Small dreams - looking for house layout advice.

[simplepimple]

Thank you for such an interesting concept Ferdinand and I like your plan a lot. I'd probably end up using the back door as my main entrance as its closest to car parking although I have learnt recently that the host house [for whom I have to provide parking] plans to park on their front garden. 

 

It's surprising how when you remove the original proposed build all sorts of ideas come to mind. 

 

I'll keep everyone posted on how it goes. Next on my list is caravan research....bring on the summer warmth. ?

 

 

[newhome]

I use my back door mostly too as it’s nearer to the car and when I have the dogs it’s straight into the utility room. The only time I seem to use the front door is when visitors come ?

[Ferdinand]

3 hours ago, the_r_sole said:

Interesting discussion... looking at @Ferdinands alternative proposal - I was thinking almost the exact opposite of that! ?

One of my pet hates with traditional bungalows is the square floor plan which wastes a good chuck of area on corridor and give you 2+ room depths in a small house - for me, one nice to have is a single room depth of house (so probably an L shape on this site) but it allows a dual aspect in the public rooms which always makes a small house feel bigger.

If you can use an L shape it means you can enter at the middle (minimising corridor) and have one side as public and one for bedrooms, or keep the corner area as public and split the bedrooms to either end, but I think a private garden behind a bungalow would be preferable to having it all on show (and you could also follow building/plot lines which might be an easier sell to planners) 

 

Interesting.

 

The other 2 options I thought about were an L shape, as you suggest, or a south facing U plan with a sun trap courtyard in the middle. BUt the main thing on this thread is to make sure that the OP is not restricted in his/her head to a limited template laid down by the outline,  and has the confidence to debate the architect as a demanding client. ONe quite different alternative should stop that happening.

 

AS it is the rooms at the back are a utility and a bathroom, which are fine with skylights and the single public room gets sun from mid morning till sunset, and the bedrooms later on. I would want several skylights, at least to give slanted sun in the morning in the lounge. If I was interior designing it, I would perhaps have skylights above the corridor and some form of clerestory between the corridor and bedrooms to get the morning sunbeams in to play joyfully on the glowing skin of  ... etc.

 

The toughest constraint for me here was the parking, which can only be where it is due to the corner, and the need to avoid a tandem driveway and go side by side, which is much better. Those spaces are very tight indeed at 5m length.

 

THe one I have done could lose 0.5m off one dimension of every room, so the entrance can be created anywhere. Personally I would probably go for a back door from the car parking, and a 'front' door entered from the south up a path behind the property emerging next to the utility. Perhaps covered over for a FLW style mystery drawing in rabbit hole feel as you walk in.

 

I would aim to shunt it up the plot some way., and potentially have a third room as a study as a third 'bedroom' is a big perceived benefit. But I would not sacrifice all of the extra space - my experience dealing with tenants is that there is a HUGE perceived difference between a 3.5x3.0m room, and say a 3.0 x 4.5m or 3.5m x 4m;  in a lounge it gives the opportunity for a second area in addition to lounging without it feeling cramped. The same goes for bedrooms, where you have space for an easy chair or exercise bike or handbag display unit. So I like working with dimensions of 3.5m and 4.5m.

 

Privacy is less of an issue than might be expected here, as there is a 2m fence approved on the fence line, which does not show. Presumably that would be allowed on the building line on the S side too.

 

The final issue here is build cost, which argues against a more complex shape. IF the whole thing can be done with a single A frame roof - I would cathedral the lounge kitchen area and the beds and corridor - and no cross gables, then that will free up cash for other things or and extra space. THere would be an argument for stepping the wall in to make the parking spaces 5.5 or 6m, whilst retaining an overhang.

 

Had I the option I would have chopped off the corner of the lounge to follow the shape of the boundary, but that would complexify (!) the roof and cost several thousand extra, which could be used to pay for 2 or 3 roof lights or a nice holey brick wall at the front.

 

That was my thinking, anyway.

 

F

PS posted the blank map so others can play. GO on go on go on...

Edited February 14, 2019 by Ferdinand

[Temp]

On 03/02/2019 at 16:39, simplepimple said:

Thanks ProDave - I'd be considering double doors on the west side to maximise the sunlight and also possibly not having a hall all the way through so that the stairs could go in the hallway space instead. 

 

 

Like the idea of double doors on the west elevation. Plan for possible conservatory that side as well. Would they let you run the ridge east west instead of North south? That might make an extension to the west easier?

[ProDave]

1 minute ago, Temp said:

 

Like the idea of double doors on the west elevation. Plan for possible conservatory that side as well. Would they let you run the ridge east west instead of North south? That might make an extension to the west easier?

Think about future extensions.  A conservatory on the west would need PP, it would be outside the scope of permitted development.  However if there was room, a conservatory on the north could be built later under permitted development.

[Temp]

I think the OP said PDR had been removed?

[simplepimple]

You are correct Temp - there isn't any PDR on this development as the planners are very concerned about over development. 

 

Build costs are a strong factor - I'm about 20k short despite having a frugal outlook. 

 

OP is not restricted in his/her head to a limited template laid down by the outline,

 

How lovely to not be restricted in our heads at all. ?

 

Thank you again everyone for your input. I'm looking forward to keeping everyone updated and implementing some of the super ideas. It's gone from a small dream to something super special. 

Edited February 15, 2019 by simplepimple

[simplepimple]

The ridge is East/West in line with the host house. If I have manage to get an upstairs approved for full planning there would be a window overlooking the road but obviously none at the opposite end [east] where next doors house is. 

[Ferdinand]

16 hours ago, ProDave said:

Think about future extensions.  A conservatory on the west would need PP, it would be outside the scope of permitted development.  However if there was room, a conservatory on the north could be built later under permitted development.

 

I would do that differently ... I would extend the A frame roof further out on the same profile, to give a car port and sheltered area that could be filled in later to give more house, and I would  also make the slab similarly larger.

 

If budget were available, the rear half of that could be a workshop.

 

It might mean a sacrifice of something else, but would offer a lot of extra upside for the relatively small extra cost.

28 minutes ago, simplepimple said:

I'm about 20k short despite having a frugal outlook

 

If you need to there are quite dramatic things you can do such as no interior finishes at all for a few years ... a lot of couples including my parents lived with rush matting on ashphalt for years and years back in the day when people expected it to take time to restore a house. Painted breezeblock or raw plywood are fine for walls, especially now that walls are much better insulated and floors warmer.

 

And you can get double sets of nearly new patio doors off eBay for a couple of hundred; I got two sets for under £300 last year for a covered way for a tenant. (A covered way is an ill defined thing that happens to be exempt from building regs so I could JFDI). There are loads of them where someone has decided that something not new is not good enough for them. On one of mine, the last of the house felt that white upvc was classier than brown upvc. That alone could save you £2-3k if you are having 3 sets.

 

F

Edited February 15, 2019 by Ferdinand

[simplepimple]

I'm making notes, growing ideas and waiting for the green light to go go go.... ?‍♀️

 

but of course - dreams are usually [and not always] realised one step at a time.