Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 05, 2015 8:39 pm Hi All! First time posting own topic, we are finally at the end of the design phase of our house. I have checked it a gazillion times but would like any further considerations and comments!
It is 5 months in the making going from concept to working drawings to changes, getting tenders from various builders, deciding on a builder, checking with builder about the plans, changing the plans again etc... The brief: This house will go a land that is 610m2, 13.4x45m with side access to rear granny flat/and double garage (which I havent included in this post). We have chosen a builder, he is happy to put Hebel powerfloors in the subfloor. This house is for my 3 girls, 7, 4, 5 months, we want to be our forever, but if things change for the better we are happy to go with the flow. The front of house faces North. Oh... I'm in Sydney! 21.06.2015 Today I've updated my plans: these plans are DA approved! YaY! Site Plan Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Front Facade Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Side views Our Journey started in Nov 2013, when we brought our block. We thought the planning process will only take 3-4months, council for 3, and we can build after that. We initially found a builder first, paid him $2500 for contour survey and started the design process with his draftsman. After 5 months working with his draftsman and meeting up with him to discuss the build we soon realized that they could not build the house we wanted and so we had to start from scratch again. This time we purposefully choose a house designer not affiliated with anyone. Once he finished the concept drawing he gave me a list of builders that he designed for, and I also had a few builder recommendation from friends that I showed the concept plans to, and was able to gauge how much this build was going to cost. During that time, my husband through that we needed more storage, and he wanted a basement carpark, when I enquired about it, it looked liked it would cost an extra $150K for a 100m2 basement. The builder said there is a lot of issues that you need to consider when building a basement such as the water pump (failing, noisy), issues with dampness, cracks. There is a need for maintenance of the pump in 5 years time too. So we decided not to risk it and just have long narrow house with a drive way to the garage. Also, we have wasted enough time, and although living with the inlaws are great (no cooking, free childcare), we still want our own place, one year of living out of boxes, does takes its toll. TBC down post... Pros and cons of custom, deciding on builder... Council process... Would like to share since I've learnt so much from H1. Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 2Feb 06, 2015 2:57 pm I'd recommend having a read of the Governments Your Home website. Especially the section on passive design, http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design
Ideally, you want your living areas to face north. Where they will be warmed by the sun in winter, & shaded from the sun in summer. This will result in a house that is brighter, & more comfortable throughout the year. Usually northern frontages aren't good for passive design, as double garages block out sunlight from entering the house. But you're lucky, as the garage is to the south. Looking at your plan, you obviously want your living areas to back on to your rear yard. Unfortunately your living areas will face south, so will be colder in winter, & darker throughout the year. I'd recommend having your living areas up one side of the house, from front to rear. This way you'll get northern light in the living areas, & will also have access to the rear yard. So I'd place the living areas on the eastern side of the house, front to back. This way your laundry, mudroom, & bathrooms will be on the western side, which will help block the harsh summer sun from your living areas. It's a good idea to try to minimise western windows for this reason too. The guestroom could be in the NW corner, & the theatre in the SW corner. The void at the front will help bring northern light to the rear of the house. Upstairs, the northern rumpus is a good idea. Looks like you've minimised western windows up here, which is good. Having the bathrooms & WIR on the western side, to limit summer heat, is also a good idea. Bed 3 has a western window though, so will get hot in summer. Unfortunately there's not much you can do about this. You should investigate window treatments, to try to minimise summer sun through this window. I'm not a big fan of open staircases. As, in winter, they act as chimneys. Sucking all the heat from your living areas, upstairs. Whether you stick with your current plan, or modify it, I'd add a door to separate your living areas from your staircase. Are you building with brick veneer walls? I'd recommend hebel walls, as hebel has better thermal properties than brick (higher insulation & lower thermal mass). Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 3Feb 06, 2015 6:37 pm Thanks so much for the advice! We have a large cavity sliding door to help close off our back living area from the stairs. Not sure how you can stop the hot air from moving upstairs. Does the windows at the stairs will help the hot air escape? Should I have an exhaust fan in the stairwell roof? We are building with Brick veneer and Hebel only for subfloor. Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 5Feb 08, 2015 8:56 am Just a suggestion. You may like to change the position of the door (and robe) of bed 3 so that you don't come directly up the stairs to see straight into the room. Also, could you get a cavity slider into the shower section of the bathroom upstairs? Dont forget towel rail in that shower room as well. I dont see one in there. So would you enter through the laundry from your rear garage then? Oh you have lots of storage, impressive Cheers Sandra Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 6Feb 08, 2015 9:34 am A big tick for Hebel floor, the acoustic and thermal benefits are huge. And it will feel like solid concrete, without the bounce of a timber floor. Just like what ddarroch mentioned, why don't you think about Hebel exterior instead of rendered brick? Didn't notice your roof plan, have you thought about solar panels or solar hot water? Best of luck!! Home is where the lot is Construction commenced 3rd November 2014 Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 7Feb 09, 2015 8:56 pm @ Carrot01 - if we had more room we want a bigger alfresco, with a small and narrow block the more you change the same issues still stands. @Sandra77, thanks for the advice re: door between bath and robe. The main reason bedroom 3 door and robe is there because it will act as another level of the sound proofing from the bathroom. The laundry is there because I wanted the laundry chute to go straight into laundry, there will be a long walk to the clothes line at the back I guess. @ wilpower - we visited the CSR house over the weekend, I think the Hebel powerfloors just doesn't completely eliminate the noise up stairs as we hoped, unfortunately My builder isn't a fan of Hebel, but willing to try the power floors since we keep insisting. Yikes! Totally deluded by the planning and building process Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 8Feb 09, 2015 9:25 pm Hey there. I echo the thoughts of those who have come before with regards to the northern aspect. In Sydney we don't have that much of an issue but having lived on a south side of a hill in Sydney before definitely maximise the sun where you can for dampness and light issues! Is there a reason you have gone with the side access to garage / granny flat? It's just that it does waste a lot of space (driveway) and means you don't have under cover access. We lived in a house with rear lane access once. Thought that idea was great but every time it rained we hated it. It seemed that every time it rained we ended up needing to do 2 or 3 trips to take things back and forth from the car (for whatever reason). It can be a right royal pain. With an opportunity to build I'd definitely try and get undercover access if at all possible. (although I see you have a mud room which is I assume on the same side as the driveway?) The other thing to consider is kids being in the driveway and if you have a turning circle in the back there. Oh and with kids do you want to have a downstairs study nook. I always look at those and think they are a great idea! (but then I don't have kids so have no idea if that is really a good idea or not!) And another idea is to have the indoor/outdoor kitchen flow into each other. I've seen a great one where the bench goes from inside to outside with a bifold window to separate. Looks amazing! And is practical! Otherwise I think your plan looks great. I love the huge WIR, a good size HT (although my husband always thinks the HT should be on the dark side - southern side as it isn't going to need sun), 3 way bathroom and huge alfresco! Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 9Feb 16, 2015 8:15 pm Hi yvonneh, thanks for the feedback, the preference by my parents who are a lot older is to be able to drive to the back to their grannyflat, I wasn't s fan of the drive way either. Also It's too late to change the plan, our journey so far has been very long and drawn out. We thought we would of started building in Oct 2014. But meet the wrong builder with an attached drafty. So we had to start all over again in September getting the house redesigned, and only in the last month confirmed the builder that we 'Trust'. This journey also involved us selling our house too early, and we are currently living with the in laws!!! it's been great sometimes no need to cook, and we are very lucky to not have any issues with them, but we really need our own space. sigh*. Yikes! Totally deluded by the planning and building process Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 10Mar 23, 2015 1:05 pm I think the suggestions above are great esp Hebel powerfloor - and the layout works well We are working with a project builder at the moment to build on a narrow sydney block but as we've been having problems with their service (or lack thereof!) we are thinking custom builder would you mind pm me your builders details thanks! Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 11Mar 23, 2015 9:55 pm Hi Mrszzz yes happy to pm you. It's just him and his son, they have build many homes which we have viewed and was very pleased with the feedback. I think it's hard work going through very small builder, but we get a lot of communication. And lot of choice. Just that you have to know what you want, which is something that I'm learning along the way. Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 12Jun 20, 2015 10:01 pm Wow, I just found your thread. I LOVE you plan and your elevations. It's seriously fantastic, you've thought of everything! Where are you at with it? Looking forward to see it come to life. Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 13Jun 20, 2015 10:59 pm TomCat Wow, I just found your thread. I LOVE you plan and your elevations. It's seriously fantastic, you've thought of everything! Where are you at with it? Looking forward to see it come to life. We are out of Council with a DA approved! Like I said, I forgot I did this thread way back! Might just revive it and save my time starting another thread since I've been hijacking other people's threads. Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 14Jun 20, 2015 11:12 pm Hi, congrats on your plans an approved da! Very exciting for you. I like your plan and your butlers pantry and laundry shoot. I was wondering why you have the BIR as opening doors instead of sliding? Do you prefer that style for a particular reason? I've always had sliding mirrored. Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 15Jun 20, 2015 11:47 pm Building4my3tots We are out of Council with a DA approved! Like I said, I forgot I did this thread way back! Might just revive it and save my time starting another thread since I've been hijacking other people's threads. Good idea ... I've subscribed. Maybe you'll want to take out the "please comment" from the thread title now though BTW. You're façade is fantastic ... those square windows running vertically down the left front are really interesting Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 16Jun 21, 2015 1:18 am Zarinafly Hi, congrats on your plans an approved da! Very exciting for you. I like your plan and your butlers pantry and laundry shoot. I was wondering why you have the BIR as opening doors instead of sliding? Do you prefer that style for a particular reason? I've always had sliding mirrored. We want custom joinery, and prefer swing doors, without mirrors. Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 17Jun 21, 2015 7:12 am Posting to follow, looking foward to seeing your plans on my computer not on a phone at an airport haha. Welcome to the roller coaster!! Custom build Northern NSW viewtopic.php?f=31&t=72217 Re: Custom home design - narrow block - please comment 18Jun 21, 2015 7:54 am LOVE the design but can you post the plan for the rear storage? Is it just storage or a Granny Flat like the site plan shows? Do you have to walk in the rain to get to the main house? Zarinafly I was wondering why you have the BIR as opening doors instead of sliding? Do you prefer that style for a particular reason? I've always had sliding mirrored. You will find there are two groups of people with opinions on this... One group will love the sliders as they do not take up space within the room to open. The trade-off is that you only get to see half of your wardrobe at any one time. The other group will argue that swing doors are better as you have full unrestricted access to your wardrobe. This group may also be inclined to say sliders look "cheap" I tend to sit with the group for swing doors BUT.. I have 2 bedrooms in our build that have mirrored sliders. I done this as the wardrobes are the full wall length and mirrors across the wall will make those rooms look huge. Those rooms are also for my daughters so mirrors are a must no questions asked lol. Cheers, Paul (& Lisa) Parkhill 36 by ClarendonHomes in Coomera Retreat H1 Build Thread And Blog Building Blogs List - Go Ahead And Add Yours!! Re: Custom home design - narrow block 20Jun 21, 2015 10:18 am This belongs on your thread not mine ... Congratulations on approval, can't wait to see it start. I like the fact that you've got a drive down the side for the granny flat and garage down the back. I completely understand this! The house we are in now (been here 24 years) has a block very similar size/dimensions to your lot ... 14.3 metres x 46.5 metres. House also faces north. We thought about knocking this house down and doing similar to what you're doing. ie. keep the house narrower to keep the driveway down the side to put a triple garage and 'studio/workshop' along the back. My husband has a truck and he works from home. I see no issue about 'walking in the rain' the practicalities and benefits FAR outweighs that. Your mud room runs off the driveway so if you got caught out driving home in disgusting weather you could pull up there. Post-build if you see the need, you can add a carport to the side at that entry. I find the idea of walking into the home through back yard incredibly attractive Such a CLEVER design which is obviously perfect for your family. And love the idea that you've considered your folks dimensions on your original plan are inconsistent and with accurate dimensions (including site plan, upstairs and down) i could make a proper scale drawing with furniture… 3 7535 So it looks like we finally have some movement on site! Definitely later than expected, but I'll take any progress at this point. I'll drop by over the weekend to get… 5 27829 ideal house depends on the site and location as much as internal floor plan....what is the distance from the house to all four boundaries, where is north, describe your… 3 15181 |