Plans,whats your thoughts

[jpinthehouse]

Hi

These are our plans, which we intend to start in November, I'm going to make the upstairs bathroom bigger and may place the plant room under the stairs and toilet in the utility, I am considering Mvhr be interested in your views 

Thanks 

John 

[ultramods]

Any chance you could take photos looking straight down at the plans, and make them a bit bigger as i'm struggling to view them at that angle. 

[bassanclan]

I would lose the door out of the kitchen. You have sliding doors to get out for hanging clothes etc. It will save money that can be spent on a larger window and/or more cabinets.

 

5 bed house could do with another reception room. Is the garage really needed? It would make a better xnug/playroom/office etc

[MikeSharp01]

The only a couple things that spring to mind are:

 

1. Move front door to other side so you can see all the way through the building - give an impression of depth.
2. Nice car in garage.
3. Look at how beds will be organised in the bedrooms, use a king size as a starting point and see how it could be laid out, reducing to single trying all sizes in between, it will help you optimise the storage now and power points later.

 

[jpinthehouse]

Hi

Thanks for the initial feedback, garage has to stay, washing would probably be via utility to outside, the kitchen door was to give a view from the hallway to the garden?

Mike am I right in saying have the door on the left and glazing panel on the right ,the car won't be mine for a while.

I've taken some better photos 

Thanks 

John 

[bassanclan]

What if you swapped flipped the stairs over, move WC into the utility, made the sliding doors more central or larger?

[MikeSharp01]

9 hours ago, jpinthehouse said:

Mike am I right in saying have the door on the left and glazing panel

Yep, then people standing at the door won't be looking at your stairs but down through the house to Garden Vista. Although moving the stairs has improved things for the old arrangement but does impact the house all the way up.

Edited October 11, 2017 by MikeSharp01
Spotted new drawing

[Dudda]

That downstairs WC is tiny for a 5 bed house. You need to make that bigger. If it's staying where it is then stretch it say 300mm into the sitting room and have the area below as bookshelves or something similar to hide the step in the wall. I'd also flip the front door as suggested above. I'd build the garage so it can be converted to a snug or office easily later.

 

[Ferdinand]

I do not think you have enough circulation space round the island in the kitchen. The walkways appear to be about 750-800mm wide - imo you really want enough for 2 people to go past each other carrying things, otherwise you end up playing roundabouts.

 

Wider circulation also means that you have room to stand things without substantially blocking the route should you need eg kitchen bin or trolley.

 

While considering flipping the stairs to the RHS, see what can be done by making the kitchen about 1m wider in the space created. For the island consider orienting it more square or "landscape" in those plans, with a breakfast bar or similar on the lounge side. Align the side of the island with the edge of the hall doorway, such that the stools are out of sight under an overhang while not in use and using the 'corridor' when pulled out. Use the space gained to get more circulation around the island - imo it needs an absolute min of 1m width, 1.2m is better and 1.5m is ideal.

 

F

 

 

[Temp]

14 hours ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Nice car in garage.

 

Scaling I make the car 1.7m wide which is the width of a modern mini. Do you need a wider door? Wider garage? 

 

I thought our garage was going to be big enough but then I did a test and discovered we wouldn't be able to get out of the car. It was only one of the original smaller Focus so we ended up making it 1m wider.

 

Park somewhere with the wall on the passenger side. 

Push a tape measure under the car until it hits the wall.

Open drivers door far enough to get out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2017 by Temp

[Temp]

Will the length also be OK? It's shown as 5.1m long. I think if you put something like a 4.5m long Focus in there you won't be able to open the door between house and garage? If you want an up and over door you might find that eats into the length and rules out a high backed car like a small van or estate car? 

[AliG]

Welcome. These are my favourite threads on Buildhub. I wish had put my plans up before I started, might have saved me some money and mistakes.

 

Most points already mentioned.

 

1. Garage

 

The door appears to be 2m wide, many cars will struggle to get through this. 2.5m is better. 3m width for the garage itself is tight but doable. But you won't be able to swing a 8-900mm door past the car as you will have around 5-600mm on each side depending on the width of the car.

 

You could move the door to be between the utility and the garage. Ideally it would be longer, but see below for my idea re WC and cupboards. If you could stick it further out the front that would help, but I am guessing this is restricted.

 

2. Island

 

We have an island that is 1.1m away from the hob. When the dishwasher is open it is hard to get past. I have made the island 1.6m away from the cabinets in the new place. I would make the island shorter at the end where the hob is shown.

 

Is the hob meant to be shown so that you would stand on the end, it is a slightly unusual layout. Assuming that the cabinets are along both side then you won't have a drawer or cupboard under the hob for pots and utensils. I would move it round to the long side so that you are facing the table when standing at it.

 

If one of the two sinks is a prep sink I would move it onto the island. Then you can stand and make stuff between the hob and sink. You can also dust crumbs from the hob into the sink.

 

3. Kitchen

 

There is a lot of dead space in the middle, as mentioned you could lose the extra door.

 

I would consider making the lounge shorter by at least 900mm(It would still be 6m long) and building a wall, then turning the table around and having a sitting area in the kitchen too. Then you will have much more public space and a quiet sitting room option also. The area outside the kitchen is roughly 20ft across, a lot of space for just a table.

 

4. Cupboards/WC

 

There are no cupboards on the ground floor. You could put the WC where the utility sink is and then make the space under the stairs a cupboard. Then you won't have stairs encroaching on the WC. 1.8-2m is wide enough for a utility room.

 

5. Switch door to left as suggested so people are not looking at stairs.

 

5. Upstairs

 

Can't seen any obvious issues on 1st floor.

 

I would make master ensuite larger as you have lots of space and it will feel a lot nicer. You could have a bath and a walk in shower.

 

Edited October 13, 2017 by AliG

[jpinthehouse]

Thanks for the feedback, am going to use some of the ideas put forward

John