Our PPOR plans

[Simon]

Architect has just emailed us some drawings of her concept for our PPOR. We are thrilled at what has been achieved so far. Especially at such a bargain price. Had been advised that an Architect would add 15% to the total build cost but we have been very pleasantly surprised.

She has added an amazing lot of value and brought a wealth of experience and knowledge to the table.

Anyway what do you guys think?

http://www.somersoft.com/forums/gallery/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=72

 

[sailor]

Looks good Simon. I prefer the larger deck upstairs at the front. Good design.

 

[dave99]

Looks great! It is amazing what architects can come up with which you haven't even considered.
-dave99

 

[BV]

Hi Simon,
It's nice, have you got a cost estimate?
Cheers

 

[dcarr]

I guess one concern would be that the upstairs passage seems quite narrow, will you be able to get all furniture into the rooms easily without scraping walls or the stair banisters?

Most 2nd level plans these days keep that central passage extra large and spread out, so it doubles as a common play area / computer desk area.

Just a thought. Looks great anyhow

 

[wylie]

Only thought I had was that I would swap the media room and the bedroom/bathroom near the main bedroom. Now that our 18 year old is downstairs the nearest bedroom to ours is our 15 year old's. Sometimes they both are upstairs watching tv after hubby and I have gone to bed, and I don't want to advertise our plans by shutting our door. We are not prudes, but this does bother me a little.

We have friends who first brought this issue to our attention. Their oldest son used to knock on their bedroom wall (adjoined the tv room) and ask if they could keep it a bit less noisy

I never understood why new houses often had the main bedroom such a long way separated from the others. With teenagers, I totally understand and depending on what age your children are, at some stage they are going to stay up later than you and if you want any sort of privacy (nudge/nudge/wink/wink) the separation is a good thing.

Only problem is, if you do swap them around, you might have them listening at the walls of the media room with an empty glass . Maybe put double insulation in the wall between the bedrooms.

I find it interesting how my views change as the children get older.

Wylie

 

[Ozsunrise]

Just had to pop in my 2c worth here!
We are currently building a PPOR- single storey. Our bedroom/ensuite is at one end of the house, even with the bedroom door open, you cannot see into our bedroom! Then we have the living areas, media room, then the other 3 bedrooms at the other end of the house. Our 19yo daughter has the room adjoining the media room- we have that wall soundproofed. I don't think it was much extra cost.

We have family who have little ones, so now, mum can spend half the night walking the floor with her crying children and we still sleep on! We have both worked long and ridiculous hours for the past 20-30 years, so now like our nights undisturbed! Visitors can access kitchen, tv etc without disturbing us! Currently, our bedroom in our small house is right next door to lounge room and kitchen light shines through to our bedroom if we have visitors who don't go to bed at the same time as us.

So looking forward to moving in about 4 weeks. BTW, our builder looks like completing a couple of weeks ahead of schedule!! Has always been ahead, and I am so impressed with them (GJ Gardner here in Toowoomba) am already planning next build!!
Didn't mean to hijack thread tho, your house looks lovely- have fun building!
Susan

 

[Simon]

Only thought I had was that I would swap the media room and the bedroom/bathroom near the main bedroom. Now that our 18 year old is downstairs the nearest bedroom to ours is our 15 year old's. Sometimes they both are upstairs watching tv after hubby and I have gone to bed, and I don't want to advertise our plans by shutting our door. We are not prudes, but this does bother me a little.

We have friends who first brought this issue to our attention. Their oldest son used to knock on their bedroom wall (adjoined the tv room) and ask if they could keep it a bit less noisy

I never understood why new houses often had the main bedroom such a long way separated from the others. With teenagers, I totally understand and depending on what age your children are, at some stage they are going to stay up later than you and if you want any sort of privacy (nudge/nudge/wink/wink) the separation is a good thing.

Only problem is, if you do swap them around, you might have them listening at the walls of the media room with an empty glass . Maybe put double insulation in the wall between the bedrooms.

I find it interesting how my views change as the children get older.

Wylie

Bed 4 is the guest room - not for our kids. We deliberately moved the media room from sharing a wall with us for noise reasons. There is also the walk in robe behind our bedhead in between as well. Jenni's clothing would be a god noise barrier.

By the way, those walk in robes behind the bed are so cool!

I will take a look at that upstairs passageway. It will have a low balustrade with wood and wire on the east side so it will be pretty open as it is - guess it doesn't really come accross on these sketches.

All good points and I welcome more. Thinking of new points can only add to it all.

 

[Mrs Bird]

All good points and I welcome more. Thinking of new points can only add to it all.

Hi Simon, Welcome to the wonderful and exciting world of designing your PPOR. Be careful, it can take over your life Soon you will be dreaming about sinks, stone tops, tiles and the most other ridiculous mundane things.

You have asked for comments since you are still at the conceptual stage. We stopped showing our plans to any one once it was submitted to council. It tends to confuse us too much.

Suggestions(please ignore all if they dont suit your life style, homes are such personal issues)

1. Make sure all bedrooms are a decent size, bedroom 4 looks very boxy...I cant see the dimensions so it could be larger than what they look.

2. Toilet next to the kitchen...we have that in our present house now...from personal experience, not an ideal placement.

3. Media room I would prehaps have it downstairs where you have the study but make that whole area much bigger. Get rid of the wall where the fire place? is and make the whole family room/dinning area into a large functional area. At the moment, you have two half spaces rather than one large spacious area. Yor large media room can also be a parents retreat/loungeroom if needed.

4. Upper area, now you have got room to make a nice kids lounge area and a study space. If any body wants to stay up at night in the media room, they will not disturb family members who want to sleep.

Just a few ideas to toss around, but you know what is better for your family. Have fun and enjoy the adventure.

Mrs Bird

ps.. Just had another look at your plans and I cant really tell the dimensions of the room, width of building block etc so my suggestions could be irrelevant

 

[Ruby]

All good points and I welcome more. Thinking of new points can only add to it all.

Talking about points………double the amount of power points they are suggesting!

 

[our obsession]

I think it looks quite good...I especially like eaves!

Would love to know how much natural light it can take advantage of, that rates on my excitement meter; looks like it could rate well ....

Love the fact you have immediate access from garage to kitchen! (yep, some folk still build the garage away from the kitchen...can't figure that out )

Love the walk in robe behind the bed idea...the sketches of the place look very appealing, (bigger) balcony is great, outdoor entertainment area tops..near the pool.

Found this site only the other day...you would be familiar probably already Simon, but someone else may not have uncovered it yet..

http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/yourhome/

As well as old favorites...

http://www.homesite.com.au/

http://www.nrma.com.au/pub/nrma/home/homehelp/environment/design_home.shtml

http://www.australia.gov.au/382

http://www.energystar.gov.au/about/australia.html

http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/www/html/2037-building-and-renovating.asp?intSiteID=4

and this of course, good on Vics:

http://www.icanz.org.au/news/5starpays/

We built two properties-no eaves, we look at them now (and are proud) but quite ashamed we cut costs on the eaves, we wont do it again.

Also noticed: the inventors TV show had a guy that has invented a barrier frame which is fitted between the window (or door) frame itself to prevent moisture and water from leaking into the building.

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s1404720.htm

Looking good.

 

[Dazz]

I find it interesting how my views change as the children get older.

Exactly....well said....profound even.

Of course wylie, one could substitute those last 4 words "the children get older" ;

with statements like ;

1. we design our PPoR for the first time
2. meet and interact with differing people
3. we accumulate more wealth
4. we become more experienced dealing with contracts

...and a whole raft of other things.

Excellent.

 

[Simon]

Hi Simon, Welcome to the wonderful and exciting world of designing your PPOR. Be careful, it can take over your life Soon you will be dreaming about sinks, stone tops, tiles and the most other ridiculous mundane things.

You have asked for comments since you are still at the conceptual stage. We stopped showing our plans to any one once it was submitted to council. It tends to confuse us too much.

Suggestions(please ignore all if they dont suit your life style, homes are such personal issues)

1. Make sure all bedrooms are a decent size, bedroom 4 looks very boxy...I cant see the dimensions so it could be larger than what they look.

Guest bedroom - we cut it back consciously. Don't want people getting too comfy. But an eventual buyer may be put off. Will revisit.

2. Toilet next to the kitchen...we have that in our present house now...from personal experience, not an ideal placement.

We wanted a toilet downstairs with easy access from the pool. Laundry looks ideal with it's own backdoor.

3. Media room I would prehaps have it downstairs where you have the study but make that whole area much bigger.

Media room is actually a teenage lounge and study space. Deliberately upstairs away from the main living areas.

Get rid of the wall where the fire place? is and make the whole family room/dinning area into a large functional area. At the moment, you have two half spaces rather than one large spacious area.

Good point. We will discuss this with the architect. We really wanted an open gas fire and especially like it to be heating both rooms at once.... Can see the advantage of one big room. I am funny re TV. I hate it being on as background noise and that happens whenever we have one in the main room. Thats why I wanted a dedicated room for it so it only came on when someone wanted to sit down and watch something decent. Thats why the TV area away from the family room and kitchen.


4. Upper area, now you have got room to make a nice kids lounge area and a study space. If any body wants to stay up at night in the media room, they will not disturb family members who want to sleep. Thats what we did!
Just a few ideas to toss around, but you know what is better for your family. Have fun and enjoy the adventure.

I really really appreciate the time you took to view them and write me a response. I have a few good ideas to discuss with the boss and architect.

Mrs Bird

ps.. Just had another look at your plans and I cant really tell the dimensions of the room, width of building block etc so my suggestions could be irrelevant

Thanks guys - keep the thoughts coming!