Browse Forums Building A New House Re: critique my plans 21Nov 08, 2012 5:43 pm Hi Kylie, I am glad you took my comments in the spirit they where intended As you come up the stairs you are greeted with a small bit of wall jutting out (guest / study) a door way view straight into the laundry, 3 different widths for the passageway and no alignments for openings. These might seem like small things, but it is those small details which can bug you when the house has been built. Admittedly this does depend on the floor system you use. Traditional concrete suspended floors require the "S" and "P" traps to be below the floor slab (hence the bulkheads and drop ceilings to hide them. You could use a light weight timber floor, however they give a "flexing" feeling when walking on them and they transfer sound much easier There are other truss floor systems, however they are more expensive and come with their own restrictions. Yeah I admit the search for a good designer / architect or builder is not easy. But getting it right can make all the difference. I would look through a designer's online portfolio, see if you can relate to their designs then arrange a meet and greet meeting with them to see if you want to engage them. If you are looking at builder's a similar method of online searching can help. Can I ask, where are you planning to build (state and suburb) ? Re: critique my plans 23Nov 09, 2012 9:12 am Its a real bummer about the orientation. But you do what you can do! just try and get shutters and a roof that will help keep the western sun out in summer. Could you swap your kictehn with the living? Then it is still against your outside area but your living will then get northern sun? Re: critique my plans 24Nov 09, 2012 2:01 pm Thanks. Quote: Could you swap your kitchen with the living? Then it is still against your outside area but your living will then get northern sun? It's tricky deciding which room should get the northern aspect - they all want it. I figured we'd spend more time during the day in the kitchen & playroom than in the formal lounge & dining. As the lounge & dining is supposed to be just for eating, entertaining & watching tv. For daytime activities, whether work or play, we have the office/family room, the playroom & the bedrooms, which all have northern aspect. As for the west, we are building in a flame zone so we are required to have shutters over all windows & doors anyway, so I'm hoping we can use them to keep the heat of the afternoon sun out in summer. Also we'll have a covered deck off the lounge-dining so that would be like massive eaves. I guess that could make the lounge-dining very dark, but I'd find a dark kitchen more irritating. Any other suggestions? Re: critique my plans 25Nov 12, 2012 8:43 am Thats ok then. I guess you want to be able to heat up as large an area as possible with solar gain. The shutters for FZ are great for keeping heat in and out so thats a bonus. We are also building in flame zone. Where about are you building? Re: critique my plans 27Nov 12, 2012 2:28 pm Oooow,I use to live off foxglove rd, on red cedar drive. Prob before you were even born. The houses were being built there at the time, when I lived there. Re: critique my plans 28Nov 13, 2012 7:58 am no not a professional writer! but thank you for your comment! I must update the blog too. Things have been so crazy, it has dropped off the radar a bit! We are building just out of Yarra Glen in Victoria. How far along are you with your plans? Do you have permit etc yet? We are durrintly looking into FZ doors and having some trouble finding them. Re: critique my plans 29Nov 13, 2012 8:05 am It looks like to me that the master WIR is big, but most of it is floor space. Not that much room for hanging, drawers etc. Is there some way of making more use of the space you have allowed up there? BLOG: thehousewebuilt2010.blogspot.com (And are still building!) Re: critique my plans 30Nov 13, 2012 8:37 am Quote: It looks like to me that the master WIR is big, but most of it is floor space. Not that much room for hanging, drawers etc. Is there some way of making more use of the space you have allowed up there? Good point. Thanks Danni! I think putting the robes across the other direction works better. DH pointed out there's not enough access to the bathtub, making bathing little kids or cleaning the bath very difficult, so I've been working on it a bit more and tried to include the advice given here. Also reconsidered how the upstairs sits over the downstairs. So the black sections at the sides of the upstairs is where the ground floor is bigger. I thought we'd put the rainwater tank, bins & hot water system on the south of the lounge room - where there's like a corner missing, so we'd have a paved path down the south side to take bins to street and to access side door & clothes-line. So down the north side we'd have grass/garden so no hard surfaces to reflect heat & glare into rooms. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Thank you 6 11528 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 6882 Ask the council if there is a chance of getting build over easement exemption. Sometimes easements are unused and 24cm is not all that much. Good luck. And yes any builder… 2 13746 |