Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 05, 2010 3:10 pm So we have come up with complete new plans. Our block is 4000sqm (1 acre) and faces West. We've tried to make the front of the house still appear wide so it has some kerbside appeal. These are the first scale drawings we have had done up with all the finer details like robes etc the draftsman put in after looking at my scribbles. There are lots of things I would change but would love to hear your thoughts first. http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j132/MEV09/plan1-1.jpg I don't think the room sizes are readable so I will write some of the measurements down. Games 4.48x4.48 Living 5x4.5 Dining 5x4.8 (way too big) Kitchen 4.8x5.8 Movie 5.3x3.8 Study 3.2x3.2 Bed 1 5x4.5 ensuite & robe space 5x4.5 (needs to be reconfigured) Bed 2 3.5x4.2 Bed 3 3.7x4.2 Bed 4 3.5x3.5 Laundry 3.3x1.8 Go for gold Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 2May 05, 2010 6:45 pm Hi, It is hard to see which room is labelled what. Do you have a slightly larger image. From what I can make out, here is what I think. Really good level of storage in all the rooms The back kitchen wall does not make sense. Is there a big gap between the rectangle and the pantry or will this be cupboards and bench? You say the block faces west so I am guessing then the front of the house is facing west. Which means that the left of the house is facing north. Have you considered swapping the games room and bed 4 so that all living areas are long the left side of the house where it will get more winter sun (if I have orientation wrong, ignore what I am saying). I like the separate toilet in main bathroom (never been a huge fan of toilets in the bathroom if it can be avoided. Where will the clothesline be? Just in terms of getting from the laundry with the basket of wet clothes to the outside. If there was a rear door to the garage, this would be a quick way out from laundry. Are you planning to do anything with the space on left side of the house. If the WIR's in the main bedroom were reconfigured, you could have a door leading outside to a private courtyard (maybe no private as dining room looks at it...) Looks nice and well planned out. Designing houses is fun! If you want, have a look at my design (updated one near the bottom) and let me know what you think. The thread is viewtopic.php?f=31&t=32989 Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 3May 05, 2010 6:58 pm Hey thanks for the reply Barker! Thats the best I can do sorry I can't make it any clearer/larger! From the front to the back on the left side its ,master, cinema then kitchen/dining living around the alfresco. On the right side of the house study, laundry, bed 3, bed 4, kids bath & games. Yes house faces West. We thought about moving the games room but we really want the living areas opening up off the back of the house for entertaining purposes. Also when there are kids in the picture we can see what they are doing a bit easier. I think the gap in the kitchen he left for stove, it will all be bench? We are going to push the wall of the ensuite near the pantry down and push the hallway down so the pantry is deeper (does that make sense) I'm going to push the toilet door for the main bathroom out a bit and somehow put a sink in there. Clothesline will be on the right of the house somewhere, I ideally would like the laundry door opening into the laundry and a door in the garage to outside in the back left corner. I am going to put one of those wall clotheslines in the garage and try to do most of my drying there because I hate the sun bleaching my clothes! Dad has this in his house and it has always been a grea idea! The left side of the house will just be lots of grass! Thats an idea to open it up to a private little area. Can anyone think how I can reconfigure the kitchen/dining/living area better so its not such a waste of space. The dining room is far too large. Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 5May 05, 2010 9:20 pm Just looking quickly but in your ensuite I would swap the bath to run along the adjoining wall. To me it just looks a little cramped in it's current location. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 7May 05, 2010 9:39 pm 'Tis always something isn't there? I am pretty bad at knowing what size things should be - I know our dressing room is 3.2m x 3m and then our ensuite is something like 4.5m by not sure? The ensuite holds a separate toilet in it's own room, a loooooong double vanity close to 2.5m in length, our freestanding bath is 1.9m long and our double shower is around 2m long as well (this is all from memory so could be a little longer on the shower and vanity). Some things are worth waiting for. Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 8May 05, 2010 10:10 pm You could extend the kitchen further to the left which would reduce some of the size of the dining room. It would also mean that people in lounge room would be able to see kitchen better (bad if you like the idea of them being separate, good if you are entertaining and people are sitting in lounge room while you prepare food and want to still be part of the conversation). I agree about extending the length of the main toilet to fit in a basin. An alternative would be a toilet with inbuilt basin. The top of the cistern is a basin with a spout. When you press the half or full flush, water comes out the spout and you wash your hands. The water you wash your hands with then goes down the drain to fill the cistern. Caroma makes them. Good if you can't find the space and it can also save a fair bit of water (I will be on tank water s considering this option). Of course I got them quoted at $850 (over a grand for the soft close lid) so it is a pretty expensive loo compared to others. Building tip No. 3: A raft slab will not get you down a river. A waffle pod slab does not go with maple syrup. My building thread https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=53000 Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 9May 05, 2010 11:25 pm I don't like how the family bathroom is on the otherside of the hallway openening of the main living area to the bedrooms... maybe this could be made a bit more private, so the kids can go from the bathroom to thier bedrooms without being seen from the main living area? Possibly move the bathroom inbetween the two bedrooms, since you have another guest toilet between master and kitchen (I'm assuming that's near the guest bedroom?) A door from the garage to outside is a must IMHO. Love how you have the living areas oriented to the north, still far to many don't consider passive solar design!! Recently moved to a 60's home in need of some improvement! http://s797.photobucket.com/user/leenii ... ch%20House Old house: http://s797.photobucket.com/albums/yy25 ... loo/House/ Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 10May 06, 2010 6:27 am Thanks Leni, I will play with the plans today and make the main bath between the two beds. Should I put a cavity slider down the bottom of that hall for easier access to the rooms instead of walking up to the end of the hall and back down the kids hall. Maybe when we have kids and are getting out of bed throughout the night this might be easier? We can leave an opening up the top for access to the games still. Leni our original design was very wide and didn't go back at all, majority of the rooms faced west/east because we wanted to take advanage of our wideblock but realied it wasn't the best idea. This design is a happy compromise. The kitchen/dining is still doing my head in! Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 11May 06, 2010 3:50 pm To me, it looks like the shower in the ensuite is already huge. The bath could run along the window (which is plenty big enough for it, and you could do funky short but really wide windows - two or three of them spanning from above bath to ceiling). That gives HEAPS more space to extend your vanity all the way down that wall and add a second basin. I note you said that the clothes line will be along the southern side of the house, and you're having a grassy area on the northern side. I'd be very tempted to add in a removable hills hoist type job in there - you can take it away if you want to entertain. Clothes will dry much faster with the northern sun than sitting in the shade on the southern side. I'd also be tempted to add in a retractable clothes line under your alfresco - all year round outdoor drying space (but again, slow as in the shade - but what more could you ask for in winter? More later - am looking on my phone and it's rather suboptimal!! =) Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 12May 06, 2010 6:05 pm Somewoman the shower is quite large, we would like it longer and narrower so we can each have a showerhead on each end. I like your bathroom idea. Might get the whiteout out and start playing with my plans. Removable hills hoist is a great idea, our neighbour put one out th back of their property next to the shed, get sun all day long. Looking forward to reading what else you have. I realised today there is no window in my laundry. I'm thinking we might make the office a bit bigger (how I drew it for the builder) which will push the laundry up a tad and we can have a small window adjacent to the rear garage wall, we could steal some room from the bedroom its quite large. With the Kitchen/Dining could we bring the wall of the dining in by around 1.5m or is it too messy having the exterior wall going in and out so much? If it won't look odd pushing the kitchen into the dining space we might do that. I've also changed our plans and put the kids bath between the two bedrooms. Great idea Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 13May 06, 2010 8:17 pm Have you thought about furniture layout in the dining family areaa? Particularly where you may put a tv. Perhaps consider two tall skinny windows on the rear (east) wall so you can put a tv in between them?? The rear family/alfresco is the same in our house and we have a tv sticky out alcove thingy (awesome description I know) on the left (north) wall of the family room. This is where the tv is so it can also be seen from the alfresco area. Just some thoughts. Oh, definately tint your north and west windows. The sun has been a killer here even as we supposedly come towards winter. Thats QLD I guess Building the Pl@ntation Retreat on 4009m2. All moved in!!!!!! Now for the real work https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=20588&p=285640#p285640 Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 14May 09, 2010 5:17 pm Hi Mrs P, Looks like you have pulled your plans down now - but I've been dreaming about how to explain maybe move the kitchen!!! Anyway have a look here http://www.clarendon.com.au/homes/detail/190 You might be able to use this as an idea for moving the kitchen over into the dining. Cheers Bel Still not in. Don't ask!? Re: NEW PLANS.. CRITIQUE AWAY!!! 15May 09, 2010 5:57 pm d'oh - I was really hoping to get another look at this one. Have been super busy of late with little time to get in and look at anything... I really dislike photobucket - pictures seem to go seriously AWOL very fast. Flickr is seriously the way to go!! I've got a challenge here. Background is the builder has cut too deep for the slab and the slab is now below the very substantial retaining wall. It's failed occupancy… 0 18364 6 11469 Really tight at the top of the stairs- how to get furniture into those rooms? Study books - does anyone really use them these days? Large storage closet would be more functional. 2 6848 |