Oh I didn't really notice that

what is the width and length of the downstairs living and dining areas and what are the local setbacks for front, sides and rear and the maximum area of the block that can be built on?

Living and dining is 4.5mx8.2.m

There is an easement at the back so it needs to be at least 2 meter from back fence.

The local setbacks from the front is 6 meters. where the main bedroom is already the min setback.

it is a GZR1 zone, i think the site coverage is 40%

I would reduce the length of the master. It is excessive and the extra 600 in the living would give space for the piano or study nook. Upstairs has a lot of wasted space too. Really reconsider bathroom. Toilet needs it’s own basin to be effective standalone use. Vanity in family bath to small.
Doors to rumpus need to consider space for sharia at study nook. Does that area get natural light?

@Kate,

like the idea of 600mm for the piano and study nook.

A standalone toilet with no basin is not the best but like to have a toilet separate to avoid kids fighting for toilet/bathroom. any creative ideas on how it can be changed?

The vanity in family bath look small, but it is actually around 1100 mm.

The study nook upstairs should get some nature light from the windows (stairs)

The rumpus has a large north facing window (not a HL window).

Upstairs lose 600 mm to master giving space to toilet for a basin and for en-suite for bigger vanity and swing door for better sound control and privacy on the loo. Encourages hubby to shut the door when using loo :)

@oklouise, loving this! only issue is not wanting the stairs directly towards the front door. Chinese consider this is a bad fengshui and money goes out the door ;-)

then something else has to give so consider enclosing the entry porch and enter from the west and old entry is now the music room BUT dimensions need clarification..no point in making any plans if we're working on the wrong sized block of land

Okl love the plan. But Gloria do u want the slipper bath in downstairs master?

Yes,

I will still go ahead with the slipper bath downstairs

@Kate & @oklouise. Thank you so much!

@oklouise,

I would like to seek your opinion/ideas on renovating the front house.

Here is the layout of the front house, total site size: 16mx43m

a 1950's brick house. It is in a relatively good condition. we would like to spend minimum costs to make it livable.

- we will also need to reduce the size to make some room for the second house 16mx16m.

- the red dotted line is the external brick wall

- the shaded area is around 30cm lower than the rest of the house.

- sun room and laundry is a weatherboard extension

- would like to have a second toilet/powder room.

- need to maintain the private open space of 25m^2

what is the distance from the back of the old house to the rear boundary and the front of the old house to the front boundary..do you mean to remove the old weatherboard extension to reduce the size of the house to the original brick walls without adding any extension anywhere else and what is the condition of the kitchen and bathroom??

Is the ceiling ht of the rear bedroom the same as the rest of house or does it step down with the floor?

The distance from the back of the old house to the rear boundary is about 18.5m.

The front of the old house to the front boundary is about 11.5m (bedroom wall to front boundary.

Condition of the bathroom is quite bad, will need to renovated. the kitchen is not bad but it will need a better layout.

I was thinking about replace the sunroom and laundry with a smaller laundry and toilet. here is an initiate idea:

the ceiling is a step down from the rest of the house. It is just one step down. There are a few more steps to the outside garden.

what is the distance from the old house to both side boundaries and does the POS have to be at the back of the house, can you post a Google earth photos of the roof and a photo of the front and west sides of the house would also help but the dimensions of the old house are inconsistent and need to be checked eg there's not enough length in the wall fro the eastern door in to the kitchen and the two front rooms are different widths but the plans shows them the same and the internal dimensions of the bathroom and hallways will make plans more accurate

I don't think we can have POS at the front, but any suggestion is welcomed.

was planning to a car port at the front. still not sure if it will meet the council requirement for 3 bedroom houses.

do either of he neighbours have extensions or garages or carports at the front and please check the questions in my last post?

There is no carports at the front of immediate neighbour, but 7-8 houses down, some townhouse have their garage and car port at the front. also across the road, there is house have a parking at the front.

i'm sorry to say that the dimension of the bath and hallway now makes the dimensions in the other rooms wrong so please check all the measurements against the numbers shown on the whole house plan..we can't make suggestions without an accurate understanding of what's already there and don't forget the distance from the sides of the house to both the side boundaries

Before even consider the design, you require a copy of all the bylaws and regulations for your Shire and any other pertaining covenants, they change all the time. You need to understand drainage, fall of the land, and if any precedents have been set by neighbours, eg no front carports, set backs, roof pitches. The current requirements for many shires is visual harmony at street level, and when subdividing it is a minefield.

@oklouise,

can you please point out what is wrong with the dimension of the other room?

- Master bedroom is 4.2(w)x3.8(L)

- Living room is 4.7(w)x3.9(L)

- Entry is 1.8 (w) x 2.8 (L)

- Family bath is 2.4 (W)x2.4 (L) the linen took up space in the bathroom, so the actual size is sightly smaller.

- Hallway outside of the family bathroom is 1.2(w)x2.4(L)

- Hallway from the Master bedroom to the dinning is 3.7 (w) x 1.4 (L), toward the living area it reduces to 1.3m. currently there is a linen blocking the direct access of dining, so have to go to dinning via living.

The driveway on the west is 3.2m (w), the service lane on the east is 1.5m.

Thinking to put the carport at the front like this:

See picture below,

- arrow pointing to my front garden

- red circle is car park at the front of units;

before removing the old laundry from the original property i've been attempting to clarify if that's necessary and based on the minimum 25% FOS for each property and by my very rough calculations there should be enough space to have the rear block 17.5m x 16.2m=283.5m needing 25% or 73sqm of FOS and including the rear easement garden + east garden + garden space between the old and new blocks there should be about 79sqm of FOS?? and that should mean that the front block (with more than enough FOS in the front garden for the front block) could retain the original refurbished sunroom etc obviously this needs to be clarified by an expert or you may prefer to demolish the rear of the old house but your photos suggest that there's a tiled hip roof over the old laundry which makes removing that section extra challenging and expensive to alter..my initial suggestions haven't allowed for the laundry and powder room but providing council allows for a carport in the front yard something like this may suit and changes the outlook so new occupants/tenants? aren't focussed towards the new house

why are we seeing two Kate's I didn't think that was allowed?

@oklouise,

Don't really want to remove the sunroom if we don't have to. Here is the requirement for private open space in Victoria:

"At least one part of the private open space should consist of secluded private open space with a minimum area of 25 square metres and a minimum dimension of 3 metres at the side or rear of the dwelling with convenient access from a living room."

the issue is to meet the 3 meters minimum dimension. Because the POS is on the south side, i think it needs 5 meters from the boundary (need to confirmed).

I also want a small service lane/space between the old house's fence and the new house master bedroom.

There is also a 6m setback from the old house, given the current old house is 18.5m from the back boundary, 2m easement and 6m setback will give the new only only 10.5m in length if not removing the sunroom.

that's so close that it would make sense to trial reducing the size of the new house before demolition part of the old house unnecessarily...i'll see what i can do..

@oklouise,

The condition of the laundry and toilet in the old house were not that good.

no comparison to an on site inspection by a local professional but that looks like the roof has been extended down past the original external wall but rereading your previous posts it appears that you've allowed 1900 for the alcove for a slipper bath (1900 width would only allow for a bath about 1500 long??) in the downstairs ens but your plans don't allow enough space for that (too close to the side fence) and you haven't allowed for brick walls so will complete the size reduction and think about options for the new laundry for the old house asap

yep, the slipper bath is a wishlist for the new house. happy to use other layout for the downstairs ens as long as i can still keep a bath.

rereading your earlier comments i realise that we've overlapped information and two hours ago you said that there has to be a 6M setback from the old house plus the 2m easement leaving only 10.5m for the new house? but removing the old sunroom only adds an extra 1.5M and your original plan has the new house as 12.7M (without allowing for any walls) so adding 12.7M + walls + plus 6M setback + 2m easement = not enough space for your plan OR enough space for more than 1200 for laundry and toilet nor the POS at the rear of the old house ..i've reduced the original plans but not enough to allow for the extra setback so you need some local advice about where you can compromise but rereading POS info there may be an opportunity to use some of the side and front yard and/or retain the roof of the old sunroom/laundry (without walls) to make an alfresco that can be included in POS..another issue to consider is to avoid having new windows/glass doors in the old house overlooking windows and doors in the new house so you should aim to have the external doors/windows from back of the old house to face east not south ...

yes, fully understand the restrictions. That is why the question to change the layout of the kitchen of the old house to incorporate a european laundry and a small toilet. existing sunroom/laundry has to go.

There are still plenty of space of the old house but the dilemma is not to spend too much but still make it livable.

but i have to repeat there's only 5.2m between the new house and the old house without the sunroom..not enough space for the European laundry and toilet to fit into the 1200... the new house is too big by at least 1m preferable more at least 2m needs to be taken off the length of the new house

it is extremely tight.

I am thinking to incorporate the laundry inside the kitchen area and change the layout of the kitchen. or maybe the second toilet can be fit somewhere else in the old house.

It also need to take another 0.8 m from the new house. a bit from the master bedroom and a bit from the living area.

Gloria. Remember You are required to have a laundry trough, not just kitchen sink.

see if this works?

the space left at the back of bed 2 is only 1.2m and could be used for a narrow deck and steps although FOS may allow a bigger deck but not a bigger room and a European laundry and powder room could be squeezed in the new kitchen location and subject to how you want to use the house mus suggestions are based on tenants who may need more flexible furniture and accommodation and eg space for an upright stove and top load washer are easier and cheaper to include

and i've mananged to extend the distance between the new and old house to 6m by reducing the size of the new house but internal and external walls are only 10cms and need to be adjusted to suit your builder

the reduction is size should be enough to pay for your new kitchen cabinets but your designer will need to check the percentage of the block covered by the new house

@oklouise,

Really like the idea of the old house. wondering will this increase the costs?

time to talk to your builder..it has to be cheaper than adding an extra room

@oklouise,

Your design is brilliant! This gives the minimum changes but also livable!

The only change i would do is to keep the wall of the family facing the entry. Add the opening to the corner. That is minimum change to the core structure and not expose the family room from the front door.

Thank you so much!

What are the car parking requirements. It’s it 2 spaces for a 3-bed dwelling with one of those undercover? I assume you will need a turning area for the back unit. Normally I’d see the garages where the master is.
What are the front fence restrictions?

Yes, parking is another battle.

With the sunroom removal. might be able to fit a carport where the sunroom was. It will also depends on if the council will approve the front parking space. There are a lot space at the front garden.

I think you need to talk to council and really understand what constraints
you are working with. Then get a proper site survey so all designs are done accurately from the start. This will be needed before planning approval is sought so may as well commit to it first up.

car parking and carports subtract from the available FOS and setback between the two homes

siriuskey.

great work OKL. once again giving so much of your time with floorplans to give Gloria ideas to work with when she employs her local professional which I personally feel should be an architect to allow the best possible use of the block, it's sub division and two dwellings. The single dwelling on the left/corner is a great starting point showing building to ratio for that block. With what OKL has already provided you will save time and money when working with a clever local architect which will be well worth it to max this development and the investment.

One other thing, I would swap the 3rd bedroom into the original kitchen and open up the existing 3 rooms on the battleaxe side into one long space opening to the front garden and parking of the original house, but then your architect could have other ideas

@differentways,

OKL is great and love his ideas!

I am engaging an architect to proceed. Sometimes architect just repeats what they have done and not really think outside of the box.

Like your idea about 3rd bedroom, will need to discuss with council and architect on the parking issue. Might need to lose the 3rd bedroom (merge it into a larger family room) to turn it into a 2-bedrooms house :-(

It would best to interview several architects to see what their first impressions are, some years ago my brother inlaw did a sub divsion in Lane Cove Sydney with our friend and architect who worked out a way to divide with a solid carport wall and roof to separate both plus other amazing ideas well worth it.

And yes OKL is an amazing lady. I joined Houzz as "siriuskey" until recently when I experienced a problem which Houzz has been unable to fix hence differentways.