Hi Clareg4 - Thankyou for your kind remarks on my comments, in reading your reply I'm a little bit more aware of your intentions. Although you have mentioned the northerly aspect it would be a help to mark the north position on the drawings if you could. There are a few more comments in regards to the overall process and the look of the proposal that you might like to consider. In the face of the building - the general entry it might be more pleasant to make more prominent the part of the building forms the entry - thus that part is closer to the street and service areas like the garage would recede further back. This mighty need to be repeated on the other side to retain balance. At the moment the whole of the front is basically on a straight line, with the garage actually being more forward than the rest of the remaining part of the house. The emphasis to people coming to the house is the garage - not the entry, and maybe verandahs that might surround the entry should be further forward. It might be interpreted as if you are saying that the garage is the most important part of your house, as it is the "item in front" of the rest. One of the ways that you can save money in any Building Design, is to detail your spaces in such a way that all your furniture is included. This will allow you to trim where you have wasted space, and reduce any space due to excess circulation. This might require further detailing but it will show up areas of wasted or bad circulations and large areas. When you consider that building cost might average $2,000 a M2 or more, if you reduce your area by 10 M2 you have saved $20,000, and 10 M2 is not much on a project of this size. Also if you have 3D software number of views are always good to get an understanding of the proposal especially if you have to "sell/include/convince/persuade" other stakeholders in the project. (If you can not do the 3D pay someone to do it, the investment is generally worth the cost - there is also free software that you can use on the web - found by a simple search) Some of the windows in the kitchen- opposite the bench top - which I assume are facing north might be a bit abundant making the work areas very hot in summer. You might consider reducing the number of windows and/or increasing the eaves - a 1meter square window due north in summer is equivalent to a 1 bar electric radiator - not only would make the areas difficult to work on, but food would spoil very quickly in summer. relocating the kitchen might provide a more pleasant solution. I notice in the initial design that you have a verandah outside the laundry which I assume you were trying to include a "mud room area". In my humble experience with the countryside I must say that mud room proper is a must - there is nothing like putting your gum boots in the morning and finding out that the occasional friendly creature has crawled in during the night - not a good feeling. Also, it is good to have a proper storage for coats, jackets, boots weeps and leads. These items tend to be expensive and generally need regular maintenance as to avoid frequent replacement. I noticed, or I missed it, that you have not provided any spaces for pets like dogs washing facilities, or cat litter areas in the laundry. You might consider this a little trite but it helps to avoid issues later on, again larger scale detail of the laundry areas and say mud room might allow for this consideration for the nonhumans that might share yours and your family life. Your proposed position of the pool is certainly well placed, if you are keeping that layout it would work well. However, you would have to include the pool immediately after you finish building as a bushfire will always occur when you don't expect it, especially if you were going to build the pool "the following year". It would be good to include you fire rating assessor (BAL - if in Victoria) and your energy rater as early as possible, this will help in reducing costs in re-design. If you can afford it, you should look at windows that have a "thermal break" this means that you have windows that are low maintenance and good energy performers, they do tend to be a little expensive especially when you include double or triple glazing and high performing glass. I hope my comments are of some worth, not all might be applicable but if it improved the overall result it is always worth while. You might also like to look at my website FAQ for further points in the construction and design process. FAQ's http://www.newhomedesign.com.au/index.php/faqs-article-based General Website http://www.newhomedesign.com.au/index.php Wish you the best with the project. Michael Manias - mm407p@gmail.com - working online from Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, to Northen Queensland and Western Australia. Serving clients using Skype, Dropbox, Google drive and other Building Design Software and other methods as requested by the client.

having extra living areas downstairs suggested to me that the 4th bedroom (guest room/study/mum's retreat) upstairs would be a much better use of the family room (and also allows enough extra space for the master wiw and hall storage) and makes the "giant hallway" more useful as a better proportioned entry foyer with desk and bookshelves btw..thinking about the downstairs i'm wondering if you have any problems fitting in the cars? and, depending on available space (and unlimited resources?) i'm wondering if an extension to the walkway down the side could include a carport and wrap around to create access to the rear terrace upstairs and an entry porch for the office and allow for more options downstairs but, we need a site plan and better understanding of the angle of the driveway to consider these ideas but always best to plan the whole house even if the work is not all done at the same time

OP, OKL's plan is better from an energy efficiency point of view than your plan (your plan wastes the northern aspect with bathrooms). But DON'T just flip OKL's plan, as the orientation would then be all wrong! It's important to get the orientation right, this will greatly effect the comfort of your home & your heating/cooling requirements (& hence your bills). Read this. It's all very useful, but maybe focus on the section about orientation first. http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design Below are some generalisations. As has been requested, it would be nice to know your general location, as climates vary across our big country, so building requirements change. But generally, you want your living areas (& a large proportion of your glazing facing north). If possible, have a smaller portion of your glazing facing south & east, for cross ventilation, & try to eliminate western glazing. Bedrooms to the south & east (if they won't also fit in the north), & rarely used rooms, like garages, bathrooms & laundries to the west. Your verandah is south facing, good, as it won't shade your home in winter. Hopefully you have north facing eaves & they aren't too large. If they are the right size you'll get sun through your northern windows in winter, but the eaves will shade the house in summer, when the sun is higher in the sky. So can you knock out windows & doors wherever you want? Would be good to know where they are currently, the size of the verandah, the block dimensions & any other structures which will influence shading & privacy. I'd also be looking at some tiny house blogs/websites. 72sqm isn't tiny, but you really want an efficient house that works well, & you'll find some ingenious storage solutions that are used in tiny houses. Well designed built in storage is definitely very important in a small home. Can't see if it all fits now, while using the app on my phone. But I'd aim for something like this. The kitchen in the NE corner, running down the eastern wall (so you get good morning sun). An island bench for dining, separating the living area on the northern wall. Master in the NW corner, with the ensuite on the western wall (if it fits - important not to have the master bedroom window facing west). Minor bedrooms (& windows) on the south wall. Main bathroom or powder room somewhere on the southern wall, in the SW corner would be nice if it fits there. No idea is that all fits, just some ideas. If you're not fussed about an easy facing kitchen, you could flip this all, & have the kitchen in the NW corner, & the master in the NE corner. If you're taking off external or internal cladding, this is a good time to insulate you're walls. Also up insulation levels in the roof cavity of they're inadequate. It will greatly effect comfort, is quite cheap & the walls are very hard to do at other times. Edit: as I got the verandah location wrong, then added to my post.

Unexpectedly to me, due to it's location on the crest of the Great Dividing Range at an elevation of around 700m above sea level, Toowoomba has a climate more similar to Sydney than Brisbane. With average summer highs of only 28°C, & average winter highs of 17°C (lows of 7°C & cold wind, as has been mentioned). It's located in Climate Zone 2: Warm Temperature, the same climate zone as Sydney, not Brisbane. Though this climate zone is very varied, so care must be taken to cater for local conditions. As has been advised a few times, have a good read of the Your Home site. Read this section, Designing for Climate, for zone 5: warm temperate. http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/design-climate Along with having cooler temperatures than Brisbane, the fact that Toowoomba is inland means it has greater variation between daytime highs & nighttime lows (diurnal temperature range). This means that unlike Queensland coastal climates, some thermal mass in the home will be appropriate, so a lightweight structure isn't needed. Although a lightweight structure, on a ground-coupled slab (with polished concrete or tiles in North facing living areas) would be a good idea. As the temperature is so much cooler than tropical Queensland climates I'd advise against going too overboard with a pavilion style house. As I think it would be too cold in winter. Maybe something like two off-set rectangles, joined in the centre. Kinda like dreamer's inspirational picture, without the middle section, the two rectangular sections joined. Or just go for a more traditional rectangular house. In any case, like just about all Australian climates, you should try to build a house that is generally rectangular, the long sides facing north & south. This will give an opportunity for northern sunshine to enter home in winter, while the shorter eastern & western sides will limit the effect of hot summer western afternoon sunshine. Though I guess this house shape won't look great from the western road, as it will look very narrow from here. You could fatten it's street frontage a little bit, by having the garage to the south of the rectangular house. With such a large block you'll be able to build something that works for you. But as OKLouise said, don't just pick a plan for an average narrow block. The plan you picked is not really suitable for your block. I'd also recommend you do a lot of research yourself. As has been shown with the plan you've received, you can't rely on the builder to design a plan that will work best for you, that is appropriate for your location. So read up on the Your Home website. It's an invaluable resource when it comes to building a comfortable, energy efficient home.