Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 15, 2011 11:53 pm Hello All Finally got DW to be comfortable with the design I've been messing with for sometime now. Block is west of Melbourne. 110m frontage x 140m deep with about a 2mtr fall from right to left. Colonial homestead style in Bruhnstone limestone blocks, colourbond roof in bushland or pale eucalypt. Quite traditional in design so yes boring for some but cosy and homely for us. http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9984044/DogRocks%209%20-%20Master%20Plan-2.bld.pdf but thought I would open it up to all you good folk for comments. Garden design http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9984044/outside-2.bmp Kitchen pic -french provincial style http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9984044/Main%20Living%20-%20kitchen%2019.jpg Ensuite - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9984044/Master%20-%20Ensuite%204.bmp Main Bath - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9984044/BW%20-%20main%20bath%203.jpg All comments, good, bad and even ugly appreciated. Oh...and I plan to OB it Thanks RiH Re: RiH's custom build - critique my plan 2Sep 16, 2011 7:31 am it is massive!!!! stick a basin in the loo....that is all I would do, cos kids wont wash their hands otherwise, and it becomes a powder room for guests. there is a long way to go with groceries from the grarage...3 sets of doors to go through..? but otherwise, can I live with you? Re: RiH's custom build - critique my plan 3Sep 16, 2011 7:33 am 4 sets if you go via lounge. (just saying..prob cant change it though!) Re: RiH's custom build - critique my plan 5Sep 16, 2011 8:58 am l would like your {MB } bedhead to be on opposite wall Re: RiH's custom build - critique my plan 6Sep 16, 2011 9:16 am Love the floorplan Only change I would make (and that's because I believe in feng shui) is to turn the back door that's opposite the front door into a window. And perhaps include a rear roller door in the garage? Re: RiH's custom build - critique my plan 7Sep 16, 2011 9:51 am Laundry seems to have two dead corners. I wouldn't mind a little bit of roof outside the laundry up to the hall door - more than just eaves I would like an island bench in the kitchen - from the sink all the way around the bench to get to the laundry and to the bedrooms is a nuisance. Butler's pantry - why not two sliding doors instead of the door that swings into the hall. Does the pantry need a door - carrying things in / out easier with no door - plus lets light into pantry. WIR - put shelves on other side so BR door doesn't hit the person coming out of the WIR Or BR1 seems very big but WIR not - if the bed and TV were swapped (like patycake4 said), you could make the WIR a bit bigger so that you walk into B1 and have to turn left - it also stops a view into BR1 all the way down the hall. I would also try (on paper) having WIR and Ens run the other way. Also looks like you plan to have lots of guests - somewhere for coats, bags etc at the guest entrance? Planning lots of water tanks for all those sinks and WCs? It's a long way from BR1 to the garage ...... May as well extend the walkway to wherever the guests' cars are parked to come in - or move the front door to the left of the garage .... We have a bushland roof and love it. Hope these comments are not too ugly........ Re: RiH's custom build - critique my plan 8Sep 16, 2011 10:02 am I think there is some great ideas so far. Also the main bathroom shower seems small particularly with the angled shower, could you steal some room from that linen cupboard to make the shower larger? Re: RiH's custom build - critique my plan 9Sep 16, 2011 9:26 pm wow. thanks for all the comments. luckily for me, most of them have come up in 'discussions' with DW @kiwi - well we certainly have the room for you but you'll have to earn your keep any good at hanging plaster? also got 2 sons both likely to 6'6"+ so they can earn their keep lugging the groceries! @gogo65 - the bedrooms are similar in size to our current master so comfortable that they can take a queen easily enough, besides with a house this size I had to compromise somewhere to make it smaller. I gave up the cinema room, DW gave up the formal dining room. The main bath shower is 1.2m x 1.2m which we thought was big enough but looking at the door @ 800mm in width, we could look to improve that. Thx. B3 deliberately has no robes, it will be french boudoir style and will probably have a large standalone dresser - this is the guests bedroom. B4 is the future 'granny flat'. @pattycake4 - As there is no natural light in the bedroom wing passage, our bedroom door will probably be open most of the day to allow some sort of 'view'. Skylights (even though the energy rater has already indicated that is bad) will also help in that passage. Apparently I dont make the bed often enough for it to be exposed like it would be if it was on the opposite wall. @betHeEeee - yes, my landscape architect said the same about the back door and then immediately followed it up with saying her house main passage was exactly like my plan! Being on 3.8 acres, access is not a problem and with a 12x15 American gable shed, storage is not a problem either. @planfan - thanks for all the comments. Laundry roof - yes we would like, but it would not work with the large gable for the attic over the games rooms/main passage. Butler's pantry->main hall door - maybe a slider but like the fact that a normal door is less drafty. Drawn and redrawn the WIR/Ensuite area sooooo many times trying to find something that works and what won out was the current config allows a large easterly window for morning light as that is when it is mostly used. hmm swapping bed & tv.....plan probably needs a bit more detail then as its a gas log fire on that wall opposite the bed. TV is on a dresser between the ensuite and WIR doors as we both prefer to lie on our sides to watch tv. Water tanks - yep ~200KL Thx all....keep em coming RiH Re: RiH's custom build - critique my plan 10Sep 17, 2011 12:11 am I'm not sure you need all the hall cupboards, especially the one just inside the hall door (next to the laundry) as the doors would clash, also the sink in the laundry seems oddly placed. I would try - incorporating the one set of hall cupboards with the laundry as a walk in linnen, straighten out the bench and put the sink against the kitchen wall, then swap the door and window over so that you can put some extra shelving, hanging space or built in cupboards along the toilet wall. I have an issue with the location of the fridge in the kitchen - when the fridge door is open it blocks the passageway in and out of the kitchen - we have one like that at the moment and it is a pain in a busy household (especially if you like to stand and browse). At the very least I would be tempted to push it back into the pantry so that it doesn't stick out so far - usually benches are 600mm, fridges tend to need 800mm or more - check the measurements of the fridge you want and allow for breathing space (and perhaps hiding it behind laminate doors). The island bench may also help with passages in this case. So north is to the left of the plan? (down the bedroom side?)... I think conventional wisdom is to put the living areas on the north - so it's comfortable during the day, and the bedrooms on the south (so they are cooler to sleep in) - you might want to check with someone who knows a bit about passive environmental benefits. At least perhaps extend the roofline/eaves in front of the bedrooms to cover the verandah? What are your plans for the "court-yard" area created by the two wings of the house (laundry door, games room door, back of garage)... as personally I think you may be missing an opportunity for a focal point for the entertaining part of the house... at the moment all the verandahs point outward, which is fine if you want to take in the wide open spaces. I guess I just wanted to know what your plans were. I'm not sure what is happening in the B1 Ensuite corner (behind the shower)... HWS?...I would either just enlarge the shower, or swap the WIR door to the other wall so the space could be incorportated in the WIR. I would be tempted to swap the door and window in B3 and B4 for a french door or sliding door to preserve wall space / make it feel more open. There were some at the recent shows that had side-lights that opened like windows so you could have ventilation - great idea... I can just imagine a wall of curtains covering them. But your personal tastes/budget may vary. I second the roller door on the back of the garage (though you may have plenty of room to just go round it I guess) Though I wonder what the flooring in the games room will be and if it will survive the dirty footprints from the garage to the loo? How big is the attic space, and what are your plans for it?... I'm also wondering if it was worth extending the roof-line in front of the garage to create a sort of portico/carport so that the ridge-line above the garage matched the rest of the house, then the gable could be moved right/left and made a bit bigger to perhaps improve that space a bit... I'm thinking by making the portico roof a bit higher than the eaves you wouldn't have to extend it as far as the rest of the house but the ridge-line would be straight. Personally I hate having three sliding doors on a robe, you can only open one door at a time so hard to see everything... bi-folds? turn them into WIRs instead? Other than that, it seems lovely, and I think I'm a bit jealous - both of the ability to create your own plan and the space you have to work with. Hope all goes well. Cheers, Alkalised My Thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=49140 Our Blog: http://buildingattheavenue.blogspot.com/ Re: RiH's custom build - critique my plan 11Sep 22, 2011 4:19 pm Thanks Alkalised. Hall cupboards - DW mandatory item. Laundry sink - Yep! agree on that one. Was put there moons ago to be under the window but in the moving and shuffling of walls is now not in a good spot. Fridge - the only ones with time to 'stand and browse' are my two strapping lads who both know they will get jobs if they stand around too long besides if I put it inside the kitchen space, they are only going to get in the way of cooking (sampling as they go past!) Aspect - we've come to the conclusion we have bought on the wrong side to the road. In order to get most of the living on the 'north' side but still have the garage on the 'south' side, we would have to lug groceries etc a long way and we have an aversion to eating up all our garden space with the drive just to put the garage on the 'north' side. Having said that, the final energy rating may make us reconsider this whole topic....I hope not...... Courtyard - its really just a paved area so that its easy to sweep all the leaves and other garbage that is going to collect in that corner. The main entertainment area is off to the north where there will be a billabong style garden with outdoor fireplace & pizza oven with a small semi enclosed area built out of large format posts (300x300 type stuff) like the gardens that Phillip Johnson http://www.phillipjohnson.com.au/ puts together. B1 Ensuite corner - secret squirrel business aka fire safe accessed from the WIR B3&B4 both have french doors already - like your thinking tho! Attic - kids play area, sleep overs, train tracks, 10000 piece jigsaw puzzles, the mounds and mounds of paper for DW's scrapping.......long term it might become a psuedo-cimena. The centre and the gable to the rear has 2.8-2-9m clearance. We have designed the outside walls to be 12' and internal areas 9' through kitchen/bedroom wing and 10' through the formal parts. This gives another 2' or so of clearance in the attic space. Robe doors - yeah we are still playing with what to do there. In our current place, the wardrobe doors are 900mm wide and stick out into the room a looooooong way when they are open. This really restricts what furniture you can put in there. Sliders dont stick out at all but as you said, you can't see everything so possibly bi/tri-folds is the way to go. Ability? No not really. 2 years in the making and a career in I.T project management and business re-engineering that sees me being far too inquisitive and pedantic for my own good. Space? we got real luck there. We were out for a sunday drive 10+ years ago and saw the sign man putting up the estate for sale sign. We sat at the end of the bitumen for an hour looking at the view and a few white pegs contemplating when the real estate agent pulled up along side. A week later we had signed contracts and 8 months later post titles, proud owners. Apparently, 3 had already been sold (possibly developer purchased/reserved) and the remaining 42 lots were sold within a fortnight and I dont believe it was ever advertised in the local rag. Regards RiH 6 55346 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 25163 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 20413 |