Floor Plans
Door Opening
One of the small things that can really make a difference to your house is how doors open……..but its one thing that is frequently forgotten. This sketch shows a typical bedroom and ensuite layout. (I know it doesn’t show the…
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Buffer Zones
Thinking about buffer zones when you are planning a house layout, or considering builders standard layouts, will save you on heating and cooling costs. So what are buffer zones?…………………………………..Basically they are rooms and spaces that may be heated to a…
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Changing Builders Standard Plans
Most builders will change their standard designs to some extent. The builder of our current house, Metricon, was fairly flexible. Here are some of the changes that you could talk with the builder about if their standard is close to…
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Starting House Design 1- Bubble Diagram 1
A big mistake in designing a house is to get involved in detail too quickly. Rough sketches of a floor plan, which you can easily change, are the best way to start. . . . Much better than using a computer…
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Starting House Design 2 – Bubble Diagram 2
Once you have a basic bubble diagram you can then start to develop it by: Drawing Circulation Routes Think about your block how will people approach the front door. What rooms do you want to overlook approaching visitors. Where do…
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Starting House Design 3
In two other posts (Bubble Diagrams 1 and Bubble Diagram 2) I have described how you can start a design using bubble diagrams. When you are happy with the bubble diagrams then you can start working on how the floor plan will…
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Accessible Design
Accessible design is making a house suitable to be lived in or visited by a disabled person. If you don’t think this is important remember that one in five Australians has a disability. For Instance: You might be fine now…
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Buying Plans off the Internet
These days there are a vast number of house plans available of the Internet. As with all internet based service you need to be careful, however there are very many high quality companies that provide plans on the net. Climate,…
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Twin Basins – Is It Worth It?
When we first came to Australia and started looking at show houses we often saw En-Suites with two basins. We thought it looked fairly classy so that’s what we got in our first Australian new house. This time round the…
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How Much Garage Do You Need
The trend these days seems to be for double garages……… but how many of them have two cars in them. My guess would be about 10% and probably close to half never have a car in them. Some are just…
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