Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Apr 18, 2010 12:50 pm Hi All, Firstly, please let me introduce myself. My name is Jono, I'm 29, I am from Perth, and I like stuff Now that all that is over, my wife and I have been looking to build our dream home for quite some time. We currently have a town house in a small block of 3 in Innaloo. We love it here, unfortunately it's not overly practical given we want to have kids and being on Karrinyup road make's it a safety risk. So over the past 12 months we have been looking and looking for a block that we think offers value for money. We don't mind spending big bucks, if we think we are getting a good deal. So after a period of time, we came across a well priced block in South Beach (South Fremantle) and put in an offer $10k under the asking price with a longer settlement. The developers accepted, and now we wait for our block to settle on the 25th of June. It's in a lovely position, only 150m to the beach, 2k's out of Fremantle, and 500m's out from the cafe's and pubs of South Freo. The only issue with the block, is that it is tiny. It is 8.5m wide by 32m deep - or ~270m/2. So finding a house for this sort of block is going to be a stressful proposition. We were hoping to have the living area's and master room down stairs, however yesterday we had an awesome chat with a sales rep from http://www.platinum-homes.com.au (@ the Studio78). She asked us if we didn't mind upside down houses, and I said I loved them, but they would get quite warm. She showed us a few cool window's that sit on the roof and help remove the heat. She then took us down stairs and explained how it is quite dark, and that we would never get any natural light in. With an upside down house, the light would be available to where you need it - kitchen, living, dining areas. Does anyone have any suggestions or comments? We are currently perplexed.. Cheers Jono Re: Narrow Lot Living 2Apr 18, 2010 1:33 pm I am confused - is your block reasonably flat or steep so that you will be building a split level house? Unless it is a split level house, I cannot see how the downstairs would not get natural light - you can have windows downstairs as well as above? I can see the sense in haveing the liveing areas upstairs in a split level house as this will then open to level ground at the back but on a conventional block I would prefer the liveing areas downstairs and bedrooms upstairs - or my preference main and liveing downstairs, kids bedrooms and possibly play area upstairs - this will only work if your kids are old enough though (obviously they are not if they dont even exist yet ) , if kids were little I wouldnt want to be haveing them on separate level to parents. I know some people have built upside down houses to make the most of views but in general I think the traditional way works best. Re: Narrow Lot Living 3Apr 18, 2010 1:48 pm Natural Light into bedrooms is still possible. My Bedroom 4 window. I moved from half size window on the smaller wall side, to a large sliding door on the opposite wall, and now we would have more light, air, and access to the outside courtyard. Instead of the previous location of the window just looking out at the rear fence, under 2 metres away. It also gave me space to hang a small fold out clothes line. My major thought was larger windows and glass doors, more light, small windows less light. My builder was going to install two small square highlight windows in my family room. As I am less than 0.9 metres from the side boundary/fence. I said no way, I still want two full height, floor to square bulkhead sliding windows. Re: Narrow Lot Living 4Apr 18, 2010 2:25 pm Helyn I am confused - is your block reasonably flat or steep so that you will be building a split level house? Unless it is a split level house, I cannot see how the downstairs would not get natural light - you can have windows downstairs as well as above? Thanks Helyn, The developers have a requirement that each house is a double storey. As such, my neighbors to the sides will be building double storey's (parapet wall for first 1/3 of the block) Though just thinking about it, the land faces east, so we should get the afternoon sun at the back of the house. It's just confusing... We currently have a friend drawing up some more traditional plans (master down, living down, rooms up) so I will see how that goes! Fun times Cheers Jono Re: Narrow Lot Living 5Apr 18, 2010 2:58 pm OK, batesy - so you mean any windows to the sides may not bring in much light because they will be very close to double story walls of neighbours' houses? That makes sense. I guess on a block that small you will not be able to have a very large house - so you should be aiming to have the main windows faceing front and back rather than to the sides - and just have wet areas windows to the sides if possible - you dont need as much light into them and obviously view of neighbours bricks is not really an issue from such windows. If the block is faceing east, you may need to be careful how you set up the back as this means your windows at the back and any rear alfresco area will face full glare of afternoon sun. Good luck with your plan Thanks again for this information. If you do hear anything different, would be great to know 4 8214 dimensions on your original plan are inconsistent and with accurate dimensions (including site plan, upstairs and down) i could make a proper scale drawing with furniture… 3 7497 So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 27480 |