Views to the South - Sun to the North

lizzie

lizzie

Throwing it out there - in case someone has seen something - although I think I may have to go architect designed (ch-ching!).

In the process of buying 10 acres, with an intention to build a nil-footprint home - complete with solar, water, underfloor thermal heating and cooling, thermal glass, super high insulation rating, veges, chooks, biodynamic pasture etc.

Yay!

Anyhow - the views on the block are to the south west - terrible aspect for an eco house (or any house).

To the north (east-ish) one looks uphill, straight at the neighbours' house - great sun aspect but definately not the best view.

The only house I have found to suit "what I want" in a house is the Metricon Soho (with optional extras of extra ensuite, 3 car garage, rumpus) - with minimal internal changes to make it 3 large bedrooms etc ... but, after pacing the block today I realise it won't work for the above reasons.

Would prefer a spec builder home due to cost reasons ... and think I'm going to have to look at a house where the living areas open to both aspects, both north and south to take advantage of the views "and" the sun - or a house that has a cathedral ceiling with clerestory windows facing north.

Open to any suggestions of plans or architects - regardless of where they are.

So - if anyone has seen any house design they think would suit, I'm all ears :D
 
Mil+ ... no more than $1.2-3

Land around $410K - no stamp - want to spend no more than $500k on build, including things such as 100m gravel drive, pool, landscaping, some clearing, some fencing, dam cleaning, running power in, house upgrades and the eco-option extras.

The Soho as a basic is low $200's - so I was calculating around $300k for all of the above
 
The problem with building houses like this (I've had a look) is that anyone who wants to purchase it will know exactly what house it is, who built it, and more important, how much it cost to build! Anyone can tell a spec home from a mile away. They'll work out that it cost $400,000 for the land and $300,000 for the house....so why will it be worth over $1m?

At least by using an architect's design people perceive it to be expensive, and the value will reflect that accordingly. I have a business associate who built a Porter Davis home on a block of land and wanted $2m for it. Just down the road a similar house (Porter Davis, again) sold for $1.3m!!! Don't make that mistake of undercapitalising.
 
Ah ha ... just worked it out ... still with the Soho - just tick the boxes 3 car garage, rumpus, ensuite to give new floorplan.

http://www.metricon.com.au/nsw/homes/soho/floor-plans/32

Lounge external pushed out in line with adjoining (dining) external wall - turned into bed2 with ensuite. Bed2 and study combined to make bed3. Bed3 and 4 opened up to combine with rumpus/dining to make large living area spanning house from side to side. Dining becomes open office/library.

Points definately taken Prop - although I think with the sort-of non-structural internal layout changes I'm planning, the inside is changed enough not to be spec ... and I hope my decorating vavoom will take it out of the ordinary.

The external will be one of the rarer spec facades - and we can put our own mark on that too with windows and finishes - so hopefully finishes and landscaping ... and extras such as pool, orchards, vege gardens etc ... will lift it above the ordinary.

Looked at one that was very obviously a Masterton spec home plonked on an acerage ... hideous. Some decent external finish, landscaping (not acres of nothing but lawn), aspect alignment, optional extras and some "wow factor" touches inside would have made it impressive ... although it was an older couple, so they kept it simple.

That one was on 3.5 acres and asking over $800k.
 
lizzie - I think you are making a mistake trying to fit a spec home to your land. That's the whole point of spec homes - they are meant to fit on as many type of blocks as possible. Once you start changing things here and there you will be incurring further variation costs for no benefit to you.

The case in point of your neighbour on 3.5 acres with a **** spec home only asking for ~$800,000 just demonstrates what I've been saying. There is simply no multiplier effect for these type of things. Even if it's a 'rare' facade - it's still a spec home.
 
mutter mutter Aaron :D ... I'll get a costing for the changes and reassess.

I know exactly what you are saying, the desire is to be mortgage free with this build and there is a ceiling to what people will pay in this area, so I am reluctant to overspend on an architect designed home.

Will pm you with details.
 
Don't forget that in these parts, the east coast and inland at least, we've just had the coolest summer for flip knows how long. I hardly ever had the aircon on, and it was too often not hot enough for a swim in the pool. It will get hot again, so you may not want too much glass facing north.

I really know nothing about eco houses or architecture, but I'd have thought that in a generally hot place like Australia, that it would be good to have the glass and views facing south or east? And smaller windows and big wide verandas facing north and west. But what would I know?


See ya's.
 
I know what you're saying TC ... however ... also gets darn cold in winter too (heard it snows up your way on occasion :D)

Although - you may be right as winter is what the combustion fire, and solar under floor heating is for.
 
I posted this in another thread, but if you're interested in green building then The Whole House Book is worth reading.

I lived in the Abito development in Manchester for a few months, and the apartments were basically a shoe box with a glass wall at one end.

abito_apartment2_small.jpg


Mine was on the north side of the building, which is equivalent to south facing in Australia. (If you look at the external shot in the link, it's the one with the light on at the top left corner of the block.)

I was a bit upset about facing the wrong direction for the sun until it came to moving out day. I'd hired a cleaner who also lived in the building to do an end of tenancy clean, and she said that the south facing units got extremely hot in the summer, and were uncomfortable in the absence of air con. Bear in mind that this is in the north of England, where the average summer's day is around 20 degrees, and it'll be more of an issue in Australia.

So I wouldn't have a problem with having big windows on the south side. Just make sure that they're high performance and double or triple glazed.

If you want to go green then I'd be looking into things like thermal mass (moderates temperature, keeping the place cool in summer and warm in winter), insulation, solar gain (wrangling heating from the sun so that it doesn't cook you) and situation on the plot.

The project home won't take any of these into account.

Quick question, as I'm curious. How much difference would there be in buying a project home than going down the architect designed route?
 
Not sure about cost difference - that is this afternoons job to start researching.

After an evening thought - I agree that would go large thermal windows to the south with view - and probably a long, horizontal slot window to the north, high-ish on the wall to get the winter sun in - but sheltered by the eaves in summer.

External planting helps a lot too.

Planning on having a concrete slab floor with in floor solar thermal heating - so even on miserable days like today, yesterday's sun would have warmed the floor slab enough for the next 3-4 days ... boosted by a combustion fireplace, 'cause I love 'em.

I'm not keen on energy guzzling aircons for summer either - so am looking at hydronic cooling system as either infloor or air con.

I think the good thing with Metricon is that they are pretty flexiable in internal layout - as long as the changes aren't strucural. See how we go.
 
Graemsay said:
I posted this in another thread, but if you're interested in green building then The Whole House Book is worth reading.

I lived in the Abito development in Manchester for a few months, and the apartments were basically a shoe box with a glass wall at one end.

abito_apartment2_small.jpg


Mine was on the north side of the building, which is equivalent to south facing in Australia. (If you look at the external shot in the link, it's the one with the light on at the top left corner of the block.)

I was a bit upset about facing the wrong direction for the sun until it came to moving out day. I'd hired a cleaner who also lived in the building to do an end of tenancy clean, and she said that the south facing units got extremely hot in the summer, and were uncomfortable in the absence of air con. Bear in mind that this is in the north of England, where the average summer's day is around 20 degrees, and it'll be more of an issue in Australia.

So I wouldn't have a problem with having big windows on the south side. Just make sure that they're high performance and double or triple glazed.

If you want to go green then I'd be looking into things like thermal mass (moderates temperature, keeping the place cool in summer and warm in winter), insulation, solar gain (wrangling heating from the sun so that it doesn't cook you) and situation on the plot.

The project home won't take any of these into account.

Quick question, as I'm curious. How much difference would there be in buying a project home than going down the architect designed route?
Click to expand...

that is a pretty interesting design!!
 
I would be trying to get something going with an eco-designer to really take advantage of the block.

At least get a price. You could also try to get on the Grand Designs Australia show :).
 
Lizzie, I'm of the view that building a house is a once in a lifetime experience, and there are way too many uninspired properties, so do it right, and create something worthwhile. :)

My younger brother is the one with the real knowledge of eco design, and reckons the way forward is to go for a heavy weight construction (blockwork and similar) with the insulation on the outside of the building envelope. That means the thermal mass is more effective.

Melbournian, the Abito apartments were around 30 m2, and made much better use of space than some larger designs I've seen.

Wylie, the Grand Designs angle is a good suggestion. Here in the UK a lot of these shows result in projects getting free products from their suppliers.
 
wylie said:
I would be trying to get something going with an eco-designer to really take advantage of the block.

At least get a price. You could also try to get on the Grand Designs Australia show :).
Click to expand...

Went up to the display village today ... I think I'm going to have to go down the individual path as I like this from this house, and that from that house, but no house has both etc.

Have come home with a massive show bag of plans and facades to go thru and circle bits that I like.

And definately would apply to Grand Designs Australia!

Now to find a good - forward thinking but not wacko architect. The problem friends have found with architects in the past is that many tend to think of the design only ... material efficency and price is only an afterthought.
 
lizzie said:
Went up to the display village today ... I think I'm going to have to go down the individual path as I like this from this house, and that from that house, but no house has both etc.

Have come home with a massive show bag of plans and facades to go thru and circle bits that I like.

And definately would apply to Grand Designs Australia!

Now to find a good - forward thinking but not wacko architect. The problem friends have found with architects in the past is that many tend to think of the design only ... material efficency and price is only an afterthought.
Click to expand...


maybe you could try like kit homes like prebuilt.com.au (they were on grand designs) or modscape.com.au
 
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