Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2161Dec 26, 2016 2:21 pm No worries. I hope you get it sorted Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2164Jan 30, 2017 9:42 pm Here's a concept plan for a two storey family house on a battleaxe block - I'd be interested if anyone has any comments: Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ The house has a large private yard to the north, and the south backs onto an open reserve Views from the ground floor are limited, but the second storey has good views to the north, northwest, southwest and south. Due to the access to the block the garage is separate from the house to the northwest (and will be linked to the front entrance by a covered walkway). Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2165Jan 31, 2017 4:09 am Hey algernon, looks pretty good! I would say that you can easily lose the rumpus room and have all four bedrooms on the same floor (just switch the door over for the master bed). Given what you say about views etc, have you considered switching the floor plans so that the bedrooms and laundry are on the ground floor with the living spaces above? Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2166Jan 31, 2017 10:19 pm Thanks! The decision was made to leave one bedroom on the ground floor in case of potential future accessibility issues, and also because as for the first few years (at least) it'll most likely be used as a kids' rumpus room, it made for a better 'flow' by having it on the same level as the main living areas. Calling it a 'bedroom' (although it can and will be used as a guest bed at times - just not very often) is more for bank valuation purposes than anything else - some of the valuers around here can be quite conservative. We did have an extra (actual, dedicated) bedroom upstairs on early drafts, but we removed it because we couldn't see it being actively used enough to justify the additional costs. It's a "forever house", so not being designed for resale. We did consider the upside-down living option, but ended up going this way for a couple of reasons: with the large private yard we wanted to maximise the direct interface between that and the main living areas, and the observation that we tend to appreciate views more when we're alone than with others. With this layout we end up with a natural divide between the quiet areas upstairs and the social/noisy areas downstairs, which (at least conceptually) works well for us. Also, between us we've had some bad experiences of living areas above bedrooms (due to cheap construction and complete lack of sound insulation) - despite planning to use a Hebel floor (and insulation) we're still psychologically happier with bedrooms above living instead of vice-versa. So in the end we went utilising the views form the upstairs (quiet) living area, including the windows to the west and south in the stairwell (otherwise the west window probably wouldn't be there at all). Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2167Feb 01, 2017 4:22 am sounds like you have really thought this through algernon. Have you drawn any elevations? Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2168Feb 02, 2017 10:09 pm I did have some elevations, but we were in the process of revising them - adjusting the north aspect in particular to add some decorative elements to avoid too much of a "cliff face" look. Although now it's all on hold while we sort out a minor disagreement with the certifier over setback restrictions that might impact on the western end of the upper floor - I'm quite confident that we've got the correct interpretation of the setback requirements, but we'll see... just holding off on further design revisions until the certifier is on board. Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2169Feb 03, 2017 4:22 am sounds pretty typical! are you drawing these yourself then? what software are you using? Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2170Feb 03, 2017 8:49 am Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts/suggestions on this plan. http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m40/cuebiyar/Floorplan.jpg I've tried to focus mainly on passive solar principles allowing for summer afternoon breeze direction (SE-E). The 'W1' windows are short & wide (400Hx2700W). 'W2' are 1200Hx900W. Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2171Feb 03, 2017 8:52 am Have you considered overhanging eaves or some other form of shading for all that north facing glass during the summer months? Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2172Feb 03, 2017 9:04 am architect_yourself Have you considered overhanging eaves or some other form of shading for all that north facing glass during the summer months? Yes, the rear wall is all 900 eaves + gutter so just over 1m, with the height of the eaves it was the best compromise length. Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2173Feb 03, 2017 1:27 pm My only consideration would be swapping the storage room and bathroom. I think bathroom and toilets feel clostraphobic. Also the bathroom layout looks OK in theory but thinking about children I don't think it's practical. Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2174Feb 03, 2017 2:07 pm Craigasaurus My only consideration would be swapping the storage room and bathroom. I think bathroom and toilets feel clostraphobic. Also the bathroom layout looks OK in theory but thinking about children I don't think it's practical. Thanks, I understand your comments, I've had similar thoughts but nothing I try works any better. We had the WC where the vanity is and the rest was one room, but there wasn't space for a sink in the WC (really don't want any reason for someone to 'forget' LOL). I would prefer to have things separate so children can each do what they need to without blocking access to the rest of the bathroom functions. Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2175Feb 03, 2017 2:13 pm Windowless bathrooms are not very nice spaces, and west facing bedrooms get pretty hot in the evenings. Perhaps consider swapping bedroom 4 and the bathroom and grouping your services along the western boundary a bit more. The plan is quite wide a well with quite a lot of circulation space. I believe than an ensuite bathroom for the master bed is a practical item and worth keeping but walk-in robes are spatial pretty inefficient. I would consider removing this, having all your bedrooms along the eastern boundary (so that they can benefit from morning sun and be cool again by the evening), reducing the width of the building quite a bit. Hope this helps! Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2176Feb 03, 2017 8:32 pm My thoughts are similar to those described above - the internal bathroom may probably not be the best idea, and bed 4, even with the high shallow window, is going to get hot in the summer afternoons. architect_yourself has some good suggestions - if you could make the footprint a bit longer and narrower, it might help with the arrangement. A proper three-way bathroom can work quite well with kids (speaking from direct personal experience) - if you can change the footprint slightly and move the bathroom to the west, that should give you enough room to make the bathroom work a little better. For reference, the three-way bathroom on the upper floor of the plan I posted above was based on an actual house we stayed in and which we know from experience works very well for families. On our plan the full 'block', including the external cupboard, has internal dimensions of 2.7x3.5m - and there is a bit of fat in those dimensions in order to fit specific features we wanted (I think the original was about 2.4x3.0m). Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2177Feb 03, 2017 9:04 pm architect_yourself sounds pretty typical! are you drawing these yourself then? what software are you using? Yes, these are drawn by myself - we started the design process about a year ago and there's been multiple revisions and many experiments and abandoned concepts since we started! The software I'm using is Home Designer by Chief Architect - I've also recently got access to Revit, which I'm trying to learn. Revit is certainly much more capable, but it's a lot easier (for me, at least) do do things quickly and easily in Home Designer. Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2179Feb 04, 2017 1:11 pm is there any chance you could swap the Dining/Living and Media areas around? If you did that, you could move the kitchen over slightly, put the pantry where the bathroom is now, and then move the bathroom to either between Bed 3 and the living area (or move bed 4 there and move the bathroom there instead). Re: Custom Design floor plan thread post them here!! 2180Feb 04, 2017 3:00 pm You don't need to increase the floor plan. I am talking about reducing it. swap bed 4 and the bathroom, get rid of the WIR, then reduce the width of the building (same length) Hi, Seeking volume or semi-custom builder in victoria(east), which have existing double story wide floor plans. Seeking 18-20m wide homes with depth of 12-15m long. Or… 0 25171 6 55355 Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 20432 |