Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jan 19, 2011 7:59 pm Hello, we started our plans for building our house - a modern minimalistic look is the one we prefer. But what we are still unsure, although we went to 3-4 architects is about the living room, and is where wwe want some help please! In the kitchen we wan to have a living room with TV, as in there we are going to spend most of our time... However we dont know if we are going to do 2 dining tables (1 formal and 1 for the kitchen) and also an extra living room which will be the formal one. Many people are saying that we need to have all of the above and be a more comfortable house rather than bringing guests in the kitchen... Anyone had this "problems" during their home plans? Thanks in advance for any tips! Re: Every day use areas 2Jan 19, 2011 8:10 pm I'm doing the 3. Kitchen/informal meals and living across the back of the house, a formal dining and a formal sitting room. The sitting room will basically be two couches and a coffee table. More than anything it's so I have a clean quiet part of the house to retreat to when I need The dining room is for entertaining and sewing! I guess you need to think about how you live. A friend has formal rooms like that in her home but she never uses them. In fact even her front door is never used. Everyone comes through the back door, into the kitchen and sits at her bench! Re: Every day use areas 3Jan 19, 2011 8:18 pm Quote: Many people are saying that we need to have all of the above Well, one thing is for sure - you certainly dont 'need' it. If it is something you will get use out of and can afford to add in, then do it - if not, then dont. Not sure what size house you are planning to build - we have a moderate size one and it does have a separate liveing room at the front - we have our TV in there as I like it to be separate from the open space kitchen/family/dining area. We only have one large TV in the house, and a smaller one in DS's bedroom. I like the ability to have separate TV/ quiet area - its not really about guests for us as guest situations are so different - eg, most often it will be a casual bbq or drinks under the pergola - handy for outdoor area to flow into casual liveing for us. I dont mind guests being in the kitchen - hey, they can help with the washing up - and I dont really do formal occasions. I have one dining table and 4 breakfast bar stools. I guess what I am saying is we chose what suits us - you have to do likewise, not listen to other people telling what you need. Re: Every day use areas 4Jan 19, 2011 8:20 pm Formal dining room only if you think you will do formal entertaining. Otherwise why? we have a tradional formal lounge which we use as our tv room( home theatre if we had the equipment) but our meals area is part of a large open plan area which includes the kitchen, a sitting area and a games room which for us is a computer room but for many would be a casual living/lounge area adjacent to our alfresco. if you are using an architect then I can understand the emphasis on a formal dining room. Depending on the property location it might be relevant. BUT would you use it? Would the space be better used for something else? If you really feel you must have a formal dining room but wouldn't use one can you make the room have a 2nd use. So that even if you don't want that you can use it for something else ? What sort of guests are you likely to have? will they be business /work guests or friends? This might be the main influence on whether you need those rooms and would use them. Do you have young children/plan to have? Will they have an area to have all their play things out? if your family living area will be the play area you might want a parent /adult only area. Not all guests will like having kiddies toys to clamber over. Most friends won't mind. Re: Every day use areas 5Jan 19, 2011 9:01 pm Thanks everyone for hte help - i am really delighted that we have found this forum! - we are thinking of building a house of 250 m2 - we are not having any formals guests. Mostly friends, relatives, and very rear times some not so close friends. Nothing to do with business guests, i dont think we will ever have those... Why if we are using an architect this would emphasize the importance of a formal dining space? For example what my sister was telling me yesterday that confused me even more: "Its nice to have a table in the kitchen for family times, as you wouldnt care so much if the kids step on the chairs, or if the table get any marks, as it is the every day table you will use. but would you want this to happen on a table were guests sit? But on the other side, our formal dining area is used only 4-5 times a year and the formal living room even less than that! But is nice to have such rooms as you will not think of space when you want to invite 15 friends over for dinner!" So after the above, we bang our head on the wall even harder! Re: Every day use areas 6Jan 19, 2011 9:37 pm Quote: our formal dining area is used only 4-5 times a year and the formal living room even less than that! But is nice to have such rooms as you will not think of space when you want to invite 15 friends over for dinner!" Well IMO haveing a room you use less than 4 times a year is silly How often will you have 15 friends over for dinner? I sometimes have that many people over - say, Christmas day or birthdays, but such gatherings, for us, include children and we invariably have an outside meal under the pergola - my pergola area is quite large and great for this purpose.. Its not about your sister anyway - you have to decide whether you will use it enough for it to be worth haveing - I guess you also have to consider other indirect things too - presuming your block is a finite size: is it better to have bigger rooms rather than more of them, is it better to have house space we will rarely use or more garden/outdoor space? No brainer for me as I love gardens - but perhaps you hate them and would rather have minimum outdoor area, I dont know. Re: Every day use areas 7Jan 19, 2011 9:41 pm Ok thanks, the garden isnt a problem as we can build 30% in the plit that we have and the plot is 1,000 m2, thus plenty of outdoor space I might come back with some more tips after we read what you guys have responded with my wife Re: Every day use areas 8Jan 19, 2011 10:35 pm We never used the 'formal dining' rooms we had in our last two houses as actual dining rooms. Both ended up being turned into multi-function rooms especially once the kids got a bit bigger. Also, a formal lounge and/or dining are seen by a lot of people these days as being very 80's/90's and can even negatively affect resale values. What you really need to think about is how you live in your current house and what you would change about it. That will help you to work out whether you really need any of the extra rooms we all seem to have these days. Good luck and please share your plans when you've decided! Donna Building the Floreat with SPH in The Glades at Byford Re: Every day use areas 9Jan 19, 2011 10:48 pm fekish Thanks everyone for hte help - i am really delighted that we have found this forum! - we are thinking of building a house of 250 m2 - we are not having any formals guests. Mostly friends, relatives, and very rear times some not so close friends. Nothing to do with business guests, i dont think we will ever have those... Why if we are using an architect this would emphasize the importance of a formal dining space? For example what my sister was telling me yesterday that confused me even more: "Its nice to have a table in the kitchen for family times, as you wouldnt care so much if the kids step on the chairs, or if the table get any marks, as it is the every day table you will use. but would you want this to happen on a table were guests sit? But on the other side, our formal dining area is used only 4-5 times a year and the formal living room even less than that! But is nice to have such rooms as you will not think of space when you want to invite 15 friends over for dinner!" So after the above, we bang our head on the wall even harder! fekish I have just noticed you are posting from Cyprus. Perhaps you might need to find a more local building forum. House design and what is considered the "norm" there might be very different to here. Everyone is answering for how we live here in Australia as this is an Australian building forum. You are most welcome to share your build with us. But you may find some of our ideas or answers are not suitable for your local building regulations. Do you perhaps mean builder when you have said architect? kexkez Homeone Support. Re: Every day use areas 10Jan 20, 2011 12:43 am Thanks everyone for the help. I am currently living in an appartmetn - 2 bedroom one - thus is a bit difficult to compare with my needs now. What i defnitely like about my current appartment is the open plan kitchen/living room (tv room) which is very convinient! What we dont like so much is the dining room which is opposite the kitchen, and thus we need to clean the kitchen before friends come at home Yes i am from Cyprus, but i searched some topics and liked your forum. If there is a problem of course i will not write again in here. I just thought, and i still beleive, that people needs are the same wherever you live... Except if you are from a tribe in Africa, or a village in Bali... In Cyprus we go: 1. Architects and then if you dont want to have the burden , the architect arranges to find the other Certified people that should approve the house plans as per European Union standards. 2. Then you get offers from builders, based on the detailed plans of the architect. Re: Every day use areas 12Jan 20, 2011 7:04 am HI Fekish, Yes as I said before, you are most welcome to post here. We had a family from Russia post on here last year or the year before and it was most interesting to see their build. We all loved the pictures of their build. Here most people go directly to a builder who has many plans for houses already drawn up. These type of builders are called "project builders" and they often have houses on display for people to walk through. Most people, but not all choose a house based on one of those displays. They may modify it quite a lot or choose one of the builders other designs "off plan" , which means there is no display to look at. Others design their own home and get a drafts person or architect to design it. It sounds like you would prefer a separate dining area where you can't see the kitchen. You will find many of the people here in Australia have designs that actually have a meals area where the kitchen overlooks it. Older homes had a separate dining area. This tends to be the design style that suits our lifestyles here in Australia. Of course this doesn't suit everyone. People may also have a formal dining room for more formal entertaining. If you look through some of the new building threads in this section you will see many people post their designs in the first few pages. If you find a design you like keep reading the thread and you will get to see lots of pictures of the house being built. There are even threads dedicated just to "show me your kitchen." The thread is 57 pages long. viewtopic.php?f=16&t=13838&hilit=show+us+kitchen If you wish to look at some of the house design builders that often build in Australia you can find a list of some of the builders people have used in the thread about building blogs and then use this to search for house plans using google to find the builders web sites. You are not likely to find private architect designs this way however, only project home builders.. This might give you some ideas. Home Building Blogs viewtopic.php?f=31&t=1522 Re: Every day use areas 13Jan 20, 2011 12:05 pm It depends on your lifestyle, your family composition, your climate... a whole lot of things. We have three living rooms, but only one dining area, which is part of the large kitchen/informal living space. Like Helyn though, we also have an outdoor dining setting (under cover), which gets a lot of use for entertaining in the warmer months. If we're cooking indoors, we prefer the cook to be part of the action, not shut away in a separate room. I don't care about my kitchen being within sight, but I'm a bit of a neat freak and don't tolerate clutter and mess on my benches anyway. Messy cooks might like the food prep areas hidden away, but that can be done with a raised splashback behind an island bench instead of a solid wall. An alternative is to have a large cut-out in the kitchen wall that overlooks the dining or living area. You have to think about what function each space is going to provide and make that clear to your architect so he/she can come up with a design to suit you. Re: Every day use areas 14Jan 20, 2011 12:17 pm I turned my formal dining into a rompus room for the kids, and my formal lounge into my study. Furnished Family room to be half meals area near kitchen and half casual lounge with couch and coffee table. Games room became the TV theater / lounge room. Formal Dining can happen in alfresco area at the right times of the year if need be. Re: Every day use areas 15Jan 20, 2011 1:01 pm In my house we turned the Formal Lounge into a kids play room and the Formal Dining into a Study. (I work from home quite a bit) Normal day to day we predominately live in the open plan areas that take in the Kitchen and the adjoining Rumpus and Alfresco. Hands up here who have seen a Formal Lounge used to only at Christmas because its a good place out of the way to put up the tree? my 2 cents. 4 6821 you need to understand the breakdown of warranties. 90 warranty is considered as minor defects rectification period where as the longer ones are more major/structural… 1 5339 Yes you are correct, unless there are outside works which form part of the contract such as landscaping or driveways, and importantly, the work delayed is on the critical… 1 3521 |