Advice on floor plan
Karen Seymour
4 years ago
last modified: 4 years ago
Hi everyone, I would like your opinion on the floor plan I have had drawn for my new home in Innes Park, Bundaberg. Our land is 22.5m wide by 45m long. The front of the house faces west and the back east, about 300m from ocean. The left of the house is north where the media and two bedrooms are. The house size is 254m2 and is 11710 wide x 24620 long. We live outside and grow vegetables that's why I have the laundry at the back. We will be having 6.6 kw of solar on the north roof.
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Comments (9)
Karen Seymour
4 years agoRelated Discussions
advice on floor plan
Comments (11)Hi Liliane, It would be nice to see some photos, if you have them available. Your house is quite big! Not sure if you need to remove the wall, you already seem to have quite a large living-dining space where you could have your sofas, coffee table, etc. On the sitting-lounge area perhaps you could create a reading area, with a chaise-longue or some armchairs and side tables since it should have quite a lot of natural light with 3 windows? We offer a very affordable online interior design service, so we could work with you if you are interested. We would discuss your ideas with you and put a scheme together that brings the best out of them. By sending you a moodboard with all the elements we can help you to visualise the space. You will also get a shopping list with options to fit your budget. We are not linked to any suppliers so our recommendations would be tailored to you. Let us know if you are interested. We could design your lounge for 60$. www.lucianasanchez.com...See MoreFirst own home and reno - would love thoughts and advice on floorplan
Comments (3)What is the condition of the current bathroom and kitchen? Also what do the estate agents in your area say? ie will an additional bedroom and ensuite add value, or will an extra family room add better value? or will just a cosmetic upgrade be better?...See MoreAdvice on floor plan options
Comments (12)I'm no expert on efficient use of space, the ladies have you covered in that regard. So I won't comment on the pros & cons of each plan. I will say that from an orientation/energy efficiency point of view, they're both great. North facing living areas, that can be separated from the rest of the home. Very minimal western windows, multiple bathrooms on the west. Perfect! You'll have light filled living areas, & will really get to appreciate winter sunshine :) What I will comment on is the form of heating, & the form of energy use in general. As you've insinuated, gas heating doesn't stack up environmentally. This is not the wonderful transition fuel of federal government tells us it is. Although the combustion of natural gas only produces half the CO2 emissions of coal fired power, there is another worrying aspect. Natural gas is methane, a gas that is far, far worse than CO2. It has a global warming potential (CO2e) of over 25. So any methane that reaches the atmosphere is 25 times worse than CO2. This means small leaks of methane can create major problems. It turns out that if only 4% of the natural gas leaks or reaches the atmosphere, the emissions are as bad as a coal fired power station! Concerned scientists & other bodies are recognising this. The ACT government is actually considering banning has connections in new housing developments. Gas also doesn't stack up financially. As gas prices continue to increase, & heat pump technology improves, reverse cycle air conditioning has become the most cost effective, energy efficient option. There's plenty of articles about this. Here's one from Renew magazine. https://renew.org.au/renew-magazine/all-electric/gas-days-over-money-saving-results-in-melbourne/ If I was building a new home now, I'd be going further. Saving more money, & the environment, by building an ALL-ELECTRIC HOME. By ditching the gas connection you should save on building costs. You'll also save yourself over $300 a year just by eliminating the daily gas service charge. Heating the home with efficient reverse cycle AC (or even hydronic heating powered by heat pumps, if you can stomach the high installation costs). Heating domestic water with a heat pump. Possibly solar thermal in QLD, if I had the roof area for this & solar PV. Cooking with induction. As reactive as gas, with great control over temperature, & much easier to clean. Saving the gas for the BBQ (LPG bottle). Powering the home with a large solar PV system. It looks like you have a gable roof, with nice sized areas for solar PV panels. Facing both E & W. Although this won't generate quite as much as a north facing system, an E/W split will give you a nice spread of power generation from the early morning until the evening. The west facing panels are particularly useful in the afternoon, when people arrive home, & the AC is turned on. I'd consider installing 3 phase power. This will allow you to install a larger solar PV system (before export limiting is introduced), & will be useful for fast charging of EV cars, which will soon be mainstream. If you're on Facebook, & are interested in this approach, I'd consider joining the My Efficient Electric Home (MEEH) group....See MoreHelp and advice on floorplan needed pls :)
Comments (22)I'd start firstly by asking whether you know which are load bearing walls ( the converted garage and the heavier walls in the plan makes me wonder ) , which walls you are happy with , etc . Also , being on a concrete slab , moving plumbing may be difficult too , but presumably can be done , even if it needs concrete cutters involved . I think you'd be better to devise an overall plan , rather than a room at a time . I also take your possible family and resale into account , but you have some rooms that seem too big for 2 people , some too small . This is purely throwing ideas around , but do you use the bath ? Presumably you use the shower . So as far as the laundry goes , maybe move tghe toilet and the laundry to the right hand room ( make into 2 rooms ) ; move the bath to the left , by the looks the bath would need to be rotated 90 degrees , but you'd have the one room with bath , shower , vanity . But on a bigger idea , when you said about removing walls , what about taking out the hall to what you call the back door , incorporate the hall and door as part of the laundry , so you have the door to take laundry to a washing line . Then , as well as gaining that space , you mightn't need the other wall along the kitchen , so you could expand that a bit ( you'd obviously need thoroughfare between living and dining , but you'd gain 3 or 4 sq mtrs . Or just move the kitchen -- I suspect the combined living/kitchen/dining is bigger than you need , even more so when you include the family . Done 'right' , you could probably enlarge Bed 2 and 3 , add an ensuite , better utilise the study ( or move it or delete it ) , etc . But I'd want more info ....See More
dreamer
4 years agodreamer
4 years agooklouise
4 years agothis could be a great floorplan for a narrow residential block and your combination of laundry and pantry solves the problem of combining dirty clothes and food but, with so much luxurious extra space so close to the ocean, it would be interesting to see a plan with a more spread out relaxed light weight beach house feel with shady verandahs, more indoor out connection for better ventilation, less hallways, a mudroom laundry and outdoor shower for coming home with sandy feet and swimming gear, a powder room with more direct access from outside, courtyards to create private areas eg outside the master suite and/or provision for a pool and pool house, garden shed with sink for washing fresh veg, a shade and chook house combined with landscaped vege patches ..unable to read the dimensions on your plan i've created a variation with similar total floor area and a few small variations to consider and this shows how much space is still available
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ddarroch
4 years agoddarroch
4 years ago
PROpapercourtyard
4 years ago
Kate
4 years ago
dreamer