The upper floor toilet needs a basin. Which bedrooms are for the kids? If it's 2 and 3, I'd switch them to 4 and 5 (and make them a bit bigger). That way if your parents move in the kids won't go through their living area to get to bathroom.

Laundry doors need relocating. Possibly walk into opened front door when walking through from garage for example. Laundry is a generous but could be reduced to 1800mm if you needed to save a few bob. This would affect upstairs so adjust here as well.

Front door/entry look's directly into bathroom.

Bathroom's appear quite small in proportion to house. Add a WC to bathroom or have closer by.

Stairs down to yard?

Bedrooms look to be minimum sizes, would be better to increase them a bit. An extra 250mm to each room will make a massive difference. Reducing a living space by 250mm to compensate for the extra bedroom size will have little affect as they're already a reasonable size.

Increase dining and library same as bedroom's.

By reducing a bit here and increasing a bit there you can have a great home because overall it is quite good already!

From what I'am seeing it doesn't appear to be a child friendly design, kitchen family?, Toilet missing from bathroom. the laundry?, is this a mud room, piano position. Planning for the kids to get bigger I would like to see a more open plan for better flow good luck

Hi all, really appreciate your comments thank you.
@bigreader- the kids rooms are 3 & 4, on the right side of the rumpus, as we would need to move into bed 2 to begin with (bed 1 is too far away, they are only 1 and 3 and don't want them searching that far for us in the middle of the night, or stairs between us that young).
Good consideration though and one I hadn't considered. We anticipate my parents wouldn't move in until kids are gone. But if they did move in early, they would probably get bed 1 for a few years so they have more privacy.
The upper floor toilet has a basin but it is not shown on the plans for some reason :)
@MB Design & Drafting
Good idea for laundry door position change. Do you think the south end of the room would work better- so kids are closer to their rooms and groceries come in closer to the kitchen?
The front door will look straight down the stairs at the bathroom, however it will be looking at only the bath and the big picture window over the bath (for privacy during bathroom use, I will have either shutters or a one-way sheer blind). Will that be ok?
The WC is across the hall (1m from bathroom) is that too far do you think?
Thank you I will try to see if increasing bedroom sizes can be done! :)
@siriuskey yes the laundry is also a mudroom. Piano is in that little nook so that it will be publicly used- we will likely spend most of our family time upstairs spread around the dining room, library and lounge. Thank you for replying I appreciate it!
I should mention, I am in Australia so the sun is to the north of the house.

Are you a music teacher , I was always told that pianos should be against an internal wall?, having it where it is now breaks up the flow of the rooms also a very noisy position.

Opening the front door and looking straight into a bathroom regardless of a view across the bath and out the window, doors are always open, this isn't good design this main bathroom should have a toilet especially with little ones not to mention older ones.

The separate toilet feels like an after thought by who ever is doing the plan, not a good look to have the door opening straight into a room, toilets and bathroom are always best with exterior windows.

Very pleased to hear that you will using the bedroom near the kids until they get bigger.

Sorry for all the negatives but building a new home doesn't come cheap, I would expect more from the design and designer, I can't help but feel that you would be disappointed with the current layout

Thanks siriuskey. I don't teach music anymore but yes used to teach piano. Pianos should be on an interior wall - or at least 8 inches from the wall if exterior. The walls either side of it are only half height (the piano is only 1300mm high) so most adults can see straight over the top of it, I hope that will make it less of an obstacle?!

Open to suggestions of other places to put the piano and the separate toilet (both upstairs and downstairs WCs) if you (or anyone else!) has time?

It's a builder plan that I've modified, and I'm certainly no designer ha. And I've never built before. So I don't mind the negative comments - I wouldn't put it on the internet and ask for advice if I did ;)

I'd have laundry door's where tub currently is. I'd also run the linen across the wall against rumpus so it's the full width of laundry.

I'm never keen on having direct view's from other area's straight into bath's or WC's. Worse still from a front door that is a very public area. Same with WC, nothing worse than needing to do a nudie run from bathroom, through a fairly public area (rumpus or entry) to quickly go to toilet before hopping shower/bath...

A picture window across a view in bathroom is ok with shutters/blind/etc.

I'd also relocate the upstair's WC. Again direct view's from stairs, kitchen, etc.

Could give the main bedroom and ens the good view by relocating them around with media room and other bedroom to street side. Use the bedroom as a study with a view out to street perhaps? Most kid's don't appreciate a nice view but parent's do.

Have the bathroom across to be with bedroom 3 and 4.

Hi there, I have just been playing around with your plan, something for you to consider, bathrooms don't need a view better bedrooms and living. Bathroom layout to be worked out.

Re the piano it would fit perfectly into that cove but I can see a problem with the kids running around as they do and this becoming a problem perhaps better in the living room space and keeping that open.

Thanks @siriuskey, I really appreciate that you gave up your time to do the markup! I spent some time today redoing part of the ground floor - photo attached, hope it makes sense. I've moved the bathroom up next to the toilet as suggested (thanks to MB designs & drafting as well), and now the two bedrooms on the left side of the house are much bigger and the bathroom makes more sense!

@MB Design & Drafting- I have rearranged the laundry as suggested and it looks much better thanks.
Do you have any solutions for the upstairs WC? I can't think of any! I probably would just keep the door shut anyway- as we do all the time now in our current house (1 year old son likes to put everything in the toilet).
I've relocated the bath so visitors can no longer stand at the front door and look down the half flight of stairs into the bathroom.

I've left bed1 as it is- I'm a nurse so I want to be far away from the family both to avoid waking them on my early shifts, and when sleeping on nightshift.

Hi if you can, redesign entry to the kids bedrooms so that doors are not directly off rumpus. A little hallway makes it more private. My nephew had his room off their rumpus and ended up moving to a smaller study, permanently. Consider noise as they get older, not everyone sleeps at same time. Good luck

Another rough idea

I know you don't have a window or door in your pantry but this is my favourite kitchen/pantry/laundry with full height sliding door which would close off your pantry from the kitchen

clever you with your 3D drawing, the changes are great, very pleased to see you expanded the indoor spaces out across the deck, much better, I would still like to see the doors to the twin bedrooms changed, aren't you lucky I will do you another rough drawing.

On another point you mentioned being a nurse and shift work, the WIR being accessed via the ensuite is not the best idea but can see how it could work for you, just a bit tight for space which is important for a layout like this. Best way for this to work is to have a long space with one door opening from the bedroom into a passage with a separate entrances off this into Ensuite & WIR.

The Laundry is still another thing I question, it's at the front of the house quite away from the BR's, where's the clothes line. Could this space have a shower/toilet for your shift work toiletries, you wouldn't disturb anyone.

Your plan is looking so much better and with more space without increasing the size.

Good work!

I did think that the toilet would benefit from opening off the bathroom which gives access to an exterior window, which I always think is important cheers.

I've noticed that there is very limited provision for storage. One tiny linen cupboard in the laundry. Where will you keep brooms, mops and the general household bits and pieces we all seem to accumulate?

We built five years ago (about to do it all over again) and I added storage cupboards to our designer's plans. As your children get older, you would appreciate somewhere to hide their ever increasing "stuff".

Developing a functional and flexible floor plan is hard for a first timer. I have to say I doubt you will be happy living with this rather flawed floor plan. Nothing flows and bathrooms, WIR and pantry are way too small. A rumpus room beside bedrooms is okay with small children but older kids will complain about noise.

Sorry about so much negativity but now it's just lines on paper and easy to rethink. Too late to change once building commences. Get the design correct now and you will have a wonderful home for your family.

no comment regarding layout issues as you're getting great input there already, but what I would mention is;
1. have you checked that you have adequate head clearance at the stairs. from looking at the plan and elevations it looks questionable. draw up a quick north-south section through that area to be sure.
2. It looks like you have a door directly at the start of your flight of stairs. From memory you need a 750mm landing between door and stair. Double check this in the NCC (BCA) Volume 2 available free online.

Hi Bendyl, Littleniffer is doing a great job rejigging the original builders plan, re linen and storage, so far there's BIR in every BR, a linen cupboard in the rumpus area which she can enlarge, the laundry/mudroom has linen storage as well.

Re Pantry being too small, could be, as so far it's a rough idea and certainly can be enlarged if needed.

littleniffer is very good with her 3D drawings so I imagine with all the input she will come up with something that suits her young family.

Our older kids loved having a rumpus area next to their bedrooms, a small kitchen would have made it perfect, which I believe is planned in the future, don't really see a noise problem except from what they might be involved in as the adults will be on the next level.

Good luck with your new build, it's always a learning curve, you nearly always end up with things that you would do differently, a bit like life. cheers

I cant read the dimensions on my smartphone, but make sure your garage is 6x6m internally minimum, ideally 7x7 so you can have a workbench.

Also you may want a dumb waiter to get the groceries to the kitchen. [a laundry chute from the kitchen may be extravagant tho :) ]

https://floorplanner.com/

Alistair would that include sliding doors?

@Kate Partenio I like the idea to have a hallway, to reduce noise
transfer from the rumpus room. I’ve added a hallway door to the left side too,
so that those bedrooms have more privacy and the option to keep rumpus noise
out of those bedrooms too. If I’ve misunderstood you feel free to say!

@homemaker111 and @siriuskey, I’ve changed the WIR to have direct access.
It now has 20cm depth shelving on the left, 40cm depth storage on the right,
and 60cm depth at the back. Great points about access etc, thank you both!

@bendyl, i can certainly see where you are coming from, not
much storage is shown on the plan. The laundry actually has 3 80x100cm wall
cupboards (over the sink and washers) plus another 2 cupboards that will each be
160 wide by 200 high, 40 deep. Then in the garage there will be about 5m of
storage cupboards for other things, and possibly a sink & bench (mostly for
washing up from paint projects!) neither my husband nor I are particularly
handy, so will not need a dedicated work bench – would be more likely to have a
collapsible work bench that we used occasionally (and just park the cars
outside while in use). I really
appreciate your comments and your viewpoint. The negativity doesn’t bother me
:) as you say, it’s just lines on a page now – this is when I need to become
aware of every possible potential change (not in 3 months when it will cost me
a lot more)!

@Alistair Dickinson Architectural Photography
it is hard to tell from what I’ve provided, but there is enough head clearance
over the stairs. The ‘landing’ in the middle of the two half-flights, is the
entire entrance hall, if that makes sense. So the ceiling height there is
2400mm. I think that the door close to the stairs that you are thinking of, is
another example of my bad explanation – it is actually a door off the rumpus,
leading to storage underneath the stairs (the half flight on the right of the
stairs is the flight leading from the entrance hall upstairs). Does that make
sense?

@brixnmorta – floorplanner.com is the
best! That’s how I’ve done the floor plan above (the one that includes beds
etc) and it also helps me to understand the space in 3D, as I can’t visualise
it from the lines on a 2D plan. Love the dumbwaiter idea – will see if I can
get it to work without having to lose any northern windows upstairs!

@siriuskey

*Well, I’m embarrassed that I never considered putting the piano in the lounge haha. That’s perfect. It can even go against the internal wall (the one with the WC on the other side of it). Thank you!!!

*In the pantry, there is a window on the northern wall, and a sliding door; it’s just not clear on the plan

*We have the laundry at front of house because we are lazy; we like to leave clothes to dry inside. Laundry has northern window so will be a nice hot room/sun to dry clothes. With access to garage, we will hang clothes in there sometimes (and leave the cars outside) (also easy access to laundry from garage in case of muddy clothes/painting etc). Our current house has great access directly from laundry to clothesline, and we still never use it (in Tasmania – it can be summer and still rain daily). I will put a line outside the rumpus probably, under the balcony, for the rare times we do hang washing outside (we are up the top of a hill, the wind will dry it without any sun). I’ll only be going down half a flight of stairs from laundry to rumpus so it's not too far to walk). It’s away from bedrooms because we tend to do laundry after dinner & don’t like to disturb the kids. Also I will have my sewing table in there, so wanted some privacy/segregation for peace/quiet/escape from kids.

*Thanks @siriuskey, the pantry will be 2000x1600 (it’s mostly just there as a toast station – it’s not a butler’s pantry in the true sense – I’m just sick of seeing crumbs on the main kitchen bench haha). So for hiding toast crumbs and holding pantry food, it is a good size. It will also have some bench space (benches of around 1600 + an 800 (L shape) just for leaving certain small appliances plugged in for frequent use, without having a cluttered kitchen bench).

*I really like the upstairs changes you made – I’ll pop up a picture from floorplanner.com – it flows much better thank you!! (I’ve left the dining and library as they are, as it enables us to have a northern window over the dining table, and to sit in the library and stare at the view while reading).

Top floor

Entrance floor and bottom floor

It looks like you have high windows on the second story to bring in light, I think these are all facing West? You might find that excessively hot in summer and difficult to block.
The current design doesn't really do much to maximize your northerly aspect.
Maybe look at bringing your 4/5 bedrooms closer to 2/study and then the kids won't have to walk across the rumpus to go to the toilet, you can also bring the northerly light in via that corner.

Richelle Aiken there are high windows on the second storey, on the wall that directly faces north. It's not my ideal amount of northern light. However we have a stunning view to the south and west, and building on a slope that angles down from north to south (hence the split level). So downstairs does not have much northern light. But I am thinking of installing solartubes in the rumpus, and two hallways, to increase the feeling of spaciousness and light.

However the entrance level will be bathed in light (and there will be translucent glass in the double front doors). The upstairs will have sun all day (eastern sun over dining, library and kitchen, then northern sun over dining, kitchen, stairs and lounge, finishing with western sun shining into the lounge and through a window in the library in the afternoons). The deck is south facing, but does not have a roof over it, so should get just enough sun (there is not a high roof over the second storey) whilst also enjoying the view.

There are large west facing windows in the lounge. In Tasmania, for 85% of the year, that will save us a lot on heating costs. For the other 15% of the year when it's actually hot, we have openable windows (with flyscreens) to allow a breeze to pass through (we will build on top of a hill so there will be no shortage of breezes haha)

Thank you for your comment :) :)

These plans are amazing! Would love to see finished product!

Hi there,

Your plan is really coming together, I prefer to use 2D floor plans as I can visualize the 3 D part, but your plans really bring things together, just a couple of things to add to the list.

Master Bedroom bathroom door would you agree to swing it the other way so who ever is sitting on the lou has a bit of privacy , the other thought was to use a pocket door, these slide back into the wall and are not external like barn doors, by doing this sliding back towards the toilet you could have a much longer vanity along the wall backing onto the WIR, and a bigger shower, built for 2 or 4........

Pantry door, I'am like you and unless the Butlers Pantry comes with Butler, not interested. But once again by using a pocket door this gives you more internal pantry wall space

Is the fridge still next to the dining, I think this is best for family accessing it without actually entering the kitchen proper.

When you layout the kitchen cupboards & appliances to your liking, just remember that if you have a gas cook top to space it away from the tall cupboard next to it for fire safety

Because you don't have a window above the kitchen bench I would still prefer one of those new square 1 1/2 deep sinks with the DW next to it. These sinks are great for holding a lot of dishes before stacking into the DW and you still have the 1/2 sink free. This will also open up the back bench space.

Still not sure about the Library/study, where will the kids relax, the Living room is out of sight and they always want to be with you, well mostly, no lounge chair to chill on. Have another look at the Library running from the kitchen and around the corner and part way down that wall. The dining table and chair could still be close to that end and the other part of the room becomes a small family area You can do a 3D drawing to see if that would work.

I would also most likely prefer the downstairs toilet door to swing the other way for toilet privacy, that's easier plumbing to the vanity in there as well.

There's some more home work for you cheers

Looks like great improvement in those plans - good luck with your build - its an exciting time for you! Seems you have thought of your privacy for shift work rest etc, and I liked your comment that you do laundry in the evenings so distance from the kids bedrooms is an advantage!

Don't forget to run plenty of Category 6 network wiring. Please DO NOT think that you can rely on a wireless-only network in your home. Our experience is 99% of the time you simply cannot rely on wireless to connect all of your appliance and devices (and those that will need connecting in the future - the VERY near future). All the best with your build. Carey

Hi,
What software did you use to prepare your Floor Plan?

Please reply to Graham@sotidi.com.au

Regards, Graham.

Hi,

Check the height of the wall over the upper stair flight by drawing a section through the building through the staircase. I can see the lower roof slopes up to the wall but is there enough head clearance

Peter

Do you have to take the groceries through the laundry up the stairs to the kitchen? A toilet more or less in the lounge? Why do you need the big doors into the lounge?

petersch58 i have attached a photo now to show the head clearance at the stairs. Thanks :) :)

@siriuskey I can't visualise the space at all unless it's in 3D!
I do like the idea of changing the swing of those doors. WCs I will certainly change. Not sure on ensuite yet.
We plan to have a double bowl sink. There is not heaps of bench space on the back wall in the kitchen. But the island is around 800x2800 and clear benchtop with nothing on it.
The library will have a big squashy reading couch :) and the lounge is within earshot - similar measurements to our current house.

@Graham Irons it's called floorplanner.com. Easy to use free webpage.

@TinaSteer a number of my family members are 60yo and older, with bad knees/hips etc. so there's a toilet upstairs so that they don't have to go up and down the staircase more than necessary. We have looked into a residential lift but an upstairs toilet instead saves us about $30,000! We will keep the door shut so no one will be looking at it anyway. The double doors into the lounge are French doors.
The groceries need to come from the front door or garage, up half a flight of stairs, to the kitchen (the house is split level, the entrance hall is like the landing in the middle of the staircase). We have plans to eventually install a dumb waiter from the laundry to the pantry and the walls are planned to allow that to be installed.

Although of course I am more than open to cheaper Alternatives to residential lifts/dumbwaiters! (Not sure I could cope with a stair lift being installed just yet ha!)

I'm sorry to say that I have only negative input also. This floor plan does not look as though the house would flow at all. Have studied Interior Design & have been involved in a lot of house plans, but sorry to say I don't think you will be happy in the long run. You have a Laundry right at your front door. This is where all your visitors will be entering. You have no external door from your laundry , so will you be carrying clothes outside through the house or will be there be a door in the garage to the outside? Bedrooms 3 & 4 need to go through the rumpus room to get to the toilet and bathroom. You dont want bathrooms & toilets to be seen from your front door, its not a good look. Your bedroom quarters should all be grouped together with access to bathroom & toilet, so you dont need to go through other rooms to get to them. Your area of your kitchen and breakfast bar seems to be too narrow if you are intending to have bar stools across there with doors opening out to a deck. If your most beautiful views are along the south & west I would consider flipping the design. Try to get your designer to put all 4 bedrooms, bathroom & toilet on the East side and make that the bedroom wing. Make the rumpus room from the internal garage wall towards the west. Move your balcony from that same point and wrap it around your rumpus room with big bifold doors that open to one side. This will give you the views and entertaining space in & out. Move the laundry door from the front entry to where the cupboard is at the moment. Leave the garage/Laundry door where it is and seen if you could get cupboards for storage along that garage/laundry wall. In your kitchen area I would extend the doors on that balcony out which will give you more room for stools along the breakfast bench. Move your toilet to the back wall of your living room near the stairs. I know that wall is long but your designer should be able to fit in a toilet and basin comfortably and what ever area remains you could either make it into a wet bar for entertaining or inbuilt shelving and cupboards below? or maybe even the piano, which will not be in a walk way now but in nook overlooking the living area; where it can be used on special occasions. I would also do the same with the balcony as below and wrap it around the living room with big bifolds opening to one side which will give you that indoor/outdoor living space especially if you have the wonderful views you say towards the south/west. Get rid of you french doors leading into the living room and open up all the space so it feel airy and roomy. With the toilet gone from where it is, the piano moved and the balcony moved out a little, your walk way is opened up, there will be a better flow into your dining and library areas without walls and obstacles. You will get a much better view out from your kitchen area, (which lets face it is where you will spend a lot of time) as you will be able to see the views to the south and west whilst standing at the sink. Where as it stands now you have a toilet and french doors blocking the view from your kitchen.

dorsey a drawing is worth a thousand words

unable to clearly read the dimensions my suggestions are based on guestimates and comments made in the discussion. I've left out most of the windows which should be based on aspect and outlook (eg there seems to be too many big windows on the west??) and i've sacrificed most of the front porch and side yard? to allow for multiple variations in bedrooms and more generous family bathroom for bathing toddlers ..this will increase the size and costs but this should be offsett against a simpler floorplan and hopefully more comfortable home

btw, "parents" on the plan refers to grandparents

OkLouise thank you so much, you've put so much work into that!! I love the changes of the now-northern guest/parent/media room, and the laundry being more internal. I really like the toilet being off the library too! Thank you again that was really kind of you and I really like it!

I think the minor bedrooms may be too small. I am going with 4x3 as my minimum size on our plans. We've gone to display homes and stood in smaller rooms than 4x3 and they seem very small.

Hi I think you will hate the laundry being at the front of the house especially near master bedroom (noisy) I would relocate to Media/Bed 5 which is near the other plumbing and will be cheaper option. Have a wide entrance for wow factor. Also, I would have a double garage door for cleaner look. Most people like open plan living areas, so I would lose the double doors and wall to living, (you could incorporate balcony overlooking entry with feature lighting and window. This would make it flow so much better. Shame about the 2nd toilet location. Also front elevation is looking less impressive than rear elevation. I think you need to rework a little. The most important thing to remember is the look from the entry... first impressions are built on this and it has massive impact. The roofline above the garage worries me. Hope some of this helps.

Gigi