Feedback on narrow (8m) development floor plan

Hi Community!

I'm currently in the process of developing a suitable floor plan for my new development. It is on a relatively narrow block, with an 8m frontage - with some depth (~47m) - in Adelaide.

I intend to live in with my partner - we have no kids now, but we might have our first one in a few years time. Our builder is a small business custom builder, who is flexible and allows for any and every design.

Currently the floor plan (Attached) shows a 3 bedroom (+ study) + 2 bathroom + 1 garage. We have decided against going double storey (happy to hear other views on this), as we have only lived in single storey homes and have had family / friends hate their double storeys.

We have about an extra 10m2 to play with to keep within the allowable development % (~230m2 allowed, ~60% of block size).

Some notes from my initial observations:

• Circulation area - There is some efficiencies to be gained by reducing some circulation areas (such as Walk in Wardrobe in Main bedroom, walk in pantry at kitchen)
• Living area - The living area is relatively large.
• Bedrooms - I want to make sure each bedroom can fit a double bed + a desk at a minimum. One room might be used as a home gym (squat rack and bench etc) in future.
• Opportunity re bed and bath - there may be opportunity to change the Study to another 'Bedroom' and add an extra toilet if we reduce other spaces. This extra toilet will probably just be next to the large bathroom. This driver is more so for the possibility of selling the house in the future (5-10+ years). Would this be considered overkill? Having a 4 bed, 3 bath on a small-ish block?
• Garage - It is a single garage. I don't think it is allowed to have a double garage on a narrow block.
• Sustainability - We are passionate about sustainability as such we are interested in sustainable principles. Where it fits in our budget we intend to consider having the active rooms on the north side, have burnished concrete throughout, shading, insulation, window placement circulation - a lot of this will come in next stage once we are relatively ok with floor plan. I liked the Banksia floor plan on YourHome due to its sustainable features / design, but the example floor plan is for a wide block, so the overall layout is less applicable to this narrow block. For example having the living and kitchen in the middle of the house, there is limited room for outdoor area on the side etc.

Any thoughts, comments or recommended floor plan examples will be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

 

I would push the wall of the study back into the recessed area in the living room so the study is a recent size. And then could be used as a bedroom or media room (or gym!). The dining area would I assume would be just part of the living area (as you have the meals area) so the living room would still be plenty big enough. I don’t think an extra toilet is necessary but I guess it’s just personal preference. Otherwise it looks pretty good use of space.

 

Thank you for the feedback. I like the idea re pushing the study out. Realistically we would only have 1 table that would be placed vertical vs 2 horizontal tables shown there for meal and living areas.

 

Agree to make the study a bit bigger, then it can be used in many ways, and can be considered a 4th bedroom.

A third toilet us unnecessary, the “main” toilet is well placed.

 

Sustainability?? which direction is north.
Ensuite - push it out to the boundary, give yourself more room in there - shown now, it's tiny
Study - forget an extra bedroom ??? make it 1.5 wide - run a study bench along the wall, and there will be sufficient room for chair etc. Put the extra space into the living area
Consider lightweight construction (at least at the rear) to pick up some wall thickness. It tight designs every little bit helps
Review the kitchen design - it's very convention and suited to larger houses. Design it rather than "draw" it. Same goes for some of the other spaces. The plan/layout is very basic. Go through it carefully and think about very little bit. 2.7 ceilings for sure
Wind sizes and placements will be very important

 

Hi Tufan (& Marg)

Thank you for your feedback and detailed comments.

North of the page is also North (as per Arrow in bottom right hand corner).

Study room - Based on feedback here, I hope to convert it to bedroom now! Study bench sounds like a good idea, I will consider this for the smaller rooms. The only annoyance is it being a fixed height vs buying a table suitable for height (or sit/stand table).

Ensuite - good idea to push this out a bit further, can put the window west facing.

Kitchen - Not sure what a 'smaller house' kitchen is mean't to be! But I will spend some time thinking about it from a design / user perspective.

 

Agree - push the ensuite out to give more room.

 

Another idea - if you don’t mind having the laundry in cupboard you could have a large storage area in the garage.
Purple = laundry and linen
Yellow = garage storage

 

Hi All!

Thank you everyone! I have really enjoyed the discussion and taking a lot of points on board.

Since this post, there has been some development - the site will now be an extra 1m wider now, so 9m frontage. To re-iterate this is a development in Adelaide, where North is North of the diagram.

We have opted for a double garage design, with either 3 x 2 x 2 or 4 x 3 x 2.

There are 2-3 options I am looking at:

1) Original (1 garage, 8m frontage) - 1) 8m frontage, Original Single Garage, 3 x 2 x 1
2) New Option 1 (2 garage, 9m frontage) - 3 x 2 x 2 - 2) New 9m frontage, Double Garage, 3 x 2 x 2
3) New Option 2 (2 garage, 9m frontage) - 4 x 3 x 2 - 3) New 9m frontage, Double Garage, 4 x 3 x 2
4) New Alternate - similar to (2), but with kitchen and living/TV swapped - 4) Similar to (Op. 2) - except with Kitchen and Living swapped
*Album link to easily compare - Narrow block floor plan - ADL

The reason why I am trying to get an extra bathroom or bedroom:
1) I like there to be another space where family or friends have their own bathroom for any long term extended stays. I am also open to renting out an extra room if needed in the future.
2) I have spent a lot of time living on the East coast where 'share houses' are more in demand, where multiple parties are renting the one place. I think this will be more of a 'thing' in Adelaide in 10 years time - as such any extra bedroom or bathroom is usually at a premium (especially as it is a good location near the city).

Note: I am at maximum floor area allowed on the development, so I cannot increase the overall size/m2 of the house.

So key questions / advice:
1) What are your thoughts when comparing Option (2) and (3)?
2) Any warrant worth exploring the alternate (4)?

Cheers!

 

Why not pay an architect to design it properly for you? What you are working with is a very low level, low skilled design solution. There is a LOT os wasted space, and spaces that could easily be re-jigged to give you a better outcome:
entry/study/living - really? is that actually capably of being useful - stick some furniture in there and see what it looks like - also - is a study ever tidy?
why a double car garage, why not single with a car space behind?
ensuite can be tightened down without loosing facilities
bathroom/laundry is messy - can easily be re-arranged to create a more useable bathroom and save space (look at circulation - gram a marker and outline space used for "walking around" - you'll see how much is wasted
living area - waaaay too large - again look at the wasted space - can easily be made more functional
beds 2 and 3 - go for full wardrobes - and have doors to the side of them - more storage is always helpful
kitchen is still not functional

You will be paying for the same volume of space, so why not get it designed well....

 

If you don’t mind me asking how much is the build cost?

 

Hi Tufan, appreciate your insights, you seem really experienced in this area! Note, this is my first house build and I am not experienced in this area!

1) entry/study/living - I also don't like this arrangement but it is the only possible solution with a double garage as council needs a minimum room of 3.2m with window facing street. An example of a similar built house is in the link below. Quite interesting that they opted for an additional room at the rear.

https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-sa-west+lakes+shore-136289562

2) Double garage vs tandem garage - to be honest I have not really seen tandem garages used in Adelaide, hence opting for a more traditional approach. I do understand that there are benefits to the layout as we can get proper rooms next to the garage.

3) ensuite, bathroom, laundry - Currently we are trying to get happy with the general configuration of the house before optimising / tightening things down. Although I'm not sure how to improve the laundry (?).

4) Living area way too large - the size looks pretty similar to most 3 bed 2 bathroom houses in Adelaide.

• Do you have any recommendations to make it more functional/livable? Is it simple increasing the room sizes prior, and make it smaller?

5) bed 2 and 3 wardrove - Currently these bed rooms have built-in wardrobes.

• do you have an example of what a 'full wardrobe' is with a door on the side? I'm not sure what you mean

6) Kitchen - we will move key appliances/areas around once happy with the general configuration (sink will move to the large bench, fridge will move to the current stove area, and stove will move to the current sink area).

7) Architect - We currently are getting these designed by an architect. We are currently trying to get the general configuration right before optimising / tightening the design / considering internal layout. However, as this is in Adelaide, I have a feeling the Architects here generally aren't as efficient as the East Coast architects given the difference in land costs!

• Do you have an opinion of the 3 bed 2 bath 2 garage vs the 4 bed 3 bath 2 garage options?

Not too sure yet until we get this configuration right! I am budgeting around ~500k for now. To note - this is being built in Adelaide (I note your location is Sydney).

 

I would investigate a double carport as that should open up more options for the front of the house as you can have windows to proper rooms see through the garage for surveillance.

This is a recent design in perth for a 9m wide block that works well for north on the side. It's well designed, has little wasted space, has a 4th bedroom or multi purpose room. It has been designed around blocks that aren't very deep so doesn't have a 'backyard' per se but if the block was longer access could be arranged by rearranging the rear somewhat or if the rear room was a sitting room/play room (non bedroom) then access through that.

 

I don't mean to be smart, but this doesn't have a sense of being designed by an Architect. A drafter, yes, but Architect - it just doesn't feel that it is well designed overall. Have you asked if the person doing the work is actually an Architect, and registered, or is a drafter/designer?? It does make a difference. I'm not saying all architects are great, and all drafters are bad, more like whoever is putting this together for you doesn't seem to understand the finesse of designing small houses/tight spaces.

 

I agree with @Tufan Chakir that this is more like a builder's designer doing the work but even then I find it pretty poor. The scale and proportions of some rooms (especially living areas) are not great, furnish ability is poor. Some of it can be solved by simply taking some rooms out to the boundary and moving windows but for a $500k construction budget I would expect something a lot nicer.

 

Agree. This home design is wrong on so many levels. No architect would have an entrance into a study and have a jagged passageway first up.

Adelaide has some very fine architects who could find elegant design solutions.

Whoever is doing working and re-working your current designs isn’t an architect.