Hi Jess Jess Congratulation on your purchase on the foothills of the Otway Ranges is a great location and a flat site is a good site to build on. Doing all your doors at 870 is also a great idea - they will work with wheel chairs, hopefully you will never need them. Its a good size for a door as long as the occupants do not put on to much weight in the aging years requiring bigger wheelchairs. (I have some experience in designing for disability). Doors at 1050 are much better but it does require a bit of extra space and the doors will add to the cost a bit as they are non standard. As other have suggested a mud room and three bedrooms are really a good idea, you can always turn the non use bedrooms into a studio, theater, guest room etc later on when the boys leave. It is a great approach to get ideas, to design the house, however I think that when you consider your brief, designing the whole site might be a better approach. What I mean is that you have to consider lot of external issues like, water harvesting and position of tanks, onsite sewage management of grey and black water, composting bins and maybe worm farming, tools storage for garden and maybe a propagating area, solar cells and on site power storage, as you get nothing these days for pumping up to the grid, maybe an eatable garden design, reference to flora and fauna, also there may be other animals on the site (pets), and the fire issue. There seems to be a lot going on on the peripherals as much as the internals of the design. As for a being advised of the oncoming possible bush fire, I would strongly suggest that you build a fire shelter, and hopefully you will be advised in time and leave before the fire comes - and never have to use the fire shelter, and it will be the best money you have wasted in your house design. It would be good if you could get some separation from your "remote working office area" , from the main house. I have been working from home for about 20 years and I find that a little separation from the main house helps in maintaining - work away from home - concept. Although you might plan for your clients never to visiting you, situations can change and maintaining a separate relationship between live areas, and work areas, may be beneficial in the long run. As your views are to the west, good verandahs which connect to living and outdoor activities may be a solution, your second design seems to incorporate this idea, and it might need to be extended especially for the rest of activities that might occur on the site. There is certainly a lot to think about, you have a fantastic site, I hope you will take full advantage of the possibilities. Regards Michael Manias - Manias Associates Building Designers - mm407p@gmail.com

If you "change" anything that involves a building approval then the floor area on the plans relevant will count towards the overall amount. If it amounts to beyond 50% of the existing conditions then the whole building becomes applicable to energy calculations and so you enter into up spec'ing existing areas. And yes it can often be a good thing to be doing anyway, but of course it costs money. If the total area being changes is below 50% then only the areas of new work are applicable. I'm honestly not a specialist in this area, but I have to deal with the issues naturally in the course of the design and resolution of project solutions I provide, and hence I use an energy consultant regularly and we have a way/system of working through together how best to achieve the requirements for permit. As far as I understand it's a case by case/project specific exercise and also there's various ways of negotiating/achieving the necessary performance requirements - e.g. you can play around with different levels of insulation together with a particular glazing/window spec, and depending upon circumstances you can save money one way or another. Sometimes I'll squeeze windows overall down to get it under a certain amount to not trigger requirement for expensive glass...also timber windows rate better, but if you are in a bushfire area you'll be caught out or require very expensive timber windows...it's a real juggling act in particular contexts...which is why you really need to be working collaboratively with an energy consultant/specialist to work out the best solution in this regard, as well as the other aspects of design, structure and bushfire etc. It's a true team effort ;) If you're really up for some technical reading you there is some further energy info here NCC Volume One Energy Efficiency Provisions 2016 - Australian ... but it may get confusing........Coming back to the core of it, my advice: 1. define your budget 2. list and prioritise your requirements 3. seek some preliminary advice/assistance from a seasoned designer doing this type of work to test whether or not the general concept of what your endeavouring to achieve is viable, and this depends upon the relevant context/existing conditions etc (and bushfire rating is yet another layer on top of all this), and then refine the concept from there. If you are just doing a bathroom or kitchen isolated then you can arguably do it yourself, but if you're re-jigging the whole house like it appears you are heading towards, and on a very tight budget then I'd highly recommend (to save yourself headaches and frustration going around in never-ending circles) to invest some of your available budget into front-end design, to get to a solution that works to your nominated priorities so you achieve a viable and professionally advised outcome. Trust me it will be money well spent. Have a great Christmas, and best of luck with continuing to work through it all :)

Blue Gum floorboards how could it not look beautiful!! and yes wheelchair friendly although if we were in a wheelchair I guess we would have to move closer to town and transport and shops as this house was going to be in the country talking of moving... husband has caved and said we can move to the Bay of Islands whoop whoop! he still wants to go to France for 2 years but he said we could build or buy before we go so that changes the type of house now because we were building near a school and families this will be more a beach house that we can leave for the kids to enjoy and various friends who want it while away so I have swapped the master over to be away from the laundry garage door and hot water heat pump which is quite noisy and the guest rooms now have a Jack and Jill bathroom I haven't changed the footprints at all it's still the same size just changed the layout a little bit The bunk room would have a sliding door outside which means you could access that part of the house privately without coming through the front door or the bunk room could be a small kitchenette /come dining room / come lounge room (very small ) and rent it out as a 1 bedroom self contained apartment Once we live there full time ... will upload a photo in the next Post

Hi again, Lorraine here, I looked closer at your pictures of the area. I also noted your comment regarding "what if" you re do your kitchen. So, we all can do that and then time tics away and we dont do anything and frustration sets in as you really just want to change the things you have been looking for many years. The picture you have taken tonings from is very near your kitchen. the chairs to the table are the most pronounced of the colour you are seeking. Around the larger part of the room there are only little touches of the tone you like. Your rooms are very light with the blinds up. So I think the kitchen can take darker colours. Like the very deep grey outline of the fishes or the deep blue/grey in the painting or colour of the chairs. Laminex limed cement is a wonderful deep colour and will bring the benches alive. Then with removing the heavy door handles and seeing if you can use the push and clip fittings - you wont have any door handles but use a neater steel looking knob for your drawers or brushed steel handles on cupboards if you cant get the push and clip things inside. Paint the front board looking into the lounge and the cupboards a deep grey/blue colour to fit with the, mid deeper colour in the painting and the outline of the fish and the red will fit in nicely. Keeping your blinds up allowing the light in more than not will bring the room to life. Take out the floor runner. Do you use your stools? with the table right there are the stools necessary? if not take them away and ensure that area of the cupboards at front is painted - this gives a clearer area defining "kitchen". hope this helps Loz