Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 5Sep 26, 2018 3:54 pm I’m no expert but wouldn’t it be best to make the most of the northerly aspect and have the living/dining facing north? Also to utilise the mud more effectively, would it be better to have that adjacent to garage and then enter via garage rather than through main foyer? I see a mud room as somewhere that things can be dropped easily, my family would leave everything in the foyer! Is the dining wide enough for a table with the nib wall? What is the purpose of the small nib wall between living and dining? I’d worry it would reduce circulation space around the table and the person sitting at the end would always be bumped. IM planning a kitchen layout very similar to yours, so would love to see the end result! Maybe swap the bath and vanity in ensuite, so the bath gets a window view? I’d put a door on end of linen cupboard and have it as a WIL, otherwise I think you’ll find the individual doors to be in the way. Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 6Sep 26, 2018 4:21 pm Hillsbuilds Did the architect say why he/she faced the utilities (garage, laundry, bathrooms, WIR) to the north? Usually living areas face this way to maximise energy efficiency. It’s very unusual, especially in an architect designed house. Our block is a corner block, so the north facing side of the house will be our neighbours who is on a zero line boundary. Initially, our architect had the living/dining space facing the north, but it resulted in having a smaller kitchen and overall family area. I do a lot of cooking and have a cake business on the side, so a spacious kitchen was absolutely crucial to me. Another factor is I want to be able to be in the kitchen and still see my kids in the backyard/pool. This layout allows my husband and I to do that whether we're in the kitchen or in the living space. As it's a corner block, the garage has to be on the left side. Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 7Sep 26, 2018 4:31 pm gogo65 I’m no expert but wouldn’t it be best to make the most of the northerly aspect and have the living/dining facing north? Also to utilise the mud more effectively, would it be better to have that adjacent to garage and then enter via garage rather than through main foyer? I see a mud room as somewhere that things can be dropped easily, my family would leave everything in the foyer! Is the dining wide enough for a table with the nib wall? What is the purpose of the small nib wall between living and dining? I’d worry it would reduce circulation space around the table and the person sitting at the end would always be bumped. IM planning a kitchen layout very similar to yours, so would love to see the end result! Maybe swap the bath and vanity in ensuite, so the bath gets a window view? I’d put a door on end of linen cupboard and have it as a WIL, otherwise I think you’ll find the individual doors to be in the way. Yeah, the Architect originally had the living/dining facing north but I requested it changed (some reasons in post above) Regarding your comment about the mud area - you're right, it would be more practical to do it that way, but I am super particular about having a large laundry as for whatever reason we always need more and more space. We originally had the garage door through the laundry/mud area but it meant I lost space in the laundry and was willing to walk that extra bit. My kids are pretty good with putting things back in the right space, but now that you've brought it up again, I am going to revisit this cause whilst my kids might be good with organisation...my husband is not! There will be custom built in cabintery/fire place from the side to where the nib wall sits. It's not drawn in, but that's it's purpose. The dining space is 4.5m x 3m. There are large skylights above the double showers and stair well so I think we well get some good lighting in those spots. The bathrooms upstairs face by neighbours, so if they build double storey homes, there may not be that much light coming through anyway. We left the upstairs linen cupboard as separate doors as there's window down the hallway, which lets light into the space between the bathroom and back bedrooms. Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 8Sep 26, 2018 4:51 pm Ah, I see. I second having the garage door into the mud room/laundry as well rather than the hallway. It just seems more practical! We have a similar set up in our design, also with a laundry chute - I am ridiculously excited about our laundry chute . Is there a bathroom next to the laundry that only has access from the garden? Is that for a pool? Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 9Sep 26, 2018 5:14 pm Could you move the Shute adjacent to the stairs,then put the door from garage into laundry where laundry Shute is. Having the current garage door opening inwards, may cause issues, it doesn’t appear that the garage is very wide, so with two cars it may be difficult. These are all just suggestions , that may or may not work. I put my plans up on Houzz, got some pretty direct comments about how things weren’t working etc but from there i was able to look at the plans objectively and see how to make them better and suit our lifestyle. We are in the process of draft number 3 now, hoping we are getting closer to the finish line! Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 10Sep 26, 2018 6:06 pm Hillsbuilds Ah, I see. I second having the garage door into the mud room/laundry as well rather than the hallway. It just seems more practical! We have a similar set up in our design, also with a laundry chute - I am ridiculously excited about our laundry chute . Is there a bathroom next to the laundry that only has access from the garden? Is that for a pool? Thank you! I'm looking at it now to see how I can re-work this and still be happy with space. Admittedly, it is a big laundry. I just do so much of it that I wanted a nice space for it! In our old home, our laundry chute was the void above the stairs so I totally understand the excitement! And yep, there's a bathroom with access only from the outside for when we have a pool and/or are entertaining family outdoors. We were going to have a pool put in with the build but it would cost too much right now. Our old house, we had to walk through the laundry, part of the hallway before getting to the bathroom, so I'd like to avoid that. Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 11Sep 26, 2018 6:35 pm gogo65 Could you move the Shute adjacent to the stairs,then put the door from garage into laundry where laundry Shute is. Having the current garage door opening inwards, may cause issues, it doesn’t appear that the garage is very wide, so with two cars it may be difficult. These are all just suggestions , that may or may not work. I put my plans up on Houzz, got some pretty direct comments about how things weren’t working etc but from there i was able to look at the plans objectively and see how to make them better and suit our lifestyle. We are in the process of draft number 3 now, hoping we are getting closer to the finish line! I'm looking now at where I can move it. Ideally, its be best next to the washer, so I will try to work that. Thank you for the suggestions! What sort of feedback did you get on Houzz? Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 12Sep 26, 2018 9:08 pm Things like the designer was trying to make traditional house contemporary. That the design was boring (we are building on acreage and want a contemporary acreage home) Telling us we needed another bedroom. Questioning our budget Asking why we needed so many car spaces etc I did get some great feedback from some though, so you just have to sift through the good the bad etc Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 15Sep 27, 2018 2:37 am My 2 cents: GROUND FLOOR: 1) I don't get an idea of a mud room in the laundry and I would also add a backdoor from your laundry, it is a common practice and you don't seem to have a backdoor at all at the moment. 2) This powder room seems disconnected - wastage of useful space which can be used for more fun such as a sauna, wine cellar, extra storage or even a small media room. If you require a shower for the outside, just put an outside shower. 3) Balcony and patio column at the garage entrance/exit are asking for trouble. It won't be easy to manouver in or out of your garage without hitting them. Consider cantilevering your balcony if possible. 4) WC near the kitchen is wasting useful space with this outside vanity. Also, not very hygienic - people will be opening up the door with the "dirty" hands. 5) I don't get an idea of this living room with a deck near the entrance. It seems to be a bit disconnected from the rest of the house. A good place for a media room though, but in this case deck and outside door won't be needed there. Two entrance doors one next to each other look a bit weird, too. FIRST FLOOR: 1) Do you have any idea how are you planning to position beds in your Bedroom 2, 3 as well as Guest Bedroom downstairs? Under the windows? Not the best idea. Facing the doors. Not good. Facing vanity wall? Bad idea. 2) East facing windows in Bedroom 2 and 3? I would go for Northern and Southern instead and this will also automatically resolve the bed facing problem. 3) You better go for a slide with those linen doors. Will be extremely hard to use them. Also, the gargantuan proportions of your laundry, WIR, linen, WIRs imply that shopping for clothes and then laundering is likely to become a full time job in that house . How many people will be living in the house exactly? 4) Double showers/double vanities look nice and cool, but extremely rarely used as such. Hope it helps one way or another. Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 16Sep 27, 2018 12:21 pm gogo65 Could you move the Shute adjacent to the stairs,then put the door from garage into laundry where laundry Shute is. Having the current garage door opening inwards, may cause issues, it doesn’t appear that the garage is very wide, so with two cars it may be difficult. These are all just suggestions , that may or may not work. I put my plans up on Houzz, got some pretty direct comments about how things weren’t working etc but from there i was able to look at the plans objectively and see how to make them better and suit our lifestyle. We are in the process of draft number 3 now, hoping we are getting closer to the finish line! Hey gogo65 how big is your garage? Mine is 6m wide by 5.8m long, we were able to fit our Mazda CX-9 and a Honda Civic in nicely, with enough space for some storage and our stand up freezer - this is all stuff we tested at Lifesize Plans. I agree with the door opening inwards though, so may have it open into the laundry if that's what we decide. Thank you so much for your tips! Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 17Sep 27, 2018 12:47 pm Hi alexp79 Thanks for such detailed feedback - really appreciate it! My responses are below: GROUND FLOOR: 1) I don't get an idea of a mud room in the laundry and I would also add a backdoor from your laundry, it is a common practice and you don't seem to have a backdoor at all at the moment. We decided to omit the laundry door as personally we never used ours in any of our homes, except for when the pool was in use as using the laundry was the easiest way to get to the bathroom. We opted for a large gas strut window with exhaust fans in the laundry to combat the moisture build up and as we use our washer/dryer most of the time we personally dont see the need for it. I understand it may be important for re-sell value, but there are a few homes in my area that have removed the external laundry door and it's not been a deal breaker during their sales. In terms of the mud room, I didn't want a huge space dedicated to a drop off zone so opted to put it in there. Originally the garage door was through the laundry. 2) This powder room seems disconnected - wastage of useful space which can be used for more fun such as a sauna, wine cellar, extra storage or even a small media room. If you require a shower for the outside, just put an outside shower. We originally had a much smaller bathroom right by the pool, but had to change that due to guidelines. Most of our family/friends that use pools opt to have a full shower/change of clothes after they're done. They don't go and sunbathe and dry out in the sun, so if I didn't have a full bathroom available somewhere from the back, they'd be walking through the house and wetting the floors etc. We personally don't drink so a cellar isn't something that we considered but I did mention it as a space for my husbands tools but he prefers them in the garage. We don't do any gardening ourselves, so don't own a lawn mower etc. this is mainly because my husband refuses to mow our lawns so lets them get overgrown. I have a back condition so our only choice is to leave the gardening to professionals. The size of the outdoor bathroom is 2.6 x 2.3 so I don't think it's adequately sized for a media room. 3) Balcony and patio column at the garage entrance/exit are asking for trouble. It won't be easy to manouver in or out of your garage without hitting them. Consider cantilevering your balcony if possible. Noted - this has already been amended in our external changes to a cantilevered balcony. Apologies, the external changes are noted in this image. 4) WC near the kitchen is wasting useful space with this outside vanity. Also, not very hygienic - people will be opening up the door with the "dirty" hands. Noted, thanks, will speak with Architect and review 5) I don't get an idea of this living room with a deck near the entrance. It seems to be a bit disconnected from the rest of the house. A good place for a media room though, but in this case deck and outside door won't be needed there. Two entrance doors one next to each other look a bit weird, too. Sorry, this is another one of the external elements that are not shown correctly. The space from the front porch pillar to the living room window is about 4.5 m and the deck actually wraps around to the porch. I also don't like the idea of two entrance doors, but my husband and some other family members saw this on the Masterton Tempus Elite and wanted it added on. After seeing the mock front elevation, I've asked to see how it would look with windows instead of a door, which to me is preferred. The deck will have a small water feature of some sort, but not 100% on landscaping just yet. FIRST FLOOR: 1) Do you have any idea how are you planning to position beds in your Bedroom 2, 3 as well as Guest Bedroom downstairs? Under the windows? Not the best idea. Facing the doors. Not good. Facing vanity wall? Bad idea. Guest bedroom: under the windows is our only choice there to fit a queen bed Bedroom 2: is a nursery so cot will be there for a while, but eventually a larger bed will face the walk in robe Bedrooms 3/4: will face the built in robe. This leaves adequate space for a double bed, 2x bedside tables, space around the beds and a large enough study table/toy storage area to the side. The rooms are 4.5m x 4m. 2) East facing windows in Bedroom 2 and 3? I would go for Northern and Southern instead and this will also automatically resolve the bed facing problem. In our previous home, we had all our kids bedrooms facing east and there was plenty of light and space still in the room. Forgive my ignorance , but could you please elaborate? 3) You better go for a slide with those linen doors. Will be extremely hard to use them. Also, the gargantuan proportions of your laundry, WIR, linen, WIRs imply that shopping for clothes and then laundering is likely to become a full time job in that house . How many people will be living in the house exactly? Thanks, sliding doors have been chosen . Honestly, my husband and I don't actually shop clothes much! But we are that family that can manage to accumulate a lot of 'stuff' even when we try not to and we figured we would optimise on space as much as possible particularly as we have the opportunity to do so. In terms of laundry, I do between 4 to 5 loads a week with just the four of us now (me,my husband and 2 kids) and the laundry I'm building will allow for not only huge amount of storage but a lot of other features to make doing laundry much easier. Im also expecting another bub and new house will have the 5 of us and my parents, so a total of 7. I'll be doing a lot more laundry than just 5 loads a week. My parents are getting old and I want to be able to care for them properly and make them feel as comfortable as possible, they will be bringing some of their belongings over too, so without the space we'd be struggling. 4) Double showers/double vanities look nice and cool, but extremely rarely used as such. This is more a personal preference, our kids shower together some times, we shower together so it just made sense to us. I also don't think it will prevent anyone from wanting to purchase the home if we ever were to sell. Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 18Sep 27, 2018 1:07 pm I think the whole ground floor guest br and living area with deck makes more sense now, knowing your parents will be also living there. It’s almost a separate living section for them, with outdoor space! My mum will be living with us, so our design has an attached granny flat. Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 19Sep 27, 2018 6:12 pm Visited a house for sale recently that had 2 front doors (suspect it might have been something to do originally with a home practice) and walked away with that arrangement being a negative point. Clearly it's so important in our home designs to think about that buyer down the track - even for our forever homes. Re: Review my floor plan please - Bardia NSW Build 20Sep 27, 2018 6:27 pm Hillsbuilds I think the whole ground floor guest br and living area with deck makes more sense now, knowing your parents will be also living there. It’s almost a separate living section for them, with outdoor space! My mum will be living with us, so our design has an attached granny flat. We considered a granny flat, but my parents requested to be in the house. It's made things a bit harder design wise, but I'm happy to make them happy. 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