My House Plans

tlaslo25

Hi Everyone,

I would love some feedback on my plans??? These are the second draft ones. I am a bit new to this!! Thanks in advance Joanne

Poor Uncle Tom

What orientation is the house at?
What size family is it designed for?
Is the site flat or sloped?
If sloped what direction is it sloping in?
Is it mains water and sewer or well and septic tank?

reverenddave

what will the fabric be made of
what roof material
what kind of windows
how ''ECO'' do you want it to be

tlaslo25

What orientation is the house at?

The sunrises in the back west side of the house and moves around to the side on the sunroom and sets facing the front of the house.

What size family is it designed for?

Well we aren't married yet or anything. Hopefully, we are definitely planning on having kids in the near future.

Is the site flat or sloped?

Its on a slope. The house will be facing straight out from the slope. We are lucky we have a few option on sites but this seems to be the best one.

Is it mains water and sewer or well and septic tank?

As far as I know there is a 2 wells on the farm but I didn't even think if we need to sink a separate well.

tlaslo25

reverenddave wrote: »

what will the fabric be made of
what roof material
what kind of windows
how ''ECO'' do you want it to be

Building in brick and the roof in slate. Depending on costs of course and how much the bank gives us, we are going to insulate insulate insulate!

Poor Uncle Tom

tlaslo25 wrote: »

The sunrises in the back west side of the house and moves around to the side on the sunroom and sets facing the front of the house.

The garage seems to be shadeing part of the house unnecessarily during the day. I would look to make the most of solar gain and get as much large windows facing south heating the living space.

tlaslo25 wrote: »

Well we aren't married yet or anything. Hopefully, we are definitely planning on having kids in the near future.

It's just with 4 bedrooms straight off you will probably need to zone the heating to exclude some rooms for a few years, etc.,

tlaslo25 wrote: »

Its on a slope. The house will be facing straight out from the slope. We are lucky we have a few option on sites but this seems to be the best one.

If the slope is considerable, maybe the garage could be built into the slope away from the house so it doesn't take sun off the house.

tlaslo25 wrote: »

As far as I know there is a 2 wells on the farm but I didn't even think if we need to sink a separate well.

Harvesting the water from a sloping site might be usefull.

It's hard giving advice on a site if you haven't seen it as the site usually helps to determine a lot of the design features.

sydthebeat

i think the plan design is very safe and very standard, and i dont mean to be disparaging in that.

on first viewing id observe that:
1. the first floor main bathroom is very small and tight for that size of a house
2. the step in of the door to bedroom 4 seems to be designed with an obscure reading of the building regs in mind... ??? is this deliberate?
3. the glazing to solid wall on the front elevation is a bit off balance. as it faces west, these windows could be reduced to 900 x 1350.
4 to add some design to the internal, you can raise the ceiling in the sun room and match the shap in the window.

Radiotower

The garage looks to be solid walls but I'd future proof it by building it to the same standard as the house. Did you think of a door from the utility to the garage? If you dont want it I'd think about building in a doorway and blocking it up so it's there for the future if you ever decide to convert the garage into a living space.

I'd also like a more direct route from the back doors in the utility to the toilet - bit of a trek through the utility, kitchen, dining room and hall to get to the toilet. You say the house is on a farm so I'd imagine alot of muddy boots - again I'm thinking of the future when you have kids running around.

I'd love to be at the stage you're at, some day I'll get to build my own place. If I have drawings like yours I'd sketch in everything like beds, rads, furniture, tv's, wardrobes, etc. sometimes rooms look big but then when everything is in there's not as much room as you'd think especially with all the windows you have.

Good luck.

DOCARCH

sydthebeat wrote: »

2. the step in of the door to bedroom 4 seems to be designed with an obscure reading of the building regs in mind... ??? is this deliberate?

Yes, that looks very odd!

One solution which would improve your Hall, help increase your first floor Bathroom size and romove that odd step to the doorway to Bed 4 is to remove the dog leg/return at the bottom of the stairs and push the stairs forward a little.

tlaslo25

sydthebeat wrote: »

i think the plan design is very safe and very standard, and i dont mean to be disparaging in that.

on first viewing id observe that:
1. the first floor main bathroom is very small and tight for that size of a house
2. the step in of the door to bedroom 4 seems to be designed with an obscure reading of the building regs in mind... ??? is this deliberate?
3. the glazing to solid wall on the front elevation is a bit off balance. as it faces west, these windows could be reduced to 900 x 1350.
4 to add some design to the internal, you can raise the ceiling in the sun room and match the shap in the window.

1. I did say it to the guy doing our plans to maybe straighten the wall in the bathroom to make it larger but he said we would be better off with the walls parallel incase we wanted to use the attic, would this be true? But its deff something to alter, its hard to judge the sizes on paper!

2. I don't no why there is a step into bedroom 4 maybe its the way the stairs is coming up?

3. I don't quite understand what you mean?

4. How do you mean?

We wanted to be able to walk straight into the utility from the garage but he doesn't have that on the plans, looking at it would it be a room of doors!? and he also seems to have no hot press... :eek::eek:

Thanks

tlaslo25

Radiotower wrote: »

The garage looks to be solid walls but I'd future proof it by building it to the same standard as the house. Did you think of a door from the utility to the garage? If you dont want it I'd think about building in a doorway and blocking it up so it's there for the future if you ever decide to convert the garage into a living space.

I'd also like a more direct route from the back doors in the utility to the toilet - bit of a trek through the utility, kitchen, dining room and hall to get to the toilet. You say the house is on a farm so I'd imagine alot of muddy boots - again I'm thinking of the future when you have kids running around.

I'd love to be at the stage you're at, some day I'll get to build my own place. If I have drawings like yours I'd sketch in everything like beds, rads, furniture, tv's, wardrobes, etc. sometimes rooms look big but then when everything is in there's not as much room as you'd think especially with all the windows you have.

Good luck.

I never thought of future proofing the garage but its something we should do now and have more options down the line. We did ask him to make the garage accessible straight to the house that was the whole point of putting it at that site but he seems to be missing that door, looking at it now it seems like a lot of doors in the utility but maybe we could leave out the one going out left...
The reason I thought of putting the bathroom downstairs there was if anyone was there and wanted to use the bathroom they would have the traps through a messy utility. And they say this is the easy part!!!:eek:
I work in a furniture shop so I would know the sizes of most standard pieces of furniture so might try your idea of drawing in pieces of furniture. Thanks

tlaslo25

DOCARCH wrote: »

Yes, that looks very odd!

One solution which would improve your Hall, help increase your first floor Bathroom size and romove that odd step to the doorway to Bed 4 is to remove the dog leg/return at the bottom of the stairs and push the stairs forward a little.

Sounds like a solution , I would have been oblivious till it was built to notice that!!:rolleyes:

Bullseye1

It looks like the step back into bedroom four is to do with the relationship distance between the door and top step.

imitation

I agree about the bathroom, it looks quite small, likewise with the ensuite, remember you'll want space to dry yourself and you don't want to have too small a shower if at all possible.

The only other thing that I would look at are the windows, they look a small bit odd, a bit large on the front elevation and spartan on the second floor side elevations.

L driver

Hello,
hope the brick is a feature and not in the u value envelope of the house?
Be careful with thermal bridges, potential for lots.

davidoco

You need to get yourself a copy of Cork Rural Design Guide:Building a new house
in the countryside

ISBN 0 9525 86940

The orientation of the house seems wrong in so many ways especially when it comes to the "Sun Room". You might consider pushing it further back in line with the kitchen and calling it a "family room".

Also the kitchen is very tight all around if you fill it with units as indicated.

LoTwan

What do the houses around it look like? Are they also 2 storey farmhouses?

How much of it can be seen from the road, not just the bit of the road it is on? (The only reason I ask is that there is a bend along our road in both directions that allows the full profile of the house & garage can be seen and the planners had a real issue with the depth of the house... and yours is DEEP)

It is my understanding that you have to provide a shower along with a WC downstairs (so that no DPG has to be granted on the house in the future) but I am happy to be corrected on that one. You might want to check if the 1.5m WC meets the requirements for wheelchair accessability.

I agree with the PP tat the kitchen is cramped but the island may just be a suggestion rather than a plan. I would get one of the exterior doors of the utility and include a door to the hall and to the garage.

And on a final note, and please don't take it personally, if I were handed that design I would send it back and ask him to bring you back something with a little more imagination.

antiskeptic

Everything written below is an opinion

1) I haven't calculated the size of the house but it looks substantial. My comparatively small ca. 1000 sq. ft. house has a comfortable (but not huge) sized living room measuring 5.8m x 4.6m. That's 50% bigger than yours.

2) The dining room looks undersized - given the scale of the house. Yes, you could sit 6 at a table and walk your way around the periphery of it to serve folk. But only if the doors from the hall are closed and only if you squeeze your way around. In a house this size there should be a sense of free space. The sense that you can carry out essential functions AND swing a cat.

3) I'm no Feng Shui type but if I was, I'm sure I'd see a problem with the single route (on entering the house) getting me to the centre-of-gravity-of-daytime-space. The centre of gravity area is blocked by having to navigate along and around the dining room table. That's ghastly!

Forgetting about sun aspect for a minute: imagine switching functions of the sun room (lounging, chatting to some friends, surfing, listening to music, kids playing) to the area now taken by the dining area (occasional use eating). And vice versa. Kitchen activity would directly connect (sight wise & conversation wise) with Lounging activity - with the occasional activity (dining) set off at the extremity (currently that's the sun room). As it is you have now, People Active (kitchen) divided sight and conversation wise from People Active (sun room) by dead space (dining area).


4) The kitchen is tiny and the "island" utter form over function. For next to zero cost you can push the wall with the 1.9m window right out to the double patio doors of the sun room (the window beside it is superflous to requirements) and gain critcal kitchen space. Again, I'd criticize utilising bedsit-style spacesaving on a house this size - witness kitchen units tight up to the kitchen-to-utility door frame on both size forming a mini-corridor. A house this size should give a sense of space and free movement - not having to jostle to shoehorn both you and the washing basket you're carrying .. into the utility room.

5) If that's a 90 degree turn at the bottom of the stairs downstairs then I'd get rid of it. It causes the stairs to extend unnecessarily into a space with significant 'other activity' (3 doors)

6) I don't understand double front doors. Their swing takes up half the space in the porch whereas a single wide door allows for grand entry and space either side for stuff. I'd widen the inner door to - to give a sense of space.

7) The door opening to the lounge looks to be the wrong way around. Seating wise you loose the option of a sofa along the wall with x facing windows...


"The sunrises in the back west side of the house and moves around to the side on the sunroom and sets facing the front of the house."


...the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. If rising at the rear of the house then the rear is east facing. In which case the windows referred to at x above are west facing. Open the door the other way around and you free this option.


_____

Given the above first glance examination (and bearing in mind that it's but my view of how I'd like things) I'm errring towards a verdict of "dull". Pretty typical kitchen/living/diningroom "boxes" with unnecessary confinement/basic errors built in. On the basis of livingroom door opening alone I'd get myself a new architect.

tlaslo25

antiskeptic wrote: »

Everything written below is an opinion


1) I haven't calculated the size of the house but it looks substantial. My comparatively small ca. 1000 sq. ft. house has a comfortable (but not huge) sized living room measuring 5.8m x 4.6m. That's 50% bigger than yours.



2) The dining room looks undersized - given the scale of the house. Yes, you could sit 6 at a table and walk your way around the periphery of it to serve folk. But only if the doors from the hall are closed and only if you squeeze your way around. In a house this size there should be a sense of free space. The sense that you can carry out essential functions AND swing a cat.


3) I'm no Feng Shui type but if I was, I'm sure I'd see a problem with the single route (on entering the house) getting me to the centre-of-gravity-of-daytime-space. The centre of gravity area is blocked by having to navigate along and around the dining room table. That's ghastly!

Forgetting about sun aspect for a minute: imagine switching functions of the sun room (lounging, chatting to some friends, surfing, listening to music, kids playing) to the area now taken by the dining area (occasional use eating). And vice versa. Kitchen activity would directly connect (sight wise & conversation wise) with Lounging activity - with the occasional activity (dining) set off at the extremity (currently that's the sun room). As it is you have now, People Active (kitchen) divided sight and conversation wise from People Active (sun room) by dead space (dining area).


4) The kitchen is tiny and the "island" utter form over function. For next to zero cost you can push the wall with the 1.9m window right out to the double patio doors of the sun room (the window beside it is superflous to requirements) and gain critcal kitchen space. Again, I'd criticize utilising bedsit-style spacesaving on a house this size - witness kitchen units tight up to the kitchen-to-utility door frame on both size forming a mini-corridor. A house this size should give a sense of space and free movement - not having to jostle to shoehorn both you and the washing basket you're carrying .. into the utility room.


5) If that's a 90 degree turn at the bottom of the stairs downstairs then I'd get rid of it. It causes the stairs to extend unnecessarily into a space with significant 'other activity' (3 doors)

6) I don't understand double front doors. Their swing takes up half the space in the porch whereas a single wide door allows for grand entry and space either side for stuff. I'd widen the inner door to - to give a sense of space.


7) The door opening to the lounge looks to be the wrong way around. Seating wise you loose the option of a sofa along the wall with x facing windows...



"The sunrises in the back west side of the house and moves around to the side on the sunroom and sets facing the front of the house."


...the sun rises in the east and sets in the west. If rising at the rear of the house then the rear is east facing. In which case the windows referred to at x above are west facing. Open the door the other way around and you free this option.


_____

Given the above first glance examination (and bearing in mind that it's but my view of how I'd like things) I'm errring towards a verdict of "dull". Pretty typical kitchen/living/diningroom "boxes" with unnecessary confinement/basic errors built in. On the basis of livingroom door opening alone I'd get myself a new architect.

Oh I knew it would be bad!

I didn't want a huge house and you'd think with this house being 2400sq feet without the garage that it wouldn't be so pinched!!!????

I did think that the table would be straight in our way also and will more than likely change the 2 funtions of those rooms around.

Ooooh I see what you mean about the lounge door:eek::rolleyes:

I told his 2 or 3 times I wanted at least a 15ft wide kitchen errr very annoying!!:mad::mad:

This is something he does on the side. I knew meeting him I wasn't sure. But there is no way my beloved will get someone else, there isn't a cat in hells chance. He does all the houses in this area apparently. :rolleyes:

I feel all deflated now:o, though thats to say im not extremely grateful for your comments. As you can see I need all the help I can get!

Radiotower

antiskeptic wrote: »

For next to zero cost you can push the wall with the 1.9m window right out to the double patio doors of the sun room (the window beside it is superflous to requirements) and gain critcal kitchen space.

The door opening to the lounge looks to be the wrong way around.

How would the roof work when the kitchen wall is pushed out - i think it would look odd, just cant picture it myself. Its alright looking at the plan and moving the wall but you have to think of the effect on the roof, afterall the roof is one of the most expensive parts of the structure.

Looking at the plans again alot of the doors are swinging the wrong way, I think they should open against a wall so I'd switch the office, master, bed 1 & 2 to open against the wall.

I dont get the idea of the window in the Lounge between the fireplace and the dividing wall to office.

I noticed you said that "the guy doing our plans said..." - is this guy an architect, engineer, technican? I think it was in relation to straighening out the bathroom walls and he was against it - was this where he wanted to put the stairs to the attic?

Anyway, it seems your getting lots of advice, hope its helping you out. Now is the time to make changes, its alot cheaper to make them now. You dont have to take everyones advice on board as they say 'a camel is a horse designed by committee!!'

antiskeptic

tlaslo25 wrote: »

Oh I knew it would be bad!

I didn't want a huge house and you'd think with this house being 2400sq feet without the garage that it wouldn't be so pinched!!!????

I did think that the table would be straight in our way also and will more than likely change the 2 funtions of those rooms around.

Ooooh I see what you mean about the lounge door:eek::rolleyes:

I told his 2 or 3 times I wanted at least a 15ft wide kitchen errr very annoying!!:mad::mad:

This is something he does on the side. I knew meeting him I wasn't sure. But there is no way my beloved will get someone else, there isn't a cat in hells chance. He does all the houses in this area apparently. :rolleyes:

I feel all deflated now:o, though thats to say im not extremely grateful for your comments. As you can see I need all the help I can get!

Although you did ask, I'm sorry to be one bringing such dispiriting tidings. It is as it is though, and whilst you can alter minor things like door opening direction and the dog leg on the stairs you can't easily give the house a decent sized living room or switch sunroom into a non sunny room.

Not without a blank sheet of paper.

Best of luck!

antiskeptic

Radiotower wrote: »

How would the roof work when the kitchen wall is pushed out - i think it would look odd, just cant picture it myself. Its alright looking at the plan and moving the wall but you have to think of the effect on the roof, afterall the roof is one of the most expensive parts of the structure.

Yeah, I was shooting from the hip on the zero-cost claim there. To be honest, I was just taking a glance over the plan view with a view to assessing living-potential.

bravojohnny

To the OP,

I have just had a quick look at the plans & thread (so apologies if I repeat anyting that was already said).

On the Ground Floor:

The kitchen / dinning / sun room are practically one room, there are no doors seperating these spaces. For heat & privacy issues (ie waching tv in sunroom etc), I would place double doors / sliding doors (mayb better option as there is no door swing, which obviously needs space) between the sun room & dinnig area.

In the sunroom, you have limited wall space (where will you place couch / TV etc), I would remove the window on the wall with the double doors & then center the door on that wall (the double doors will probaly be glazed anyway so you will have plenty of sunlight).

The utility room, you have very limited space for storage or washing machine etc. because of all the doors & the lack of width. Its basically a corridor.

Office swing door opposite way.

Lounge, is the chimney centered on the room? Also will it look odd (in the room) having a window to one side of the chimney & do you have enough space for curtains etc?
Maybe swing door opposite way?

The kitchen is to small for an island of that size.
Due to the window sizes if you are having high level presses you have limites space for them (thats assuming the wall to the left of the kitchen island will be for some type of dresser type furniture?). Speaking of the two windows why are they different sizes?

First Floor

In my opinion the main bathroom is to small.

I think Bedroom 4's window should be centered on that wall if bathroom stays as per drawing.


Overall
There are so many different window sizes (ie 0.7m, 0.75m, 0.85m, 1.2m, 1.4m, 1.7m, 1.8m & 2.4m) from a cost perspective this expensive.
Alot of these windows could be the same size (& as a result would be cheaper to get made), maybe have only four different widths for them (ie in the kichen the 1.7m window changes to 1.8m, the 0.85m window in the lounge change to 0.7m as per the porch etc). I think this would also look better too.


The above is just my opinion (& I have tried not to repeat anyone elses comments), maybe thats what you discussed with the person who drew up the plans.
Everyone has there own opinon & at the end of the day its yours that counts the most as you are the one that will be living in the house (& paying for it!)

I hope things work out for you & the best of luck with it!

sydthebeat

if antiseptik was a feng shui advocate, he/she would know that having a turn at the bottom of the stairs is actually a good idea.

personally, a dog leg adds more feature than a straight stair, especially in a house of that size.... the location of the stair can be looked at though.

Slig

Slightly off topic here OP but dont be too ditressed, your situation is unfortunately fairly common. Its just my opinion but I think its something that happens way too often in Ireland. The "guy that does all the houses in the area" is brought in to get the planning permission and not because he is a good designer whos previous work you admire. Hes usually the "guy that does all the houses in the area" because he is the cheapest and hes probably the cheapest because he doesnt spend waste too much time on designing.

By the end of the project You are going to have invested a couple of hundred thousand into this building, dont skimp on a couple of hundred euro on the main design, you'd probably spend more on a sofa!!! Especially, when it seems to me that many of the ideas people have given you for improving your plans seem to be things you have already wanted or requested yourself and that your "Architect" has ignored. There are plenty of professional architects and technicians out there capable of giving your project their full attention for the same fees this cowboy is probably charging you for a nixer. In the current climate there is no excuse for paying for a poor service that is only being half provided and will inevitably cost you more in the future as stupid little things have to be changed on site.

Alot of the advice and feedback you have recieved so far is either from people experienced or enthuastic enough to post comments here or from the professional architects, architectural technicians, ber assessors and engineers that voluntarily lurk these boards trying to help people like yourself. Although some of them might seem like harsh critisism of your house design they are (mostly) all given with the best of intentions and backed up by experience.

muffler

Good post Slig. Well said.