Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Jul 04, 2017 12:36 pm Hi everyone, My partner and I are in the early stages of planning to build a new house, we are working with a builder and draftsman to custom design our house. Attached is the 3rd revision. We will be building in an established north-eastern suburb of Melbourne. Our block is quite big, so we have decided to go out rather than up, the block also has an incline from front to back. Appreciate if anyone can provide some feedback whether positive or negative on what we have come up with so far?. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: New house floor plan advice please. 2Jul 04, 2017 12:52 pm Looks absolutely amazing. The only thing is that the orientation of the block doesn't appear to have been factored in? I'd be concerned about the amount of light you will get in your main living areas, given they face east. You will see the sunrise then it will disappear above the house. I'd definitely be making all your northern windows as big as possible and try to reconfigure the back so that your alfresco gets some northern light , and perhaps put in some sky lights. I'd also shrink your western facing front windows, perhaps putting in 2 skinny ones instead of one big one otherwise those rooms will get very hot in summer afternoons. Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Re: New house floor plan advice please. 5Jul 04, 2017 1:08 pm Hi MandM+4, Thanks for your awesome feedback so far, the amount of light in the living room was also a concern of ours, we do need to try and get some light into the alfresco also. The 'stairs' is the stair case into the basement. What is your opinion of the room sizes? Re: New house floor plan advice please. 6Jul 04, 2017 1:11 pm Looks great. My only thoughts are... - the positioning of the wir at the entrance in bed 2 could make getting furniture in there a bit tricky (getting around the two corners). - have you thought about your dining table placement in relationship to the jutting out corner from the alfresco? Where I'm imagining your table would have the corner jutting into the centre of it potentially limiting that space. Maybe move it closer to your kitchen bench? -you're ensuite shower is huge! 3.2m is enough for 2 double showers! Obviously it's personal so if that's what you want go for it, but alternatively you could use some of that space for storage either accessed from the ensuite (for your own towels/sheets) or from the hallway... Or both! One can never have too much storage space IMO Re: New house floor plan advice please. 7Jul 04, 2017 1:20 pm Thanks nennles, thanks for your thoughts. - we hadn't thought about getting furniture in there, thats a really good point thanks! - since we have received this latest revision, we have decided to make that wall straight (i.e. no jutting). - agree ensuite shower is very big, we may need to adjust the size to accommodate some more storage space. Re: New house floor plan advice please. 8Jul 04, 2017 1:24 pm Peter83 Hi MandM+4, Thanks for your awesome feedback so far, the amount of light in the living room was also a concern of ours, we do need to try and get some light into the alfresco also. The 'stairs' is the stair case into the basement. What is your opinion of the room sizes? Massive! Beds 2/3/4 are pretty normal sizing, every other room is very big! But they all look furnishable so why not I say I'd put a bath in the ensuite though, for me it's a must have Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes New house floor plan advice please. 9Jul 04, 2017 1:32 pm If you did a roof like this you could have windows under the higher skillion roof, would let northern light in the kitchen and alfresco Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Re: New house floor plan advice please. 10Jul 04, 2017 1:35 pm Peter83 Hi everyone, My partner and I are in the early stages of planning to build a new house, we are working with a builder and draftsman to custom design our house. Attached is the 3rd revision. We will be building in an established north-eastern suburb of Melbourne. Our block is quite big, so we have decided to go out rather than up, the block also has an incline from front to back. Appreciate if anyone can provide some feedback whether positive or negative on what we have come up with so far?. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Absolutely love the floor plan and the size of your robes / storage areas! Awesome! Re: New house floor plan advice please. 11Jul 04, 2017 1:48 pm MandM+4, I really like the idea of those windows, so best placement would be for those windows to be on the northern side of the house. Think that would solve the problem of getting light into the kitchen. Re: New house floor plan advice please. 13Jul 04, 2017 1:51 pm My main concerns would be: It is always a preference for me to have a toilet on an external wall if at all possible for natural ventilation - if it were my plan I'd move the ensuite toilet to against the external wall and have more of a straight line flow from the bedroom into the WIR. We have two 1800mm x 900mm showers in our current rental and IMO they are too big. More space to have to clean and it doesn't really serve a purpose to me. 3000mm is the width of a minor bedroom. You could fit a bath and a shower in that space. Ultimately it's up to you and your likes/dislikes. The powder room door is almost straight off your living area - I'd move the door between the powder and stairs to be at the end of the corridor wall, before the powder room - then it shuts off the powder, stairs and laundry. 2000mm entry corridor is very wide. Most standard entry hallways tend to be approx 1200mm wide. Make sure you will be happy with that width and it wouldn't be more useful in the bedrooms etc. Lastly, having had sliding doors in the living room of our last house, and again in the rental we have now, I have decided I don't like them as it limits where you can place furniture because you need to maintain access to the doors (or just not use those doors). My preference is to have them in the meals area as the furniture generally is kept to the centre of the room, and access isn't an issue. Just think about where you would orient the furniture in your living area (TV, couches, coffee table, etc), how big they will be, and how you would access the backyard. If it were me, I'd move them towards the kitchen so the opening is basically opposite the corridor doors, and have windows in the living areas (one big picture window looking out to the pool would be awesome). Having said that, your living room is huge so maybe not so much of a problem. It's all a matter of taste really and everyone will have different opinions and needs/wants. Second Time 'Round Re: New house floor plan advice please. 14Jul 04, 2017 2:06 pm Thanks First_Timer_Ray. I like that advice about the ensuite toilet for ventilation. Agree the shower is too big. Had though about making the corridor width around 1800mm, adding that space to the bedrooms. Also after we received this latest plan revision, we have decided to remove the sliding door in the family room and just have it as a window overlooking the pool. Some awesome feedback there! thanks. Re: New house floor plan advice please. 15Jul 04, 2017 3:48 pm Looks amazing! The thing that would worry me is the unusable space in your ensuite/WIR that's used as corridor, but I can't think of a way to improve it. Love the suggestion of skillion windows. Good luck! Re: New house floor plan advice please. 17Jul 04, 2017 4:27 pm If you're going to switch the sliding door in the family room to a fixed picture window, you could make W10 and 11 louvre windows and put the pool close to the house. You will spend more money on piering but less on fencing... Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Building Monte Carlo 40- Wisdom homes Re: New house floor plan advice please. 18Jul 04, 2017 4:37 pm Here is what I have spotted: - consider removing west facing windows for the master bedroom and lounge, move master bedroom's window to the south and lounge's window to the north. Western windows will be a real problem in the summer time. - make sure you introduce long eaves or awnings for your north facing windows (shading will be needed during summers). Alternatively, you can achieve shading with the trees. - consider reducing eastern glazing for the family and kitchen areas and increasing northern glazing instead; - consider moving your alfresco to the family area instead (so it gets a bit more of northern sun during winter); Just my 2 cents. Re: New house floor plan advice please. 19Jul 04, 2017 4:46 pm Thanks Alexp79, The west facing side is the facade, so not sure how it would look if we removed both windows. Currently we have planned to have 450mm eaves, should it be wider than this? Id prefer to remove the north facing windows in the family room so they dont interfere with watching tv. Re: New house floor plan advice please. 20Jul 04, 2017 4:53 pm With regards to the facade, consider reducing them to the minimum size (e.g. making them narrower) as well as tint them up and install Low E glazing. Invest heavily into western side wall insulation, too. I would invest into shutters/blinds to cover TV watching and I assume you would be mainly watching TVs in the evenings, anyway. Passive solar heating will create a huge difference during the cold months, on the other side, though. With regards to the eaves, the perfect size needs to be calculated based on the window height and positioning, but I do believe you would be much better off with much wider eaves (900 mm or even 1200 mm). See details here: http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/shading 6 57369 isn't a garage level with the rest of the house a given? pretty sure they 'came around' long time ago. if you have a flat block, the garage is usually level with the rest… 1 18304 Hi, Seeking volume or semi-custom builder in victoria(east), which have existing double story wide floor plans. Seeking 18-20m wide homes with depth of 12-15m long. Or… 0 26276 |