house on acrerage with view to the south

Hi all,
I am really after some ideas, as I am running dry. My partner and I own two and a half acres. It is approx. 50m by 200m. It runs north-south, with the road running on the north side (50m). On the south end of the block we are on the top of a 15m escarpment, which goes down to a river, and then we have views over the Otways in the distance. We want to build at the southern end of the block to take in the views and to allow us to have our playing area for our twins and garden on the North side.
It terms of what we want in a house, we are after 4 bedrooms, a main living/dining/kitchen, and a rumpus room. We want to make the most of the views, ie lots of glass on the south side, but also windows on the north for the sun. The idea is to have the main bedroom on the west end of the house, with the others on the east. We don't want a garage as we already have a big shed.
Any ideas that you can give us we would greatly appreciate. (We plan on having solar electricity, wood fire, and worm septic.)

Thanks.

Hi

Your block sounds great.

One though is that just because the best views are from the south it doesn't mean you need huge windows on that side. A 1 square m window can frame a view so you can enjoy it everytime you pass.

This means that you can keep the south windows small fro good thermal efficiency and have the big windows on the North for views of your land and getting the winter sun

sounds lovely, pop over the 'those living on acreages' thread, we may have some ideas, we would love to hear more about your build, so pop over and say g'day

sounds lovely we are on 5 acres we have big windows at the back of our house to take in the lake views next to us we build a 4 bed house with rumpus etc simlar to what you are after we are in qld

Sounds just like our block! Except ours is only an acre. Ours is 45m wide and runs NE-SW with the road down on the NE boundary. The SW boundary is on the top of a 100m escarpment that leads down to the river. Our view is the Hunter Valley with fields of prancing horses in the foreground

My two favorite plans (of the week!) are The Denver by M3tric0n and especially the McLaren Vale by Dale Alc0ck Homes.

Would love to chat with you about ways to maximize the solar passivity because we have a very similar problem. What style of house are you looking at?

Thanks for all your advice. Really appreciate it.
Thegilbeys - your block and ours does sound very similar. There are a lot of the denver's built around where we are living at the moment - and it is amazing how the same house can look so different.
We are looking to build a house that is family orientated - and when I am in the kitchen I can see the boys where ever they are playing.
We are currently getting some plans drafted, with the idea that we will have a kit put together and then Matt and I will build it ourselves. The idea is that we will build it in three sections - the first section will be the easten most pod which will contain three bedrooms, a rumpus room, laundry and bathroom. We will put the kitchen in the laundry to begin with. The other two 'pods' will then be built when we can afford them. Our drafter has been very good in terms of looking at our needs as well as trying to attain a seven star energy rating for us.
I will PM plans for you to look at, mainly because I don't know how to post them here. The eastern pod is how it will be built, the kitchen has to be changed on the middle pod, and the western pod is being completly redesigned. The place will be clad in corry and v-board. Oh, and the deck is also being changed.
Have a look what you think - would love suggestions too!!

I may have worked it out...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/annesna/houseplans.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/annesna/block.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/annesna/elevations.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h336/annesna/views.jpg

our property is 100m across the front across the back 80m and the two sides are 210m and 260m.

Wow! That is very cool! Please share pics when you start to build!