Browse Forums Buying Land Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 4Aug 26, 2015 4:03 pm It's not THAT bad. I mean, you got your living areas to the west I guess which kinda sucks but at least your master suite doesn't have a window to the west, so maybe it won't be so bad. At the end of the day, something has to face west. You could look maybe at flipping it if you can, unless you are building against a boundary, at which case you are screwed. Can look at other ways to block out the western sun. Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 5Aug 30, 2015 7:01 pm Front facing north is not ideal but you have to make do with it.
In my opinion this plan doesn't take advantage of the sun and needs work. Firstly in your circumstance, you should put your living areas east so at least gets morning sun (east is the second best place to put living areas after north). Putting it on the west is very bad idea. Your kitchen will be a hot and dark place to work because it's west facing, also note that it does not have windows meaning you'll be using a lot of artificial light. Also you have a big west window facing your living areas. A big window to the west will lose a lot of heat and have a lot of heat enter your house (the worst of both worlds). Your saving grace is the alfresco (assuming it is under the roofline). If so, it will shield a lot of sun entering in your living areas, but will be a very uncomfortable place to utilise in summer/winter as it'll be very hot/cold. In a nutshell: West should have utility areas (garage, laundry) and sleeping areas. North / east should have living areas. I would flip the lower half of the house horizontally and change the master with the rumpus, depending where you spend your time. I also suggest you read yourhome.gov.au and understand the basics of house orientation as it'll save you a lot of regret later on. Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 6Aug 30, 2015 9:46 pm This all depends on the climate. Northern windows are most useful in climates where you get cold sunny winter days. Western windows are mainly a problem in climates where heat is a problem. In these climates, north facing is one of the less desirable orientations, as your best wall is mostly taken up by garage. However, with East and West facing, you also get the problem that often you are so close to the boundary on the north side that the neighbour overshadows anyhow, and your neighbour doesn't shade your western sun. With a north-facing block, one thing you can do is get a living room out the front and put a big window on it. So in this case, you could swap the master bed with the rumpus. Then on a sunny winter day, the rumpus would be a nice room to be in, and captures heat for the whole house. You could probably get 4 metres of windows across the front which is quite a decent winter heat gain. Another approach is to put a courtyard in the middle of the house. The house design above doesn't lend itself towards it, but imagine if the rumpus were made into an outdoor courtyard area, and the living were placed where the kitchen is, with a sliding door opening to the courtyard. This would make the house longer, but you have the extra land space to do this. It also means more wall area, meaning more cost to build and greater heat transfer, but it can also make a very nice space. You can look at clerestory windows to let northern sunlight into the rear section of the house. You have to be fairly careful with the geometry of these to make them work well, and also have to watch for heat loss out of the windows, but they can also make for a good feeling to the space. Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 8Aug 31, 2015 11:01 am I've been advised my best way forward may be to contact the estate developer and see if the location of my driveway can be flipped. I think flipping the whole house east/west, will still not be ideal, but far better than the current orientation, correct? Thanks again guys, Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 9Aug 31, 2015 5:30 pm Hi B_Bear, just read through your thread with interest. Orientation all really depends on the design of the house and what works best for it. We have a north facing block, it works perfectly with our design as all the living and kitchen face north and we have a verandah for summer all along the front. Yes, flip the design if you can and minimise west windows ie get them reduced in size, this shouldn't cost to do. As they are bedrooms it doesn't matter about views either. Also if you can extend the porch over your bedroom window without too much expense it would be helpful as well, or your room will retain a lot of heat in summer. Of course you can always combat the build up of heat with block out blinds, awnings, or tinting- just depends on how far your budget can stretch. And it will reduce your air con bills if you have made provision for it already. Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 10Sep 01, 2015 9:36 am Treeseachanger Hi B_Bear, just read through your thread with interest. Orientation all really depends on the design of the house and what works best for it. We have a north facing block, it works perfectly with our design as all the living and kitchen face north and we have a verandah for summer all along the front. Yes, flip the design if you can and minimise west windows ie get them reduced in size, this shouldn't cost to do. As they are bedrooms it doesn't matter about views either. Also if you can extend the porch over your bedroom window without too much expense it would be helpful as well, or your room will retain a lot of heat in summer. Of course you can always combat the build up of heat with block out blinds, awnings, or tinting- just depends on how far your budget can stretch. And it will reduce your air con bills if you have made provision for it already. Hi Treeseachanger Fantastic. Thanks a lot for your response/advice . I'm currently awaiting a reply from the estate developers to see if I can have the crossover moved. The lady I spoke to said it should be OK, as they've done it previous stages, however she couldn't give me a definite answer as it has to go to the engineers. Fair enough I guess - Sounds promising so far though. Will let you know how it goes *fingers crossed* Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 11Sep 09, 2015 2:53 pm Just to add to the whole ordeal.... I've just received my land valuation back. $25,000 short of what I paid.. And with my current loan scenario putting my LVR at 79.7%, this shortfall reallllllly hurts Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 12Sep 11, 2015 11:02 am [quote="B_Bear"]Just to add to the whole ordeal.... I've just received my land valuation back. $25,000 short of what I paid.. And with my current loan scenario putting my LVR at 79.7%, this shortfall reallllllly hurts /quote] I had the same happen to me on my land in QLD. I ended up however, getting a loan for the land + construction and the valuation ended up coming to the land + build in the end. So they basically overvalued the build. Kind of silly really. Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 13Sep 22, 2015 4:05 pm bmitchel B_Bear Just to add to the whole ordeal.... I've just received my land valuation back. $25,000 short of what I paid.. And with my current loan scenario putting my LVR at 79.7%, this shortfall reallllllly hurts /quote] I had the same happen to me on my land in QLD. I ended up however, getting a loan for the land + construction and the valuation ended up coming to the land + build in the end. So they basically overvalued the build. Kind of silly really. Sounds promising... I guess that's what I need to hope for . Thanks, Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 14Sep 29, 2015 4:24 pm To anyone that cares Today, the estate engineers gave me approval to swap the crossover location . Meaning I can flip the house (left to right) resulting in a much more favourable orientation. I'm marking that down as my first win in this whole process. Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 15Jul 25, 2016 3:25 pm Our house currently faces North and we had no issues until we were surrounded by Doubles! Now we get shadows for the most part of every day!! So now we are selling! I am over not having any sun! So just a heads up, if you get some doubles either side they can cast shadows over your house. What this has caused is no sun down the side of our house causing a lot of algae/moss growing on the paths and the side of the house. We have decided to sell up and move elsewhere so we can have a better facing block Re: Did I rush in to my land purchase? 16Jul 26, 2016 12:25 pm I have purchased a North facing block recently. It is not ideal but it was my only option. It is a corner, and the block behind me is a large 1400sqm block, and the house will be a fair way from my property, leaving me with a close neighbour on only 1 side. My living areas are facing east, and my blind wall is west. It was the best i could do! Good luck! With some careful planning it will be fine No the fireplace doesn’t work. It’s been enclosed. I’m not sure what was removed, as it was done quite some time ago - well before what I can see with photos online… 2 11589 Yeah I don't know why I came to a forum. Place is full of wierdos/pedos thought internet may help but I suppose I'll try my luck with someone in person. Cheers. I tried… 0 6445 Need advice on the backyard plan above. Should I excavate and cut all of the dirt to level with the house slab or semi-excavate as per photo above? Both left and right… 0 24872 |