Oops I missed out Dilemma 2: I hate the G shaped kitchen. We can reorganise the WIP and WIR around that space. It measures a generous 5100 (south wall) by 4900 (west 'wall'). Any ideas on kitchen layout gratefully received. The house will be furtherest off the ground level at the South East Corner with a view south as well as East (country living!). I would like a study nook in the kitchen area, too maybe along the south wall. Which way should the island bench face? BTW I think the 'lounge' will turn into a bedroom with the 'dining' slightly extending and becoming 'lounge/dining' once we move the laundry.

Are you able to bump any walls out, or do you have to keep to the same overall space? Could you push the garage in a bit (losing the hallway at that end) and bump out the retreat/master bedroom section? This might help with the bore water pipe?

Then move the laundry to the retreat end and swap the ensuite/WIR to where the laundry currently is. This gives better connection between the master and retreat.

I agree the G shaped kitchen is not ideal. Perhaps make it an island instead and add some extra cabinets along the WIR wall.

Where is your entrance?

I suggested bumping out the wall of the retreat whilst pushing the garage towards it to my partner, but he thinks that makes too many roof lines to manage. We might just have to lose a bit out of the retreat for the garage. Our covenant is 200sqm of living space and this is 206 or 207. We really don't want to expand the footprint any more as this is well and truly big enough (too big!) for the two of us plus (possibly) elderly parents.

Funny you ask where the entrance is as that was our draftsperson's question. We will enter through the laundry. Guests will enter via the angled al fresco ... we have to work out how to make it a definite entry point. It will be either side of the angled portion of wall.

We currently have a 10 m square 3 door barn style shed on the north side of the house which will be 7.5m from the house. The house will project 3.5 m in front of the shed.

I will attach a mud map if I can draw one well enough.

Whoops! Let's try something big enough to see...

Would mean that you would access the laundry via the garage or the retreat...

THanks ... I think the lounge is actually going to become a bedroom. the entry as you have added it is too far down the house as that will be too far from where cars are parked. Visitors will park in front of the shed, we will drive behind it to the garage. We will probably add a garden wall to make the main bedroom and retreat more like a granny flat ... but not on the plan as we can't have dual occupancy by covenant. :)

my suggestion simplifies the possible roof shape and reduces the length by 2m and depth by 1m and reduces the overall size of the house by about 15 sq m ..a picture of your preferred roof style will allow some more variations and a better idea of the alfresco

Aloha Linda,

Marcus here from mishack.

We have a very cost effective preliminary due diligence service called Map It whereby we create a 'Shack Map' on your site based on your brief and test the reality of that against an overview of planning and building reg's governing your site and any easements, covenants etc. This helps to mitigate significantly problems with the design process before you get too far down the track as it seems may have happened in your case.

Here is a link to 'Map It' on our site.

http://www.mishack.com.au/system/#map

Cheers with Aloha,

Marcus ॐ and Maxximus

oops...forgot the 4th bedroom!! this plan is 24.5m long (without the alfresco) and 10.2m deep totalling 213.4sqm excluding garage and alfresco...has parents suite, 3 double bedrooms with 2.7m wardrobes, laundry and mudroom through garage or entry porch, compartmented bathroom, generous kitchen with walk in pantry and 3.5m island and the simple rectangular shape allows for skillion roofs and alfresco to be added in multiple directions

I note you preferred a 'skillion' type roof. Here's some images of some built mishacks for you to show the style which is mid-century based. Here's a link to our Instagram feed so you can get a feel for the vibe we are inspired by.

https://www.instagram.com/mishack_design_with_soul/

Also at mishack. we work strongly with a design to capture as much of the solar passive benefits of each site that we can.

Yes we are architects but through a modular design system and a combination of site built and prefab we can deliver a very cost effective way to have an architect designed home.

Cheers with Aloha,

Marcus ॐ and Maxximus

mishack

I will show my partner your website as your philosophy certainly matches with ours. We are in northern NSW and plan to owner build as all the builders here have quoted well beyond our budget on 200sqm plus garage plus alfresco. Garry has plenty of experience with renovations and we have friends who will subcontract most other aspects to a level we are happy with.

The zone ideas are how we started on the design for our project. We have paid for 3 drafts with our draftsman but still haven't quite got it right.

Now this extra glitch of running out of space (ironically) on a 5 acre block. It's all about where we want to place the house for privacy, an easterly view and lots of northern sun as we are in a 4 season climate with need for winter heating and summer cooling. Yet our bore pipe to the tank at the rear of the block runs diagonally across the spot where the garage is supposed to be. We also have mains water but it's drip feed.

oklouise thanks for the ideas. We have actually really thought about the zoning. We want the two bedrooms on the southern side with a bathroom between for privacy. We also want the eastern lounge room to pop out as a dining room in that spot will waste a gorgeous view. We had a straight alfresco and thought it was all a bit hohum. I will attach the first and second drafts to see where we have come from.

The first draft we had drawn was too boring for us ...

Garry hated draft 2 as he thought it was too wide for solar access and didn't give cross ventilation (north to south or vv). It's only positive was the flow of west/east cross ventilation. Also the bathroom was too tucked away for guest use when we are using that nice alfresco area. We quickly scrapped all those ideas... LOL

As I said, we like skillion roof lines and are planning on clerestory windows to maximise northern sun. Some raked ceilings will probably happen too (and definitely 9 foot ceilings in living areas).

the mudroom/laundry will probably be incorporated into the hallway. Unlike some on this forum previously I don't object to entering through the laundry. It kind of gives a landing spot for groceries from the car on those cold days you don't want to leave the whole house open.

The garage may actually be a carport to ensure we can have ventilation come through that way and to help us with budget.