first draft house design - please comment

gooner99

Hi guys, here is the first draft sketch of my house design.I would be interested in comments positive/negative and your advise. Aim is to go as low energy and toward passive as funds allow. Plan also is to design with solar gains in mind as well as the views to the south-east, south west. Dormers have been left out and velux kept to a min.

DOCARCH

Just had a quick glance - not bad plans at all (compared with some that are put up for comment!).

At least somebody is thinking about/considering oreitation and views. Looks like a good/nice compact house with simple elevations.

Good simple form/shapes which will certainly help you more easily go towards passive.

gooner99

Thanks for the reply Docarch. Always good to start with a positive one!

ba

The first floor bathroom doesn't have a window, is this intentional?

Diagonal views will be better served by corner windows, also adding a fresh look to the elevations, rather than the large window systems you've shown which in my opinion put a straight jacket on a house and have a slightly institutional look to them. for example the gable window in the master bedroom restricts the wardrobe from being full-height.



Also the master bedroom is served by 2 large windows yet the second bedroom at first floor is served by a single small window which strikes me as mean.

sydthebeat

when you are standing on your landing, do you have an eyeline that sees out under the eaves?? it doesnt appear so and this would be a shame for the sake of another 225 or 450 if required.

im not so sure about the stove location... too close to the living entrance door IMHO. If it was back against the stair wall the chimney could be hidden in the ward over, and be more central to the living space. This would allow for no solid wall between the kitchen and living and would increase the communication between these two spaces significantly. Its good to be able chat if preparing food.

on a smaller note, turn the toilet in the gf wc through 90 so it complies with part m, and push the sink adjacent.

is the north west window in bed 3 really necessary?

overall i love the clever use of space.. simple and streamlined... shows a lot of taught has gone into it already

true

If budget allows, a small canopy or rain shelter over the front door is very handy if visitors call etc.

You could build coat storage etc in to space underneath stairs.

gooner99

ba wrote: »

The first floor bathroom doesn't have a window, is this intentional?

Diagonal views will be better served by corner windows, also adding a fresh look to the elevations, rather than the large window systems you've shown which in my opinion put a straight jacket on a house and have a slightly institutional look to them. for example the gable window in the master bedroom restricts the wardrobe from being full-height.



Also the master bedroom is served by 2 large windows yet the second bedroom at first floor is served by a single small window which strikes me as mean.

Thanks for the reply.I will have a look at the windows again.I think I'm with you,not 100% sure.do you mind drawing a quick sketch of how you think it should look?

Not sure if I'm with you on how the gable window in the master bedroom means the wardrobes can't be full height,maybe I'm blind,haha!

I see what you mean with the other upstairs bedroom window being much smaller than the master ones.not sure what size it is now,will need to check but yes it does look quite small.

gooner99

true wrote: »

If budget allows, a small canopy or rain shelter over the front door is very handy if visitors call etc.

You could build coat storage etc in to space underneath stairs.

Had thought about that, maybe a porch or draught lobby.maybe the hall seems quite big and open to serve this purpose?

Outkast_IRE

I think a draft lobby is fierce usefull and handy, its the one thing i would personally like to add

gooner99

sydthebeat wrote: »

when you are standing on your landing, do you have an eyeline that sees out under the eaves?? it doesn't appear so and this would be a shame for the sake of another 225 or 450 if required.

im not so sure about the stove location... too close to the living entrance door IMHO. If it was back against the stair wall the chimney could be hidden in the ward over, and be more central to the living space. This would allow for no solid wall between the kitchen and living and would increase the communication between these two spaces significantly. Its good to be able chat if preparing food.

on a smaller note, turn the toilet in the gf wc through 90 so it complies with part m, and push the sink adjacent.

is the north west window in bed 3 really necessary?

overall i love the clever use of space.. simple and streamlined... shows a lot of taught has gone into it already

Thanks for your suggestions,much appreciated.

I not sure about the extra height for the view from the landing,I think we are about as high as we can go at the minute.I think the idea behind this low level window and the one on the south side of the master bedroom was to remove the need for dormers and velux's.We only have views of a field to that side, but views of the sea to the living side.

I see what you mean about the stove and I think you are right.The other option may be to place it on the wall that adjoins bedroom 3 maybe,not sure what do you think.I guess the position of the stove impedes on the location of the sofas and tv and how you interact with the kitchen/dining and the southern views?

I take it when you mean if we move the stove we can then take away the wall between the living and kitchen areas.I take it the idea here would be to still have low kitchen units coming on out as they currently are on the plan?

On the downstairs wc, I take it you mean to move the toilet to the wall opposite the wc entrance door and have the sink on the same wall along side it?

I think the idea behind the window on the north west on bedroom 3 would be to make the elevation more balanced looking.not sure how it would look if it was removed.maybe that elevation needs relooked at (maybe even the large hall glazed area).the long window in the wc is not that normal either I suppose. Do you think it would look odd if this bedroom window was removed or if this whole elevation could be better executed?

Not sure on the number of double doors either.Probably not a good idea on a low energy house.I suppose on a low energy house the main entrance door and the utility door would be plenty.the double doors would be nice in summer,but the site is very exposed.

What about room sizes,should we go slightly bigger in any area or smaller in any.First build for us and we are currently living in a small house on this site,with small living and bedrooms.We don't really need a big house,as it's only 3 of us and would like to build to a decent standard?

Again,thanks for the comments and advice. I'm not great at visualizing things and noticing flaws.:)

muffler

gooner99 wrote: »

do you mind drawing a quick sketch of how you think it should look?

Sorry but we cant allow that as it will breach the forum charter. Thanks.

gooner99

muffler wrote: »

Sorry but we cant allow that as it will breach the forum charter. Thanks.

Oops didn't realise, sorry about that.

PM's are ok, is that right?

muffler

PMs are fine gooner

Just to explain that this issue of "redesigning" came in for quite a bit of debate in the mods forum recently and at the end of the day (and for reasons I cant go into here) we determined that we couldn't allow this.

There's no problem with posting the initial draft or even final designs so long as all names, contact details etc have been removed prior to posting.

gooner99

muffler wrote: »

PMs are fine gooner

Just to explain that this issue of "redesigning" came in for quite a bit of debate in the mods forum recently and at the end of the day (and for reasons I cant go into here) we determined that we couldn't allow this.

There's no problem with posting the initial draft or even final designs so long as all names, contact details etc have been removed prior to posting.

Of course I can understand the situation.I will ensure I don't post any names or contact details.

Cedrus

Definitely move the stove, it's basically in a passageway from a safety and cleanliness point of view it doesn't work. Moving the hall door left would ease it but lose a lot of living room space, better would be against the hall or bed 3 wall.

The lack of a window, velux, skydome in the bathroom seems odd, although the ventilation could be done with a fan, the simplicity of opening a window for five minutes works better for me.

Bedroom 3 has a very convoluted layout and seems rather small, particularly if it is to be used as a disabled/accessible room now or in the future (my bugbear at the moment), I would move the en-suite to the right and move the gable wall out another metre or two and maybe move the window to the gable wall.

gooner99

Cedrus wrote: »

Definitely move the stove, it's basically in a passageway from a safety and cleanliness point of view it doesn't work. Moving the hall door left would ease it but lose a lot of living room space, better would be against the hall or bed 3 wall.

The lack of a window, velux, skydome in the bathroom seems odd, although the ventilation could be done with a fan, the simplicity of opening a window for five minutes works better for me.

Bedroom 3 has a very convoluted layout and seems rather small, particularly if it is to be used as a disabled/accessible room now or in the future (my bugbear at the moment), I would move the en-suite to the right and move the gable wall out another metre or two and maybe move the window to the gable wall.

Yes I think I will ask the arch to move the stove to the hall or bedroom walls.need to think about which works best!

I need to query the lack of window/velux on the bathroom. It was also noticed by someone else and I forgot to reply. I think it's simply an oversight in this draft.

I take your points on bedroom 3. Your right it is a little small for a accessible/disabled room and if I were going to add extra to any room it would be this one. My big thing is as you say to have this room totally suitable for use in later years (if the stress lets me get that far,haha). So I take on board your comments on this.

Thanks again for your reply,most appreciated.

All comments so far have been very constructive and most helpful