Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 02, 2013 2:58 pm Hi All, Bear with the backstory before the reason for my question We have recently had this plan drawn up by a builder Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ This was the original, that had no study Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ so we've pushed the right hand side of the house back to fit everything in, BUT now I'm concerned that it encroaches on the back garden too much. An alternative plan to save the space (and bring the cost back a bit) would be to leave the original footprint of the house but drop the theatre, push back the master suite, make the study bigger (effectively a 5th bedroom) and maybe push the back of the garage out a bit so it all fits the original footprint. We have a theatre currently, but as we don't have a spare room or study it doubles as both - but we don't know if we will later want one. Or if it will affect re-sale value. Do you use your theatre? Could you go without it? Are we mad?! Our Custom Dale Alcock build in the Village at Wellard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=78620 Re: Do you use your theatre? 2May 02, 2013 3:16 pm In our present house, we have one, and it gets used about once or twice a week. It's definitely a nice thing to have. I'm a bit of an AV nut, so I've got some really nice speakers in there, which I have properly tweaked and adjusted to produce good sound. That's something you can't do in an open plan living area where there are no rear and side walls (and often hard flooring, which plays havoc with the sound). However, it is a bit superfluous. We use it because it's there, not because we have some pressing need to shift from the living area to a separate room with better acoustics. If we were moving house, we would probably want it to have a home theatre, if only because we have all the gear ready to be put in there. So I guess that's the rub: it's not a really necessary room, and even an AV geek like me sees it as a bit superfluous. But if you've dropped quite a bit of money on high-quality gear over the years, you will be looking for somewhere to set it up when you're investigating a house. Even someone who doesn't have a proper AV setup, but has a huge TV as a status-symbol will probably want somewhere to show it off. So, if you're building for resale, a home theatre is a good idea. If you're building for practicality, it's actually not a big necessity unless you're particularly picky about lighting and audio quality when watching TV and movies. Re: Do you use your theatre? 3May 02, 2013 3:26 pm Our theater room is just like a normal room. No special downlights or recessed ceilings. It keeps it versatile so it can be other things like a games room or lounge room. Re: Do you use your theatre? 4May 02, 2013 3:33 pm We have a home theatre and we had one in our last house. In the last house it was mainly used by the kids for watching television. In this house it will probably be used for the same thing, maybe a backup toy room. It will be painted dark, and will have a big tv, but it will be a multipurpose room that doesn't get used very often. It is a bit of a luxury, that you don't really need. Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Re: Do you use your theatre? 6May 02, 2013 3:54 pm Well so far it sounds like I'm not mad! We don't have a big telly or fancy sound system, in fact I'm not sure if you can tell from the plans but I've put extra windows in it so it can be used as a light and airy second lounge (like we had growing up - a front room if you will). Our Custom Dale Alcock build in the Village at Wellard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=78620 Re: Do you use your theatre? 7May 02, 2013 4:06 pm we have never had a theatre/media room but in the home we are building having one it is soley for the media dark walls and ceiling but if we do need a guest bedroom it double up as one Re: Do you use your theatre? 8May 02, 2013 5:12 pm Form watching other people with kids I think having a second space beyond the main living area where they can watch TV is a great idea. Remember theatre rooms are the current thing to have in home deisgns, like when my dad built his house and he had a sunken formal lounge room (become the TV room for us kids) and a formal dining room. Could you even have the theatre room and use it as a study and when you come to sell you have the second living room but serves the purpose you need it for... Re: Do you use your theatre? 9May 02, 2013 5:17 pm fmac Form watching other people with kids I think having a second space beyond the main living area where they can watch TV is a great idea. We will have the activity room too - at the moment they are both only little so the activity will be their play room (We currently have one and that is where their toys go, no toys in their bedrooms) but I have visions of putting a telly and couch in their when they get bigger. I imagine that the theatre will be DH's domain - but he was the one that suggested doing away with it! Our Custom Dale Alcock build in the Village at Wellard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=78620 Re: Do you use your theatre? 10May 02, 2013 5:28 pm If you have a spare bedroom and the activity I guess it is asking if you would also use a study and theatre. I guess it is also down to if you can save money on the size of the house that can be used as upgrades elsewhere and also would you prefer the space inside or outside? Good luck with the decision Re: Do you use your theatre? 11May 02, 2013 6:13 pm Do you work from home? What is the study for? With Ipads and slates - an office desk will become a thing of the past I am having a nook for my filing cabinet and wireless modem. Re: Do you use your theatre? 12May 02, 2013 6:17 pm Our plan is very similar to yours. We put extra garage storage instead of study. We put double doors in the hallway to cut sound between kids lounge and living area. It is working well for us. One bedroom is guest/study. I did this as I didn't like the idea of bigger house/mortgage, just so guests could have entire room for a dozen or so nights a year. It leaves us with a nice sized yard. Good luck. Re: Do you use your theatre? 13May 02, 2013 6:34 pm donna61 Do you work from home? What is the study for? With Ipads and slates - an office desk will become a thing of the past I am having a nook for my filing cabinet and wireless modem. Yes, I do work from home - I have a baking business (hence the big scullery) and a blog, so I spend a fair bit of time on our Mac. I have an iPad too but I need to be able to connect to my camera and printer through the desktop - and, trying to blog on an iPad is a pain in the rear end! I also do a lot of sewing and want to be able to have the sewing machine permanently set up and I need to be able to store all my stuff somewhere My sister lives interstate and other family overseas so although it won't get used heaps we want the dedicated spare room. Our Custom Dale Alcock build in the Village at Wellard https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=78620 Re: Do you use your theatre? 14May 02, 2013 6:41 pm Based on your needs I think actually getting rid of the study and keeping the theatre as your study/sewing room might be a great space to have everything set up and lots of space for storage (my dream!! I can picturen it in my head;) ) and when/if you sell it can be sold as a theatre even of yu never use it that way Re: Do you use your theatre? 15May 02, 2013 6:45 pm I also work from home W2T but couldn't make a study work with our current plan, so we are converting one of the bedroom to a dedicated, full of cables, suitable space. As for the theatre room, I think definitely keep it. Most people possibly don't use it much but it can always come in handy for other purposes. Maybe take the study out iof the plan and use the theatre room again like you did previously just like fmac suggested?! Just speaking from what we experienced at our last house sale - which was a rather large home - it had a study and theatre room and people were still whining that it was too small and needed a 'GAMES ROOM'. Re: Do you use your theatre? 16May 02, 2013 8:05 pm Quote: I also do a lot of sewing and want to be able to have the sewing machine permanently set up and I need to be able to store all my stuff somewhere This is the reason that we are building our house. In our last house we had 4 bedrooms plus study. This time we are building 5bedrooms plus study as I am having a dedicated sewing room. I hate having everything it permanently set up and it did not work in the last house having to share with the spare room, as most sewers are not very neat. I wouldn't give up my study either. I also blog and it is a pain in the butt on the ipad and does not work with downloading and editing photos. In our rental we have no study and I have realised for us it is a necessity Modified Fernside 38 Rawson Homes Blog: http://www.thehousethatmatandjenbuilt.blogspot.com Build Thread: https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=60501 Plasterboard Gyprock is very popular as a reveal liner these days. You need to provide a way of supporting it, we use a modified timber reveal or bracket. You will be… 1 3007 Thanks mate. Yeah good points! Leaning towards Option 3 to get a bit extra space in the cabinets but not going too crazy high (and expensive). Would require a mini… 13 39446 That sucks! Hope it all works out. Good to move away from steel anyway for all your reasons, but it's also thermally poor. 16 17740 |