the Rivervale with the Urban facade certainly looks close to what you were after

Sorry to hear, yet another story of people on the same old merry go round.......you need to work out what you want - a professional custom design solution for your home vs trying to massage an off the shelf option......

Whilst you’re particular brief is unique, and has its challenges, a designer with the chops, creative skill, experience and appropriate approach will be able to sort it out for you relatively easily without compromising the functionality of the residence........well, that’s how we operate - furthermore, we don’t stop at just meeting the needs, we do solutions with outcomes that exceed client expectations - this should be super exciting and you should be all fired up about how awesome your new house is going to be....anything less you are selling yourself short........the offer’s open - feel free to give us a call if you are interested in how we can potentially help you - this is what we do :) PD

We‘ve had a few months of uncertainty in our plans, we actually pulled out of the land, as our house wasn’t selling, and we had decided to stay where we were for a few more years. Fast forward a few months and our house sold off market, our land was still available, so we renegotiated on the land and we exchanged just before Christmas, we will be moving into a rental in 2 weeks, so its all happening again!

We’ve had a discussion with our son, and due to the delays he’s decided he’d prefer a lump sum of cash instead of his ‘wing’, the same was offered to our daughter, however they have decided they’d still like the granny flat so we have changed plans slightly.

After 3 sketches and $6k we’ve ditched the previous designer, Ive come up with something quiet different, we‘re calling it the ‘H’ house, we’ve been to a few builders, who love the concept, but we haven’t progressed any further, one drew it up from my graph paper which is below, would love your thoughts....

I know Paul DS will probably say its not doable, or its immature design, or will kill the budget, but that’s all good, I‘lol take all feedback :) (Maybe ill be surprised and Paul may give me a C for effort)

A few things... theatre room will be 5x4, I think we need to rejig the smaller bedrooms a little, add some storage etc

So here goes....

love this concept with the central courtyards and northern access for the minor bedroom although suggest that windows on the south wall of the family living areas areas need to be smaller, higher, narrower or eliminated to avoid views of the bedrooms from public rooms..what external appearance are you considering and will you include a pool?

Thanks for your feedback oklouise, as always I appreciate your time to respond, yes we will have a pool, likely in front of the living room, off the alfresco, considering a small verandah off the master overlooking the pool.

In regards to windows, the living area will be lower (dependant on contours, but likely 600-900) than the minor bedroom areas and there will be a garden to help screen the bedroom area. The sliding door into the courtyard from dining I think we will change to a single glass door and window, and the back window of the living will be a single highlight window to allow for furniture placement. The bedrooms wont really be used, as it will be just my husband and I in the main house, and we plan to put our collection of our travel art on the bedroom wall hallway with access to all bedrooms not from the hallway. The middle minor bedroom we’ve already thought to have the entrance closer to the bathroom.

In regards to facade, still looking at a contemporary/mid century modern facade, but will need to wait till we progress further.

Love the new idea with internal courtyards, I would just like to add a couple of my ideas for you to consider. I find the access from the garage difficult so by adding a mudroom access and extending the theater makes better use of the space. I have swapped the games room with a bed room still keeping the frontage asymmetrical

Thanks for your feedback Siriuskey, agree the laundry powder set up needs some work (would like some storage/linen cupboard space), and utilizing the additional metre for the theatre seems ideal to extend through that area (for minimal cost), that would make the laundry internal as such, but I suppose if there is a sliding glass door near the mud room/storage area, than it would all be part of the same.

do you like my sliding door into bedroom :), plan on that being a large hidden sliding door that you seem to love! would also like to add one between living and study. I think that concept will work well with just hubby and I in the house.

Love the full height hidden sliders that look like a wall, made a couple of rough changes to your plan, being lazy in not drawing it myself,

Thanks Siriuskey. Not lazy at all, appreciate your time. All good ideas. will play with the laundry/powder/mud room option a little. I don’t like walking through laundry to get to bathroom.(my laundry will have to be forever tidy!) but I do like the seperate entrance from the garage.

in regards to pool we have considered putting the pool in the courtyard area but ultimately we want a large pool out the back, so we can sit outside enjoy the bush and pool together.

i think the courtyard will just be a nice zen garden, a nice area to read a book, a small water feature, another quiet outdoor space.

some ideas for you to consider with a mudroom and steps down through laundry to kitchen with the private pwder room, storage and options for granny flat, master bedroom and minor bedrooms but the floor plan is well over 500 sq m so probably needs some review but what is the space next to the wip behind the kitchen? and maybe the whole front wing could be pushed further to the east to allow the formal entry to arrive more in the centre of dining area and to allow for some parking on the western end of the garages and make the two wings more balanced

better access for laundry and powder room and floor area reduced to 500sqm

More suggestions for you, trying to balance the front of the house and give you a grand entrance that when you enter if the sliding doors to the kitchen family room are open you will have a view through the house and out to the bush, this entrance can be resized.

The access to the kitchen currently is a long way from the garage and unloading, and the pantry is wrong having to walk right across the kitchen to enter it, leaving it open at both ends makes access so much easier. I have removed the bay window as I don't think it is necessary and will reduce costs to your build.

The powder room is now opening from the entrance and not via the kitchen. and in easy reach of both the Media, games and family rooms

The new mudroom and laundry have direct access from the garage and kitchen with a sliding glass door opening from that into the drying courtyard and a sunny place to sit to take a break from doing household stuff.

I've added Linen cupboards in the bedroom wing.

The master suite has a sliding door to the pool side of the house which will give you access to a bathroom when using the pool.

I will have another look at the Granny flat tomorrow

PS: The laundry could be made longer by moving the Fridge to the Back wall of the WIP so you can see and access it through the opening

Thank you both so much. I really appreciate the time that you both have invested in this.

oklouise thanks for the idea of the laundry access from the garage area, certainly makes sense. I like the placement of the games/rumpus room then having the bedrooms grouped together, not sure about the bath taking up a lot of the back wall, but understand the reasoning why, at the end of the day, if we have to reduce size it makes sense to reduce hallways etc.

i do have a little pet peeve and that is walking into a house and seeing furniture! Hence having the additional width in the dining to do exactly as what siriuskey has suggested, walk in and see straight out to the view.

i like the wider entrance as suggested by siriuskey, I think it keeps the house open.

I think I’ll like the opening of the master/study on the rear wall (north wall), one to allow our large corner sofa wall space and would stop us having to walk around the lounge to get into the bedroom.

siriuskey in regards to kitchen, agree that your design is more efficient but I do love the look of the continuous bench from the main part of the kitchen into the pantry, i don’t want any doors on the pantry as we have one now and it’s always open (despite a very expensive hafele hinge which allows opening both ways!), however again it makes sense to simplify the kitchen to save money and spend it on more important things because at the end of the day it will still look just as nice.

The theatre room needs to be 3.8x4.8 minimum, we have two theatre lounges from our current house, that fit perfectly into that space (our current the room size), as it will be a true theatre room (my brother is in the business!)

The only thing I’m not sure about is the powder coming off the main gallery/breezeway area)

it’s all about balancing budget/size/design...

can I ask if the sqm mentioned includes the granny flat alfresco?

thankyou both again for all your time and effort!

The doors to the pantry are not necessary, when looking from the living area at the kitchen you would just see more of the same kitchen cabinets, I actually prefer this.

Your courtyard garden between the living and bedrooms would be lovely as an easy care Japanese style garden, stones gravel and water feature.

The powder room off the main breezeway is 3m deep so would be totally private when being used.

It's all in the budget, have you considered using black metal paneled doors and windows

my suggested plan includes total floor area of 500sqm including the granny flat

Thanks oklouise, we weren’t planning on an alfresco for the granny flat, originally planning for an electric roll out awning and deck or pavers, so that makes the size well within expectations :)

To add to everything else, a different take on the granny flat, it could have a separate toilet and a bigger vanity, Japanese shower and bath.

I had already added an alfresco before I saw your last post, the new entrance is via the courtyard, or guests could enter via the alfresco sliding doors.

The courtyard also gives access to share your laundry with the granny flat via the glass sliding doors into the mudroom laundry which I've enlarged..

A vergola pergola would be perfect for your alfresco and the flat as this will control light and weather.

i'm wondering if the main alfresco will screen too much of the view and make the kitchen and dining area too dark so made changes to suit the preferred more open view from the front door out towards the view and reduced the size of the media room and doorways in family and study as requested ...the total floor area of everything including granny flat, garages, alfresco, verandahs and porches is under 500sqm but doesn't allow for extra thickness of brick veneer or double brick walls

I agree that a deep alfresco could make the interior dark and I think that by using The Vergola Pergola system will balance that out

Hoping that we should get plenty of light in through alfresco. We’ve currently got 11foot ceilings inside and it’s carried outside to the alfresco, alternatively clerestory windows along the back wall (with the 11-12 foot ceilings), against say a 9foot alfresco ceiling, should Also allow light to enter the living/dining area, however we will definetely consider a Vergola if necessary depending on final design.

Hmmm, so siriuskey asked to see our plans on another post.

Ive been a little hesitant,as we’ve got the plan to a point where we are really happy. As these plans have been 12 months in the making I’m feeling quiet attached to them.

The pavilion plan (2nd design) came in $492K over budget (despite the designer and builder knowing our budget from the outset), so we went back to the drawing board and combined the first two designs to come up with this plan.

The good news-its within budget, its ticks our boxes, it fits the council requirements, we managed a mud room from garage into kitchen area, we have a small bar area outside our theatre room (we have previously had a theatre room that was used a lot, and regularly had an esky in there full of beer and wine!). The roof is flat (or 2 degrees or whatever it has to be), and there has been a lot of thought in the design to ensure its efficient (cheap) to build. We have a few wow factors, the little lines near the stairs will be timber screens, obviously we have a few windows that overlook the pool and the ensuite bath will have a perfect outlook.

The compromises-due to council rulings we can only use 50% of our frontage, can only have max 600mm fill, 22 degree driveway, and we have BAL levels to contend with.

We have had basix/nathers and bushfire assessment done.

the bad news- bedrooms are narrower than what we want, but in order to fit the 50% width requirement, this was the compromise (they are 3.3x4.1), bathroom is small but we were trying to be efficient with the stepdown, 3680x2570, however this wont be used much and so we think it works, study is a bit of a funny shape, again we are fitting within the rules and we think this is the best option. We have made a few minor changes from this plan but it pretty much will be this.

We are currently trying to get approval for the bifold window in kitchen from the RFS, if they say no we will change it out. Once this is sorted we will be going to council.

Facade is mid century modern and we love it. We have added a carport to granny flat and have had to make the granny flat smaller due to council requirements (currently 82sqm).

Its interesting that all these rules about council requirements came out with this design, when the two previous designers didn’t take them into consideration!

any way as people have been so helpful previously, ill be kind and show you the plans, now to get it built!

congratulations, looks excellent!!

Thanks OKlousie, I really have to say that yours and siriuskey’s Input was extremely valuable in the process, and i really appreciate the time you both took to provide feedback. There’s a little bit of both of you in the design :)

Wow. Looks awesome. I hope you enjoy your bath with a view. I’m jealous of so much space

Looks great!

At last it has all come together, it is looking amazing, but.

I can see an issue with traffic from the garage to the kids bedrooms and laundry to kids bedrooms.

If it stays as is they will have to detour via the kitchen to get to the bedrooms instead of using the direct upper level. I also have concerns with the WC being within the family bathroom to service 3 bedrooms.

Siriuskey they have a separate powder room and en-suite. Bathroom will be fine, coming from a household of 5 with one toilet for last 2 years.
The hall is also fine, will help the kids remember to pick up lunch on way to car and help get groceries out before thinking of themselves ;)
One small tweak in the self contained apartment could think of disabled access in bathroom toilet by combining both if it is a “granny” flat.

Thanks for your comments siriuskey, as we will soon be empty nesters, the access to the bedrooms will only be for guests. We didn’t want to reduce the bedrooms any further, in fact we had the 4th bedroom smaller to incorporate a separate loo, but we felt the equal size bedrooms were more important (we can put a queen size bed in each). in regards to accessing those bedrooms, I suppose when I think how our kids lived when they’re younger, theIt bedrooms were down three stairs then up 17 stairs to the bedrooms, so while it may be a little inconvenient, it wouldn’t impact life to much. We actually added the stairs near the garage following your suggestion on our previous plan :) I think it will work really well for us.

We are a shoes off house, so we always have shoes near our garage entrance, so having the mud room hidden (or out of the main hallway) was a must have.

i think the design works for us, theres been lots of decisions along the way, and the consequences of each change have been considered.

Thanks again for your help

Sorry just read at top the flat is for your daughter. I would then ask designer to ensure the wall between toilet and bath is not load bearing allowing easy removal for future proofing

This an expensive new build so now is the time to really look at the details and how it will all flow for a family. A separate family bathroom toilet should be included in a house of this quality,not having to rely on using the master ensuite , or as it is go via the kitchen family to the powder room..

I also prefer that the access to the garage via a mudroom collection space on the same level as the bedrooms is far better than creating a bottle neck in and out of the kitchen,

The attached 2 bed flat is for the owners daughter and her husband..

It's been a very long enjoyable process mummugabz so I hope you don't mind my added comments on what will be your new amazing home

the final plans do look good but couldn't help playing with some ideas for my own entertainment but would like the fridge closer to the action and the powder room easy access from the theatre and the groceries carried in from the car to the kitchen is more direct but there will always be lots of diffrent ideas and you need to have what suits your lifetsyle and we look forward to seeing the results, happy building

Thanks for your feedback everyone.

OKL thanks for your feedback, and I hope you enjoyed the exercise we had played with the placement of the stairs from garage but I didn’t want to walk directly into kitchen, next to the fridge we had 120cm place for two wine fridges and cabinetry above (sort of a bar area). Our dining table is 3.2m so the dining room is deliberately long to fit it.

i don’t mind your mud room set up, and it’s one thing I’ll consider.

our bedroom area is a tricky one, we have a BAL ruling that we are trying to conform too, hence the layout as it is, I’m happy to move it around(but have become fond of the bath in front of the window), also a must have was a true double shower (more than 2m), we had a full walk in shower in our last house which was 4m wall to wall (walk in either side), which we loved and was used regularly, this has always been a non negotiable with this house.

We have looked at making the entry smaller (And making beds bigger) but we just feel that it needs a nice entry as it’s not very long.

SK in regards to the main bathroom, our last home had the toilet in the main bath (and it was bigger than this home!) and we didn’t really have any issues, so happy for that to be a compromise in order to have equal size bedrooms. Like I said I weve made decisions based on our options and chosen the ones that we felt worked for us, balancing everything out, this is the end result that we are happy with.

Again thanks for your help, I’ll post photos if and when it’s ever finished!

adjustments to the mudroom to allow for wine fridges, a 3.2m dining table and a separate toilet for the bathroom and the ensuite has a 2m shower and a bath with a view, space for bigger vanities and dual access to the wiw

Great to see the family bathroom with a separate WC Oklouise, The following rough floorplan shows another bathroom with a separate WC, much like a 3 way bathroom. I have tried to simplify the floorplan and do away with small cupboards.

And always remember to have your screen in the Media room away from the entrance so not to have people walking across in front of the screen.

Oh and while we haven’t got access from the mud room to the bar/hallway we have built the frame to ensure that we can open it if needed at a later date.🙂

congratulations, i think the plans look excellent, hope you can find another table to suit the lovely outlook, well done and look forward to more updates

Looks awesome, great plans and site. Hope your build goes well. Sorry to hear about the fire, awful, but glad you have a positive attitude going forward.

Hey you!!!
Looks fab.
Now...which was my room again, lol

@kiwimills ahhh there you are! As usual you can pick any room for your next visit to Oz :) Nice to see you drop in!

I actually followed this thread! From way back...

It Looks fabulous I am very glad that you are prepared to be able to open up the wall so as there's access fro the games and Media to the powder room and kitchen for FOOD you know you're " gunna have to do it"

How's it going ? U in yet?
You loving the country life?
Great flower stalls on that road, or use to be!
$2 bunches..

Can you look at my 'tiny house' the size of your powder room..lol

https://www.houzz.com.au/discussions/6042198/those-with-an-eye-for-colour

If you have any other ideas.
I got some good ones already.
But throw any more around that you think might work.

Hi Kiwi, we are nearly there, delays with our timber floor (major dramas) has led us to be delayed 2 months. But nearly there!

Wow, loooooove it!

Kitchen, yummmm

Floors, 2 mths, what the! But hey, nearly there, so happy Christmas!!!

Thanks for sharing.

:)