Possibly starting all over again

[AliG]

Jack and Jill is def a possibility if we have to reduce the floorplan. People in general seemed to think it is a hassle because of two doors, but it is very space efficient.

 

If we moved the WC and sink to the other side of the WC, would we be able to put a drain in the utility room and claim it is a possible future shower space?

[newhome]

13 minutes ago, ProDave said:

The space saving idea we have is the downstairs WC is in the utility room. Not to everyones taste, but BC are happy with it as long as it has disabled access and there is room for a shower to be added later (if we did that we would divide it into 2 rooms)

 

I like the layout. I think something along the lines that @ProDave suggests combining the utility room and WC would work. Maybe flip the WC and basin onto the other wall, leave the wall out (but retain both doors) and then stick the wall in to make them 2 separate rooms once the house is signed off, grabbing the additional space for the utility room instead. 

[ProDave]

56 minutes ago, AliG said:

Jack and Jill is def a possibility if we have to reduce the floorplan. People in general seemed to think it is a hassle because of two doors, but it is very space efficient.

 

If we moved the WC and sink to the other side of the WC, would we be able to put a drain in the utility room and claim it is a possible future shower space?

You can allocate space in the room with the WC or an adjacent room or cupboard that can be reconfigured.

[AliG]

Thanks I will suggest that

 

[AliG]

Updated plans and 3D renders.

 

My parents are over the moon.

 

WC adjusted to add a cupboard. We might lose the other hall cupboard for a larger dressing room.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 19, 2018 by AliG

[bissoejosh]

I really like that, out of interest what sort of width is the overall Southern elevation? 

[newhome]

Looks fab! 

[AliG]

1 hour ago, bissoejosh said:

I really like that, out of interest what sort of width is the overall Southern elevation? 

 

18.75m

[Nickfromwales]

1 hour ago, AliG said:

My parents are over the moon.

You don’t do things by halves, do you!?!? 

 

Looks really good. 

[Weebles]

Looks great. Lots of light. Not surprised that your parents are happy.

[Onoff]

10 hours ago, AliG said:

My parents are over the moon.

 

A new house AND Virgin Galactic tickets! You're spoiling them!

[vivienz]

Wow! That looks wonderful; I'm not surprised that your parents are pleased.

[Ferdinand]

12 hours ago, AliG said:

 

18.75m

 

I like the design. MOdern and rangey.

 

My comments:

 

- The kitchen feels quite shut away to me. Is there an argument for having it more open to the hall? I would want a view through from outside the front door, which I think can be done by aligning the doors. Or making it wider.

- The hall feels quite large .. to me perhaps excessively large, and I am not sure how easy it would be to make alternative use of some of that space should you need. *

- If you choose to save your 300mm I would consider putting it in the garage as added width. *

- Gut feel but would more sliding doors be appropriate and more streamlined for the design?

 

(*) If this is their potential last house, then perhaps give some thought to frail-old-people paraphernalia. Think, for example, how somebody in a wheelchair adapted vehicle such as a people carrier would approach the house from their vehicle. AT ours, the previous owner used to reverse his 4x4 into the 24ft garage, reverse his powered wheelchair out of the car, then come in via the utility room. AN alternative is to have a future design in your head for a car port or canopy extension to the porch in front of the garage that will prevent them getting wet.

 

In our case, I find that I now have a Sholley and a Folding wheelchair kicking around near the front door all the time. We have enough rooms to keep it all under control but no suitably huge cupboard; that type of use case bears thinking about, and that will probably need to be done by you,

 

Possible solutions are including an area in your porch which could also be your potential bike area, have your hall such that there is an alcove somewhere, or making sure that that hall cupboard is the right shape and easily accessible (full width bifold doors?).

 

Ferdinand

 

 

Edited December 20, 2018 by Ferdinand

[Ferdinand]

PS I see you have one the see thru bit with the doors. Goodo..

[lizzie]

Lucky parents ?

[Gone West]

Can we have one please?

[Onoff]

Where would you store the mobility scooter should it come to it? Or is it the case that at that stage there'd no longer be a need to store a car in the garage?

[AliG]

Thanks for all the comments.

 

I originally drew double doors into the kitchen, the architect has changed it to a single door and glass panel. This is open to being changed depending on what my parents think, but also the issue of whether the doors interfere with where furniture can be put in the kitchen.

 

The hall is deliberately large as I feel it is an important part of making a smaller house feel like a larger house. With the mono pitch roof, the hall will also be higher than normal and I think this adds some good wow factor (people may have seen my own slightly excessive hall).

 

I have only just noticed that the architect turned the kitchen around swapping the table and cabinets around, not sure why.

 

I would have liked the garage a little wider, but this gave a little in the need to keep the size down. I might ask for 100mm to be moved from the house to the garage when I look at the exact sizes.

 

The mobility scooter/wheelchair thing is interesting. We could move the door in the hall cupboard to the other side if a wider cupboard is needed. I think if they got to the point where they needed a scooter they would stop driving. They are 70 and 71 and health wise seem fine, but already my mum hardly ever drives. One of the great things about the area is that there is a small supermarket, post office, coffee shop, pub etc within 6 or 7 minutes walk. Also lots of buses are available close by.

 

They will have walk in showers which I think makes things easier for older people,  we might put a seat in their shower, I will ask them. Their current apartment has an expensive steel enamel shower tray, unfortunately this is much more slippery than a plastic tray and I had to buy little dots for grip as my dad literally couldn't stand up in it. We will have some kind of bumpy tiles, when I ordered tiles for our house from Porcelanosa they were extremely good about asking who would use the different rooms and pointing out if they thought the tiles would not have enough grip.

[Onoff]

8 minutes ago, AliG said:

The mobility scooter/wheelchair thing is interesting. We could move the door in the hall cupboard to the other side if a wider cupboard is needed. I think if they got to the point where they needed a scooter they would stop driving. They are 70 and 71 and health wise seem fine, but already my mum hardly ever drives. One of the great things about the area is that there is a small supermarket, post office, coffee shop, pub etc within 6 or 7 minutes walk. Also lots of buses are available close by.

 

Good design now will hopefully allow them to stay independent for a long time. Speaking from experience with my own parents (88 & 90). Good lighting enhances visual input which keeps the old grey matter ticking over. Ease of access like walk in showers allow them to attend to their own hygiene needs for longer and may even encourage it. MVHR ventilates the place but subtlety and help keep the dust down when their cleaning skills wane.

 

My Dad was on about getting a mobility scooter but there is laterally no way he could get one in the house. 

[AliG]

This has encouraged to sit down and have a discussion with them and ask them to think about these things. Maybe they have issues that I am not aware of.

 

I knew about the shower issue, also my mum isn't very tall and often kitchen wall cabinets are set too high for her to use, indeed they are often too high for me also.

 

I am already finding it difficult to see in the dark, they just ordered a new car and I made sure it had LED or xenon headlights as my dad said that he doesn't like driving at night and his old car had feeble lights. My daughter is constantly trying to turn off lights, children have considerably better ability to see in the dark than older adults.

 

Some things are already mandatory of course, such as switch and socket positioning.

 

The house will have MVHR, we will have to be careful setting it up so as not to upset my noise sensitive mum.

 

I did insist that the garage was perpendicular to the road, otherwise to maximise light I think it would have been where the master bedroom is but almost impossible to get into with a 90 degree turn as soon as you are on the driveway. The door will be at least 2.5m wide.

[Onoff]

Think about the pull down cupboard shelves for your Mum and yourself.

 

Doesn't stop normal people using them!

[AliG]

I looked at those pull down shelves for her in their current house, they are expensive and don't seem to take much. Instead I managed to get them to throw out their accumulated junk so they didn't have to use the space. Indeed any kind of nifty kitchen fitting like that seems a waste to me. Instead of corner carousels for example you will note that the kitchen simply has no corner cupboards.

 

I just don't use the top shelf or put stuff I hardly ever use up there. It has become fashionable for taller wall cupboards in kitchens, the top shelves in ours must be over 2m off the floor.

[joe90]

My wife is 5ft nothing and she specified no wall cupboards in our new build, the larder top shelf is for little used stuff that she can get me to fetch for her. Frankly it looks nice and uncluttered. We have one corner cupboard that is used for storing little used stuff.

[Onoff]

Depending on your wall / ceiling construction consider whether you have "structure" beneath to later fit grab rails, bath hoists etc.

 

All getting a bit Gulliver's Travels on here...I am so looking forward to being able to stand UNDER the rainfall shower.

[Ferdinand]

I would move the door in the “shower cupboard” anyway, on the basis that a 2.5m x 1m cupboard is better in wide not deep format. How many people have double wardrobes oriented end-on?

 

For saving space And hence budget without compromising the essential function I think that there is more potential in optimising the master suite to save space rather than the garage. I have not got my head around it yet, but I think I think that the last 3 sqm of the Hall should be better placed inside the master suite, rather than having that door around the corner.

 

The only reason not to do that is to access the big square storage cupboard, which you are talking about abolishing.

 

I think you could get rid of that corridor-like en-suite, and have the en-suite and dressing room orientated north-south, entered off the space where the end of the hall is now, and have the door to the master suite in an end wall level with the wall of the second bedroom. I think the master suite could perhaps lose 0.5m or so off the north end in that configuration, which is worth a number of k on standard area rates.

 

I also wonder about orienting the master bed east-west backing on to the dressing room/ shower, to give a view and direct morning sunlight. Perhaps include 2 sets of double bed sockets.

 

Do you have a plot lined up for your daughter yet? ?

 

F

Edited December 20, 2018 by Ferdinand