IN THE SE CORNER. But I would LOCATE THE MASTER / ENSUITE IN THE SE EXTENSION. Again, this orientation is good for bedrooms. The master could have private outside areas. You could also increase it's privacy by locating the ensuite or robe on the wall adjacent to the other bedroom. Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 19Jun 09, 2017 11:49 am Wowee, thankyou so much for the very detailed response! all of the ideas and knowledge was fantastic to read. I can certainly understand the need to keep the current lounge as it is, as you say, that front facing window is quite large and would get a lot of heat in the afternoon in summer. FYI I am in Melbourne. My only concern with keeping that lounge, and knocking out bed 1 to make a rumpus is that bed 1 would be no more and I'm not sure where is would go...I guess that could always be part of the extension, and for now bed 1 could stay where it is. I think that if I was to knock out the kitchen/dining walls facinv the hallways, I would maybe look at moving bed 1's door around to being near the bed 2 door. We are planning to have 3 kids so the 4th bed would still need to be a comfortable size. So with all that in mind, if the goals was to initially renovate things like the floors, electrics, paint etc and put in a new kitchen and then down the track (maybe 7-9 years away) do an extension so that the house has 4 beds (1 with ensuite), dual living, what would be your suggestion? My main concern is that I don't want to have to do the kitchen again, so I want to place that where I want it to be long term. The meals, kitchen and dining areas are too pokey, so I want to try and end up with just a good size kitchen and meals area (big enough for a family size table). Re: Broad Reno ideas for enhanced layout 20Jun 09, 2017 12:03 pm Sorry, this IPad keeps refreshing while I'm writing, & I lose what I type (just lost a paragraph on outdoor areas. Grrrr). So I've been editing what I've originally typed. So you mightn't have seen I said put the master in the extension, when you build it. Leave the master where it is, until your ready to extend. Once that's done, convert bed one to the rumpus. Only problem is you don't get an ensuite until you extend. I'll continue writing, in a new post. your new kitchen and living area looks great and we need accurate dimensions to be specific but with the thickness of the brick column you may be able to line the inside… 1 1229 Thanks for the suggestion. The space between shower and sinks was too tight. I agree about the toilet location. So I have tried two other options: The lower one is… 3 6139 |