initial response is to wonder why the house needs to be so big?? one way to help understand the spaces is to add some scale sized furniture and allow for traffic paths through each room and are the surrounding homes similar sizes and prices?

Hi Hannah, it is a very big house and three levels with 2-3 small children will be hard work, would you consider just two levels. You have the a formal dining room at the front of the house which is a very long way from the kitchen. The entrance/retreat is massive and appears too large, I get you want the grand entrance and stair case but, have you considered noise and heating cooling. And with such a big house having a Tandem garage instead of using some of that space for a much better double garage which I think would be expected for a house of that size.cheers

This house is built by a MEB Company the house is called Toorak by Webb-Brown-Neaves

starting from the bedroom level but all depends on the slope of the block and accurate site inspections by your designer

more compact second and ground levels so northern light penetrates deeper into the family living areas, more comfortable staircase and lift spaces, pool change rooms and downstairs laundry accessible from outside

side access for the garage allows better use of the space and avoids the a view of the garage doors from the front and there's a grand formal living and dining area extending into the lobby for entertaining with the best northern aspect and a generous guest bed study and the library would make a great downstairs nap room while the children are small and unfortunately my vintage CAD program can't replicate the curved stairs but the spaces are similar

and consider having a narrow 1500mm deep? balcony under the bedrooms and across the north side of the lobby and formal dining area...just enough for a generous eave for hot weather and create a "colonnaded" affect to balance the grand entry

Agree with genkii's comment about utilising the northern aspect a bit better.

Also agree with OKLouise's comment about the extreme size of this house. There's more than over-capitalisation to consider.

Google "embodied energy", & think about the energy & resources that will be required to build, maintain, heat & cool this house.

Then think about the future you want your children to live in.

while not my personal favourite style, building this house will provide lots of work for an army of tradespeople and suppliers as well as an ongoing team of caretakers and potentially provides accommodation for several generations

Hi Hannah,

It's an exciting and fantastic opportunity here, but just to clarify - What is your budget and what are your specific requirements? Have you designed this yourself with a draftsperson or have you used a professional designer or architect? (I actually really hope you haven't paid for this - it could be SOOOOOO much better :( ) What you have here is big house, but not necessarily that great or elegant from a design point of view - it's just very inconsistent and boxy with some non-appealing elements/layout of volume building when a customised luxury residence like this should flow and be much much better resolved. This is typical of ticking "dream" boxes (ie butlers pantry -tick, pool - tick, grand stair - tick, theatre - tick etc etc) but not with understanding of human scale, flow, siting, maximising light/orientation, architectural language or the practicalities of how all this will function practically as a residence, nor also how it will actually look...this will be one big monster of boxiness & rooms.......there's minimal "experience of space" happening, which is ultimately what architecture is all about....for a new home, or this size and what this will cost there's really no excuse not to "get it right" and invest properly into its design.

What people often fail to understand is scale and how to maximise/be efficient and effective with space...you may have a large block, but this house will make it feel smaller than it needs to. I could pull 25-30% of floor space out of this house and still tick the boxes, & make it feel better, function better, better bang for buck and worth more in the long run....that's pretty much why people pay us professionally to design their living spaces....particularly when you get to this level/type of residence...it's madness not having design experience/expertise behind what will be one of your most significant financial (& not to mention emotional) investments....that's our advice, just saying ;)

If you're interested in seeking proper professional assistance in designing your new home properly to the level you are aiming for please feel free to get in touch - this is what we do - happy to discuss/clarify further..

Kind regards,

Paul Di Stefano Design

www.pauldistefanodesign.com

With littlies in the house that grand staircase is going to need multiple child gates and how you attach them temporarily so they don't look ugly and then neatly remove them in the future is going to be a question. The second stairs of course will need child gates too, though the location and style might not present the same challenges aesthetically.

Two of the upstairs childrens bedrooms have ensuites but one does not have access to a separate bathroom. The choices appear to be to use that second door to one of the ensuites, go through someone else's bedroom to other ensuites, or go downstairs to one of the guest bedrooms. Such a large home should be able to avoid such compromises. I especially don't like the two door ensuite, it reduces wall space for towel rails and creates unnecessary complications with remembering which door to lock/unlock. Personally I think a well designed family bathroom area can give children both the privacy such things deserve and the valuable life lessons of sharing. The halfbaked arrangement of every bedroom 'sort of' getting its own ensuite is 'luxurious' yet not harmonious.

The master bedroom suite as is looks potentially like a large amount of carpet to vacuum. Perhaps that's on my mind because just prior to coming to this website I was browsing real estate listings and I saw exactly that, a huge master bedroom with mostly no purpose that I could discern. Perhaps some people want the space to spread out their yoga mats or practice their ballroom dancing and if so that's understandable, but consider that if you don't require acres of floor you are missing out the opportunity for some practical luxuries such as a separate wc in the ensuite or separate his and hers WIR's.

And further to the idea of practical luxuries, a mudroom coming in from the garage, a coat closet near the entry for your guests, well designed dedicated storage for whatever hobbies or sports the family partakes in, outdoor access and play space for the children separate to the pool for safety, a laundry chute, I'm sure there are more possible ideas variable according to lifestyle.

Perhaps it's a personal preference but I see a relationship between a study and a library so I would prefer them connected or combined. Again, it is about personal preferences, but the space on the plan called a retreat looks like a thoroughfare and is not my vision of a quiet relaxing space to retreat to. With so many rooms perhaps it is helpful to explain the function and purpose of the various spaces in more detail?

Some of the sizes seem off, for example the powder room looks huge in comparison with the tiny ensuite attached to the guest bedroom?

Heating, cooling, orientation, are valid issues which have been raised.

I think for the money you are going to spend you can do much better to achieve something which provides comfort and practicality and architectural merit.

i'm wondering about the slope of the block? do you know the angle of the slope and does it slope across the block as well and sloping down from the front??

The sample plan posted above has a much nicer overall feel, though it has something I'd avoid in a laundry accessed via the kitchen (though not too difficult to adjust). I don't mean to draw negative attention to that feature because I know some people like the laundry close by for multitasking, but what I want to emphasise is the importance of thinking about how you live and what works for you. Mere size doesn't make for a better home. (I often complain about missing some features of our previous house which was a smaller house.)

another version of your plan with furniture to help show the scale of the rooms...still a very generous sized home in the original style and layout but the smaller entry foyer allows enough space for bigger kids bedrooms and more family friendly living areas, the smaller downstairs has much less roof viewed from upstairs...unfortunately I can't reproduce a curved staircase but there should still be enough space to include a single curve and on such a great block of land with careful planning and choice of materials you should be able to have the style of home you like with all the modern energy saving features that can make this a very comfortable family home...an architect specialising in Solar Passive design should be able to help you combine your dream features with the best of modern design and I hope this rough floorplan may help identify the most important features that you want,