Sorry to continue....the plan by Louise on the 20/01/2017.... But the laundry ( with internal access or through cloak room) and ensuite to the rear of the garage the master behind...... Then a Wir separating the master form the living or a bathroom...... The a fireplace if required against the western wall central in the house.... The entrance and small cloak room for the winter woollies against the garage and the other three beds at the front RHS with bath near.... The lounge/ kitchen/ dining in a similar layout but with minimal a walls blocking the view from the entry to the living/kitchen .... I like at lease a small wall dividing the living and lounge for the teenagers also.... If I get an chance I will sketch something up. Good luck this the paperwork... Plans are the fun part.

Hi oklouise, Below is an image of how the houses should fit together. I have included rough measurements for sons house. Shared garage 6x6sq m - shared laundry sewing/ utility/mud room 6x3.3sq m - media room 5x3.8sq m - entry 1.5x3.3sq m - office 2.5x3.5 sq m - bed 4 3x3.5 sq m - bed 3 3x3.5 sq m - main 4x4.5 sq m - wir 4x1.8 sq m - ensuite 4x2.8sq m - bed 4 3x5.4 has linen c/board in hall way - bathroom 2x3.5 sqm - toilet and 1 vanity 2.7x1.7 extends into family rm - family rm 5x5.2 sq m - dining 5.3x3.4 sq m - kitchen 4x2.8 sq m - b/pantry 1.3x2.8 sq m - island 3x.9 sq m - hall 1mtr wide - outdoor 3.5x4.7 sq m may change - front porch 3.5x1.8 sq m - pool behind family area maybe. I will put measurements for my pantry and vac on tomorrow morning. This image might look slightly different to his latest plan which I uploaded earlier he has altered a few things overall still same footprint. I'm pretty new to anything to do with designing house plans so thanks for all of the suggestions and plans so far. I definitely like the way you have narrow shelves for storage in your pantry. but

Hi Erin, Some very good points made by everyone. First, I'll start by recommending that your have a read of the government's Your Home website. Tonnes & tonnes of information about designing a comfortable, energy efficient home. I'll link to the orientation section, as that's what I'll discuss, but recommend that you read more. http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/orientation A western frontage with no northern neighbour is a great block. This has allowed you to locate the garage on the SW corner, blocking the very hot afternoon summer sun, which is brilliant. But the western facing master bedroom is a major concern. Western sunshine (& eastern to some degree) is very difficult to shade, as eaves are ineffective when the sun is low in the sky. So usually it's a good idea to minimise western windows & place rarely used rooms, like bathrooms, laundries (along with the garage) facing west. But this becomes difficult for west facing houses, as you don't want to negatively effect street appeal. So I'll start by asking, do you envisage using all of your bedrooms, all the time? Or will one or the bedrooms be a guest bedroom, that will be rarely used? If one of the bedrooms is a spare bedroom, is recommend moving it to the front of the house, so that it bares the brunt of the hot afternoon sun. I'd then move the master to the SE corner, so it has an outlook to the backyard. If this can't be done is recommend following the above designs, moving either the ensuite or WIR to the W frontage, while still trying to maintain an attractive western facade. Pity you don't have access from the north. A northern entrance could have limited the length of the hallway, & brightened it up. One option I like a lot for this type of block orientation is designing a split skillion roof, with north facing clerestory (highlight) windows running down the spine of the build. These windows will greatly brighten the hallway, & also the kitchen which will be quite dark otherwise. These high level windows can also be great in summer, purging the house of heat in the evenings & throughout the night. Just make sure they have appropriate eaves, so they receive no sunshine in the warmer months. Next question. You explained a little of what's to your north. But how is the outlook. Generally it is a good idea to face your living areas, & a large portion of your windows north. If you will have a nice outlook to the north you may consider more north facing glazing. Though, do your research, as I'm not too sure of your actual climate, & you wouldn't want to overglaze. Also, orientating your glazing for cooling summer breezes is important, particularly in hot QLD. Which direction do your breezes come from, throughout the year, & throughout the day. I'd recommend finding this out by looking for the local "wind roses" on the BOM, Bureau of Meteorology. That's it for now, phone battery's about to die. Good luck

Hi all, I can't seem to reply individually to your comments so here's a general one :) Thanks all for the suggestions and experience-I'm really intrigued by these suggestions of pavilion extensions, those links you attached Kate are super striking! Unfortunately for us we are on a fairly small block of land and one side of the house is a narrow driveway-we looked into building a garage/study on the ground but as we have to be 900mm from the neighbouring fence it was going to be very skinny and just not worth it. I appreciate the thoughts shared on keeping our feet on the ground but as we've two young kids and two dogs (and would love to have chickens again) I'm less and less inclined to give up more of the garden which is what we'd have to do if we extend out. Our verandah roof was done back in the 60's and slopes down and leaks in the rain so hence it needs to be lifted up if we were to build out. Kate, I LOVE your idea of the shed! We actually converted a massive steel shed into a gorgeous shed home when we lived in QLD on a massive rural block of land, loved how easy it was to 'knock' down a wall! :) Sadly we have learned the hard way that trying to save money by hiring a draftsperson that didn't ask us what our budget was has cost us time and money, but I guess in a way I'm grateful as this extra time has given me time to consider building up now instead of out. I'm getting a sense that it will be a lot more expensive to do so so might have to wait another 2-3 years to get re-finance happening. In the meantime we are making some changes to the current set up, slowly adding value and making it more enjoyable to live in :)