Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 28, 2015 11:38 am So we are building our first home and only have a small budget for a small home but I would like to get the most out of it as we can I am torn between the Hotondo plan which is the Ravenswood 157 and the GJ Gardner plan Birrarung 196 they are the same price but the Ravenswood is smaller being at 157m2 and the Birrarung being 196m2. We like the layout of the Ravenswood better with the semi private lounge area but open kitchen / dining but the Birrarung has a study ( which we could use as an extra room albeit smallor a play room as we have a one year old and may have another in a few years) and a small walk in pantry but not sure about not having a cosy private lounge only having the open space ( thinking of adding some large doors and a wall between the kitchen and the family area to give us a little semi private lounge area that we can open up or close off but it will be a small room and not sure id it will look silly! With the Birrarung we would not be able to afford a driveway until later but the ravenswood would have the driveway fully done aswell as pathways around the house. Any opinions or ideas would be greatly appreciated - which does everyone prefer? Thanks the first pic is the Birrarung and the second is the ravenswood Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: opinions on which plan 3Feb 28, 2015 3:25 pm My opinion is the first plan, if your looking at having one lounge area you could look at turning the living area into meals, turn alfresco into arectangle shape. Put a wall/doors to close off the family. If you dont need a big alfresco cut off a bit of length to save $. If you went with plan two & don't need the computer niche, maybe it could be turned into pantry/ storage. With a little one I think you will need the room in plan 1 but it really comes down to what you can afford. Good luck. Re: opinions on which plan 4Feb 28, 2015 3:39 pm Homes once upon a time only had what you needed (Kitchen, Dining, Lounge), then we all wanted bigger and bigger so we started getting Kitchen, Dining, Family, Living. Really is a waste of space and money. In the homes I have lived in for the last 15 years the Living has been used for my computer and only the Family / Dining has been used for social. Now we are looking to build our first home and have completely removed the Living and converted it into a second Master Bedroom (my mother lives with us). I have a vision of making the social rooms more social and bring the family out of the bedrooms, wishful thinking I know lol. So.. The Ravenswood is a more practical plan. The Family, Meals and Kitchen all appear to be a good size. I would however be a bit reserved on the bedroom sizes. Most "average" bedrooms are 3.0x3.0 and your master bedroom is only marginally larger than that. The Computer Niche is yuk... you will be sitting in the corridor. The Alfresco is very small. Be enough room for maybe a small 4 seat table leaving room to walk around. I doubt you'll even fit a BBQ in there comfortably. That's just my opinion though Cheers, Paul (& Lisa) Parkhill 36 by ClarendonHomes in Coomera Retreat H1 Build Thread And Blog Building Blogs List - Go Ahead And Add Yours!! Re: opinions on which plan 5Feb 28, 2015 8:57 pm I prefer the birrarung, you have more open living space and little children like to be where you are so more living is better in my opinion (we have 5 children so living space is important for us but budget is a big factor) there is a way to make the family room your cosy lounge area by adding a partition wall it gives the cosy factor but still keeps the room open and wouldn't make it feel small or confined. In regards to your driveway try and get some quotes to have the concrete to driveway, paths and alfresco done by an external concreter it's much cheaper in most cases than the actual builder. Re: opinions on which plan 8Jun 25, 2015 1:09 pm The first plan definitely. In the second plan your Master Bed is about the size of a single bedroom. If you have kids, the amount of toys etc. is only going to grow (exponentially!) and you will appreciate having gone for the option with more space. Black on light wood does look good. Not sure if it will be as long lasting as a steel finish? 6 6346 brokers will also be in a position to get you a better rate than the advertised rate most times. 6 7558 Thank you. Do I use timber floorboards for stairs or do people use timber treads? Or is both the same? 6 7255 |