Hi Carole Loe You have an interesting house proposal, you are very lucky that you managed to get a corner block, there are advantages in a corner blocks, and like all things some disadvantages. It would be helpful to get an idea where north is in relation to your plan, its difficult to give constructive comments without knowing the position of the sun in relation to living areas and windows. Looking at your first plan the position of your bedrooms are relatively well placed, Bedroom 1 robes are a bit of a problem as they may be exposed from excessive moisture from the ES Shower even if you have a strong exhaust. This generally results in moldy clothes and shoes that smell. Its always good to have the Walk In Robes closed off from the ES. Looking at your second plan I would consider bedroom 2 to be a very difficult bedroom to use, especially if you are aging or young, not a good selling item in the long run. You have to cross a living area to get to the toilet and you are constantly bombarded by living room noise. The proposed separate toilet, with internal opening door is very difficult to use (illegal in Victoria unless you provide 'panic hinges') and not very friendly if you are aging. Some redesign of this area could be beneficial in the long run. Your front entry is shown at 1330 and this is at the stud positions with an 820 door (I always make my front entries min. 870)- (that is incredibly tight for a porch area entry something like 1880 to 2400 with a 870 front door and a bit of a sidelight might be a bit better), you may wish to look at this further, it seems to be terribly tight - measure some of your friends entries and your may wish to revisit this part of your design. Also I think its a good idea to provide access to the the garage from the house - but it must go through an airlock (e.g. through a well ventilated laundry or an open verandah) then to your living areas. This would avoid mixing exhaust fumes with your lounge furniture and your kitchen areas. These toxins build up overtime and are certainly not very good for your health, especially if you are you or old or small like a child or a dog or a cat. Your kitchen and butlers pantry design is certainly ample for two or three people, but it would consider fronting the 'front kitchen bench' towards where you have your TV. Also the kitchen counter should not have a stove on it. The stove should be places about 800 from the sink so that in an emergency you can go from your stove to the sink and not have to cross a from the front bench to the back bench via a travel space. This would make your kitchen bench a good entertainment area or even a good eating area if carefully designed. It would be helpful to know the position of the neighbor houses, houses windows in relation to the site, especially for overlooking and possible overshadowing to open areas. Also it might be helpful for you to define the brief a little more, so that you can be a little more positive of your requirements. There is no mention of fences, gates, driveway extent, extent of porches over entries front and back entry, external paths to drying areas, clothes drying areas, BBQ position or garden areas, vegetable garden area, external storage for gardening tools, letter box etc. these are all items that should come in the design phase and discussed and have proper space allocations. A reassessment of your design position may be fruitful and financially beneficial in the long run especially if you are willing to do some of the legwork to reduce some of your costs. I would be happy to consider your design proposal further. Wish you the best in your design pursuit. Regards Michael Manias - (03)9347-7347 - Designing online using Skype, Pdf and Paypal - mm407p@gmail.com

Hi Jasmine, I just want to ask you a couple of things re details in the plan an will post showing my concerns. Along the back wall, change the wall/panel on both sides of the fridge to 20, the wall would be approx 90?, this will give you an extra 70 space to play with, this would also balance the built in fridge between both sections of cabinets. As it is your designer has used the wall on the left of the fridge to line up with the wall of the proposed pantry, but I feel this isn't needed the panels will do a better job..without taking up more space and not looking so bulky. So now you will have extra to play with and could consider 900 x 2 drawers plus 900 cooker. What is the corner cabinet, it looks like having one door opening along the window wall? I have an 800 sink cabinet which has 2 x 400 doors which are perfect as they don't open out so wide into the room. would it be better to move the DW to the other side of the sink so as not to block access. 900 space at the end of the island is too tight and should be at least 1m The wall cabinets above the cooktop, are they all single cabinets?, it is more cost effective to use double, I ask this because the plan shows that two single or two double cabinets will be involved in installing the intergrated range hood.

Imagine that -- a grey on grey house looking boring haha ! Without being too critical , it looks like a 1950's rendered house plonked on a block base that has been painted grey or charcoal . Just my opinion , but the upstairs looks too uniform , with all the windows the same . They don't really match that downstairs 'horizontal' window , but it will sort of work , assuming the window frames/trims all match ( same profile , colour , etc ) but if its not too late , I'd seriously consider making the middle of the 3 'front' upstairs windows quite a bit larger , maybe 100mm wider each side , maybe also 100mm shorter but keep all 3 windows top aligned ? Then I'd do the upstairs render in an off-white , something along the line of surfmist , as it has a bluish tinge , which will tie in with the grey , but it isn't grey . The garage door/front door combo in wood is always my favourite , and I know those pics are just designs , but add a more interesting front door -- definitely don't just carry the horizontal wood of the garage door through . Go with the same wood/stain , but have maybe 3 off-centre little square windows ( to sort of reference the other 'groups of 3 ) , or glass ( non-opening ) up one side , with a narrower door , as it looks quite wide . Downstairs colour you can go with the mid-grey and charcoal , although I'd love the 'column' done in a stacked stone -- a schist or similar -- even if it was only the bottom 800mm or so -- although the stone works best with lighter colours , so maybe you'd 'have to' do the coluns in your mid grey , the rest downstairs in the lighter grey , upstairs in the even lighter off-white -- combined with the stone , and the cedar or similar doors , its going to look at least $50k more , for $20k or less ( depending on how far along you have gotten obviously ) . Use colour , but also imaginative window placement etc , to add interest -- others may disagree , but I don't think that will make your place look too unusual or specialised ( harder to resell , because we all do at some stage ) , and will look cvlassier , more interesting . Of course , budgets and banks may not allow that , and/or you may screw your nose up , but thats my take .

I would delete the wall behind the bed in the master bedroom as it doesn’t seem to serve any real purpose and turn the bed to place against the outside wall. The room will be far more spacious .