Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - what to do with front study?! 21Jun 20, 2013 8:51 pm Thanks for the suggestions lmille. I must admit I was a bit confused by what you meant. If we just use the study as an addition to the tv area then how would we still have 5 bedrooms plus a study? Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - what to do with front study?! 22Jun 20, 2013 8:55 pm Alright here is our first rough draft plan. It's been sent off to be properly drafted. I'd be very interested in any opinions/critiques of the floorplan. We've managed to make the entrance around 2m by stealing 20cm from each bedroom width and pushing the "study" over a tad, hopefully it won't matter too much to the bedrooms but will stop the entrance feeling too pokey. So as I said before, the "theatre" we'll be using as a playroom/rumpus, the "rumpus" will actually be our study (and we stole some room from here to make the main bathroom much bigger) and the "study" will be a flexible room, either guest bed/study/gym or 5th bedroom depending on how many kids we stop at! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ RoughDraftJune by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - what to do with front study?! 23Jun 20, 2013 8:59 pm I like your plan only suggestion would be to maybe consider putting the 'study' door near the TV area instead of the entrance hall. If you decide to use it as a bedroom down the track it will be more functional. Custom downslope build Build thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=61873 Blog http://www.buildingroyalmanor.blogspot.com.au Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - first draft floorplan! 24Jun 20, 2013 11:55 pm Well I meant that you could open the study up to the tv area to make the tv area more of a rumpus room with toys and a play area and then split the theatre room in half to make IT the 5th bedroom and study. I don't really understand having 3 living areas myself, I would rather have a decent 5th bedroom and functional study then yet another living area to lose my family in, but it all comes down to personal taste obviously. If that didn't suit though I would definitely recommend what HomeAngels said and put the door to the study in your plan around the other side. edit: It would just have been a way of doing it without altering the floor plan as much. The way you've got it looks good though Blog http://tobuildahomeimprobable.blogspot.com.au/ Settlement Apr Council Jul Contracts Dec Earthworks Dec Frames Jan Trusses Feb Roof Feb Windows Mar Re: Our Plantation build 25Jul 17, 2013 11:06 pm bouquet25 Hi,looks like there are a couple of plantation builds on here.We too are building a plantation Retreat Voque Q1...Your house plan looks the same.We are closing off study and opening up other side to make another usable area for teenager.Just starting,plans are not even in council yet,just ironing out last minute council issues....cant wait to get started... We are building the Plantation Retreat 20m Q2 - great idea about closing off the study. We would have done the same, but we have actually changed the plan quite a bit that now the entrance way is at the side of the house (our block is a battleaxe shape). I agree can't wait to get started! We are just awaiting our tender appointment date!! Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - first draft floorplan! 26Jul 18, 2013 2:17 pm HomeAngels I like your plan only suggestion would be to maybe consider putting the 'study' door near the TV area instead of the entrance hall. If you decide to use it as a bedroom down the track it will be more functional. Thanks homeangels. Yes we agonised over that decision but in the end it's more like to be a guest bedroom or study or gym. If we go have 4 kids then the "rumpus" would become the 4th bedroom rather than the "study", and the study would become our study! Does that make sense?? Hehe. So we'd rather the guest room open away from the crazy untidiness that will be the kids' activity room. lmille32 Well I meant that you could open the study up to the tv area to make the tv area more of a rumpus room with toys and a play area and then split the theatre room in half to make IT the 5th bedroom and study. I don't really understand having 3 living areas myself, I would rather have a decent 5th bedroom and functional study then yet another living area to lose my family in, but it all comes down to personal taste obviously. If that didn't suit though I would definitely recommend what HomeAngels said and put the door to the study in your plan around the other side. edit: It would just have been a way of doing it without altering the floor plan as much. The way you've got it looks good though Ah, gotcha. We thought about opening the study to make the tv area bigger but in the end we don't think it needs to be much bigger than it is and the extra room will be really useful to us. I consider this plan only to have 2 living areas really.... the main kitchen/living/playroom("theatre") will all be sort of one room (some separation for the sitting/playarea), and the kids tv area. Tans1970 We are building the Plantation Retreat 20m Q2 - great idea about closing off the study. We would have done the same, but we have actually changed the plan quite a bit that now the entrance way is at the side of the house (our block is a battleaxe shape). I agree can't wait to get started! We are just awaiting our tender appointment date!! Hiya tans! Whereabouts are you building? I saw your post on my other thread too! I'm so intrigued how your plan looks with the bedroom and garage swapped around - are you starting a thread so I can have a nosey? :p We looked at the Retreat 20m too, all the versions are slightly different and it was very confusing. In the end we chose the retreat nouvea but really I can't see much difference between it and the 20m!! Slightly different room sizes all round I think. Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - first draft floorplan! 27Jul 18, 2013 9:11 pm Just an update. We've decided on our pool builder and below is the concept design. The backyard is level off the patio and then it slopes down on the left side of the backyard so we need an out of ground pool. The pool is up against the living room window and the alfresco. Not sure if we'll be able to afford glass fencing as shown in the picture, probably not!! We'd ideally like the paved area around the pool to be wider for kids to play/run/jump but this is limited by budget. Here's hoping 1.2m is enough room.... I think it looks pretty groovy and am very excited about it all! Especially cause the builder is including a really good special on pool heating so looks like we'll be getting the pool heated straight away instead of years down the track like we thought. I'm very open to any feedback/suggestions! Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ image027 by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Untitled2 by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Untitled by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ image026 by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - out-of-ground pool concept de 28Jul 18, 2013 11:09 pm looks great just an idea you could have glass fencing just part way to save on costs. for example near the house glass the part along the fence just normal pool fence. we did this after a suggestion was given to us and it is fantastic Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - out-of-ground pool concept de 29Jul 21, 2013 9:45 pm Thanks Rocky, that's a good idea but it's hard to picture. Do you have any images of your fencing at all?? Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - out-of-ground pool concept de 30Jul 21, 2013 9:46 pm TENDER TOMORROW! I'm so nervous about what the final quote is going to be after all our additions and changes. I haven't been able to sleep the last few nights trying to remember everything. I keep waking up in the middle of the night thinking about rangehoods and tiling. SIGH! Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - first draft floorplan! 31Jul 23, 2013 4:30 pm EmyN Hiya tans! Whereabouts are you building? I saw your post on my other thread too! I'm so intrigued how your plan looks with the bedroom and garage swapped around - are you starting a thread so I can have a nosey? :p We looked at the Retreat 20m too, all the versions are slightly different and it was very confusing. In the end we chose the retreat nouvea but really I can't see much difference between it and the 20m!! Slightly different room sizes all round I think. Hi EmyN We are building in Peregian Springs (Sunshine Coast). I haven't started up a thread yet but will do one soon! Yeah, it's so confusing looking at all the different variations of the same design. They have a Retreat Nouvea display home on the Sunshine Coast - it's awesome! It's what sold us on the Retreat range of homes. Will let you know as soon as I start that thread! Edit: PS The pool looks great! That is some awesome software - was that done by the pool company? Who are you using? By the way, I did some research on pool fencing and Bunnings seem to have some good prices on the glass pool fence. Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - out-of-ground pool concept de 32Jul 23, 2013 4:51 pm EmyN TENDER TOMORROW! I'm so nervous about what the final quote is going to be after all our additions and changes. I haven't been able to sleep the last few nights trying to remember everything. I keep waking up in the middle of the night thinking about rangehoods and tiling. SIGH! Good luck for your tender appointment!!! We have ours booked for the 15th but we are hoping that they can bring it forward if there is a cancellation as my parents are here from NZ and go back on the 7th. I'm not all that comfortable being such a big distance away from the children (1.5 hours from Sunshine Coast to Springwood) for half a day, so if we can bring it forward my parents can look after them. It will be worse for the WHOLE day we have to come to the contract/ colours appointment!! I look forward to hearing how you get on. Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - out-of-ground pool concept de 33Jul 28, 2013 9:19 pm Tans1970 They have a Retreat Nouvea display home on the Sunshine Coast - it's awesome! It's what sold us on the Retreat range of homes. I know - we went on a massive road trip to see it one day (2 hour drive one way!). Took forever but was really good to see it in person so we could be confident about the floorplan we were starting with. I even took a video of the house as a walkthrough which has come in handy but we're planning to visit it one more time when we have our final floorplan and do a detailed walkthrough so we hopefully cover everything and hopefully makes it easier to picture! Tans1970 PS The pool looks great! That is some awesome software - was that done by the pool company? Who are you using? By the way, I did some research on pool fencing and Bunnings seem to have some good prices on the glass pool fence. Yes the pool company did it. It's a company called Perform@nce Pools. The chap has done several others on our street and has been so good with communication so we're feeling quite positive about it all so far. Thanks for the tip about the pool fencing. Not sure how I feel about glass... it looks amazing but I can't imagine I could be bothered cleaning it very often, and it seems to stop breezes through the pool area also... Tans1970 We have ours booked for the 15th but we are hoping that they can bring it forward if there is a cancellation as my parents are here from NZ and go back on the 7th. I'm not all that comfortable being such a big distance away from the children (1.5 hours from Sunshine Coast to Springwood) for half a day, so if we can bring it forward my parents can look after them. It will be worse for the WHOLE day we have to come to the contract/ colours appointment!! Ah yes babysitting. Thanks goodness my parents only live half an hour from Springwood so they're perfectly positioned for babysitting hehe. The hardest part on our end is hubby getting days off in the middle of the week! Eep. Did you manage to move your tender date forward?? Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - out-of-ground pool concept de 34Jul 28, 2013 9:32 pm I've been playing around with the Colorbond Colour Visualisation program (awesome by the way, if anyone's wondering) and I'm starting to mockup possible facades. The below is sort of the general look I think I like. I'm worried it's all a bit too beige (and without the gorgeous gardens of the display home will be boring as) but it's a start. We're not entirely sure what to do with that feature wall bit yet, we were initially thinking definitely stackstone as in the picture, however I've recently seen pressed metal used externally and think it looks really sexy. So am contemplating that now.... Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ photoelevation by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Any thoughts anyone? Looking at it now again it's definitely looking to blandy beige... hmmhh. By the way, this was the original photo I worked off to change colours. Lots of fun. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ photoelevation by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Meanwhile our tender appointment went for 4.5 hours and we had to leave. We didn't even get to the quote, this was discussing variations we needed. She had 44 items on her "alterations to tender" list hahaha. Poor lady. But she was very patient and accepting and we never once felt we were bothering her so that was excellent. We're awaiting a new draw-up of the plans (hopefully Tuesday) and a new quote and we might go in for another tender appointment if all looks good on those plans. I expect it will take a fair bit of back and forth to get it right because we're making so many changes and want things a bit different to the norm. As an example of the different style we're going for, this is a picture of roughly how I want my rangehood to look (we're doing a modernish shaker kitchen)!! I really hope the kitchen contractor can achieve this or something similar. Perhaps not as frilly. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ 2013-07-20 20.11.05 by Em_Brisbane, on Flickr Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - facade visual fun 35Aug 04, 2013 9:59 pm So we made our first ever purchase for our new house today - a range hood! Winning Appliances was doing a crazy cost-price carpal sale and we found a Qasair concealed range hood for $999 (rrp$1675). That's cost price! Pretty happy with that deal. And it moves 900m3 of air compared with the builder's included concealed range hood which moves 150m3!! Let's just hope they can fit it into the cabinetry without trouble! :s Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - facade visual fun 36Aug 06, 2013 3:18 pm Well I guess I'll continue updating this despite absolutely no apparent interest hahaha. I'll view it as a personal blog. If anyone IS following feel free to chime in with any thoughts! Current issue is the rangehood. The tender lady said that concealed rangehoods MUST be done by the builder because it has to be built in to the cabinetry at the time of cabinetry construction and therefore they couldn't accept us providing our own appliance as they only allow this after handover. Seeing as how their rangehood is horribly loud and sucks only 150m3/hour (!) AND the fact we've already paid a grand for our lovely concealed rangehood on the advice we could supply our own appliances that's not going to work for us!! Was a bit disappointed by their attitude which seemed a bit "well this is a problem for you" but I've asked them to sort a solution out for us so we'll see what happens. Meanwhile the pool builder seems to have "forgotten" to tell us about the $2k boarding cost (due to the pool being close to the house) and the potential $3k in soil removal fees! I was quite upset when he told us about those extra charges as surely he would have been aware of those from the outset and let us know. Our poor budget!! Build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=65085 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - concealed rangehood issue 37Aug 13, 2013 11:07 pm I've just found your thread. Love your kitchen idea! Maybe cos its very similar to mine, ha ha! We supplied our own rangehood too. Had to pay the builder $180 for insurance and admin fee on it, plus the additional cabinetry to be built around it, but I figured it was worth it. I don't see why your builder won't accept yours. Very frustrating! Site works on sloping rocky blocks, they hurt, I know! I'm the same as you, I wanted a house on a single level with no stairs. I'm hoping one day I will forget how much we paid for our site costs! Goodluck with your build, I'll certainly be following it! My build thread: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=64437 Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - concealed rangehood issue 38Aug 13, 2013 11:37 pm Emyn Love the elevations you've done - wished I was clever enough to do them. You girls and your Shacker Kitchens have really got me thinking lol Akb <!-- l --><a class="postlink-local" href="https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewtopic.php?t=62083">viewtopic.php?t=62083</a><!-- l --> Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - out-of-ground pool concept de 39Aug 19, 2013 1:50 pm EmyN I've been playing around with the Colorbond Colour Visualisation program (awesome by the way, if anyone's wondering) and I'm starting to mockup possible facades. The below is sort of the general look I think I like. I'm worried it's all a bit too beige (and without the gorgeous gardens of the display home will be boring as) but it's a start. We're not entirely sure what to do with that feature wall bit yet, we were initially thinking definitely stackstone as in the picture, however I've recently seen pressed metal used externally and think it looks really sexy. So am contemplating that now.... I have discovered Colorbond Visualiser as well - so much fun. I love the facade - colour choice is so hard! - it looks great to me. What is the name of the main paint and roof colour that you used? - it's a bit hard to tell on the screen. I love the stackstone look personally - I guess it depends on whether you want a more natural look or very modern? ...... decisions decisions! Re: Our rocky "Forever Home" - out-of-ground pool concept de 40Aug 19, 2013 1:55 pm EmyN Meanwhile our tender appointment went for 4.5 hours and we had to leave. We didn't even get to the quote, this was discussing variations we needed. She had 44 items on her "alterations to tender" list hahaha. Poor lady. But she was very patient and accepting and we never once felt we were bothering her so that was excellent. We're awaiting a new draw-up of the plans (hopefully Tuesday) and a new quote and we might go in for another tender appointment if all looks good on those plans. I expect it will take a fair bit of back and forth to get it right because we're making so many changes and want things a bit different to the norm. WOW 4.5 hours!! ..... We took up the full 3 hours and I thought we dragged it out!! Who did you have as your Tender Consultant? Will love to see your new plans when you get them. How did you get on with the kitchen fan situation? - were you able to sort something out? Are you providing your other appliances?? - We certainly plan to as we had heard through many sources that the Technica brand are not great. However, we were a bit annoyed that the credit the Salesman told us we would get was less than what he quoted! We already paid for somfy motors for the blinds. The quote above was purely for “pre-wiring” so the blinds company can install the motors and blinds. That’s why we… 5 8013 of course there are legal avenues. You've already mentioned it. Sue them. I find it odd that lawyers wouldnt be willing to take on the case, given CCT evidence and… 1 14592 "Losers" "humanity" "off time" "your" "top notch" "love symbol" Sounds like ponzo is done using other people's toilets 37 14039 |