AH.. My old school drafter hat on is spinning seeing those dimension lines overlapping and going through text and other elements, eek.. I would fail this drawing if it were my student.

Anyways, only real comment I have to add is carpet in the Rumpus room? I personally wouldn't especially with young kids. And what storage solutions are you thinking of with regard to that room and toys etc.

I'm hearing you C R, the dimension lines are quite distracting!

Thanks for your comments, we have since decided floorboards in the rumpus (with a rug) .... much more practical with the kids and adjoining the outdoor area.

Storage, we're thinking a long low cupboard along the west wall under the window and possibly shelving. Possibly a tall cupboard along the wall backing onto linen too.

Hi

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looks like it will be a lovely home my suggestions includes minor variations for ensuite and kitchen and perhaps the entry to master could be relocated to create an entry foyer and the wiw could be squared off to add extra to the entry hallway for waist height storage and gallery wall to give more interest to the long entry and wider stairs to the family room

I was going to suggest oklouises pantry door position - to eliminate those annoying corner cupboards, a spacious pantry... perhaps use some of it to enlarge the store with its door opening to the garage?

A good size garage, lengthwise, except dont have a long vehicle on the left without shifting the door northwards.

Is the split level to minimise the drop at the back or just a feature? It could be a hindrance for shifting furniture and should one of you needs a wheelchair. Also you have room for a double door (for those reasons) and it'll look greater.

There seems to be some wall at the side of the fridge, this restricts you or next owner on the size of fridge.

Also all rooms a minimum of 2 power points, easier now than later to put in. & one each side of the beds - not central, which is awkward.

Wishing you a smooth construction and perfect home.

Thanks Two's Company Renovations for your thoughts, comforting to hear your gas heater positioning confirmation. Ensuite door and fridge adjustments, and suggested large slider for studey are very helpful too. The privacy to bed 3 & 4 when accessing the toilet, bathroom etc has been on our minds, hence creating the alcove entrance off the rumpus. But, yes, it still isn't private if entertaining guests on the verandah etc. The extended passage down to those rooms is a good suggestion. We've been trying to avoid long passages where possible. Perhaps we'd need a window at the end of the extended passage to bring natural light in. Will give it some thought.

Wow thanks so much oklouise for taking the time to sketch out some variations, greatly appreciated. We've been tossing up moving the pantry door as per your suggestion, is the dishwasher ok there opening towards the end of the island bench (with appropriate width)? Really like your corner cavity slide suggestion for the study - thank you! The way you've re-jigged the ensuite also works well too. Thanks for thoughts regarding entry and long hallway, it has worried me that there's only the master bdrm door and a whole lot of walls in that hallway. Relocating the entry to master breaks it up, and gallery/storage suggestion could be a goer too. Really grateful for your time!

Hi brixnmorta relocating the pantry door sound like a positive move. Could also have a window at the end of WIP for more natural light too. Yes the store room could come across a bit more and become a "mud room" type entrance from garage, other door from garage into entrance hallway then wouldn't be required.

Split level is all about working with the fall of the block, to minimise a high deck (and stairs to the backyard) and the need for privacy screens along the rear boundary fence. With your reference to wheelchair, did you mean double door at the front entry? All great suggestions re: power points too! Thanks again

Yes, a double front door would be ideal. It looks like you have a side window at the front, maybe have glass panels in the doors or above them to brighten the entry

Your WIRs are good planning as well as the heater location.

Re Twos Company passage idea, google highlight window, and maybe put one or two in there alongside the rumpus room. Add a door too as you wanted rumpus to bathroom access.

Possibly a window in the pantry, but put tinting on it later if it heats the room too much.

these suggestions include the excellent idea for the mudroom, adds a sink & tap to the garage and eliminates looking directly at the toilet from kitchen by rotating the guest room (same floor area but places wardrobes next to ens for more privacy) enlarges study and relocates laundry bathroom with a central circulation area to break up the long hall, perhaps eliminating the need for privacy doors at either or both ends of the hallway...achieved by stealing 20cms off minor bedrooms.. the problem of dark hallways can be overcome with Solar Skylights (ie Solar Powered ceiling lights eg Arcol from Bunnings) )and/or panels of glass in walls above doors, panels of glass in doors and/or fixed or ventilating windows between external and internal rooms (eg between guest and study, entry hall and garage, pantry and garage) (minor discrepancies in my measurements are caused by ignoring correct wall thickness for simplicity)

Hi there motton.m good luck with your build and your lovely soon to be new home

OKlouise I have attached a couple of photos of my favourite cavity slide corner doors, you would have seen the 3rd photo on bathursthouse. apart from these Barns are very popular

internal sliders are an excellent option for many doorways especially where they can meet in a corner and be opened to leave no corner post to obstruct passage to motton's study area..

Exactly, I agree, that's why I suggested bathursthouse could use these corner sliders in his new build to open/close off the living/dining/family area from the entrance and bedroom wing, these would also be perfect for Motton's Study.

The Japanese use this Shubui concept as walls to section off their houses which is brilliant.

Bathursthouse received many great ideas from other Houzzers among them your excellent floor plans, it will interesting to see what he comes up with

Brixnmorta, the double entrance is a great idea, makes moving things in & out and as you mention possible wheel chair babies etc, also wonder why the split level, perhaps because of the slope but other wise all one level makes life easier. also pleased to see the corner pantry in the kitchen gone, I hate them.looks like you and your young family will end up great home..

siriuskey thank you for the corner cavity slide photos, they will definitely work perfectly in our study space. Admittedly we hadn't planned on building a split level home, but we weighed up either stairs in the home or the need for a deck with stairs in the backyard.....and much prefer the idea of no raised deck with stairs. Instead we'll have a low alfresco area (without hand rails etc.) that we believe will increase the feel of the backyard space (and interaction with kids), rather than separating it with a deck at another level. Entry to pantry greatly improved, pleased that it removes corner cupboards too!

Thanks also to many of you for your preferred suggestion to have the bedrooms and bathrooms both accessing a hallway (rather than via the rumpus) for privacy. This is very much noted and it's been on my mind, I've been trying alternative layouts, whilst trying to avoid a passage all the way to the back of the house!

here's some variations for bedroom access...(rough measurements need to be further refined depending on which variation you might prefer)

how about this one with wiws

hi there, the split level makes good sense with easy access for the kids playing outdoors. I was just looking back at your original plan and thought that with having a young family it would be better to swap the laundry/bath to have the kids bedroom together and moving the guest room to Bed 4, and then I noticed your last post suggesting this, I personally think that would really work. Would it be possible as Brixnmorta thought to have access to the garage via the kitchen even possibly combining the Mud room and laundry into this area, ie; using some of the rear of the garage with a door giving access to an outdoor clothes drying area. the following photos of a kitchen and laundry divided by a sliding was done by a Sydney Designer in a Federation house in Willoughby Sydney. Who wouldn't mind doing laundry here. cheers

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Like OKlouise 3rd drawing with the Bedroom next to study but perhaps remove the WIW and replace with a wardrobe at the other end of the bedroom so that the WIW space would allow for separate WC plus another in the bathroom. Would prefer laundry else where though. I think 3 toilets is a good thing in a 4 bedroom house, especially when you have guests. cheers

Thanks again oklouise for the designs, my preference is for the 2nd version. Yes siriuskey it seems the laundry is not fitting well along this side of the house. I love the design and images that you've added of kitchen/laundry, both ends look to have external doors and natural light which is a huge plus in that design! We could revert back to an earlier version of our plans where we had the laundry/pantry at the rear of the garage (behind the kitchen). It has been altered somewhat since, being that the home is now split level, the back of the laundry/pantry wall would have to lineup with the end of the ensuite/WIR wall of our current floorplan. (snap shot of previous laundry/pantry idea below). The reason we moved the laundry near to the bathroom was to steal a bit more backyard space on the entertaining side.....

oklouise your 3rd version works well with the bathroom, WIW, WC combination. Just not keen on internal laundry as I'd really like it to have an external window/door.

With the previous laundry/pantry design (as above) we were leaning towards the door to garage being via the laundry, rather than the WIP.

i haven't yet fully investigated the laundry near the kitchen but searching for solutions i found this idea with a saving of about 10 sq m and keeping the childrens' WIWs. It's such a great house with very generous rooms but, if you're happy with the slightly reduced bedroom, there might be other savings that could further reduce costs, contribute to the quality of finish and the size of the backyard

Hi there, I have sketched in what could be possible keeping everything on the same level as the kitchen. I have taken from the kitchen laundry photos I posted for you and extended the kitchen sink wall right across into what would be the laundry, this would have a window/glass door installed for light and access to clothes drying, with a sliding door to close this area off as per photo. The Pantry would also have a sliding door access next to the steps, the bench in between would still house the cooktop and Fridge. Oven?, this could be installed in the island as I have in my house, I have the cooktop above that in the island,. something for you too consider.

Oklousie changed the shape of your entrance this area could take the place of a mud room for putting down stuff when either entering via front door or garage.

Does your property have water access or is the roller door just there to access the yard, perhaps this door could have some clear panels for light.

Your Rumpus & guest bedrooms a good future potential to become a granny flat for a parent. It would be great to have access to a toilet and shower from there, It's only money

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Garage door with see through panels to light up interior space, this one is very glam.

making the house split level could change the outlook from the living spaces, I'am sure Motton has considered this.

High glass panels/windows above the the cook top area would certainly give light into the pantry/laundry.

Re the stairs a bit of extra width could possibly be gained from the study area?

despite many attempts i haven't found a successful laundry near the kitchen without compromising something else and attempting to satisfy all wishes and suggestions this variation has the children's bedrooms (with WIWs) and study with private hallway access to the family bathroom and separate toilet (with sound insulation) The laundry and guest room open either directly or through a short hallway from the rumpus and there's an optional guest bathroom (granny flat, teenage retreat?) for easy access from the rumpus, deck or outside Most external windows and doors have been excluded as these should be determined by outlook but this plan fits within similar footprint to the original house although at around 400sq m perhaps some extra size reduction may be necessary

John & I have just been looking back on your 2 x plans and congratulate you on a great design. we also agree that the split level situation makes placing the laundry into that area unlikely.

I have tried to do a bit of cutting and pasting as you did to try and show what we think could really work, The current position of the WC doesn't work as when the door is open that's what you will see from the family room, annoying.

Move the new bathroom/toilet layout next to the Ensuite and behind the study, then the Laundry which could have an external glass door and a sliding pocket door which would throw light back into the Family/Passage, then place the 3 bedrooms next to each other, you would have to do some tweaking of these to fit. Would still have loved a small ensuite in the 4th Bedroom.

Just one other thing that I keep coming back to is the placement of the fire place, I think it looks out of place and could be moved to a side wall, making the opening between Family and Rumpus cleaner.

Would you also consider doing stacking or large sliding external doors that come together as per the study on the Family/Rumpus room, we did this with an internal courtyard and is brilliant.

Wow oklouise and siriuskey you are both incredibly generous with your time and suggestions. So many great points continue to be highlighted, for which we are ever so grateful. I've printed it all out and we'll have a good look through it together and be in touch..

Thanks so much zoelayla we're on the right track as we've taken a ladder to the block and placed it on the tray of a ute to see our full outlook and view! We'll definitely be widening the steps (thanks to oklouise) and yourself, and pantry window tip is very helpful. Congrats on your 16th house - what an achievement!!

Good luck with the build.

Sorry but I would sack the draftsman. He/shes no architect. That roof is a nightmare. I try and think about the function of each room and how you would live in it. The entrance is like a cricket pitch but no where to put the bat and ball when you are finished. You come in from the garage or entry door and you are in the middle of nowhere.. Where you going to put you shoes and jacket. And if you want to use the toilet or wash your hands went you get home you have a 20m trek through the house.?? Don't like the bedroom 1 right at the front door and the doors are all hung wrong. You are going to be walking around them all day. The ensuite is badly sized. Shower to narrow, toilet too long and no basin. You going to be opening that door with dirty hands. Think about the floor space to dry your self and dress/undress. Cavity sliders are a pain. Like you have to open them almost all the way to get through where an opening door you glide through. With cavities also you mostly have to walk into the corner of a room to get in and out (study and rumpus) where as a normal door it 1/2 a step less. Master bedroom walk-in wardrobe is dumb. Draw it on the ground, work out how your clothes will hang, and see how much room you have left. Same for the bedroom 3 and 4 wardrobes..Dumb. What were you thinking with that pantry.. It like 8 steps in then 8 out again. Pantry should be more square, have a butlers sink in it. Be the food prep area, pots dishes etc out of sight especially in an open plan place. Be light and the food perpetration area be close enough to the door so you can converse with the guests or family other wise you might as well have a maid who is not seen or heard. Bed 3 and 4 are miles away from a bathroom. The toilet is probably OK in size, just needs a bigger door. 720 you are going sideways through it. Bed 2 backs onto the shower and toilet. Which room are you going to put your little kid in. Long way from mum and dad.

Well Motton M there's some tweaking points to think about and add to your list before your final plan is formed. Just one thing from this is that I did want to ask about the Roof, and what style you had planned for your new house, the split level could add $'s to this. I think we're all going to be waiting on your response to ccra. Good luck with that x