Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Oct 21, 2022 12:01 pm Hi there, Our land is 30M depth and 10M wide. Planning to go max build, leaving only 4M for backyard. I was just thinking out loud here that is it enough or should I decrease the build size to have little more space in backyard, say 5.5M ? Location is Sydney (western suburb Schofields) and Aspect of land front facing is East so backyard is West. Your suggestions are much appreciated. thanks Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Is 4M backyard good enough ? 3Oct 21, 2022 12:18 pm I'm unsure what we are going to use for and how are we going to use the backyard. We live in apartment currently and and can't say that what are the uses of having big backyard. I understand different people have different choices/opinions but I would like to hear from people and their opinions so that I can make a decision. thanks Re: Is 4M backyard good enough ? 4Oct 21, 2022 12:26 pm big yard is more maintenance, but then if you have small kids or pets it's more space for them, and you can build a pool or nice garden. small yard is virtually maintenance free, but then you don't get to plant a nice garden and you can only build one of those narrow designer pools, and there's only enough space for pets to go and pee outside. but then you get a bigger house. so depends whether people like to spend their time inside or outdoors. there's probably not much practical difference between 4m and 5.5m unless you want to build a pool in the future Re: Is 4M backyard good enough ? 5Oct 21, 2022 1:47 pm I'd start by changing the alfresco, 2x8 seems like it would be pretty useless, its more or less a porch. How would you expect to use the alfresco? Sitting around a table as a family? In effect you have 60 odd square metres for alfresco and yard at moment. Would it be better to move alfresco to top left and make it more square and have the yard down the bottom left and 6m wide (fence to house)? Would mean the opening to the house would be half alfresco and half grass though - not sure that is ideal. At the end of the day 300 squares will never lend itself to much backyard. Re: Is 4M backyard good enough ? 6Oct 21, 2022 2:53 pm Hi Budapest Yes, I agree with you that big alfresco is useless. Thanks for the advice and we changed now. Please see attached. Also quick one, do you think that the living area + kitchen which covers 7.2W / 6.6L is too big? I was thinking that I can reduce 1M in length to make backyard 5M. My family is small with 2 adults and 1 kid. 7.2W / 5.6L is decent size. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Is 4M backyard good enough ? 7Oct 21, 2022 2:57 pm I think what Budapest meant was more that a 2m wide alfresco is mostly useless because you won't be able to use it for putting a table outdoors for family gatherings and BBQs, if that's your thing. you'd be better off making it 3x6 or 3x4 or 4x4 and either extending the living room into the remainder of space, or creating an additional small room, so that alfresco has two walls. if you think that your living room is too large, then you could reduce the length of it, and push out the dining table into that room Re: Is 4M backyard good enough ? 8Oct 21, 2022 3:19 pm That is what I meant yeah - make it usable. Only you know how you will want to use it. Looking at the revised plan 1.9x3 is extremely small. It's literally a small table and 2 chairs. Is it even worth it? Have you sat down and drawn everything to scale over the plans to see how it looks? See how the natural walkways look. The designers don't draw in any storage (buffets, bookshelves) and item sizes are nominal (and small mostly I reckon). Do you want your table 500mm from the sliding door? Have you found a display home with similar dimensions? You have 40sm for the kitchen, dining and living. We are building now and ours is 70! We (2 adults, 2 kids) will have family over so want a big area. viewtopic.php?f=31&t=104814 Looking at your plans it looks like you may be trying to fit too much in and the expense of making everything too small. If it is just 3 of you do you need 4 bedrooms, media, formal sitting, rumpus and study nook. They all look pretty small. I've seen houses where they have lots of rooms, but they are so small each kids needs 2 as they can only fit a double bed in their actual room. If it were me I'd delete some areas to make other rooms bigger. I notice oklouise has made some comments about layout and adding stuff in too. Apologies, I have wondered off track a bit. 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