Browse Forums Renovation + Home Improvement 1 Aug 27, 2014 7:59 pm Hi Guys, Love the forum! So much great advice. We are planning our first house renovation project (beyond some basic renovation projects in the past). We've purchased a post war home with hardwood weatherboard outside and mostly fibro/ply inside. The home is high set (mostly storage space and one garage underneath) with the land sloping up slightly from the front of the home to the back. We'd like to convert and extend the current home (very rough layout below!) from a 2 bed 1 bath 1 garage to a 3 bed 2 bath 2 carport at the front. We are working on a few ideas, though would love your experienced thoughts on the current layout and what we could do. Overall themes, convert into a lifestyle based open living and entertaining home whilst having extra room for future kids. Our initial ideas: - Remove all fibro/ply inside and replace walls with gyprock, using the opportunity to move any walls, add powerpoints, insultation, etc into walls - Convert Sunroom off main bedroom into an ensuite and smallish WIR with one side of cupboards floor to ceiling, replacing the doors to the second bedroom with a wall - Extend the main bathroom out slightly and/or back with an extension - Move the kitchen to the far right back side of the house to open up the middle for living and dining as an open plan area - Convert some of the empty space on the right side of the house beside the kitchen to a third bedroom/study - Demolish the outdoor toilet, extended kitchen area and replace with a house wide extension to expand the kitchen, bathroom and perhaps a laundry on the left hand side near the bathroom. - Subsequently adding a deck beyond the house extension with bi-fold doors in the middle from the living area and half bi-fold on the right side of the kitchen above the benches - Potentially extend a small deck on the front right hand side of the house - Add a double carport to the front of the home Appreciate your thoughts, as we want to make sure we canvas and challenge ourselves on many potential options prior to proceeding to drafting stage. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Josh Re: Advice Sought - House Renovation Layout 2Sep 03, 2014 3:06 am Hi Josh, where is north on your plan? Some elevation sketches would help too for comments. Your lat/ long or general location would also help. Initial observations are you remain with very tight spaces. Presumably you have an older style building with load bearing walls. do you know which ones are load bearing? Also, what are your ceiling heights and roof type. Would be happy to comment further, with a little more info from you. Re: Advice Sought - House Renovation Layout 3Sep 03, 2014 10:44 am Whatever you do I think it's going to involve knocking down a few internal walls. Having the living space in the middle of the room doesn't look ideal. I would keep the main bedroom and convert the sun room into an ensuite + wardrobe. The rest I would scrap and re-layout. All depends on your budget. Re: Advice Sought - House Renovation Layout 4Sep 03, 2014 3:53 pm I'm sure it will! But, better to know which are load bearing to start. As it is post war, it of course won't be a truss roof. What is on top now - tin or tiles? Assume it is a 30-35 degree pitch roof - with some cut ins. Load bearing changes can be a real pain (and expense!) depending on how far you go with wall removal or simply putting a support beam under. Not sure what you budget is going to be, whether you will owner build and how much moving of walls etc. you can afford. Its great fun renovating, but VERY easy to blow budgets. I've done three major renovations as owner builder and first rule is to know your budget before developing ideas. Sure this is suck eggs to you, but it is always where folks get into problems - and some of those become life consuming monsters! In reality, it is often cheaper to demolish and rebuild - but what's the fun of that!!! I've just finished designing my son's house in a country/ Hamptons style (using Revit) and would be happy to throw some ideas around for you. I've previously done art deco as well as minimalist designs for my renovations. The more you can tell me about existing (PM if you like for privacy), the more I can provide ideas that might be cost effective. The existing house info (plan as you have with dimensions, elevations, height above ground, topo info.....as well as boundary positions to left and right. Orientation to north helps figure out sun positions etc. Latitude/ ht above sea helps think of winters/ summers. I'm sure you know all this, but if you'd like realistic ideas it would be helpful. And then, when you get to detail, what sort of style are you trying to implement - country, post war....... Regards, Russ Re: Advice Sought - House Renovation Layout 5Oct 27, 2014 9:36 am Hi Clee What area are you in? I know there are lot of design & build extension/renovation companies around now that can provide you with a turn key type solution. The advantage with this is that you will get a fixed price right from then beginning (no nasty surprises) and because the builder is trying to win the build component, the designs will have to be spot on, meet the brief, and be offered to you a significantly reduced cost. There are a couple of really good ones here in Melbourne. PM if you'd like some references. Most of them are happy to come out to your home and give you some ideas before providing you with a concept drawing and fixed price. Good luck. Hi, We're building a double-storey in Perth and I'm undecided with the kitchen sink situation. I'm set on having the main sink with dishwasher in the scullery - and… 0 20893 Thanks for the suggestion. The space between shower and sinks was too tight. I agree about the toilet location. So I have tried two other options: The lower one is… 3 6128 Possibly both depending on the sizing. 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