Firstly, my best wishes to and for your chicks, may you all be happy in your new home when built. Also, regardless of the reason, your choice of a more moderate home is commendable. I think we’re beginning to see a trend away from extra space for space’s sake. To your request for feedback, I’m sorry I can’t help with your planning software enquiry, I came to see the answers, but I did wonder if some of the large WIR space, in your current plan, could be better utilised in what I think is your second bathroom? Obviously without dimensions / deeper understanding of your needs, that’s just a quick view reply and since you’re an experienced Houzz user, you’ll know that the community here will have many other takes. Good luck with it all though

Agree with Jan. . Family bath should be designed to be accessible, with 1200 mm in front of toilet
Sorry to hear of your kids difficulties. A real challenge for all. I know epilepsy meds are a real trial and error.

Thank you so much Jan. I think the driver behind going smaller is that we want to be together, spend time together - not having separate lounge/family/media rooms for kids and parents. The outside alfresco area will be where we all get outside in the fresh air together for family bbq's & early morning beveages to watch the sun rise :)

The WIR space is insanely big lol. I've tried to pull it back a little to accommodate an entry niche from our last build. We have a gorgeous timber entry table that was decorated beautifully and I'd love to replicate that again :) The second bathroom - we were not going to worry about a bath this time around. Not sure if that's a mistake for the bathroom. We've checked a few display homes & houses for sale recently and interestingly, no baths at all?

Given the hells our family has endured, we were going to make a selfish decision for us this time and make our ensuite feel like a day spa retreat area so thought about putting the bath in there ... although we have thought about not having a bath in the house at all to be honest :)

Thank you Kate. We have had one plan drawn to scale but felt that with future plans - our existing plan doesn't allow for future visions to incorporate views to both the front, side and backyard .... that plan incorporates all the new building codes & zone requirements for larger hallways, doorways and access in front of toilets ... just my dodgy job doesn't do that lol .... leave that to the pro's hey.

Thank you so much. Jack's epiilepsy is a scary one. Touch wood he's found a good combination of meds ...one lot saw him in psychosis for 6 months where he didn't recognise ay of us, was hallucinating, became very violent - it was incredibly distressing for all of us - thankfully after a big hospital admission, lots of tests, general anesthetic and rapid medication changes, we got him back. He's the only 1 in his gene change that is stable - all the other kids aren't. All of them are non-verbal, severely intellectually disabled, have medication resistant seizures and one has already passed away so we have 4 x specialsits working hard to keep him stable - hoping he is the diamond in the rough and praying, that perhaps what's working for him - might help the others.

with reasonable sized rooms the internal floor area could be about 162sqm (9m x 18m) without porch and outdoor areas which should be designed to suit use, location of boundaries and placement of the shed and proposed pool and safety fences ... i've included an optional powder room for easier outdoor access and there's more generous kitchen counters with space for a bigger fridge, stacked wall oven and microwave, more pantry storage, a kitchen servery window and more storage throughout the house

Wow oklouise! Hello! Thank you so very much! We love it! The only slight issue will be, with our existing sewerage treatement plant (STP) - our septic is already installed on the block & local council have advised 2 x toilets max in the new build, in addition to the ones already on-site.

We have 1 in the shed and 1 in Mum's tiny home which is behind the shed.

As much as I'd love a powder room, I don't think we'd get away with it but the rest is fabulous! I especially love the servery window from the kitchen & the amount of storage is more than ample for our needs :) Thank you so much.

(I literally drew my idea to scale this afternoon with pencil & grid paper but neglected the wall widths - rookie mistake lol ... oh - and I ended up splitting the WIR & ensuite so we don't need to walk through the WIR to get to the ensuite. That was a design flaw at my end. But you've absolutely given Bear & I more options which I absolutely love. And I'm so relieved for your expertise .... especially now with it drawn to size .... we know it will fit the building envelope and be nice on the budget too :) Very embarassed to attach my pitiful drawing - just so you can see what I mean about rearranging Bed 1. Thank you Marilyn. So grateful for your time and help :)

Okl plan looks great but may need one of the toilets changed to ensure 1200 in front of pan. Plus access path width from entry door to toilet. Easily achievable. Personally I would keep sink off island moving it to side wall.

keep the powder room and have more space in the kids' bathroom but you do need more counter space in the kitchen and pantry and i've added your variation for the wiw and an alternative for the kids' bedrooms that are big enough for a double bed, biw and desks but keep in mind that your floor area (167sqm) doesn't include the size of the alfresco and porch which adds an extra 30sqm to the overall floor area

Amazinglouise ....That is absolutely brilliant! I can almost see it built just like that! We both love it, thank you so much! It's really exciting to see it :) (You should be grateful you can't hear just how excited we are lol)

There's just 2 x things we need to consider.

1) Even though the road frontage is the long side from Bed 1 down to the lounge/family room, the front door side will also be seen from the street. We think we may need to add windows on that side somehow to give that side of the house some street appeal so we'll need to add a bedroom window to bed 2 on the other side. Not sure about how to add appeal on the outside for the WIR though :/

2) Oklouise - in your opinion, is there anyway we shorten the length of the house to acommodate an outdoor area off the dining/family room end? The views from there are amazing! With the total house length sitting at 18,000, it will only allow 1500mm for us to do something outside.

If we could shave another 900mm from the total length somehow ... that will at least give us 2400 alfresco width? Does that make sense?

Can the dining/family room afford to lose 500mm off the end?

Maybe we could also lose 400mm off the WIR and 200mm off each of the kids rooms on the other side?

Always appreciate your advice and expertise Marilyn. Thank you so much. The layout is brillant and gives us hope for what lies ahead :)

what is the maximum sqm allowed and does that include alfresco and front porch ... what is the maximum length available and does that include space needed for the entry porch and alfresco ... what is the maximum distance available from the laundry door to the rear boundary eg could the alfresco "dining" space be on the pool side and keep the sitting area narrow along the view side if necessary?

Hi oklouise ... the maximum sqm allowed would be 200m2 .... but we'd rather keep it around 175m2 in total if possible to keep our build costs down.

Maximum length available, including alfresco & entry porch would be 20,500mm .... again - less would be best if possible.

Maximum width for the build itself is 11,500m2 to comply with a 10 metre exclusion zone/distance from our septic wastewater dispersion area (transpiration bed) to the house.

And yes, the alfresco dining space could be on the pool side with a sitting area along the view side would still work :)

does the 175sqm exclude the alfresco and porch as your plan is over 200sqm including the alfresco and porch?

It is? Oh no! It so helps having it drawn to scale ... thank you so much for your help oklouise. I'll go back to the drawing board hun. It would be awesome to be under the 200m2 .... sacrifices need to be made :)

To value manage Lose the servery as the window will not be cheap. Combine pantry and laundry adding more tall cabinets into main kitchen. Pull the minor bedrooms in from front into laundry space. -8m2

Thank you so much oklouise .... 162sqm is still excellent size for the house. We absolutely love the layout! It looks brilliant :) Thank you so much. Please let me know how we can pay you for your plans and your expertise lovely.

no payment necessary just continue to be good to yourself and your family and itm teher may be other ideas to reduce the size but sometimes it's preferable to save costs with a cheaper options eg a servery window can be made with a basic sliding window and omit things that can be added later like the pool, decking/paving, alfresco, BIW and shop around for cheaper options for bathroom, kitchen and laundry fixtures and appliances etc rather than squeezing your family into a space that won't be comfortable especially as the kids get older eg i saved $9000 on my last kitchen by using Laminex instead of stone counters

Thank you so much. The house is excellent. Our original plan was 192m2 so 162m2 is excellent and as you said, gives us room to grow into it and expand us funds allow :)

Are the internal measurements and overall length still the same as the previous plan oklouise? We absolutely love it! I can't thank you enough for helping us with this. Seeing it drawn to scale and knowing it will work, is so exciting :)

same internal dimensions and lengths but keep in mind that my vintage CAD program uses 10cm for all walls in this plan so overall size will be slightly smaller when drawn with standard 70-90mm internal walls and the choice of external walls that you choose can also make a difference

That's even better news lol! Thank you :) We're going with cladding this build - we had bricks last time :) Honestly - we love it!!! I'll share the finished drawings with you! This is epic!! :) We can't thank you enough Marilyn xox

Oklouise …. I’m so sorry to ask. Hubby loves the plan but was wondering if there was room to orientate our bed like this to try & gain some views.

I’ve measured up our bed & together with our bedsides, we would need 2930mm of wall behind it all to make this work.

Can we get away with a 720 opening?

We don’t want ro trouble you with a redraw but was wondering if you could give us a yay or nay?

I apologize again. Please see attached terrible iPhone edit to demonstrate.

Helps if I attach it hey lol

the bedroom is 3.6m wide and the bed could be placed as you've shown but depends on the size of your beds and bedside tables for you to decide if there is comfortable walking distance along the sides of the bed...imo the first plan with the wiw next to the ens gives more space in the bedroom with the view as your husband prefers