Feedback on 34sq Plan (MJH Oasis)

Hi All,

Like everyone, I've been madly reading the forum for about a year now. We have settled on a 828sqm lot on the Sunshine Coast in QLD (unexpectedly early), and we're now going through the initial design stage. We spent lots of time trying to find a good design that had the following inclusions and characteristics:
- Open plan living
- Home Office
- Guest room with ensuite
- Separate kids wing/area with activity room
- Butler's pantry
- Large kitchen island
- Large alfresco looking onto pool
- Home theatre - mid sized
- Toilet with easy outside access for pool
- Ideally master at front and kids at back

After lots of looking at plans and displays, the closest we could come for a QLD builder was the Oasis by McDonald Jones.
The original design:

After some adjustments and discussions with the builder we came up with the plan below. As you can see we (well I) sacrificed the Home Office, but everything else has been included, arguably at the expense of some of the flow and simplicity of the original design. The photo is oriented North, so the kitchen, laundry, alfresco short edge all face north.

I'd love to hear any suggestions, criticisms, improvements, etc. The structural changes we have made are:
- Study Nook recess reversed to essentially enlarge the Study Nook
- add cavity slider between Study Nook and Children's Activity
- Extend robes in Bed 2,3 and 4
- Switch door for Bed 2 (Guest room) from Children's Activity to Dining (for privacy for kids)
- Add single basin open ensuite to Bed 2 by shrinking the Main Ensuite to remove bath and reconfigure
- Change Kitchen pantry from corner pantry to regular pantry, and lose some 1/3 of laundry linen closet to allow toilet in laundry, with easy outside access
- Add large cavity slider door to Home theatre
- widen garage to 5900x6500
- ceilings to 2700 with all door and window heights raised commensurately
- Extend alfresco to grand alfresco
- Kitchen has window splashback for natural light.
- Front window for Bed 3 and 4 changed from double slit style to single larger windows (they face a nice forest across the road)

I've always leaned toward leaving the design largely as is, wife is very keen on separate guest room and ensuite and outside accessible toilet.

We'll be doing flooring, solar, pool, driveway all after handover.

All advice appreciated!

Welcome I love the bifolds from the kitchen to the alfresco, that is a feature we really wanted ourselves and couldn't work in...this time I think that losing space in the laundry is fine because you have plenty of other storage, it's no biggie, and a separate toilet for the outside is good.

There's a couple of things that I personally wouldn't like, but this is mostly my personal preference so take with a grain of salt I don't love the entry looking at a blank wall, I think you lose a lot of the flow of the house and it makes the entry feel pretty enclosed. You can get around that with decent decoration though, so it's not terrible. I'm also not sure how important the home office was to you, but if it's really important, why are you dropping it?

While I do really like the plan, I also think that your orientation isn't great for the block. While trying to capture northern sun isn't as crucial in Queensland as elsewhere, you've basically ended up with all your bedrooms on the coldest darkest side of the house, all your utilities on the nice north side, and your main outdoor entertaining area (I'm assuming) and living area in full glaring western sun. Unfortunately I can't see a way to fix that with this plan. I'd be very reluctant to go with this plan on this block.

PS - if you haven't already, check out http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design for more info on orientations on your block.

Hi Ilaeria,

Thankyou very much for your feedback. The entry did have a big recess there, but we felt the extra space was more important for the study nook, and we will in all likelihood put some ornament or picture on that wall facing the door.

With regards to orientation, I have indeed seen that website and read extensively on this topic. My read of it is that we should be aiming to have living areas on the north side and bedrooms on the south side as per this diagram in the page you linked to.



I actually thought our block was ideally placed for all those types of considerations. While we have all the bedrooms on the South side, the only slight negative for us in this was that the Garage was on the North side, and the Children's activity on the South side, but given we have all the bedrooms taking up the South side as per the website's suggestions, there wasn't really an option.

This is from Bashworth's ebook which says that E-W aligned blocks are the best for orientation and passive cooling and heating.



I thought we were pretty close! Isn't the Kitchen a living area?

With regard to the West sun, we have the Main bedroom window (sliding stacker doors) facing the Alfresco rather than West, and to be honest, my thinking is that is exactly where we want the pool located with regard to the house, to capture as much sun into the evening when we think the kids will be doing a lot of their swimming.

Once again, thanks for taking the time to comment. Would be interested in your comments on the above.

I wouldn't consider the kitchen a living area really. With that plan, you really want that long wall of bifolds and your alfresco facing north, ideally. You're correct that your block itself has a good orientation, running E-W, but this plan doesn't really work very well with it. Having the pool on the west side is probably good yeah (except it won't get sun until the evening so it might be cold in the mornings for example), but from my own experience of friends with their alfresco on the west side, they really hate it - its really difficult to entertain or enjoy that space with the sun glaring in your eyes. What I was trying to get at was that the block is good but the plan you've chosen doesn't seem to be making the best use of it But of course its always a toss-up really. Have your builder given any indication about the energy rating and if you'll need to make adjustments to meet the 6 star requirement yet? If not, it might be worth checking with them if they can foresee any issues.

Haven't had any feedback from the builder on the 6 star issue, but then again, I guess they just want the first deposit for detailed planning down first! I've seen comments on both opinions about west facing alfresco, with some disliking the glare, and some liking the last light. I guess our thinking is in line with this comment:

"5. BBQ People/Pool People. If you are an afternoon entertainer and like firing up the BBQ you may wish to consider a home with the rear facing west, or north west. You will get the sun in the afternoon in the backyard till the very last part of the day. It will also mean the pool is warmed up and you will get more use out of it through the year..."

Agree, it's a toss up to some extent, design vs orientation. Took us ages to find a design than encapsulated all the other half's wants, and we're coming from a tiny little Sydney house with external laundry, south facing living room, north facing bedrooms and west facing kitchen and dining. So I'm pretty sure that either way, we're going to be very impressed and it will be a big improvement.

Yep I see what you mean. Yeah either way you'll love it I'm sure If you think it's going to work for you then go for it, overall like I said it's a very nice plan and sounds like it meets most of your requirements

Thanks for your feedback. It has definitely given me something to think about.

bump

Last bump. Hopefully everyone thinks it's a great design with no suggestions!

Hi qld oasis,

How are you going with your build process? We are considering the Miami with MJH which is basically a smaller version of the oasis and would love to know how you feel about the process so far with MJH, and to get an idea of your costings as some things I feel are very pricey!!

Thanks!
Dani

Hi Dani,

We're very early through the process (just put down first deposit), but have done a heap of reading on this. Firstly, at least in QLD, the communication from the Sales Consultants is first class. Especially compared to some other builders who haven't returned phone calls or emails when asked for a quote!

My general read is that the base prices for MJH are on the high side, but for that you get a better level of quality. On all the extras, like any builder, I think there are ridiculously expensive things and some value things. We'll likely be doing flooring, driveway after handover. My read is that you should expect a house to cost somewhere between $1,200 and $1,500 per sqm overall to a liveable standard depending on the specs.

Hi again,
Thanks for your reply! I agree that the quality seems better and that's why we like them so much, but we also don't want to be ripped off!
We have added a few items like 40mm stone benches with waterfall, upgraded ensuing, extended laundry etc and we're coming in around $330 but would really prefer to be closer to the 300 mark. How much did your site costs come in at? Do you have any good cost saving ideas?

Thanks!!
Dani

Hi - I love your plans! Most of all the children's activity area right in the middle of what I assume would be their bedrooms. I would love something like that, you could guide your guests down the other hallway leaving all the kids toys and junk out of sight! Was that a part of your planning? Good luck with it all!

Hi RJ,

Thankyou! Yes, the idea was to give the kids essentially their own wing of the house. The other half has grand plans for lots of interstate guests staying overnight, and we wanted to keep the kids area private. Means putting the guest bedroom door in the Dining area, and the added ensuite means some loss of room in the main ensuite and Bed 2, but they're the sacrifices you make I guess.

The change causing the most issues is the toilet in the laundry! But apparently it's important to have a separate toilet close to outside access for pool use and alfresco entertainment.

Hi Danni,

We also had a budget like yours in mind at the start of the process. Our estimate for site costs is about $15k (flat site, H1 soil likely) + $5k for BAL 12.5. With our changes, including widening garage, alfresco grande, etc, the current (pre-colours, electrical) price is sitting around $350k.

I'm expecting we'll end up around $400k, maybe a bit more, which for a 335sqm house comes out to about $1200/sqm, which from all I've read seems about right.

We won't go crazy with colours and electricals. We'll be moving from a crappy 130sqm rental in Sydney that is very old, so little things like an internal laundry and cupboards that close will be a luxury!

And we'll be adding a pool as well. Beginning to feel like a lot, but to be honest, it will still end up coming probably half a million dollars less than if we were to purchase the rental we live in, in Sydney.