Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Help with plans, costs. 2Mar 21, 2017 7:26 pm Twinklestarfish Just starting out and have picked a builder, but want to design the home ourselves. I'm finding it hard to find existing floor plans for ideas, because I don't know what search terms to look for! We don't have a site yet so very much in the research phase. -We *don't* want open plan. -We'd prefer the entrance on the long side of the house. -We will likely have a good sized block, so don't want those skinny layouts designed for tiny estate sites. -I want to find the terminology for styles without knowing where to start. I hate the current trends in the popular builders. I like Victorian, cottage, Queenslander type homes. Ones with some detail, verandahs or porches, and timber features. Regarding costs, I pretty much want to know how to check, for example, the approximate difference between timber floors or polished concrete, or suggestions for simple ways to reduce price or improve sustainability. Nothing comes easy, so if you want answers you will have to work for them a bit or a lot - the more detailed research you do the better. Therefore, read this, all or selectively - it will certainly tell you about sustainability, and many other aspects of home design and building: http://www.yourhome.gov.au Traditional house styles (Victorian, Edwardian, Georgian, Federation, Queenslander), with all their lovely features ("with some detail, verandahs or porches, and timber features") that make the difference between a home that can pass for an original vs an ugly and cheap copy will cost a fortune, because the difference is in small details that are very expensive to re-create with today's labour costs. We have owned two Queenslanders (1890 and 1923), one Federation (1923) house and a 1930s cottage, but when it came time to build we went for a modern/contemporary style because we could get all the benefits of modern design and building techniques, but this also excludes all those lovely traditional details that look great, but that cost a lot and have almost no practical purpose to justify their cost. I have no idea where you live, but if it's Queensland you're in luck, because it's the one place where, IMHO, they probably do still make good looking and functional modern versions of their traditional house - the Queenslander. If you really want a traditional house look for floor plans of traditional houses for sale on sites like realestate.com and you can adjust from there. Really tight at the top of the stairs- how to get furniture into those rooms? Study books - does anyone really use them these days? Large storage closet would be more functional. 2 6885 Ask the council if there is a chance of getting build over easement exemption. Sometimes easements are unused and 24cm is not all that much. Good luck. And yes any builder… 2 13771 If there have been changes, variations, during construction then the drawings should be revised, the building permit amended and the current, as built drawings given to… 2 4481 |