$3,5000 per sq is a good price for a bespoke architect designed house. You will get a house to suit your needs. You need to write down evert thing that you wants and discuss with your architect.

Love a good skillion roof, sloped to maximise northern windows. But that direction is no good for solar PV/thermal.

So how eco are you planning on being? All electric home with solar PV? If so, you might want to consider sloping the roof on the bedroom wing the opposite direction, so you can have NNW having solar panels.

Not an architect or builder, so don't know how it would look, or how the roof would function. Just thought I'd throw it out there as a thought bubble.

https://janecameronarchitects.com/40-questions-ask-architect/

Oh, & while we're talking eco. Please consider using fly ash (or another supplementary cementitious material) in your concrete.

Cement production creates huge amounts of CO2 emissions. Accounting for 8% of total emissions worldwide!

But much of the cement content in concrete can be replaced by other materials. Fly ash is one such example. It is a waste product of coal fired power stations, & while these power stations are up & running, it's much better to use this fly ash than let it go to waste (instead increasing cement production).

Fly ash helps concretes workability, decreasing water content (which actually increases strength). Although the early strength of high content fly ash concrete is a little lower than traditional portland cement concrete, it soon strengthens, becoming stronger than its traditional counterpart. It's lower water content also makes it more durable over it's lifetime, due to lower water (& chlorine) permeability, the main causes of concrete cancer.

Lastly. If you are going to swap the bedrooms, you may consider moving the ensuite to the western side of the master. To act as a buffer from the hot western afternoon summer sun.

One negative of doing this though, is longer plumbing runs. Increasing the cost (& materials used), increasing the time it takes to get hot water to your ensuite, depending on where the hot water service is located.

Excellent points! I have been looking into 'Ecocrete'- i think it's a Boral product and I hope it uses fly ash. There are coal power stations down our way so I hope this waste product is being utilised in cement making!

I had the same idea with the bathroom to provide that buffer on the western end of the house but the architect didn't sound keen. Will run by him again when we get to sit down to discuss properly. Really good point about the hot water travel time...(We will hopefully have a Sanden heat pump hot water service. Even if it's half way between the kitchen and that ensuite the water then has to travel a long way in both directions! Thank you so much for pointing this out).

But do an extra few meters of hot, cold and waste pipes really cost that much more?

Our Very new Sanden Heat pump is proving very effective and quotes for extra pipes were minimal compared to overlall cost but with your limited flat space for the water tank, the heat pump and a drying area as well as the kitchen garden you need to create a dedicated utility area eg a suitable tank will probably need at least 6m diameter space and the heat pump needs about 2m preferable along an outside wall near the bathrooms and so my suggestion would be to have the bathrooms and laundry facing north but with the 2m drop in ground level have you considered a two storey option and/or installing the tank under the house

the half hour drive can't change so pick the best builder not the closest and why only two bedrooms and the separate bedroom and bathroom up the hill?...do you want the H shaped building with an enclosed walkway preventing access from the kitchen garden to the bedroom courtyard?..and seems like a lot of big hallways that are too small for any useful extra purpose .. how many bedrooms and living areas do you want, what is the length and width of the building site including the upper levels? what is the maximum size of the house? have you considered the master suite on the eastern end of the house with cheaper gable roofs over the bedrooms wings and teh skillion over the livinbg area and it can be more efficient to keep all the drainage, sewerage and absorbtions trenches along one side but more comfortable to live in if there's also easy access toilets from outside ..have you had a soil test to design the septic or similar location and consider reverse brick veneer and/or a solid masonry spine along the internal length of the building

Hi and thanks for your feedback. The rear building might now move further around to the north of the !7 acre rural block (2+ hours from Melbourne), where there is a flatter patch. We are now hoping to make it 2 story, with the storage shed below and living above. That way the huge views to the south and east can be seen over the top of the house.

The idea is to build the shed (with studio accom) hopefully at the end of 2020, as a place to stay while the house building starts towards the end of 2021, when we will have the funds, fingers crossed. The width of the building area is only about 30 metres before it dips away a bit steeply to the east and west. We hope to avoid too much excavating for a slab (for thermal mass) but may need to consider stumps if the slab is far more costly. Looking at Carbonlite floor system as a reluctant alternative...

A local architect has done the initial design to maximise the views and northern sun. We think the slight kink in the middle will add complexity to the roof so the kink can go. It is a big 'entry' which might need to go to cut costs but we do want an 'air lock' entry...

The hallway along the bedrooms is intended to warm up in winter, ideally trombe wall style.

We hope to keep the house to about 150 sq meters- we don't need bigger.

The council has indicated where the dispersal field for the septic tank needs to go...

We love the reverse brick veneer principle. The architect has been fairly open to our ideas but says the budget will be tight at approx $3,500 per sq meter.

How does an internal masonry spine work?

We figured a continuous skillion roof would be simpler and cheaper- going for a rural shed look...