Fantastic & tricky block, small house in good repair - help!
We love this property - lovely bush tree views & its own running creek at the bottom - and would love to buy it (its for sale). Its in decent shape, the bathroom has been re-done and is lovely, but can't see our way past the challenges:
- dozen odd steps down from street to house front, we have elderly parents, reluctant to do an external motorised chairlift thing but would do a ramp going across the yard
- house width consumes almost all property width, maybe a metre odd either side.
- aspect to the south is amaaazing
- Master is too small. We want a contemporary Master that is 4mx5m ish with generous WIR and Ensuite.
- the laundry is where the main entrance SHOULD be. Enter through there and the vista on display through the living and dining is stunning.
- the kitchen faces the front garden which is basically the side of the hill, ideally it would take better advantage of the views to the south. Also, the kitchen is disconnected from the Living space, be great if that had better connectedness / flow. And, if we should happen to end up with a butler's pantry, even better!
- we want to end up with 3 beds and a study. There is a studio out the back that would be a fine study, or Bed 2.
- we would welcome a bit more space for living / dining, but are OK with not having additional (separate) formal lounge / dining.
- ideally an extension would also create under-house space for a granny flat, but we'd need to solve access issues for elderly people to get there.
- knock-down & rebuild is beyond our budget but we'd be able to spend 300-400k
Link to realestate.com entry (which has photos)
- we have had a few goes ourselves at a re-design, below using the very best of our PowerPoint skills, which has:
1. Laundry relocated to under house where there is an existing 'emergency' bathroom
2. This laundry space now converted to an entry hall.
3. Existing dining space extended out to level of rear (south) living wall
4. Bed 3 extended out to level of rear of deck. This approx 3.25m x 7.25m space now becomes Master / WIR / Ensuite
5. Deck extended out another 2-3 mtrs
6. Space labelled living / study nook / dining deck would have no internal walls and is approx 7.5mx7.5m
7. Kitchen (long / narrow) installed along west side of this space, approx 6mx2.5m
8. old kitchen becomes another bedroom or kids's retreat
Below are a couple of photos (living, deck) from the realestate.com entry:
Comments (26)
oklouise
3 years agoDrew McSwain-Franklin
3 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (63)my suggestion are based on the fact that mum and dad are usually at the house alone and aims for simple two person accommodation that can be rearranged to suit a crowd...the kitchen cabinets are the only fixed objects in the room and include a tall pantry, base cabinets and/or drawers with open shelves and wall cabinets and space for several people to work side by side with a small extendable dining table, two chairs and a bench seat (also used as a place for newspaper and lamp etc behind the recliners)...a patio with big table for outdoor eating under the shade of the tree with extra bench seats that can also be used inside... there's space for a small divan or night and day lounge with a wall hung tv and the corner bedroom door allows for much better circulation space in both the living and bedrooms with preferably a sliding glass door for indoor outdoor connection with or without the original front door and, based on the size of king single beds, there's no other arrangement that would allow both beds to have a view to the lake and there's just enough space for a biw, small desk and two chairs...See MorePlease help me with floor plan design for a small Australian home
Comments (20)OP, OKL's plan is better from an energy efficiency point of view than your plan (your plan wastes the northern aspect with bathrooms). But DON'T just flip OKL's plan, as the orientation would then be all wrong! It's important to get the orientation right, this will greatly effect the comfort of your home & your heating/cooling requirements (& hence your bills). Read this. It's all very useful, but maybe focus on the section about orientation first. http://yourhome.gov.au/passive-design Below are some generalisations. As has been requested, it would be nice to know your general location, as climates vary across our big country, so building requirements change. But generally, you want your living areas (& a large proportion of your glazing facing north). If possible, have a smaller portion of your glazing facing south & east, for cross ventilation, & try to eliminate western glazing. Bedrooms to the south & east (if they won't also fit in the north), & rarely used rooms, like garages, bathrooms & laundries to the west. Your verandah is south facing, good, as it won't shade your home in winter. Hopefully you have north facing eaves & they aren't too large. If they are the right size you'll get sun through your northern windows in winter, but the eaves will shade the house in summer, when the sun is higher in the sky. So can you knock out windows & doors wherever you want? Would be good to know where they are currently, the size of the verandah, the block dimensions & any other structures which will influence shading & privacy. I'd also be looking at some tiny house blogs/websites. 72sqm isn't tiny, but you really want an efficient house that works well, & you'll find some ingenious storage solutions that are used in tiny houses. Well designed built in storage is definitely very important in a small home. Can't see if it all fits now, while using the app on my phone. But I'd aim for something like this. The kitchen in the NE corner, running down the eastern wall (so you get good morning sun). An island bench for dining, separating the living area on the northern wall. Master in the NW corner, with the ensuite on the western wall (if it fits - important not to have the master bedroom window facing west). Minor bedrooms (& windows) on the south wall. Main bathroom or powder room somewhere on the southern wall, in the SW corner would be nice if it fits there. No idea is that all fits, just some ideas. If you're not fussed about an easy facing kitchen, you could flip this all, & have the kitchen in the NW corner, & the master in the NE corner. If you're taking off external or internal cladding, this is a good time to insulate you're walls. Also up insulation levels in the roof cavity of they're inadequate. It will greatly effect comfort, is quite cheap & the walls are very hard to do at other times. Edit: as I got the verandah location wrong, then added to my post....See MoreSouth East Facing Block HELP
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3 years ago
siriuskey
3 years ago
Cee
3 years agoDrew McSwain-Franklin
3 years agosiriuskey
3 years agoDrew McSwain-Franklin
3 years agosiriuskey
3 years agoDrew McSwain-Franklin
3 years agosiriuskey
3 years agolast modified: 3 years agoCee
3 years agoDrew McSwain-Franklin
3 years agoCee
3 years agoDrew McSwain-Franklin
3 years agoTo be honest, unless we sorted a ramp or something like that, neither of our fathers would ever really be able to visit. We've pretty much decided we cant go for it. In the meantime, if you're curious, I developed another option:
oklouise
3 years agoDrew McSwain-Franklin
3 years agofianou luca
3 years agookay so I haven't read all the ideas and comments so forgive me if I'm doubling up. What about lifting the house up? Maybe you could have it raised to the same height as entry. It might seem drastic but isn't as much as you think. That would keep the original footprint of house on block, and have plenty of space under for a granny flat. My parents had a house like that. They built a big carport that came off the driveway and it connected to the house. It was essentially spanning the gap. the drive sloped down a ways and then the carport came across.
fianou luca
3 years agoDrew McSwain-Franklin
3 years agofianou luca
3 years agofianou luca
3 years agofianou luca
3 years agoDrew McSwain-Franklin
3 years ago
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