Help with floorplan change

Hi All,

I'm very new to the forum (and renovation). Just looking for some advice on what we are planning to do.

We bought a highset brick veneer 1950s house (Brisbane) recently. The current floorplan seems simple and efficient enough, but we hope to convert it to open plan (attached both the old and new here). My concerns are :

- Is the dining room now too small?
- What should we do with the outdoor toilet, now that there are 2 bathrooms inside (just for convenience, I'm thinking of putting the washing machine under the kitchen island). Seems a waste to demolish it, but don't think we need it there..
- Is there a better way to achieve what we want in general?
- Can we do everything for about $100k (excluding the deck) with not too bad finishing? The house has asbestos.

The patio is facing north - north west if that matters at all.

Really appreciate the help!

 

Are you allowed by regulations to have a washing machine in the kitchen in Australia?

I thought it might need to be in a cupboard?

 

I am finding it difficult to understand your measurements on the floorplans due to the tiny print. However even by ignoring the measurements, it seems that your bathrooms are weird. Sorry but I cant describe it any other way. are you sure you need two bathrooms that are as big as the smallish bedrooms?

You have so much wasted space along under-utilised walls then tiny little vanities with no benchtops and minimal storage underneath. The bathrooms as drawn seem to have toilet cisterns with a large amount of space around them, then tiny showers and vanities.

Why dont you want to leave the laundry on the deck? It is out of the way there.

 

1. Do you need a bathtub or you can just have a shower and put the washing machine in the bathroom?

2. Have a shower recess in the other bathroom. It will be useful if you have a larger family.

3. You need to look at the plumbing and sewage carefully with your new bathroom. It might involve a fair bit of work.

4. Can't you use the old bathroom place as a laundry?

 

A washing machine needs it’s own laundry tub and the floor needs to be waterproofed in accordance with the building code..

You could put the washing machine in one of the bathrooms.. but I think the house is far too small to have 2 x bathrooms.. I’d be saving up a bit more money and be going for an extension.. the proposed layout of 2bed 2bath seems a bit odd..

What is it that you really need instead of what you want?

 

Thank you all for the kind advise. So we can't put the washing machine in the kitchen, probably in the original bathroom then!

Yes agree - we do want a vanity with storage, the drawing is just an idea of where things are and so it didn't show the storage under. As for the wasted space in the bathroom, it was the original layout and while the fixtures will be replaced, we were hoping to keep the layout to keep costs down.. Will try to see if the washing machine can fit in there

Thank you.. We thought of an extension at the back too, but the site's slope is quite significant (about 1:4.5), and we were told by a builder it'd cost $120k for an extension of 20-30 sqm, not including finishing. That's double our budget, for such a small extension, so we decided to not extend out and make do with the current floor space (our family is small).

Thanks, that's what we're afraid of too.. but I can't think of any other space for it

 

In answer to your question IMHO yes you would would be making the dining room too small.
I can see you want to make this a 3 bed 2 bath plan, but I would look at another option....perhaps reclaim that 3.2m section of deck and build it in - with ensuite and extra robe space. There goes your NE views but I'd still run the numbers on it. Presume you have a carport and laundry underneath on ground level.
The other bit freaking me out on the design is that wasted hall space near existing shower.
I'd swap the wc and the shower such that the wc is standalone and accessed from that hall space (which is how it would have once been). Then you could put a shower over bath in that bathroom to better suit family market. I might leave the main hallway but open between kitchen and living as you have planned. Also consider stacker doors to the deck.
For resale you want a killer master Bedroom and an enhanced indoor / outdoor living area so I'd work towards that goal, otherwise save dollars and learn to love the 3/1 arrangement. My 2c.

 

I will elaborate on my comment above specifically about your intended ensuite. I think you can reconfigure an ensuite to take up less floorspace that is otherwise going to eat into your dining area. Do you really want a bath in the ensuite? If so, it could go along the longer wall and you could reduce your ensuite size by about half a metre. I would never enclose the northern part of your deck - on days like today the sun is streaming into your bedroom. You would be crazy to lose that.

 

Wasted hallway space between main bath & bed room. Reclaim that into the bathroom & put the family bath in there, not the ensuite. For your ensuite, you only need a tiny space. Enough for a shower at one end, toilet at the other & small vanity opposite the entry. This will allow space for your dining area.

 

I would remove the wall next to the dining to make the space more open. you will need to check if the wall is structural, else you can still have some beams supporting the roof at the corners.

Then make the existing bath smaller and use the space for third bed.

 

Ummm, where is the existing laundry....because that outside structure looks to be toilet only.

 

This, but on looking at it again, I'd also remove the cupboard at the end of the hallway & change the entry of the bedroom to come from that space, and changing the entry for the bathroom to the main hallway, freeing up that entire hallway behind the shower. There's another TWO meters right there in usuable space.

 

If have gone the other way and made the second bedroom bigger .... so that the two larger bedrooms are at the end of the hall, and the 3rd bedroom can stay as office, next to the front door. I'd leave the laundry outside

And yes ... lose the hall/dining wall

 

Thank you for all the help guys, much appreciated! I'm at work now but will make the change tonight based on the above feedback

 

Makes sense.
Can add an ensuite (only shower and vanity) to a bedroom making it masterbed
and make the main bathroom smaller getting rid of the bath and having a nice big shower.

 

I'm not a fan of the master bed being smaller than the second bedroom. This gives the larger bedroom the ensuite with no compromise of space. Dining is only slightly smaller than original, and both a bath & shower in the main. If you want to include the laundry, it can go in the space for the shower and put the shower above the bath.

Put the entry to the bath wherever you want along the hall way. Can make it slightly smaller if you want to increase the room of the third bedroom, but personally, I wouldn't bother.

 

I was more looking at, with bed 2, there is literally no room at the foot of the bed to get around ... and to turn the bed the other way would mean a single only.

Whatever you do, get a toilet in the ensuite! They can be a mere meter wide ... toilet at one end, shower at the other, vanity in the middle and accessed by a cavity slider. I personally prefer a spacious ensuite, but the meter wide configuration is pretty standard

 

That's what I was trying to show in my (very poor) diagram. I'd prefer a spacious one as well, but the one meter wide one is all I have at home & it's perfectly serviceable.