Browse Forums Building A New House 1 May 06, 2020 7:16 pm Re: Master Plans 2May 07, 2020 9:25 am I wish you'd come here earlier in the process. As these are "master plans" how much scope to you have to make changes? Because, I'm sorry to say, that you've got the basics wrong. That is, the orientation of the home Orientation plays a HUGE role in the comfort & energy efficiency of your home. Designing with this in mind is called "passive solar design". This brilliant government website explains it all, https://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design You want living areas to face north. Where they will be light, warmed by sunlight in winter, shaded by appropriate length eaves in summer - this is not a northern alfresco, it's far too large, shading the living area in winter, making it far darker throughout the year. You want to minimise or eliminate western glazing. As the sun is lower in the sky in this direction (& the east), eaves are ineffective when the sun is in the west, which also happens to be the hottest time of the day. You want to locate rarely used rooms to the west. The garage, laundry, bathrooms. You certainly don't want bedrooms with west facing windows, these can get blazing hot in summer evenings! You have the perfect block, a pretty wide southern frontage. People pay a premium for these blocks. But I've got to say, your design totally wastes the opportunity. You want to design a north facing home. Living areas looking into that north facing backyard. These living areas will be light, warm in winter, cool in summer. So I'd start again. If the builders are upset, too bad. They are supposed to be the experts. They should be considering the orientation of the home, unfortunately the poor builders rarely do. They just want to get the house up at quickly as possible. You're the one stick with a dark, cold house. With far higher energy bills, which you'll continue to pay for years & years to come. So I'd start again, building to passive solar principles. At the very least, I'd flip the plan, & move the also away from the north of your living areas. Much better to get more of your living areas facing north though. Re: Master Plans 4May 07, 2020 12:02 pm Kitchen will be always dark and cold and unless you are planning skylights or keeping home theatre doors wide open. BTW, your home theatre is not proportionally huge in comparison to the rest of the rooms, etc. Unless you plan watching movies every day, you might need to revise it probably convert into nice looking Living room, which can be also used as a Home Theatre and swap it with your Bed 1 instead. Family/Meals won't be getting much of the winter sun due to alfresco shading it off, but will be extremely hot on summers due to this huge west facing window of yours. You would rather move this alfresco to the West from Family/Meals. West-facing window from Bedroom 1 to alfresco... Quite controversial, although well shaded. Bed 3 window should be moved to the North too. You generally wouldn't keep internal doors right next to the walls but rather at some offset, as otherwise you will be constantly hitting door handles, especially 720 ones, it is not safe! The rule of the thumb here is that internal doors have to be open at 110 degree angle, not 90 degrees. This is a big show stopper for me when I see this on the plans. Some of your internal doors won't be even able to fit architraves. e.g. Bed 2 and Bed 3. Rookie mistake. IMHO there is not much space between the toilet and the vanity in your Bed 1 ensuite. Also not very safe. I would have probably gone with the corner shower over there to free up some space. Certainly not enough space behind your fridge. How exactly are you planning accessing it? Garage door to pantry - you would want to open it outside the garage, not inside, as otherwise you will be always squeezing there if long vehicle is parked. You would want bath to take full niche spacing instead of being 1525. It is a general mistake to have tiled shelves to the either side of the bath as it means that you will be constantly having water on those tiles and eventually on your floor. But considering your bath is also your shower, may be it will okay just in that particular case. On the other side, 1525 is a small bath and as long as you have space, why not to consider putting a bigger bath there? Sliding robes are never good at 600 mm depth. Due to 100 mm going to the sliding mechanism, you will end up with 500 mm robes instead which are simply not deep enough for your winter clothes as well as for some summer depending the size. Proper sliding robes start from 700 mm, some people push them all the way to 800 mm. Alternatively, consider standard doors instead of sliders. Your bathroom shower is of very weird shape and there is no space for towel rack over there. I would certainly put a big robe into Bed 4 to make it possible to convert it into a proper bedroom when you want it and also move this entry door lower to accommodate for the robe space even if you decide not to have it there yet. Your entry/corridor is a bit narrow and will always stay dark. It shouldn't be a big effort to convert your bathroom into shared ensuite bathroom and then just have a separate guest WC near laundry, as otherwise it is not really convenient for your guests to use facilities this way. As mentioned above, your windows needs to be revised, current sizing is not making any sense at all. Overall impression, your house design has been done by absolute rookie, it will be always better to involve professional experienced building designer or architect. Just my 2 cents. Re: Master Plans 5May 07, 2020 12:50 pm I like your design, I think it is very practical and has a good flow. Just a couple of points / comments... - is your main bathroom to be a wet room? There is no glass or nib wall for the shower on the plan - if you have any capacity to increase the width of your house, I would enlarge the entry hall to 1200 wide if at all possible, it will give it a more open and spacious feel. Also better when bringing in furniture etc to the house. - bedroom 3 I would move the window from the side of the house where the view may be on to a fence, to the back wall, looking on to the garden. This means a bed can be put on the side wall and a chest of drawers with tv above, on the wall opposite. Your window sizes are on the plan. So for example 12-06 in your toilet is actually 1200mm high x 600mm wide. Re: Master Plans 6May 07, 2020 2:19 pm I agree with others, you have not taken advantage of a north facing backyard and as a result will have a very hot house facing west, flip the design, it will make a huge difference. I’m not sure what alexp is going on about...the ensuite is perfectly laid out, why anyone would put a corner shower, when you can have a walk in shower as you have. The main bath is a perfectly normal 3 way design, it seems your shower is just not shown, backing onto the linen. The bathroom location is fine for guests, and there is no need to add an additional bathroom in near the laundry. My pet hate is sliding doors in laundries, have a normal hinged Glass door, still allows light in, but gives you an opportunity to run your bench top all the way to the wall, instead of having the awkward space between the washing machine and sliding door, which becomes a dust trap. Agree having the garage door opening inwards to garage will restrict car access, best to open into pantry Good luck! Re: Master Plans 7May 07, 2020 2:35 pm My comment regarding ensuite is that toilet has limited space to the left and to the right. There is no space even for the toilet roll holder, unless you want to put it directly on the shower screen, but probably I am wrong as it is not easy to measure on top of this drawings. There should be at least 45 cm between toilet central line and the shower wall/vanity, this just needs to be measured and confirmed. Having common ensuite bathroom with 2 doors and separate WC for guests (closer to family/living/alfresco area) is a more robust design, for sure. Re: Master Plans 8May 07, 2020 5:34 pm We’ve lived in many homes with two bathrooms and our guests manage ok, walking a few extra metres. When every cm2=$$$ then you need to decide where to spend the money, The ensuite is 3390 wide, take 900 for the shower, add a 900 or 1200 vanity theres still plenty of room for the toilet, you can attach the toilet roll holder on the vanity(which is standard placement for this design). I’m not sure why you think its not safe? I’d prefer my guests walk an additional few metres than share my ensuite! Also in regards to doors that open 90 degrees, again most plans have this, (Understand that you dont like it) I’m not sure why you would say its not safe, you put a door stop on and its ok, I’m a paediatric trauma nurse, i don't think anyone has ever injured themselves opening a door at 90 degrees, saying its not safe, is irresponsible. Re: Master Plans 9May 07, 2020 5:56 pm I would like to support my claim that having a narrow (720 mm) door which is not opening to 110 degrees is a safety hazard, you will be constantly hitting door handles with your body every time you try to squeeze through the door when carrying something in your both hands (which will be common for doors leading out of the garage or into the laundry, pantry, etc.). Kids running around and potentially hitting the door handles with their heads is also not a good thing. With regards to ensuite space - 2310 mm - 520 mm for the toilet - 60 mm for gyprock+tiles - 1500 mm (minimum) for the vanity = 230 mm, so only around 380 mm from the center of the toilet. Quite tight, I would say. Having slightly shorter vanity (e.g. 1200 vs 1500 mm) is also a good option, though. Re: Master Plans 10May 07, 2020 6:29 pm So, I don't mind the plan. I would extend bath to 1800 though, you have enough space to do so. Fundamentally the plans ok, in terms of addressing orientation, you could consider flipping the design entirely. So gge is on the left. Then move alfresco to off bed 3/living area. For me, I prefer lots of storage and this plan is lacking for me in that aspect. Also, Id put hws on gge side. And make doors to media cavity sliders or barn style sliders so they dont take up space. Also, where will things like the rubbish bin and vaccum cleaner be stored? Re: Master Plans 11May 07, 2020 6:33 pm Hi everyone, Wow thankyou all so much for this information. As you can tell we are absolute rookies at this so all your comments are appreciated. In regards to switching the house around this was something that was not possible as the garage had to be on that side. We are considering about moving the alfresco area to the right side of the house so that more light would be able to come in? As for the doors this is not something that we even really thought about to be honest, but something we will consider! We are definitely second guessing our house design and give it some serious consideration. Thanks again for all your help and information everyone! Re: Master Plans 12May 07, 2020 6:37 pm Consider moving alfresco to the left (west), you have nice sweet spot for it in front of your bedroom 3. It will be also providing additional shading for your family/dining windows during afternoons, this will be a very wise decision. Re: Master Plans 13May 07, 2020 6:59 pm Yep we are definitely considering doing that, we are bit annoyed that we didn’t consider these things in the first place. And we also just noticed in the main bathroom they didn’t even put the shower in!! Can’t believe we missed that 🤦♀️🤦♀️ Re: Master Plans 14May 07, 2020 8:22 pm West windows are a particularly bad idea in bedrooms, so as alexp79 said, move the window in bed 3 to the north. Once you've moved the alfresco (definitely a good idea), I'd also be removing the western window from the master bed. Possibly add one to the east, to aid cross-ventilation in the master. But you'd have to consider privacy when thinking of where to add the window, & what size it should be. Re: Master Plans 15May 10, 2020 5:49 pm Hi Everyone, Justin here, partner of StephMarie Thank you all for your feedback, we are taking your suggestions on board. Here is the link to the base plan we want to build from the builder https://hickinbotham.com.au/home-designs/courtyard/marseille-alfresco/ The changes to suit our personal preferences were
Some financial information in regards to the build is as follows
The Median house price for the area is $450,000 The land its self is 40km north of Adelaide in a master planned community. While there is some scope in our budget for improvements we cannot overcapitalize so some adjustments that would make sense for a house 2km from Melbourne might not make sense here. The biggest takeaway we have received from all of your advice is to make use of the land features is orientation of the house. We want to make the best use of this and allow as much natural light to come through from the north as possible. Here is what we are thinking
There we some suggestions that we flip the whole house design but unfortunately there is an encumbrance that the garage must be on the eastern side. There was a suggestion that our robes should be made deeper. Our current robes are on a two track sliding door system with 550m of depth and are the largest we have ever had. In regards to the doors on bedrooms 2 & 3 not opening far enough I don't think we have any scope to make changes, encumbrances deny us from making the house any wider. The fridge cavity is actually deeper than we currently have. We are looking forward to your feedback on these changes. Thanks Justin Re: Master Plans 16May 10, 2020 6:17 pm Hi - we built with Statesman Homes, part of the Hickinbotham Group - and were very happy with the quality of work on our house. There were a few issues along the way but we got on to those asap and they were subsequently addressed. A couple of comments re natural lighting, have a look at as many display homes as possible to get ideas on the style and size of windows to maximise light in your house. IMO and if not looking on to a nice view, highlight windows are great as they allow flexibility on furniture placement within a room but still let in a lot of light, we have 3000mmx900mm windows in our smaller bedrooms and they work perfectly. Get glass panels in your front door otherwise the entry hall will be dark, and consider a skylight for the hallway to bedrooms 2 and 3 or next to the vanity area, otherwise this space will be in darkness all the time. Consider the type of window you want for the front of your house, you need to maximise the kerb appeal. If you have any questions about building with Hickinbotham just pm me. Good luck. Re: Master Plans 17May 11, 2020 4:57 pm Hi Bebbsy, Thank you for your reply and advice. We are fortunate that the back and front have niece views but will consider high light windows in bedroom 2 & 3, I just want to be careful as they will be facing west that the rooms don't become too hot. Yep glass in the front door is a good idea and the addition of skylights. To be honest we didn't really consider window sizing at the front as we spent more time considering bricks and render, we will reassess the window design. Thanks again Re: Master Plans 18May 11, 2020 6:23 pm Justin5118 Hi Bebbsy, Thank you for your reply and advice. We are fortunate that the back and front have niece views but will consider high light windows in bedroom 2 & 3, I just want to be careful as they will be facing west that the rooms don't become too hot. Yep glass in the front door is a good idea and the addition of skylights. To be honest we didn't really consider window sizing at the front as we spent more time considering bricks and render, we will reassess the window design. Thanks again We tinted our west facing windows and it makes a big difference for minimal outlay Re: Master Plans 19May 11, 2020 11:53 pm alymei Justin5118 Hi Bebbsy, Thank you for your reply and advice. We are fortunate that the back and front have niece views but will consider high light windows in bedroom 2 & 3, I just want to be careful as they will be facing west that the rooms don't become too hot. Yep glass in the front door is a good idea and the addition of skylights. To be honest we didn't really consider window sizing at the front as we spent more time considering bricks and render, we will reassess the window design. Thanks again We tinted our west facing windows and it makes a big difference for minimal outlay Hi alymei Thanks for the tinting idea! Does the tint still allow for light to come through while blocking the suns heat out? Re: Master Plans 20May 12, 2020 4:01 am Justin5118 alymei Justin5118 Hi Bebbsy, Thank you for your reply and advice. We are fortunate that the back and front have niece views but will consider high light windows in bedroom 2 & 3, I just want to be careful as they will be facing west that the rooms don't become too hot. Yep glass in the front door is a good idea and the addition of skylights. To be honest we didn't really consider window sizing at the front as we spent more time considering bricks and render, we will reassess the window design. Thanks again We tinted our west facing windows and it makes a big difference for minimal outlay Hi alymei Thanks for the tinting idea! Does the tint still allow for light to come through while blocking the suns heat out? Yes, Ill try to remember to take a photo this afternoon for you Thank you so much. This has been very helpful. We definitely wish to settle and get these people out of our life. They are trying to charge us interest on late… 7 14187 From the information posted it looks to me your rumpus room is nothing more than extended garage. That will present a number of challenges. Single brick wall between… 2 7739 6 11528 |