Sketch design for comments/feedback please

[Omnibuswoman]

I would love to hear your thoughts on my initial sketch for our two story house of around 160m2. I'm working on learning a CAD program, but managed to put these together with the much simpler Roomsketcher app.

 

The PP agreed plan is also attached, and we are planning to keep the same footprint of that, broadly speaking, but to lose the garden room (swapping this for a large porch) and not have a woodburning stove and feature chimney. 

 

In the end, we will also own the land immediately to the east of our garden.

Thanks

M

[bassanclan]

Not sure I'd want the door to my master bedroom opening onto the main entertaining space. Especially into the dressing room!

Are there good views from the Master bedroom? Would an office and snug not benefit from those views, rather than the bedroom?

[ultramods]

Is there a reason that the living space is on the first floor, as unless there were amazing views, not sure why you would do it. And if there are amazing views you might want to think of more glazing to make having the living space on the first floor worth while.

 

As @bassanclan said,  I wouldn't want dressing room directly accessed from the main living area. Also if a visitor needs the toilet they would need to either go through your dressing room to use the master ensuite, which wouldn't be ideal or go downstairs, which again isn't the best.

 

The ground floor hall uses a lot of space, which could be used more effectively if the design was changed.

 

Do you really need to use 18 sqm for 2 utility/plant/pantry rooms?Could some of the plant equipment go in loft space?

 

The snug looks very snug, maybe that's deliberate.

 

Some photos or the plot and views might help

 

What is the orientation of the house, north, east, south and west?

 

Showing room dimensions would help give better feedback, rather than just the floor areas.

 

[Russell griffiths]

Does this product let you do a walk through. 

I used a programme called  ARCHITOUCH 3D that allow s you to walk through your design. 

[Omnibuswoman]

1 hour ago, bassanclan said:

Not sure I'd want the door to my master bedroom opening onto the main entertaining space. Especially into the dressing room!

Are there good views from the Master bedroom? Would an office and snug not benefit from those views, rather than the bedroom?

 

Thanks Bassanclan. I take your point about privacy. I think as we are a couple living alone we haven't really given the need for privacy a great deal of thought!

 

Yes, there is a nice view from the master bedroom (see photo taken from across the road) which will also be somewhat visible from the upstairs living area over the roof of the house in front (the one on the right of the picture below with the fancy roof).

 

[Omnibuswoman]

53 minutes ago, ultramods said:

Is there a reason that the living space is on the first floor, as unless there were amazing views, not sure why you would do it. And if there are amazing views you might want to think of more glazing to make having the living space on the first floor worth while.

 

As @bassanclan said,  I wouldn't want dressing room directly accessed from the main living area. Also if a visitor needs the toilet they would need to either go through your dressing room to use the master ensuite, which wouldn't be ideal or go downstairs, which again isn't the best.

 

The ground floor hall uses a lot of space, which could be used more effectively if the design was changed.

 

Do you really need to use 18 sqm for 2 utility/plant/pantry rooms?Could some of the plant equipment go in loft space?

 

The snug looks very snug, maybe that's deliberate.

 

Some photos or the plot and views might help

 

What is the orientation of the house, north, east, south and west?

 

Showing room dimensions would help give better feedback, rather than just the floor areas.

 

 

Thanks Ultramods. 

 

I have been umming and ahhhing about the size of the hallway and whether it is wasted space -  on the one hand I'd like it to feel spacious and generous, but on the other I can see that a hallway is not a useful space. 

 

I'm not sure about putting equipment in the loft - I think I prefer the idea of it being easily accessible so that when we are old and creaky we'll still be able to change filters and access it easily for maintenance. But you're right that both the utility room and the laundry/plant are rather luxurious spaces that were on our wishlist but not our 'essentials' list. One issue we're concerned about is the noise of appliances in the open plan living area. I use hearing aids and find background noise very intrusive when trying to have a conversation. We're concerned that open plan may not work for us noise-wise, and that's one reason for making a TV snug - so that I can be banished to watch TV whilst my husband cooks and crashes about in the kitchen!

 

The house orientation is: Master Bedroom window faces east (towards that Dartmoor view), the dining area and office look south onto the garden, kitchen faces west and bathrooms are on the north wall.

 

The photos below are the plot looking from SW to NE (P1..476), East from the SW corner (P1..470) and looking South East from the North West corner (P1..468). Also attached is a short film of the plot (from January) standing under the westerly of the two oak trees and looking from east to west via north.

 

 

 

[Omnibuswoman]

20 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

Does this product let you do a walk through. 

I used a programme called  ARCHITOUCH 3D that allow s you to walk through your design. 

 

Not without paying an arm and a leg - Roomsketcher's fee system is really opaque and I ended up forking out more than I had planned for the 3D views. I'll have a look at Architouch 3D, thanks. I'm also trying to master LibreCAD so that I can make proper technical drawings.

[Omnibuswoman]

 

On the video above, the site for the house is seen at between 12 and 13 seconds.

[bassanclan]

I think the whole upside down house might be a mistake as you are missing out on being able to have french doors/bifold doors out from the kitchen/living area onto what looks like an expansive plot with countryside beyond.

 

It is all very well designing a house for just two of you, but hopefully you will have friends and family visiting and you need to consider that when designing, otherwise you may as well build a 1 bed house. Also at some point the house will be sold, by all means make it your own, but a 3/4 bedroom house has to ultimately be a pracital as a family home.

 

 

[Omnibuswoman]

22 minutes ago, bassanclan said:

I think the whole upside down house might be a mistake as you are missing out on being able to have french doors/bifold doors out from the kitchen/living area onto what looks like an expansive plot with countryside beyond.

 

It is all very well designing a house for just two of you, but hopefully you will have friends and family visiting and you need to consider that when designing, otherwise you may as well build a 1 bed house. Also at some point the house will be sold, by all means make it your own, but a 3/4 bedroom house has to ultimately be a pracital as a family home.

 

 

 

Interestingly we had a comment from a designed this morning along the same lines - that we should reconsider the reverse living and have a large kitchen diner opening onto the garden with bifold doors. The idea came from the plan of the house that has planning consent - we wouldn't otherwise have thought about it!

 

The hesitation we now have is that the distant view is not seen from the garden (the neighbouring house obstructs it), and we are not big on eating outdoors. Whilst I might enjoy a bowl of sugar puffs on the garden stairs from time to time here in London, I don't really like eating outside, and we don't expect to do a lot of garden based entertaining (not least because despite the glorious blue skies in the photos, it actually rains an awful lot down there). The garden will be more like a small holding - poly tunnels and raised beds, with a small summerhouse somewhere towards the south eastern aspect as there is a gap between the road-level houses and that distant view can be glimpsed from there. 

 

Husband and I had a long chat this morning about whether to change the plan to standard bedrooms upstairs and living downstairs - lifestyle vs saleability ... the jury is still out!

[Omnibuswoman]

@ultramods  I've gone back into the room plans and added the wall lengths - sorry this looks about as amateurish as it's possible to!! 

[Russell griffiths]

if you go for upside down house, why not have a big outdoor area raised up like a big raised deck. 

[Omnibuswoman]

7 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

if you go for upside down house, why not have a big outdoor area raised up like a big raised deck. 

 

That's a good idea! A balcony outside of the dining area? I would be more likely to sit and eat or drink on a balcony than in a garden - I don't know why!

Edited June 2, 2020 by Omnibuswoman

[Russell griffiths]

 

have you seen a website called HOUZZ, lots of ideas but be very careful it’s already pushed us £100,000 over budget. 

[Omnibuswoman]

? Wow!! That's an amazing space.

 

I keep having to remind myself that the long dry and sunny spell Cornwall has had, more or less since lockdown, is highly unusual and alfresco living down there usually involves galoshes!

It is, however, a glorious place and I feel incredibly lucky to have found a suitable plot down there.

[Omnibuswoman]

37 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

have you seen a website called HOUZZ, lots of ideas but be very careful it’s already pushed us £100,000 over budget.

 

I've just taken a look at this and my eyes are bleeding!!! £600 for bedside table ?

 

As I'm responsible for sticking to our budget, I won't be visiting Houzz very often - only now and again to steal some design ideas that can be done on a shoestring.

[AliG]

Before I comment on the interior layout, I have a question.

 

Are you planning for the upstairs to be larger than the downstairs and overhang both sides of the porch? I can see why you might have an overhang creating shelter at the front door, but I am not sure why you would want an overhang at the other side. You would probably need a pillar at each corner to support the upstairs exterior walls and floor.

 

Also it looks like the garage would be at the opposite side of the house from the front door, that is not the end of the world, but not ideal, are you OK with that?

Edited June 2, 2020 by AliG

[Omnibuswoman]

4 minutes ago, AliG said:

Before I comment on the interior layout, I have a question.

 

Are you planning for the upstairs to be larger than the downstairs and overhang both sides of the porch? I can see why you might have an overhang creating shelter at the front door, but I am not sure why you would want an overhang at the other side. You would probably need a pillar at each corner to support the upstairs exterior walls and floor.

 

No, the ground and first floor plans are meant to be the same size - a simple box-shaped house with a two-way pitched roof (east/west). The porch would be on the south side of the house.

If there's a discrepancy it's down to my poor drawing!

[AliG]

Just the scaling thanks.

 

[Omnibuswoman]

@AliG No, the discrepancy is that the images are screenshots, and one has been taken at a greater height - the two rectangular floor shapes are the same dimensions, it's just that the pictures are not to scale

 

[Omnibuswoman]

Just now, AliG said:

Just the scaling thanks.

 

exactly!

 

[Omnibuswoman]

37 minutes ago, AliG said:

Also it looks like the garage would be at the opposite side of the house from the front door, that is not the end of the world, but not ideal, are you OK with that?

 

We are not planning to have a garage, but instead will probably move the house north a small amount and instead have a workshop/large shed at the back of the house where the garage is currently planned.

[Omnibuswoman]

38 minutes ago, AliG said:

Also it looks like the garage would be at the opposite side of the house from the front door, that is not the end of the world, but not ideal, are you OK with that?

 

Someone did suggest that we move the porch to the east side instead of the south, so as to make the best use of the views to the garden from the office and guest bedrooms, which I think is probably a good idea. 

[AliG]

There is a lot you can do as you have a good amount of space.

 

I think the upside down house works well if it allows you to see over the other house. Maybe not ideal from a resale perspective and also if you plan to live in the house into your old age, but maybe a worthwhile compromise. I am not a fan of balconies, we have one which is never used, but if you put one on the east side of the house you could create a covered area between the door and garage.

 

1. As noted, going through the dressing room to the bedroom is not ideal. However, I put the stairs into the stair creator on pear stairs.co.uk and it suggested that they would only be 2.2m front to back. Therefore if you can increase the depth of the master bedroom to 3.3m (which I think allows better space in front of the bed anyway) then you can get a door straight into the bedroom. I would lose the 400mm from the overly large pantry/utility.

 

2. I don't have a hearing aid but am very OCD about noise. I made sure I found the quietest kitchen equipment I could. In general a good quality fridge/freezer is almost silent. Dishwashers are pretty quiet and you can put them on at bed time. The thing that actually annoys me the most is the cooling fan on the oven/microwave and it only runs for a few minutes. The noisier washer/dryer would be down stairs. We do have a Vitamin, that is crazy noisy. But I don't think you need that much separate space upstairs.

 

What you might want to do is put the dressing room where the en suite is, then go through it to the en suite where the pantry is and have a much smaller pantry. This would free up space for the WC where the dressing room is.

 

You might even just want to have a hidden area of kitchen in the corner where you can hide the sink rather than a separate space. I am struggling to think what you would do with it when you have the utility room downstairs.

 

3. I wouldn't really change downstairs if you are happy with the small snug, you could steal a little space from the generous bathroom. The hallway would be dark, you might want to consider having the office open to the hall to let light into it.

 

4. I would have a good think about the stairs coming up into the lounge area. Maybe you would want to box them in to stop sound travelling downstairs or just want to think about how they look from the main living area.

 

5. With this layout and the stairs being shorter you might be able to move the stairs 200mm to the left making the lounge a little wider, bedroom 2 a little shorter and bedroom 3 a little longer.

 

 

Edited June 2, 2020 by AliG

[Omnibuswoman]

That's a brilliant idea @AliG, I wouldn't have thought of having the dressing room as a corridor to an ensuite in the back corner. It makes sense to have a separate visitor toilet so that guests don't need to encroach on our private space as much.

 

I agree with you that the appliances are probably not going to disturb me as much as we fear, and I suspect the greater issue will be my husband penchant for radio 6 whilst in the kitchen. I'm lucky that I can switch my hearing off if I need to!

 

I realise that the two spare bedrooms (for visiting adult children and grandchildren) are really generous, so I have stolen a bit of room 2 and a little bit of the bathroom to make the snug a little less snug. This might end up being a sitting room for my mother if she ever needs to move in with us for a period of time,  and with the laundry converted into a kitchenette we could create a sort of private granny area within the downstairs of the house. 

 

I will revisit window sizes and locations to see how to bring light into the hallway downstairs - I think we will have as transparent a front door as possible to allow light from the porch to come in, and will keep the downstairs doorways open as much as possible to allow light to penetrate from each room.

 

Very much appreciate your thoughts and feedback! M