Hi Blulock, I’m in the process of drafting our house plan too. Your looks great, it looks like you orientated your house well. What will be the roofing on your veranda? The reason I ask is because much of your north-facing house will be your veranda and it will block that lovely light from hitting your living areas.

Hi Yvonne. Verandah is probably the wrong term used by the draftsman... it's more of an uncovered deck so apart from the 1m northern eve there is no additional shading to the north

the only important plan is the last one and the outdoor area maybe called a terrace? and the plans look excellent although they should include furniture to make sure that the doors and walkways feel comfortable and would be tempted to steal a little extra space for the kitchen island..can you enlarge dimensions so i can be more specific?

Minor points here, but I noticed that bedroom 2 has the BIR split in two small spaces instead of one large one which is a shame because one large robe is more versatile for storing. The other point is that your master bedroom has a window facing east, can you reallocate this to the south wall instead? It’s better lighting and passive cooling potentially. We have bedrooms facing east and it’s not great.

It looks like an efficiently designed home, with no wasted space. My only suggestions would be to include a bath so it easier to bath small kids (and large dogs). You should also draw the furniture to the correct scale, which will highlight any issues with space, flow and sightlines. For instance you may find the deck a little narrow, depending on the size and position of your outdoor table setting. It looks like there is only one wall suitable for a large TV, which will dictate the furniture arrangement. Don't forget the little details such as towel rail locations. You are off to a great start.

Best of luck,

Dr Retro

of Dr Retro House Calls

Thanks for the comments. We like the eastern master window for the morning light and warmth in winter. It's a pretty moderate climate and the cooling should be fine with the afternoon breeze coming in the large northern sliding doors and exiting through open windows to the south. I've attached an enlarged kitchen image.

A small comment - the dimensions of your master bedroom are on the smaller side. A walk in robe though desired by many steals valuable floor space and adds little in functionality (especially when one side as here). It may be worth considering a wall of well-appointed joinery for a more open and spacious bedroom instead of a WIR.

I have to agree with Dr Retro House with regards to having furniture around your plan to help visualise whether you have correct spacing and also that the little details especially with bathrooms count. However, I think it’s great to have a house without bathtubs if you don’t see yourself using one. I would rather have large showers and a well-proportioned bathroom then to try and fit fixtures like bathtubs in “just in case” as it takes up valuable bathroom floor space.

a few ideas to consider and furniture to show walkways...enclosing the narrow space next to the fridge inside the pantry also adds to the linen, the DW is closer to the dirty dishes, 1050 wide corner base cabinets with 450 wide doors makes corner access much easier...the hinged door in the ens makes access too cramped so use a cavity slider or try a view form the shower instead of the loo ... i'm concerned that there could be a cold draft up the steps..could you add a door at the landing and also check the number of steps in the two sections to avoid compromising the headroom downstairs and is there an internal door from the garage to the entry foyer?

Looking great. I would move the dishwasher as oklouise said. You want it near sink, it can go under drain board, but not in a corner and importantly you want it near the drawers or cupboard you keep cutlery and crockery to help with straight unloading. Where you have it the only close space is the corner cupboard but you can have dishwasher and cupboard open together.

Furniture plans super important for lighting, power points and tv points. Don’t forget light switches. In an open plan area you want several light circuits so you can switch some off.

Can you get a window or skylight into wir for some natural light? At the end where the return is you might be able to do a dressing table with a mirror and higher window.

Hope it is your dream home. Enjoy,

Good point on the larger linen closet Oklouise, there is never enough storage space in a house, so you might have to consider sacrificing benchtop space next to the fridge (useful in itself) for this.

the space next to the original fridge is too deep and narrow for a counter, although could be useful as tall cabinets for storing big appliances, so i've included that space in the linen and enclosed the small area of flooring inside the pantry with extended counter and a closing door in line with the front of the stacked wall oven and microwave.

). We are still tossing up to whether go with the WIR or joinery. We have previously considered the shower at the window and loo opposite and just about every other conceivable ensuite and bathroom layout. There is a door to the garage and we have discussed a door on the landing. We decided early on to forego the bath. Thanks again for your thoughts!

i keep wondering about having the ensuite along the southern wall of th emaster bedroom to create closer connection to the wiw but although that makes the ensuite bigger it compromises the good sized pantry... so many different options it's very hard to know when to stop but it's all looking very good and look forward to progress reports, best of luck with your build...btw do you have to have fire shutters in your zone as, along with light switches and power points you'll also have to identify locations for the shutter controls!!

Some interesting food for thought there siriuskey! We have shifted the house out of the flame zone area and now have no need for shutters oklouise. Yes, it is hard to know when to stop but we are so grateful that you and others keep giving us some excellent ideas so that we can optimise what for us will be our last home. We will certainly post some progress reports. We are getting pretty excited as we approach our build date, still a ways off at Feb 2021 but that will be upon us before we know it.

Good to see you'll be having 1m north facing eaves, not a covered verandah OP. I'm sure you'll appreciate the warmth you get from the sun in winter.

Bedroom 3 has a western window, so may be got on summer evenings. If this room is regularly used I'd think careful about how you'll shade the window, a tree, a vertical awning, external shutter, low-e glass or tinting.

I'd probably consider adding a small South facing window in the master. Although you're not in a very hot climate, cross-ventilation will be a nice way to keep the master cool on summer evenings.

Hi Blurock,

Great plan! I love that it is so simple....that is a compliment as the KISS principal is often the best! Having said that just a few small comments....

You say the block slopes to the north: I assume you mean down to the north? The length of the eave over hang on the verandah, deck, outside room whatever you call it, can be calculated with the winter and summer sun angles of your geographic position to get the winter sun in and summer sun OUT!

I noticed the difference in bed 2 & 3 room sizes: don't know if that is much or a problem but also wondered if the robes could be between the two rooms so robe in both rooms are just inside them making furniture placement easier.

In the ensuite I would always have shower away from outside wall so a lovely long window beside loo provides plenty of light and air. But switch loo in line with vanity not backing bedroom: just make room look and feel larger.

Please ensure in the kitchen that there is plenty of benching next to the cook top. I know centering it along the wall looks lovely but two little bits of bench are useless: you need at lease 1200 to be useful and around the corner is better than a lovely dead corner of benching where stuff collects.

Where you have the beautiful sliding doors opening up the whole wall in lounge dining, you may want to think about a run of window that opens for a little winter fresh air without having to open the doors. This applies in the bedrooms too. Security as well as air will benefit.

Oh and I love the east sun/light in the bedrooms! Depending on the amount of land, plant deciduous trees for shade: they are seasonally adjusted to work miracles for solar efficiency! Ie outside all the bedrooms.

As to doors to stairs, yes I would put in a door on stairs and one somewhere in the hall to close off bedroom zone. I love cavity sliders as they are gone, hidden, away when not needed but appear at most appropriate times!

Good luck.. look forward to seeing pictures of progress!

Cheers

Margot