How to design a house via email...

As promised, following is the feedback between us and the architects in relation to the latest floor plans (Fiona's initial response in red, followed by Viktoria's in green). It is possible to design a house via email...

"Hi Neal (and Fiona)

We have made some scribbles on the floor plan (as foreshadowed), with the following by way of explanation:

A.      The Android's studio is too small. Can we move the wall between the studio and the carport over about 1m (into the carport)? Can the small storage room walls be removed & the storage incorporated into the studio? Re the extra bit of the carport with the diagonal lines, see letter “C” Yes this is all do-able

B.      Can we have a double entry door? Yes, where you thinking glass or something solid? Which is least cost J? If not double, an extra-wide version would be ok too.

C.      Can the carport be reduced by an extra 1m, and an additional metre be added to the bedroom? We know that house space costs more than carport space, but we would still like a slightly bigger bedroom. We will probably need a ‘wider than normal’ doorway into the bedroom so that we can get the enormous bed head through it. Yes we can reduce the width to 4m, however you will need to buy two smart cars and breath in when you get in and out. The absolute minimum width for two standard size cars would be 5.4metres with careful door opening. If you only need to accommodate one car in the carport then the 4m dimension is generous and you can be carefree when you fling the door open. We are downsizing to only 1 car, with the wider, door-flinging carport – if we get a second car, it’s likely to be a ‘mountain ute’ which we will let graze free-range outside. Wider than normal doorway for the bed is ok, however it may reduce the cupboard storage area? Would the bedhead fit through a standard doorway? I know that it didn’t fit through our front door at home, and we had to winch it up the side of the house to get it through the double doors to our bedroom. If CAD-magic shows that the bedhead will fit, then we won’t need a wider doorway (it’s a combination of height, width AND depth). Is this acceptable? As we are downsizing from a walk-in wardrobe, we would like to maintain as much storage as possible. Additional cost associated with the converting the floor space to a fully lined interior. Yep, we expected this.

D.      Can the window seat be a bit wider? We’d like it to double as a single guest bed, so the “short” end would need to be a minimum of 92mm (the width of a single mattress) wide. No probs. Cool

E.       Oh look… we’ve added the glasshouse… $$... Yeah… it’s been allowed for on Michael’s quote, and we have the sneaking suspicion that the glasshouse will become our ‘deck substitute’ (where we currently spend most of our time).

F.       Can we turn the very end of this study area into another window seat guest bed thing (similar to the one in Viktoria's studio)? Yep $ for additional joinery/framing. Ok.

G.     We’ve moved the kitchen wall (the one with the wood stove) further into the kitchen about 1.3 metres. And fiddled with the layout. I’m attaching a few photos of kitchen layouts which capture our thinking (we like the built in table, the built in gas hob near the table). We won’t be bringing our dining suite with us. And we don’t need a huge kitchen / diner. BUT having a bigger living room would be awesome J No problem don’t see any additional costs with this. Cool J

What do you think? Is any of this do-able?? Yes all do-able will update a plan for you and send through next week for your thoughts. Looking forward to it

Finally, a few questions…

1.       What are the ventilation shutters made from? Most likely a two layer system with compressed cement sheet as the outer skin and a perforated inner skin. Will ponder and investigate further. Ok

2.       What does W&B (in the laundry/entry) stand for? Sorry poor writing, it is actually a cupboard (cupb). Ahhhhhh….

3.       Re the quote – a single 10,000L tank won’t be enough; in addition we would need a further 20,000L tank, AND another 10,000L tank as a dedicated fire tank. So some kind of slab / platform / base will need to be allowed for as well Do you have any preference for where these are located? Neal probably has some ideas on where he’d like the bigger tank located, but I think that there may be legal requirements on the siting of the fire tank (there are in Qld, so I assume there would be similar in Tasmania).

4.       What are the spec of the solar system? Ie what type / number of panels, batteries etc have been allowed for? We can get some more information for you, however at this stage only a 5KW generic system has been allowed for with no specifics on brands/nos.  That would be good – thanks!"

So we are just awaiting the updated plans, and further info as detailed above.

We'll let you know how we get on.

V&A

Reclaimed front door handles

Here is a photo of the handles we bought for the front door.

No, really.

So, we don’t actually have a door or anything to put them on yet…



Now we just need a front door...

They were found in the basement of the old St John's War Memorial Hospital which was once part of St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane, and is now St John’s Admin building. It is believed that they came from the demolition / construction of the new cathedral in Ann Street. The hospital basement had been closed since 1913, and recently re-opened because there was termite damage to the floor. So whether they were from the original church of 1857 or not, they were lost for the last hundred years.

They are about 46cm long and, whatever they are made from, they weigh a tonne. And at $132 for the pair, it's a little piece of Brisbane history we can take down to Tasmania with us.

This is part of the reason we were thinking of having either a double door or an over-sized front door (purely to support the handles).

Viktoria cleaned the hundred years of grime off them, but left the patina. Just because.

V&A

The Cleared Building Site

Almost an acre of forest gone from our original 57 in under 2 days...


Cleared site to the right of the road

The road in the left of the photo is not our driveway, but the road that bisects our land. Our driveway is yet to be created. The eventual position of the building will be down past where the grader is... the cliff is further down again (fortunately, we didn't lose any machinery or people over the edge during the clearing). Although there is a lot of empty space, it gives us more options for effectively positioning both the on-site waste management system and the important solar system (especially as we won't be connected to the electricity grid, we will need all the sunlight we can get!).
And it means that we can replant with appropriate endemic species (which also satisfy the bushfire management requirements).
We just hope that all the wildlife had enough time to fly, scamper or slither out of harms way, and that new homes have been found for all.
V&A