Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 16, 2012 7:50 pm Hi all, Well we are going through the process of choosing the house we would like to build and after alot of looking around at what felt like every display village in Melbourne we decided on one that was pretty much love at first sight. My only issue with this house is when we factor in the design guidelines of the estate regarding the front setback and then the length of the house, well we are going to end up with a backyard a fair bit smaller than we probably imagined we would have when we first started looking at houses. Having said this I am wondering if people can let me know the size of their backyards, the depth in paticular, I am hoping I am not going to have the smallest backyard in all of Victoria!!! We don't actually need a huge backyard, we have a small dog who is inside except when she is outside to do her busines, she gets walked most days and so she doesnt run around the backyard we have now, I just worry that having this house on our block is going to look silly! If anyone can let me know the size of their backyards I would really appreciate it and maybe it will make me feel better about our future backyard. (We so dont want to have to do the whole display house thing again) Thank you Re: How big is your backyard 2Feb 16, 2012 7:58 pm hi jpc, we are moving from a 402m2 block to a 530m2 block, we thought we'd have a bigger backyard but because we are now building a bigger house than we had planned we are going to have the same size as we did before. we will end up with 7m from the side of the house to the fence and 3m from the house to the back fence. luckily there are plenty of parks and ovals close by for the kiddies to play! what do you need a big backyard for anyway? its just more work! Re: How big is your backyard 3Feb 16, 2012 8:14 pm Hi Nayzv, You are right, there is more work involved in a bigger backyard, we have always had big backyards so this will be a big difference, not that we ever used the big backyards, infact when we had a huge backyard we always complained about the maintenance of it not being big on gardening and all. I just worry things will look strange having this big house with little backyard. I dont know if I am worrying over nothing, these forums really are fantastic to help with concerns. Thanks Anyone else able to share their backyard sizes please. How big is your backyard 4Feb 16, 2012 8:17 pm Everyone will have different needs. As you said you only have a small dog so only really need a small yard. My husband dislikes the idea of having neighbors close by so we have an extremely large block by suburban standards. All up once we subdivide the front section off we will have around 3300sqm - so out backyard is approx 1500sqm LOL. BUT we have three small children so the space is perfect for creating a wonderful place for them to play, explore and feel safe. The block we are subdividing off is for my inlaws and is all up around 450sqm. Their backyard is lucky to be around 80sqm. My parents have just moved around the corner and their block is 220sqm with "open" space of approx 50sqm. Both sets of parents are delighted with their block sizes - neither wanted big gardens or lawns to look after Different needs for different people. Some things are worth waiting for. Re: How big is your backyard 5Feb 16, 2012 8:53 pm I agree with Kyton, it really depends on what you are using your backyard for. Since you only have a little dog to look after I suppose as long as it has room to go for a bit of a run around & poop it will be happy! Also depends on if your house plan already includes an alfresco or are you planning to build on a veranda/pergola? Bigger backyards do require more maintenance obviously but then you can make your garden as low or high maintenace as you please. What's a few extra m2 of lawn to mow? an additional couple of minutes? I'd take that over a pokey backyard anyday. I think kids really need space to run around, explore, ride bikes etc etc still in the safety of their own backyard. We have 2 young kids & live on 2 acres, I love that they can have endless fun outside with plenty of room, they can even fly a kite without getting it tangled in the neighbours tv antenna! Building our custom design "Dream Home" Follow my Build - viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46820 Contract Signed - 28/04/11 Siteworks Commenced - 20/06/11 Re: How big is your backyard 6Feb 16, 2012 8:59 pm Our "backyard" is 40m wide x 70m long! As kyton says above, it is what suits you! We have built on a house block of just over 500sq m, on half an acre, then a quarter acre and now a full acre-but that's so I can have the food producing area I ant and it also allows plenty of play area! Deemaree Kyndylan Capers: viewtopic.php?f=36&t=46852 My blog: http://www.sufficientlysufficient.blogspot.com/ Re: How big is your backyard 7Feb 16, 2012 9:07 pm back yard is approx 400m long by nearly 100m wide but as said previously...different needs for different folks. personally we could never go back to surburban blocks....just way too small. but my mum and dad could never live on acreage, they love their 500m2 block. Re: How big is your backyard 8Feb 17, 2012 8:06 am We're yet to choose a block (or even a house design for that matter) but the yard size is something that's important to us as we have two young boys. I'm not wanting to get into a discussion about parenting styles and what things were like in my day etc but we are keen to have an outdoor area where the boys can play that is not the local park and are always within sight. We're not big gardeners (infact can barely keep a cactus alive) but whether you choose to have an evergreen oasis or a barren wasteland space is always something I think you can never quite have enough of. http://camdenbuild.blogspot.com.au/ by invite only please pm me Re: How big is your backyard 9Feb 17, 2012 10:18 am Our new backyard will be 4.7m deep by 12.5m wide It's small but still a usable space for the kids. We intend to extend our deck or pavers from the alfresco area into the backyard further and lay synthetic turf to the rest. At the end of our street is a large footy oval and soccer field where they can run around. I do have a bit of guilt over not having a bigger backyard and building up could of been an option, but we never looked into it thinking it would cost too much. Looking around our estate it's pretty common and on the larger blocks they have just built larger houses. I guess you can't have everything and that's what we've sacrificed. Don't have a green thumb anyways Re: How big is your backyard 10Feb 17, 2012 11:30 am We've got a corner block where the long side facing the road angles away - this gives us roughly a 7.5m x 14.5m (rectangular) "back" yard directly behind the house on the west side and a triangular "side" yard that our alfresco opens out onto which is 28m long on the straight (house side) and is about 4m wide at is narrowest point (front fence) and about 17.5m wide at the widest point (back fence) on the north side. It gives us a a nice range of options for zoning what in reality is a fairly small yard (about ~110 sq m out the back and about ~300 sq m down the "side") into different "rooms" - entertaining/pool area, fruit/veggie garden, grassed lawn, etc. Unfortunately we have a 2m storm water easement on the back edge of our block so the one problem I have is where to put my damned shed (I'll figure something out) - of course having a 1/4 acre would have been nice (primarily the "back" yard would be deeper so that the easement isn't such a big issue) but I guess we'll just have to make do and work with what we've got. Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: How big is your backyard 11Feb 17, 2012 1:29 pm I was like you as well jpc, always imagined a "decent sized" backyard and never considered not being able to have a pool if we wanted or things like that. Once we chose our design and plans came back I was surprised at the backyard dimensions (5.5m from house to back fence and 13m across from fence to fence) I guess I imagined having a longer backyard and when the house went up I was amazed at how small it looked. But in the end I think were gonna be able to make it really nice still and have a little veggie patch and put in a small spa maybe, and as everyone says less maintenance! www.tinas-cakery.com Building a Monte Carlo with Fowler Homes. Our Build Thread --> https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=49218 Re: How big is your backyard 12Feb 17, 2012 2:22 pm Ours is about 4 metres from the house to the back fence and 16.05m width. Big park nearly across the road so less maintenance for us! http://lindeman28.blogspot.com - Our building blog Re: How big is your backyard 13Feb 17, 2012 2:34 pm Ours is small, our block is 448sqm the house 27.35, then we built a pergola which is 2.2sqm. We have about 1.5meters to the back fence where the pergola is and on the other half without the pergola we have about 5 meters to the back fence and the block is 14meters wide. We have sideways which are small, one of them has another small patio and the other side we just have a pathway and a garden bed. We have an eleven yr old and a labradoodle. We still have room for the trampoline to be up, it's a 12foot round trampoline. So there's plenty of room, for a nice garden and play space for our Son. When the trampoline goes, we will be getting some more paving done so that the basketball ring will have it's own area and lawn the rest of it, or maybe a small pool Re: How big is your backyard 15Feb 17, 2012 2:44 pm deb17 https://fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/386227_311035245606475_100001000058269_868796_1452657578_n.jpg lol nice - little play area for the kids and hardly any gardening required. A couple of things though - your bbq needs a bit of TLC and there appears to be a dead doggy under your table... Some people apparently have nothing better to do than comment on other people's sigs. Re: How big is your backyard 17Feb 17, 2012 2:49 pm The bbq is covered in dust, we r living in a dust bowl lol. the minute u clean anything, the dust appears. i am a clean freak so I am forever dusting. but the bbq is hubbi's job. The dog is always playing dead.
Re: How big is your backyard 18Feb 17, 2012 3:32 pm I think it is all about usable space - not really the overall size. You could have a backyard that was massive on the side of a huge hill... not really practical usable space!!! As it sounds like you don't have kids then you will be fine. It seems that the general trend is to have bigger houses on smaller blocks so I don't think it will look silly - it will most likely look exactly the same as your new neighbours. Re: How big is your backyard 19Feb 17, 2012 4:30 pm I think the major issue bothering you atm could be the "visual effect" of how big/small of a backyard you could end up with. A normal suburban block size of 400 to 600 that we currently have in VIC will not give us a "wow" this is a huge backyard effect unless we build a 15sq house on the block which doesn't quite fit the purpose. If the house you chose has a rear sliding glass door opening to the backyard you could try to concrete / decking the area extending from the sliding door to a bit further out, this way you get a "huge area" feeling when viewing from inside the house, and it is still usable and practical from the outside. Re: How big is your backyard 20Feb 17, 2012 6:51 pm We have 3.8 metres to the rear of the house and 2.4 metres to the side. We do not have a rear door to get to the back - our main outdoor area is all along the side where we have a 7m x 3.3 metre alfresco which we are completing our own pergola extension to fence line for outdoor kitchen. We have a smallish dog too so we will grass the back part for him and put some trees in. We don't have children (yet - well still to be determined if ever!) but we have a reserve next door and 2 soccer ovals going in behind us. We don't have the time nor the inclination to put into a big yard - so this was our preference. You can cover 60% of your land with house... we are at 58% of a 600m2 block - this suited us just fine Sleven Moved into our Atlantique MkII 36 by Carlisle Homes DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair That laser level looks lovely! We bought one for less than a quarter of that price off eBay. It worked really well for us and it's still going now, five years later. After… 1 16713 It's possible but a soak well is usually much larger. Your 'soak well' only holds 424 litres when full. What is your soil type? Soak wells need sandy soils. 10 9012 Need advice on the backyard plan above. Should I excavate and cut all of the dirt to level with the house slab or semi-excavate as per photo above? Both left and right… 0 24869 |