Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Lifesize Plans - Anyone used them? 2Aug 03, 2018 6:43 am Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Lifesize Plans - Anyone used them? 10Aug 05, 2018 8:47 am Hi cooky If you are on a tight budget, steer well clear of gimmicks and expensive design services that work on high commissions, Here in WA it is illegal not to disclose hidden commissions If you have a sketch start breaking it down , in order to optimise the engineering, Construction , material, quoting,etc Forewarned is Forearmed Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Lifesize Plans - Anyone used them? 11Aug 05, 2018 2:05 pm And talk about serendipity...SMH and Cenrelink+parents'stuff.... https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-a ... 4zv1g.html Re: Lifesize Plans - Anyone used them? 12Aug 05, 2018 10:52 pm kks Hi Cooky, glad you have seen that liveable housing resource. What we found interesting - planning a home for our later, creaky, years - was that the approaches and inclusions recommended in that document invariably led to a better house overall. Simple ideas like space around the wc, slightly wider corridors/doors, and noggins in the wall for future grab rails are no-brainers for a better living environment. The Poms are doing a lot of work in this area and they got me thinking about car-parking arrangements, too. This is a useful link to the UK initiatives: http://www.lifetimehomes.org.uk/index.php One of the significant shifts in home technology of late is the vast drop in the cost of including a home lift in a build. Really changes the way a house can be be designed for those with challenged movement and so much more attractive than stair-lifts. (Although the stair-lift does have a role to play.) A reality that must be faced in designing a home for an additional three folk of the previous generation has to involve both their living/social space and you, your partner, and kids' space. How are you and your designer tackling this parameter? I guess all here are going to be fascinated by the way your project develops. It's one that is acknowledging the sort of challenge that many caring families are shaping up to in today's Australia. Hi kks, thanks for your thoughtful reply. I will look into the car parking too. I honestly didn't think much of that at all. In terms of managing living spaces, there's a rumpus room upstairs that the kids can enjoy and downstairs there are 2 living areas. One is a small one at the entrance, which my FIL will use and the larger family area will be used by my parents and FIL too if he wishes! They will each have tvs in their room so theres that option too. My main focus, I guess is ensuring that they feel comfortable anywhere in the house. We sold our home not long ago and live with my parents in their home now. It's average size and has 2 living spaces, but we find ourselves watching tv together after dinner and then pretty much all heading to bed. We also have a large alfresco area where we mostly entertain our friends and family, so for my parents thats not a huge change to how they socialise. We will have soundtek gyprock and noise cancelling insulation in their rooms too, so if our friends stay over a bit longer, they should be able to sleep with minimum disruption. In terms of my FIL, he is in his 70s and has sadly already said goodbye to many of his close friends either through their passing or through moving. He has 5 close friends remaining through church that he visits at a local cafe twice a week and he is happy with that. Anything more seems to exhaust him so I dont anticipate him wanting friends over, but he is of course welcome to at anytime. The home will be as much theirs as it is ours. That's important to me. I would hate walking into a home and feeling displaced and thats the last thing i want for them. Other things we've considered is shower access, size, shower seating (future need), accessibility around the house to bathrooms, type of joinery (my mum has severe athritis and sometimes cant pull drawers) and were also putting in a heated pool with built in jets for their exercise. There's been so much to consider and so much im sure ive missed, but at this stage if i can get the overall flow and sizing right, the rest will follow Re: Lifesize Plans - Anyone used them? 13Aug 05, 2018 10:55 pm kjane Agree with everything you have said kks. I also like that building accessible homes now doesn't mean that your home looks purpose built for accessibility, when care and thought is put into the design stage. I would be very keen to see your plans in the future and all the best with the process. Thanks kjane i will happily share as im keen to get opinions! Its so easy to miss things. Hopefully if we do this right, it will suit my husband and i into our old age also. Re: Lifesize Plans - Anyone used them? 14Aug 05, 2018 11:05 pm StructuralBIMGuy Hi cooky If you are on a tight budget, steer well clear of gimmicks and expensive design services that work on high commissions, Here in WA it is illegal not to disclose hidden commissions If you have a sketch start breaking it down , in order to optimise the engineering, Construction , material, quoting,etc Forewarned is Forearmed Hi StructuralBIMGuy thanks for the advice. This is I guess why I was hoping to have gotten some feedback on this company specifically. They dont provide a design service so to speak. You pay $1050 and have about 1.5 hours to actually walk through your floor plan and have the changes you need recorded by their in house Architect. The floorplan is 'printed' on the floor of large warehouse as if it was 'lifesize'. They have foam walls you can move around and furniture in place to give you an idea of how wide/big, small etc the spaces are, whether you want to move walls and which way doors turn, determining if staircases are wide enough and things like that. For us, taking a wheelchair through the house is one exercise we'd like to do. We are not going with a project builder, so everything we're doing is an independent decision and a big on at that. Our budget is around 500k, so 1k of that to really get an idea of the space, understand what we want and make changes before we go to the final stage doesn't seem like a huge expense. Re: Lifesize Plans - Anyone used them? 15Aug 06, 2018 7:48 am Cooky thanks for the info/reply Your budget sounds tight I am a little sceptical as Architects offer mock ups on high end projects and I doubt your builder employs an architect? (you might want to check that). In regards to lifts, sure everyone says they have come down in price, Installed the prices are still very high. OT I am about to build 4 units/townhouses in Perth for elderly/special needs family & friends, My costs are running at $1500/m2 Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Re: Lifesize Plans - Anyone used them? 16Aug 06, 2018 9:06 am StructuralBIMGuy @Cooky thanks for the info/reply Your budget sounds tight I am a little sceptical as Architects offer mock ups on high end projects and I doubt your builder employs an architect? (you might want to check that). In regards to lifts, sure everyone says they have come down in price, Installed the prices are still very high. OT I am about to build 4 units/townhouses in Perth for elderly/special needs family & friends, My costs are running at $1500/m2 StructuralBIMGuy, thanks again for your insight. $1500/m2 is about what project builders charge in NSW too, but this varies based on the size of the builder. Small, local builders are a different thing though. Out builder is not even decided yet. We approached a large number of project builders such as Masterton/Clarendon etc but found them simply ripping us off before the build even started. I have built and renovated before with a local builder and my costs were significantly less than going with a project builder based on tender comparisons and eventual costs. The obvious downside is I do have to do a lot of sourcing myself and product selection isnt in one nice showroom, but I am 100% okay with that. Presently, we are working with our Architect who is independent and not affiliated with any builder. We'll then approach the local builders I have ready to quote us to move forward to the next stage. The big project builders quoted us roughly between 500 to 550k on our build with all high end inclusions and slight modifications, so I aim for lower with a small local builder. We have a contigency of about $100k also, do you think that's enough? Or am I kidding myself? Re: Lifesize Plans - Anyone used them? 17Aug 07, 2018 7:54 am Cooky My costs of $1500/m2 are for 4 x 2 bedroom 2S Units, includes 8 half bathrooms and 4 kitchens. I have a contingency of 10% for upgrades and have preliminary design, engineering & Construction Data & Costs figured. Building costs in Perth haven't been this low in a decade, eg Labour & Material for 2c bricks $1.80 Subsequently, Builders do not put down the prices of new builds, when things slow, they keep the prices inflated and increase the so called give away's..but in reality they aren't giving anything away.If your designer/Architect is using Building Information (BIM) I suggest you start pricing things up for yourself, don't mention the $100k Contingency, get them to sharpen their quoting pencil or crayon, while you use BIM (Data, Augmented & Virtual Reality for visualisation) & Google+ sheets for pricing & Analysis. Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs wondering anyone built with omaxe homes and care to share their experiences. thanks 0 13789 As title suggests, looking at using the interlocking Pentablock stacked stone products to replace failing timber retaining… 0 17845 Hi everyone. I am a single mother with little daughter, living in a small tourist town in WA Australia. I am thinking to install security screens to all the doors and… 0 22503 |