this house has two upstairs bedrooms not shown on plan. One day we will have an ensuite but not for a few years. In the meantime this bathroom get congested when young adult daughters visits with their friends. Separate toilet helps but as we live in a tourist destination we frequently get visitors so ease of guests staying (and multiple bathroom users) would be great. Area called storage near bathroom houses the front loader and dryer but could be moved into storage area (which is an internal courtyard). One bath is essential as fervent bath lover is house owner :). Thanks in advance any contributors

i can't quite see your exact measurements but, understanding you have long term plans for an ensuite and urgent need for more bathrooms, my suggestion hopefully involves the most cost effective option by sacrificing some of the pantry and inserting a partition wall and new door in the big bathroom you should have two separate bathrooms plus the extra separate toilet and handbasin but accurate measurements will decide if my idea would work for you....

Thanks so much for your feedback. will upload some design constraints (the kitchen area is different but is still a walk through area from one living area to the other so cant be narrowed) and make the measurements readable but the ideas come up with I hadn't yet contemplated. cheers

Hi maryprior892

Good house layout, its good that your living areas are facing north and you do have a lot of living areas - Living, Dining, Kitchen and Rumpus - very good and large entertaining areas, many guests and many parties.

There may be a few things that you like to look at in your renovation if you are looking to be cost effective;

1. Determine the floor type in the areas that you wish to alter. It is more expensive to cut concrete to add a new toilet/shower or basin then a floor on stumps.
2. Determine which way the sewer runs and the depth, this will may help getting easy access to the drains. You can get a copy of the sewer plan for a small amount of money from the people you pay your water rates.
3. You have a lot of storage space so this appears to be the space to alter to archive your brief. The best place to start is to write a brief which may explain the use of your house for the next 5 to 15 years - this will allow to look ahead and help the family to plan, try to involve all those that use the space and may use the space in the future. This is one of the most important steps as it will avoid a lot of redrawing and aid in reducing long term errors. Your initial comments are helpful but they could be expanded to include what you like about the house/dislike and some of the long term use, number of people, sports, pets, job type and use of the home office etc.
4. Post the upstairs as this helps in making the decision to remove walls should there be a need.
5. It is possibly better to retain existing wet areas rather than alter them, in this case if possible it might be better to add a wet area like a new bathroom.
6. Show where external activities like BBQ and pools etc exist, as it might be better not to have to travel through the house to gain access to bathrooms and toilets.
7. Show where the laundry is located - show troughs washing machine and dryer. This will help to design around existing or relocating.
8. As this appears to be a large house retaining the existing pantry might be an advantage, especially if you (or your daughter/s) have a lot of friends visiting, you get to buy less pizza and maybe provide better eating habits for your loved ones. (I still like pizza and eat to much of the stuff)
9. Bedroom 3 and 4 are a long way from the toilet/bathroom, not really good if you are young or old having to gain access in the night, furthermore the travel to the bathroom areas is through the living areas, not very functional or private.
10. It is difficult to read the dimensions, maybe a re-post slightly larger will help in gaining understanding.

I hope this is of some help, I would be happy to comment further on this design as more information becomes available.

Michael Manias

Manias Associates

Building Associates mm407p@gmail.com

the bathroom floor is concrete alot of the plumbing is hidden in the cupboards. the toilet should face the storage(interior court yard) as that is where the sewer outlet is. We dont use the home office and it is on a slab (currently has husbands tools in it as what was the garage is currently a movie room come spare bedroom).we bought the house a year ago in this setup. I moved part of the kitchen so there was an island bench and people were not walking through the kitchen to get to the other living areas.

We live in here as a couple most of the time but we have large extended family. Even so it is a bit big but we loved the outlook and location so put up with the big house. The two upstairs bedrooms sit right on top of the bedrooms you can see . We consider the upstairs bedroom to be the main as it has beautiful sea views and one thought is to have it as a master bedroom and massive ensuite and robe (in the second bedroom ) but then it would really only be a 3 bedroom house (apart from garage and we worry that we would lose money if we had to sell due to unforseen circumstances).

The other idea as mentioned earlier is that there is room in the main bedroom eventually upstairs for a very modest ensuite and then still having a second bedroom upstairs

The house is glorious to live in as we live in Tasmania and facing north we get any sun that is going. we have a pool over the west of house but cant see anyway to get easy access to a bathroom from the pool so people usually use the toilet by itself .

My husband has just suggested that it all looks expensive maybe we should just improve the bathroom a bit, leave it as one but move the toilet to where the bath is with a screen or enclosure so multiple uses at once and spend any money on a modest ensuite. I will include measurements of upstairs bedroom for comments on size and possible accomodation of a small ensuite

thanks everyone for your contributions. I am very grateful

using your updated measurements i've squeezed in the smallest possible ensuite upstairs as well as revised the modified downstairs bathroom..sacrificing some of the pantry and dividing the big bathroom could be done for the cost of simple carpentry for the walls and doors plus modest electrical wiring but no plumbing needed, although i've included an optional handbasin to the bath room and an optional toilet to the shower room (plumbed through the wall not the concrete floor) but neither is necessary to make the divided rooms much more efficient for your visitors..

I have to ask, I'm sorry, if you have such a small budget why are you building such a HUGE house? it is also quite an irregular shaped footprint - the amount of exterior walls you build has a direct relationship with the cost of the build (not to mention the energy efficiency of your home).

I would lose the Rumpus room, square off the lounge area and integrate the kitchen and dining areas into smaller, more sociable space. The money saved by doing this will allow you to build a better quality (rather than simply bigger) house for you and your family.

It is always useful to try and draw your plans with furniture in. Apart from helping you to think more carefully about how you might actually inhabit the space, it will give you a much better feel for the scale of what you are planning. If you trying simply drawing a couple of sofas in your lounge area you might get an idea of what I am talking about

Finally, try to avoid 'land-locked' rooms if you can - such as the bathroom in your plan. Every room should have a window to the outside and access to natural light and ventilation (even if it is a bathroom). Otherwise you risk creating a space that really is no fun to be in. You can also do this using sky lights and courtyard light-wells too.

I hope this has helped

not building just rearranging the bathroom. I bought it with this layout. It is an old house added on to in various eras of its various home owners . We have lived in it for a year and yes the living areas are enormous and a bit excessive . we just loved the location and the views and and the low price

the bathroom does back on to an internal courtyard which at the moment has junk in it and a laser lite roof but i get what you are saying as the bathroom is cold because it has clerestory windows that are opaque. I also agree the house would be better without the rumpus room which we have set up as a quiet library retreat when we have multiples guests. the dining area has a sofa near kitchen and a large table further way sitting across ways. When we bought it it reminded of a large vacant office space. we have worked in making them intimate spaces and have revealed an open fireplace in the front lounge which also has ocean views so that is fabulous.

I do appreciate any and all comments as they give me a wonderful opportunity to see the house through someone else's eyes. thanks

OK my apologies. It would be useful to see the first floor plan to see how the spaces overlap.

If you do plan to add an ensuite to the first floor (which is probably a good idea - i agree it is a pretty long walk in the middle of the night), then you should try to arrange it roughly over the existing bathroom area to reduce the amount of complicated plumbing work and obtrusive pipe runs.

How much do you use the storage space adjacent to the staircase? It looks a useful space and the currently layout of the bathroom is a bit awkward

hi sorry.. just seen your comment about the courtyard/storage.

maybe try and clear this out and make more of it? You could get some planting in there and increase the size of the windows in the bathroom to get more light in. If the courtyard is not overlooked by any other room then the windows in the bathroom need not be obscured

Hi maryprior892

Thanks for posting the extra information it all helps in gaining some understanding, I think it is possible to improve this existing house in a cost effective manner.

Just a minor item that I picked up in regards of equipment - I think you mentioned that the existing STORAGE is actually a covered internal courtyard - I also notice that you have a hot water unit in this space - you should check that the hot-water service (if it is a gas unit) that it has sufficient ventilation and is not an external units that has been closed in - any plumber will give you this information - enclosing gas units that are designed for external use is not a good idea.

I think that if you are going to make changes it not only should suit you, but also have a good resale opportunity - considering your upstairs areas it might be better to add a decent En-suite and walk in robes and getting two or three bedrooms downstairs - in this way you would have parents areas separated from children - this might have better resale and use that a tiny ES.

The third bedroom downstairs could be gained by enclosing the RUMPUS room and providing access to bathroom areas by a corridor to existing bathrooms. This would also aid in getting containment areas for heating - at the moment the plan shows one open space including the upstairs - lots of heating in winter in Tasmania for all that area - some compartmentalization would probably help in combating yearly heating costs.

The existing living area are certainly ample, so the loss of the rumpus to a bedroom does not detract greatly to the overall house, and in the meantime you could use the new downstairs bedroom/rumpus room as you have already mentioned as a library.

I think this is achievable, but before doing a physical change, I would have a fully developed plan which includes all existing and proposed furniture to scale, with a few 3D views to enhance the concept. (It easier to change drawings than walls - a lot less dust and much cheaper)

I would then obtain the opinion of a Real-estate agent (the Real-estate agent you bought it from is not a bad place to start) and maybe two others. This might help in making long term decisions in regards to investment for the future.

Staging your proposed renovations is also another approach that you might investigate.

Above all I would retain and obtain as many ocean views that you can possibly get, I assume that the ocean views are at the front of the house (" revealed an open fireplace in the front lounge which also has ocean views so that is fabulous.") If possible you might consider developing an external eating/sitting/entertaining area with ocean views - I certainly would be a buyer, and I would assume that it might be supported by the real-estate agent.

I hope this is of some help, I would be happy to comment further on this design as more information becomes available.

Michael Manias

Manias Associates

Building Associates mm407p@gmail.com

Thanks Michael, your comments are very valuable and funny. Yes all the sea views face north as well so it was really a house we couldnt go past. the outdoor eating area has sea views as does the pool area. The house is challenging as the living area is so large as you have realised. You have also identified that there is too much living space. The house is a bit, maybe more than a bit dishevelled (which is why it was in our price range). I will post some before and slightly after photos. It doesnt have much charm but does have good bones if slightly higgedly piggedly. It is completely delightful to live in and we draw curtains on a rail (temporary )across at the end of the kitchen in winter whilst we figure out what to do as we rattle around in this large house..and heat the slightly smaller area. there must have been an architect involved at some stagein it life before us as it is the best cross ventilated house and oriented for passive solar heating house I have ever lived in. ( a real delight).

I am out of work at the moment so restrained budget means we are really in the planning stage and the slowly upgrade but you need to know where you want to head in the end before you start anything at all. we have stripped the bathroom because it was in a bad state and we are living with it like it is till we come up with a better idea.

The indoor courtyard has ample wind blowing in but that is a good thought about checking the hot water system whether it is external or internal. i will do that, Thanks for being so generous with your time

Hi maryprior892 you seem to have a good understanding of Building and Design concepts, a great advantage in any Building Design discussion.

I note that you have begun stripping bits out, I hope that you have done some different sketch plans for your proposals, hopefully with some 3D views which tend to be great help in the long term view.

This may involve a bit of a dollar outlay, but it is certainly a lot less than renovating a bathroom or a kitchen the wrong way or in the wrong position.

I was lucky to do a similar consultancy for a client in Queensland which was good enough to give me a positive review on HOUZZ for which I was great-full.

http://www.houzz.com.au/browseReviews/mm407p72

The other concept that you might like to consider is staging to a budget, this really needs good drawings, because unless the proposal is firmly set, decisions can be influenced in the moment and you may loose the big picture.

I hope this is of some help, I would be happy to comment further on this design as more information becomes available.

Michael Manias

Manias Associates

Building Associates mm407p@gmail.com