Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Dec 27, 2019 1:59 pm Hi there, I'm in the process of designing a new two-storey home. We're a family of four (with two small children under three). Approx 700m2 north-facing block. Large frontage. Keen for any design feedback, and any additions worth factoring into the preliminary works contract before we sign a building contract. Ground FloorLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Upper FloorSecond StoreyLike ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Feedback on a two-story home design 2Dec 27, 2019 6:16 pm I really like the plan overall. I would consider: 1) Making wirs between bed 2 + 3 to service each bedroom. Our kids WIRs are only 1250mm wide but its amazing what we can store in there, and its so good to be able to shut the door. 2) I love a good WIL, but ours is more central within the home. Consider how you will use the room - eg will vaccum cleaner be stored in there, how far it is to get linen from cupboards to other rooms throughout the house. 3) Consider having the island as just an island without the sink in it. I would put the sink under the window. Nothing quite like having a clean island in a kitchen. It also looks like theres a wall at the end of the kitchen int ok the dining - is this the look you would like? 4) the main bathroom upstairs diesnt seem to make the best use of space? 5) I think Dbl doors to the master would look amazing 6) is that a window in ensuite shower? I would probably swap vanity and bath in ensuite and put a window over the bath I hope that helps Re: Feedback on a two-story home design 3Dec 27, 2019 6:54 pm I also like your floorplan, it’s clear you’ve put a lot of thought into the best use of floor space to meet your needs. A couple of suggestions/observations: 1. Are dimensions accurate? Bedroom 4 does not appear to be as wide as bedroom 3 yet the plan says it is larger (5.0m.). Might be worth checking all your measurements 2. To give you a more accurate view of the available space in each of your rooms, try and size the furniture as accurately as you can, eg in guest bedroom and bedroom 4 if they are QS beds then they need to be shown around 1500x2000 on your plan, which means the floor space around the beds would be actually less than shown. The same applies to your sitting and dining furniture, get actual sizes if you can. 3. To have more impact I would change out your 1140mm entry door to double doors. 4. If you are planning to locate an outdoor dining setting in the alfresco area, perhaps consider pushing it out a little more to 3500mm deep, so you have room for a 1000mm wide table with chairs at either side and enough room for people to walk behind those chairs. It looks a little tight at present and just increasing by 300mm would help facilitate movement in that space. As I said, they are just my thoughts on your plan but I think you are well on the way. Best of luck moving forward. Re: Feedback on a two-story home design 6Dec 27, 2019 11:46 pm Northern frontages always make it tough to build a comfortable, energy efficient home. Luckily you've got a nice big frontage, making thing easier. Looking at the plan I'm guessing you've had a read through the Your Home website? https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design I don't think you've told us where you're building. So this will be general advice, not knowing what your climate is like. House shape is about right, a rectangle, facing N & S. Overglazed to the S though, especially if those are full length doors to the alfresco. Of course you want that connection to the backyard, it's just that the home will leak quite a lot of heat in winter. So importantly, is that just an archway separating the dining area, from the entrance/hallway? You really want a door, separating the living areas from the rest of the home. You want to be able to heat your living areas, & not lose that heat through your southern glazing, or worse, up your stairs, which act like a chimney. Or even worse, your void, LOTS & LOTS of heat will escape up there! I'm really no fan of voids. They make it extremely difficult to stop the flow of heat. Hard to tell on a phone, but the home lots very large. There also seems to be lots of hallway space. Which some people say it's wasted space. I'm not a fan of large homes. Increases build cost, maintenance costs, heating/cooling costs. Along with the monetary cost of these, there's an increased environmental cost. The guest bedroom could maybe have a southern window, instead of eastern window. Or both, for better cross ventilation. I'm not a fan of Australian style roofs at all. Hip & valley, with lots of little triangles (even worse of they're dark tiles). Very poor roofs for solar PV. I'd rather something which will allow for a substantial solar PV system (at least 6.6kW's) Re: Feedback on a two-story home design 7Dec 27, 2019 11:47 pm Northern frontages always make it tough to build a comfortable, energy efficient home. Luckily you've got a nice big frontage, making thing easier. Looking at the plan I'm guessing you've had a read through the Your Home website? https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design I don't think you've told us where you're building. So this will be general advice, not knowing what your climate is like. House shape is about right, a rectangle, facing N & S. Overglazed to the S though, especially if those are full length doors to the alfresco. Of course you want that connection to the backyard, it's just that the home will leak quite a lot of heat in winter. So importantly, is that just an archway separating the dining area, from the entrance/hallway? You really want a door, separating the living areas from the rest of the home. You want to be able to heat your living areas, & not lose that heat through your southern glazing, or worse, up your stairs, which act like a chimney. Or even worse, your void, LOTS & LOTS of heat will escape up there! I'm really no fan of voids. They make it extremely difficult to stop the flow of heat. Hard to tell on a phone, but the home lots very large. There also seems to be lots of hallway space. Which some people say it's wasted space. I'm not a fan of large homes. Increases build cost, maintenance costs, heating/cooling costs. Along with the monetary cost of these, there's an increased environmental cost. The guest bedroom could maybe have a southern window, instead of eastern window. Or both, for better cross ventilation. I'm not a fan of Australian style roofs at all. Hip & valley, with lots of little triangles (even worse of they're dark tiles). Very poor roofs for solar PV. I'd rather something which will allow for a substantial solar PV system (at least 6.6kW's) Re: Feedback on a two-story home design 9Dec 28, 2019 11:45 am Thanks ddarroch, some really good points. Will definitely incorporate a door to block some of the heat from escaping, as well as repositioning of some of the guest bedroom windows. You've certainly given me food for thought. Thanks again. Re: Feedback on a two-story home design 10Dec 28, 2019 3:18 pm I think it's a great plan, you've done well to capture the north orientation. My 2c: 1) add WIRs between bed 2,3 2) swap bath and shower in ensuite. At the moment there's not enough free space around the freestanding bath. 3) add a store room under the stairs 4) move sink off island bench and under the window. 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