Custom Floorplan comments and review

Hi All,

First post, my wife and I are currently reviewing a custom floorplan from our builder and would really value any input from this community where I've been lurking for a few months!

Our block has some considerable slope and so the builder has suggested the split level design I've attached.
My wife and I are unlikely to be having kids, we will both be working from home and so some of the design of the house is centered on having lots of different spaces.

Open to any and all feedback, but one thing I'm really interested is "where would you cut back" on this design? As this draft includes everything we put on our wish list, and having not got to how much will this cost, I'm sure we'll need to look at where the right place to compromise on this design is (The pool isn't included or being built, just laid out so we know if we wanted one, where it might fit).

Cheers, thanks and looking forward to hopefully continuing to post as we go through our build.

Note: The compass was co-mingled with our personal info: Block faces north (with a nice view) and we've specifically asked for "rooms we'll be awake in, and not want the blinds drawn" to take up that view: Study/ Living area etc.

Nice. I would make one suggestion - consider the placement of your powder-room when you will have guests who may be wet from pool or trekking to toilet from alfresco area. It's a long way. If you can, try and add another toilet (pehaps in undercroft?, or a door into your ensuite?)

Thanks Unikitty, we'd had similar thoughts on reviewing. It is a bit of a hike to the existing powder room at the front of the house, but also didn't see a good place to put an additional WC without taking away from other areas we already really like.
Perhaps we need to consider an outhouse for guests!
I do like the idea of a door into the en-suite from outside.

For the number of occasions we're likely to have guests where it would have been preferable to be a little closer, we currently think it is worth taking the hit to keep the other areas that are as we want them.

Think twice about concrete flooring throughout. First of all, there is a huge margin of error to make it right, secondly, if you are not putting in hydronic underfloor heating (and looks like you are not), you will be destined to almost always wear some type of footwear when walking around the house.

Putting it in bedroom is probably the worst thing you can do to your house.

You won't be able to have in ensuite too as it needs to be waterproofed there.

You would need to think how to minimise your glazing on the south (e.g. master suite, near butler's, theatre) and west side (living, dining) and if you orient your bed the other way, you could enjoy your view from Bed 3 too by putting in North facing window there instead of eastern one.

It makes more sense to have place your living on the western side too to shade off your living and dining from the western sun and to unblock them to provide passive heating during winters. Alternatively, you can consider some sort of retractable roof solution e.g. vergola over there - you will keep the roofing on during hot summers but opening it up during winters.

Do you know the use case behind your second living/sitting? It might be more practical to consider another bedroom convertible into the office over there and use some of it area to slightly increase the size of your bedrooms 2 and 3.

Thanks alexp79, really appreciate the feedback.


From some of your comments I just wanted to check you had the orientation correct; The block faces north, so Bedroom 2, 3 and the Living/Sitting room form the north elevation of the house. Sorry for this being confusing and not included in the diagrams!

You've picked up a good point on the concrete, and good to hear your feedback on the issue. We are having underfloor heating: hoping to go for in-screed hydronic heating (To only heat the floor, rather than the full slab/footings and the earth!)
Having said that, the builder took our wishes for polished concrete in a few key areas (that main Kitchen/Living/Dining area) a little far and have indeed pushed it through the whole house, which we're not sure about.

What we're going to discuss with them is the trade off between:
- If we leave the concrete everywhere, then possibly we can use the underfloor heating as the only form of heating through the house.
- If we swap out a bunch of the concrete; so leave Living/Dining/Kitchen, and swap all other areas currently labelled concrete to something like engineered timber then we think we'd need an additional heating system in the house.

Thanks for the tips on vergola etc.

The second living/sitting is for:
- My wife and I are avid readers, so this room will have a big bookcase,
- a desk for working from home (so I will have the primary office, she will work in that room when we're both at home)
- a craft space for scrapbooking/artish type things that my wife is into.

Hope this helps and cheers again for the feedback.

Hey mate,

I like your design.
For me, unless you are a big bath person - i would re-think in the ensuite; in place of a bigger WIR. My main issue is the idea of walking through the WIR everytime to get to the bathroom. You could alternatively rotate the shower 90 degrees and create another entry (cavity slider) - that way you dont have to worry about moisutre from the bathroom getting to your clothes.

IRT hydnoic heating; we are about to commence a build with in slab heating (in screed/two pours is better but more expensive). We are doing carpet for the bedrooms and the lounge room - we are getting the builder to recess these areas 20mm - so we can then have a flush finish with the polished concrete; recommend doing this - it isnt standard but if you've been in houses before with carpet and polished concrete, the transition is very noticable.

Best of luck!

Thanks josh22.

We are pretty big bath people. glad that comes through in the plans! Like your point about having to walk through the WIR or otherwise concerns about putting steam into the WIR where not nessesary. Cheers!

Great call on the in slab heating and rebating the slab for carpet and other flooring! We want two pours at the moment, but no price tag yet so we'll what happens when it comes to getting the wallet out.

Cheers, I'll be following to see how your in slab heating goes as I'm sure you'll be ahead of us.

Consider something like Speedfloor or Bondek for your suspended slab. You also might be better off with going for Dincel for your garage and retaining walls.

It might be also nice to consider a concrete roof over, so you could later turn your rooftop into ultimate entertainment zone.

We are in the same space mate. Two people, first build, have decided the world does not need more humans so will be just two of us. We have views to a river, building an upside down house with minimal gardening . Have put in a lift and a pool. Did not bother reading past your first post but that house seems excessive and not very well planned. If there is 2 of you, maybe look at maximising your enjoyment instead of cleaning/maintaining or paying to do the same.

Not judging btw ..It is your house after all.. you do what you want to do .. just expressing my opinion

For two people working from home, I think the study is too small. I would be inclined to lose the sitting/living room - make it bed 3 instead. Then your study could be the entire length of the current study plus current bed 3. Unless you need 3 living areas?

If it were my house, not sure how keen I'd be on having the outdoor living at the front of the house. I'd look at pulling the porch out further so that some of the rooms could be moved to the left - then the outdoor living could fit where the master suite currently is.

Yeah two pours is the way to go; they should be able to put down a thermal barrier in between the two pipes - will increase the effectiveness of your hydronic heating (cost and responsiveness).

We are still running the hydronic under the carpeted areas - have been told we won’t feel the heat on our feet; but it will still radiate heat into the room.

In regards to fridge placement - you might want to reconsider.
Your current cabinets are 600mm deep. Your fridge at a minimum will be around 650-700mm deep, then add in the 100mm clearance you’re meant to leave at the back (also the depth of the plug); your fridge will be sticking out 200mm. I would check out fridge dimensions online at the good guys - some of the fridges are 800 deep (especially the ones with plumbed water - which I see you are doing); meaning it would stick out 30cm - would look out of place.

Hey shaidas. Thanks, good to hear we're not the only ones.


I get what you're saying about the excess of the house and definitely something we've thought about. My wife and I have our own independent hobbies. She's into crafty stuff, while I'm an IT nerd through and though; we also sometimes like different entertainment. One of our current struggles is if each of us want to watch something different, or do different things in our current smaller home; one of us needs to go to bed due to the lack of living spaces. Maybe we've over corrected in this design.

The other consideration is that we're not planning on this being our 'forever' house and so we need to be able to sell it when it's time for us to move on so that is a consideration with the size of the rooms and additional bedrooms.

Hi mcbks.
Thanks, we agree with you on the study. We're planning on addressing it in two ways:
- We've asked for the existing study to be moved to the front of the house so it can have northern sun and the views our block has. This will involve changing the dimensions and making it a little larger.
- The labelled study will be my study (for full time WFH), while that third living space labelled Sitting room/lounge room will be my wife's space when she needs to work from home ~ 3 days a fortnight at the most.

We do want to keep the 3 living spaces; 2 with TV's for separate TV activities, and that third space for my wife's part time WFH, reading "non-TV" activities.
Down the road if we were looking to sell and present the house as a 4 bedroom we think we could convert that sitting room by adding a robe and normal doors.

Not sure I fully understand what you're heading for with the outdoor living piece, the Road for this block is located to the north, so runs along Bed 2, 3 and Sitting room, which does mean that outdoor living is in the backyard, but only just.


Cheers and thanks for the feedback.

Thanks, good spot with the fridge, we'll have a look and research as you've suggested.

Well, helloo sounds like the same situation and profile mate. My mrs needs a ceramic workplace and I run an IT company. Well if you are happy with the design go for it. Still looks like you will be paying for rooms which will never be used. Maybe think about that ..or not .. your choice and your house

Looks like an amazing block and first round of designs. Congrats on getting the ball rolling!

Couple of observations from my own perspective if I were to be living in this home:

1) consider orientating the King bed in the master to face out the windows towards the view. I think it would be amazing to be able to look out over the view (& pool if built) from bed. The bed can be positioned in the middle of the room and with a custom low bedhead for a walkway behind the bed.

2) whilst I appreciate how the master bed is a separate wing to the rest of the house, I can't help but feel like I would find it annoying having to navigate through the kitchen and around the entry hall to get to the other side of the house. The "flow" getting to the office and other living areas feels like it could be quite a trek

3) I notice that there's no internal access to the garage and gym. It'd be worth considering if this is able to be incorporated. Will make life so much easier accessing the garage from within and not having to brave the elements with carrying shopping from the car, or even going to the gym for a workout

As you said in one of your other comments, that you're building with also keeping in mind the possibility of selling in the future. So consider how a family might want to live in and use the space.
Looks like it's going be a very exciting project. Looking forward to following it with much interest

my first suggestion would be to have a ground level entry with internal stairs from the garage (there's also potential for a tiny lift and/or dumb waiter for groceries and rubbish) and a downstairs bathroom can he useful for the gym, working in the garage or garden and also makes space for a small flat, the master suite has better views and connects through the ens to an optional upstairs gym and spa room and there's an alfresco and generous balcony for outdoor activities, the central stairwell creates a light filled void open to the media room and the hallway leads directly into the sitting room with northerly views and a deep tandem daybed, two bedrooms are big enough for queen sized beds or multiple activities, the study is sized to make a 4th bedroom, the powder room is more private and the bathroom generous, the kitchen is big enough for a giant island, coffee station and pantry and the laundry has easy access to the rear garden and an optional extra powder room...thinking about the slope i've kept the original width but my plan is 6m shorter and should save some excavation and i would prefer a reversing bay and parking with a sweeping ramp for external access to the balcony ...my overall plan is smaller than the original with optional extras, some room sizes can be reduced and to reduce size/cost and the basic hip roof is the most cost effective although imo the northern gable will look better with the wide bay window

Hey simis2626
Welcome to the forum
Probably not related to the floor plan layout but more so the 3D elevation
But i would highly recommend that you get the drawing properly modelled to include engineering 3D Bim + data/proofs
You don't want to pay an initial deposit and then find out the roofs missing, the under croft is drawn incorrectly, no site retaining walls, the alfresco slab is floating on air, Slab and formwork costs weren't included, etc,etc
Once the builder gets their engineering they come back and tell you it was the designer/architects fault the drawing
is structurally non compliant. At which point you're lock in, and can't get other quotes, and in line for additional $ticker$hock variations to the initial quote/sketch
Cheers
Chris

I feel like if you're got a good view from the front of the house then you should consider maybe moving more of the living areas or the master there.

Few other things to consider:
1) Do you really want guests in the future pool to be looking straight into the master?
2) The porch looks massive
3) There's not going to be much natural light in the kitchen
4) If it's raining then you will get wet going from the garage to the house
5) As a theoretical buyer, there's no way would I want concrete in every room.

Just my thoughts, you can consider whether these are issues for you.