This width will allow a tree and hopefully some sunlight into yard. Enjoy the space. I’d go smaller house bigger yard any day. Houses take a lot of time to clean too

You can save money by starting with cheap tubestock and lawn seed and growing your own veggies and adding more hardscaping as you save up for it and DIYing as much as you can. Or you can spend money by getting a landscape design and having advanced plants planted and turf laid.and extensive hardscaping professionally done. Or a bit of each. Then there's your climate. In a warm climate you might make a lot of use of outdoor living and entertaining space, and you might appreciate that it's located on the shaded side of the house. In a cool climate you might choose to push the house back on the block and plant a privacy hedge and make more of your northern front garden. Or if it's a busy road you might find a floorplan with a central courtyard to benefit both the house and the garden.

If the backyard is south facing, a perhaps more important question is which rooms are facing south, how much benefit will the house get from its orientation and which rooms will be poorly lit?

@macyjean so you think the size of the backyard would not be a problem in terms of maintenance? The room facing south will be the master’s. tha k you

@Kate so you think a 5.5m x 14m backyard is not too big?

Probably not but without information about what the space will consist of, the yes or no answer you're seeking is just guesswork, a generalisation. I reckon it sounds on the small side but you're concerned it's too big and I've known people who would agree with that. Also what would you be sacrificing in terms of the house? I've seen houses where an extra half metre along here or an extra metre along there would've been a useful improvement, and I've seen houses with so much useless floorspace that they looked made for a ride-on vacuum cleaner. Like Kate said, houses take time to clean too.

It would be great if you share some thoughts back about what we're saying.

@macyjean if we go for the larger plan, it will have an extra playroom (3.3x3.7m) which we can live without. We are ok with the smaller house, it’s the size of the backyard that is quite a concern for us.

The smaller house is, of course, cheaper but the money that will be saved will eventually go to landscaping a bigger backyard. Should we spend extra 10k on a bigger house, or use that money to landscape a big garden?

Building a house is too confusing! So many decisions! 😅

5.6 x 14m is not a big back yard. That is a wonderful back yard.
Research Australian native plants etc. plants that need minimum maintenance. Lawn in the middle and plants along the fence lines.
You do not need to spend much money in putting a lawn down. The rest of the garden can evolve over time.
Vegetables, flowering plants, succulents!!!!!!
It depends on what your lifestyle is. Do you like the outdoors or are you gaming people?
But, if you are hoping to have a family, then outdoors is a far better, healthier option. If you build a bigger home and a small backyard, that can not be reversed. But a smaller home with a bigger back yard can always have some form of shelter built.

why not post a site plan of your block (showing north, driveway, any alfresco, good or bad views, rough height and location of neighbours' homes and the house plan and we can be more specific...any size garden is always worthwhile and if time and money is limited plan to cover the whole area with grass that will keep the whole area cool in summer and less dusty and muddy the rest of the time while you recover from building the house and you start to plan how you will use the garden based on views from the house eg what about a clothesline and a gazebo facing north? and then invest in an electric start mulcher mower, whipper snipper and blower (with two interchangeable batteries) and you can keep the whole area neat and tidy in less than an hour a week in the growing season and as much or as little time as you like the rest of the year

So if the only room facing the backyard is the master bedroom there are questions. What do you see yourselves using the garden for apart from being the view from the bedroom? Where is the access to the backyard? Isn't there any outdoor connection from the living areas to a patio or alfresco?

How much flexibility does the builder allow with the floorplans? If you don't require a playroom could you use the room for some other purpose or use the space to enlarge the adjoining rooms instead?

@macyjean the master’s has a sliding door which opens up to the alfresco. The family living opens up to the alfresco as well.

we are thinking of adding a meter to the rear master’s bedroom = bigger bedroom and smaller yard. What do you think?

i attached a photo to give you a clear idea of the whole house plan

@oklouise this is a photo of the plan. I don’t have any more infor apart from this. No view, this is in a new estate so no idea what the neighbour’s houses will look like.

It’s not that big of a backyard and you need to allow for the retaining wall after they cut the block. There is minimal size difference between the two plans you mentioned, so get what works for you.

Thank you for the plan. That makes it easier to visualise and understand what you are talking about.

What does the line 2m inside the fence signify? I was going to suggest that you allow at least 2 metres width for privacy hedging. Anything less tends to require more work in terms of pruning back the shrubs or compromising on privacy from neighbours by planting much smaller shrubs.

The alfresco doesn't look large so the backyard gives you the opportunity to extend it with paving or decking as and when you wish. Use your garden to create your own view.

What region are you in for climate? What is the dotted line in the meals area? Is it a skylight? You might need to give some thought as to to how to minimise the disadvantages of the long western aspect. Although being so close to the boundary the neighbouring house might give some shade?

@macyjean the 2 m signifies the easement. I know we can’t build anything on it, but can we put plants in that space instead?

i agree the alfresco is not too big. We nay probably build a deck in the future or extend the alfresco. Thanks for the idea.

we live in melbourne. Not sure about the dotted line in the meals area, i thought it is meant to be where the dining table will be located. 😂 but we never talked about a skylight.

the long western side of the house has been one of our biggest dilemmas. as suggested by many here on houzz, we are thinking of planting some trees to minimise the afternoon light + double glazing. Hope that would work because a hot family/meals area is just unthinkable!

while you wait for trees to grow to shade the western side of the house consider highlight windows up high under the eaves, smaller narrower windows and/or external roller shutters and if budget allows thermal break double glazed windows transmit less heat but i would be reluctant to reduce the size of the backyard for extra space in the master bedroom and would rather omit the alfresco for more space but can't read the dimensions on your plans to understand the size of the rooms

What sort of easement?

You can plant on it but research first so you don't plant anything with aggressive roots. Our water utility used to have a list categorising plants which are safe, plants which should not be planted within x metres, etc. Check if there's anything like that available from your water utility or council.

If the plan does not have indicative furniture placement for anything else I don't know why it would show a dining table. Solar HWS or solar panels?

Plants as large as trees down the narrow space between your house and the boundary with your neighbours create potential problems with roots and with leaves in roof guttering for both of you. Double glazing is valuable, especially in your winters, but for summer you want to stop the sun from shining on the windows in the first place. It might not be the most chic solution but when we needed something temporary and economical we used the shadecloth screens from the hardware store.

@oklouise the master’s is 3.6x3.8 and alfresco is 3.1x3.5. making the alfresco smaller to give more space for the master’s is a good idea. but wouldn’t that affect the entrance to the living room That opens up to The alfresco?

please post a close up of the plans with readable writing

If you can move the garage or whole house back to provide 5.5 m from footpath the garage for a visitor to park,
Keep a 5 m backyard. Any smaller and it will not be usable imo. Canopy tree at western end. Most sun will be at back of yard so screen planting only along fence line. Young kids will want space to ride a trike, kick a ball etc. and you need space to chill outside too whilst watching.

@oklouise i hope this one is clearer

@Kate the idea of a 5m backyard is now less daunting. Thanks to you all!

what do you mean by screen planting?

@oklouise is it possible to make the alfresco a bit smaller to make the bedroom bigger? i kind of like that idea since we have an ample sized backyard. But don’t know how this would affect the entrance to the living area?

If you mKe alfresco much smaller it will not acc a table and chairs

What sort of easement?

Screen planting, like privacy hedging.