Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Feb 18, 2016 3:11 pm Hi Everyone, I need some help from all of you guys. We are very new to the building process. And we are building a custom home design. Can you guys please take a look at our rough plans and point out any improvements/changes/modifications you feel would help the house in terms of looks/accessibility/durability etc etc. Just to give you guys a more info. The house is WEST facing. Our block has a slope of 1.5 m from the front to back. We have designed 2 sample plans. Each plan is different has advantages and disadvantages. Please check the details below SAMPLE PLAN - A Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ PROS - 1. Better natural light inside the house as we have West facing block. 2. House would look Good from the front as the Study and BED2 are fully visible without a retaining wall and people inside look at the natural ground level. Look of the house is not compromised. CONS - 1. The Garage is sloped and we have to drive into the slope. 2. If it heavily rains water may/may not come into the Garage. (Yes, we would have a big drain in front of the garage) 3. Garage may remain moist if water gets inside in any way or if rains heavily. (Yes, we would have a big drain in front of the garage) 4. The Alfresco would need steps as we have slope at the back. At least 6 to 8. 5. To avoid steps we can have decking and other things which means additional cost. SAMPLE PLAN - B Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ [/quote] PROS - 1. The garage has no slope we drive straight inside. 2. No question of water coming inside or having moisture inside garage! 3. The Alfresco at the back is leveled. No need for decking etc. CONS - 1. Nature light is compromised, as we have flipped the house the half front part would have little natural light. 2. We may need sky lights, which is additional expenditure. 3. Retaining wall in the front of the house. 4. House from the front is lower, so people from Study and BED 2 are looking upto the road. Again as we have slope. So look is compromised. BIG Question - Which Plan should be chosen AND Please feel free to provide your valuable feedback. Sample image is attached. Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 2Feb 18, 2016 3:31 pm Hello 1st homebuyer. Welcome to the h1 family. Your plan is looking pretty good. One thing that jumps out at me is the lack of Windows in the main bedroom. I would also recommend changing the window in the rumpus room to a slider stacker or a bi fold that leads unto the alfresco. And perhaps add an extra window to the right wall. Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 3Feb 18, 2016 3:34 pm Abztronic - Thanks so much. I really had that on my mind. But was in dilemma. Your suggestion stamps my thought! Much thankful! Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 4Feb 18, 2016 4:13 pm Some things that may give more ideas: Which direction is North? Which direction are prevailing breezes from? and which climate are you in?
Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 5Feb 18, 2016 4:38 pm Think carefully about the location of the doors. Move the master bedroom to the O/S wall end and you almost double the efffective WIR size. Move the study door to the hall way and you can have a longer wardrobe which will also improve the soundproofing betwen that room and the bedroom. Plan some good acoustic insulation between the master bedroom and the family room if one goes to bed while the other stops up watching TV it can be noisy! (Some ideas at this link: http://anewhouse.com.au/category/selection/noise/) The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 6Feb 18, 2016 4:39 pm oneJohn - We are facing west in terms of directions and also have a slop so we wanted garage on a flatter side. The other side would have small retaining wall. Thanks so much for taking out the tome for writing the suggestions. I am putting in the window in the bath as suggested. Yes the front roof is raised due to a timber strip on top of the porch pillars and yes only a fancy thing nothing else. I will look how can we shrink the ensuite as i know its big. Once again thanks so much. Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 7Feb 18, 2016 4:48 pm bashworth Think carefully about the location of the doors. Move the master bedroom to the O/S wall end and you almost double the efffective WIR size. Move the study door to the hall way and you can have a longer wardrobe which will also improve the soundproofing betwen that room and the bedroom. Plan some good acoustic insulation between the master bedroom and the family room if one goes to bed while the other stops up watching TV it can be noisy! (Some ideas at this link: http://anewhouse.com.au/category/selection/noise/) bashworth - Thanks so much for taking out the time to write the suggestions. I would look into all of these! Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 8Feb 18, 2016 5:04 pm 1st_HomeBuyer Hi Everyone, I need some help from all of you guys. We are very new to the building process. And we are building a custom home design. Can you guys please take a look at our rough plan and point out any improvements/changes/modifications you feel would help the house in terms of looks/accessibility/durability etc etc. Just to give you guys a more info. The house is WEST facing. We have a slope so we have made the garage straight and the other side of the house would have retaining wall. So please feel free to provide your valuable feedback. Sample image is attached. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Who you building with if you don't mind me asking? Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 9Feb 18, 2016 5:05 pm Not yet decided. We are getting the design done first, from an architect. Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 10Feb 18, 2016 5:37 pm Skylights are good things to have in an internal bathroom with no outside walls. I see you have a similar problem with the bathroom on the right. I know people don't like to put Windows in showers but they can be waterproofed and tiled successfully as well. If you say this is an architect doing this design I question their abilities. Sent from an iPhone please excuse the ridiculous spell correcting software. My forum thread is at viewtopic.php?t=74944 Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 11Feb 18, 2016 5:44 pm TheBigHouse Skylights are good things to have in an internal bathroom with no outside walls. I see you have a similar problem with the bathroom on the right. I know people don't like to put Windows in showers but they can be waterproofed and tiled successfully as well. If you say this is an architect doing this design I question their abilities. Sent from an iPhone please excuse the ridiculous spell correcting software. My forum thread is at viewtopic.php?t=74944 Thanks for the suggestions. We would be looking into all the suggestions one by one. Yes this is done by an architect. But i wont blame him, as its a design which we wanted and we have dictated every bit of it to him. So technically he has not yet provided his inputs. Thanks again for the suggestions! Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 12Feb 18, 2016 5:50 pm Ok that's cool. I thought normally Architects do it they way they want regardless of what you tell them (no offence to Architects:)) Sent from an iPhone please excuse the ridiculous spell correcting software. My forum thread is at viewtopic.php?t=74944 Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 13Feb 18, 2016 7:54 pm I feel like the wardrobes in the study and bed 2 are in an odd place. As soon as you walk into the rooms you're walking straight into the wardrobe wall. I would move them to a different wall and make them bigger. Follow Our Build Here: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=75667 Building with Kurrajong Homes in Alumuna Walk Village. Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 14Feb 18, 2016 7:57 pm Lily123456 I feel like the wardrobes in the study and bed 2 are in an odd place. As soon as you walk into the rooms you're walking straight into the wardrobe wall. I would move them to a different wall and make them bigger. Thanks for your valuable feedback. Does the overall layout seems OK? Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 15Feb 18, 2016 9:35 pm If that house faces west, then Bed 1 and the Garage are on the north side? If so, you seem to be having poor utilisation of north-facing windows for passive heating. To make more use of that, you could reconfigure the bed1 so the robe is moved away from that wall, and put a large window there instead. But better than that, how about swapping the rumpus and the master bedroom as a mirror swap? Then put a large window to the north on the rumpus room. The bedroom entry location would be a bit unusual, but is off the living room regardless. Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 16Feb 18, 2016 9:44 pm oneJohn If that house faces west, then Bed 1 and the Garage are on the north side? If so, you seem to be having poor utilisation of north-facing windows for passive heating. To make more use of that, you could reconfigure the bed1 so the robe is moved away from that wall, and put a large window there instead. But better than that, how about swapping the rumpus and the master bedroom as a mirror swap? Then put a large window to the north on the rumpus room. The bedroom entry location would be a bit unusual, but is off the living room regardless. Yeah, i agree to your points. Hear my reason for this setup. I could have flipped the house but if i flip the house then the garage would come on the right hand side and has a slope, so we drive into the garage slope and the other part of the house is levelled from the front. Now on the same setup lets move to the back of the house, we would have a slope at the backyard which is quite big and alfresco would require some 7 to 10 steps. Thats the reason we flipped the house. I will share the flipped design in sometime. But i agree i will change the master bed wir and make windows on the wall north! Mate your feedback and time are much appreciated! Thanks s ton! Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 17Feb 18, 2016 9:47 pm In my current design the alfresco at the back is levelled. Garage is levelled. And yes the master room in the middle would live ugly Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 19Feb 18, 2016 10:15 pm Joynz If you have an architect, why are you doing the design yourself? I am not doing my self. Architect is doing it. I am here taking feedback from general public about the idea(design layout idea, which is mine) which we are implementing. As i have taken such approach many times in life and have always benifitted from it. I believe people honest feedback is invaluable! Cheerio OB! Re: Plan/Design Related - Suggestion/Review/Feedback! 20Feb 18, 2016 11:18 pm An architect shoule be able to resolve passive solar/good natural light/slope concerns for garage. There should be a way to resolve and minimise any 'cons'. Personally id endevour to not have garage and master on my north elevation, and get the living areas there instead. Can you retain and fill the block to resolve the drainage concerns? Recently moved to a 60's home in need of some improvement! http://s797.photobucket.com/user/leenii ... ch%20House Old house: http://s797.photobucket.com/albums/yy25 ... loo/House/ 2 7438 Hi there! Absolutely agree on the wasted space. We have no desire for the master to be that oversized, but it occurred when we increased the depth of the garage. We have… 4 14183 6 57394 |