imwonderwoman,
to upload the pdf you can go to:
http://freepdfhosting.com/
and then post the link here.

I grew up using the metric system, but my dad used to have a lumber yard and in my country of origin, lumber is measured in feet and inches so it was not too hard for me to change to the english system.
I am pretty sure many persons here are familiar with the metric system.

Thank you heaps marthaelena!! Here is the main and the upstairs. It might come out sideways, so sorry about that. I know I can change it on mine. If it causes problems, I could ask the architect to resend it to me the right way.

http://freepdfhosting.com/033b2257c9.pdf
http://freepdfhosting.com/b9302b67a7.pdf

The door from garage seems a bit tight and right on top of the kitchen IMHO. The pantry is nice size . Just not fond of walking into the end of the pantry shelves. The laundry seems in an odd location for any kind of mudroom and being right off the foyer but it is close to the bedrooms. I would prefer a more discreet location or door access at least.. Island seems a bit close to the pantry for walk path but may be ok if no overhang. Many doors seem to have little room on sides for casing. Door to study is one. Why the door in hall to bedroom? It doesnt make sense since your powder room is beyond that. Room sizes seem reasonable but the kitchen could be one to review a bit. No guest closet if it matters to you. Showers in upstairs baths seem small and square... not the best if less than 42" I cant tell. Good luck

Looks good to me, though there are a few things I would change to suit me...:)

1. Master Ensuite...2 vanities instead of one. Better for resale IMO.
2. Master Ensuite...I would prefer a door rather than an opening. Sometimes bathrooms can get steamy.

3. Like the pantry size, but I would delete the window and put shelving across there.

4. Laundry...I would prefer the dryer to be under the bench and the washer and trough closer..(I tend to hand wash some items, then pop them in the washing machine for a quick spin, before hanging out).

Door openings look fine to me...820 is standard for doors in Aust.....ensuite and WIR doors are usually 720. Mud rooms are rare (not needed in most of Aust), though I see you have room for coats/boots in the garage.

Good luck, hope your build goes smoothly.

To bigkahuna/mrsmuggleton:

Thank you both for your comments, I am taking them all into advisment. I still have a couple of things to tweek, these are not the final final plans. I should have told you about the placement. This is the odd but premiere lot for the developer (Greg Norman/Macquarie) in the Southern Hemisphere. It is at the right side end of a cul-de-sac. The front of the house will actually face the side of the lot next door. We have tried to make sure that all living areas and bedrooms have views out to the golf course.

bigkahuna ~ The laundry is not ideal, but it is in the only place that I could have it as large as I wanted it to be, and yes, it is near all the bedrooms. It is supposed to have a recessed doorway so that it doesn't seem so "off the entry". I didn't want the door to be off the living. (Many homes here in Australia have the Master off the entry, immediately when you walk in the door). Door to garage was angled so that it opens into its own wall, as opposed to being in the way. The pantry shelves that you walk into are actually closed storage. The other wall holds the food items, extra dishes, entertainment items, etc. I might need to make the storage a bit shorter so it doesn't seem like you are "walking into shelves". The island will be centered so there is an equal distance around and there will be no overhang. It will be all drawers and hold all the dishes, glasses, etc. We are not having any overhead cabinets, to keep an open feel. I agree with the study door. I think I am going to bring that particular kitchen wall in approx 18 inches so that I can put a half wall cookbook case (bottom) and a message board (on top) leaving me with a 6 inch clearance for door frame. I am also going to make the study door recessed so that it doesn't feel so close to the kitchen. This will create a nook for his built-in desk units that will run along the wall shared with the kitchen. It's my hubbies office and he wanted a view and his own door out to the patio (this is the eating area) & golf course. There will be a small closet built into the stairwell. The plans don't show it, but on the kitchen end of the stairs there will be a built in drinks fridge and counter, so that the kids can just grab a drink instead of constantly being in the fridge. We put the door off the living leading to the 2 bedrooms for two reasons: 1. If we are entertaining or just up late watching TV, my son can be closed off from the noise. We have that now in the house we are renting and love it, use it every night. 2. Any guest using the powder room will feel like they have a bit more privacy. Hubby hates to go to a friends house, use their bathroom next to everything that is going on and feels "inhibited", lol. Room sizes are actually REALLY LARGE for Australia. Most kitchens are half the size and bedrooms tend to be the size of an American walk-in closet. My sons room now is 12ftx9ft, in this house it will be 11.8x17, not including the desk area into that measurement. I am also going to add a window on his other wall so that he has a view out to the course. We gave him a large room since his sisters have their own lounge area upstairs. I also agree with you about the showers. I'd like to move it to the end of the room, but then it gets in the way of the window. I will dbl check the measurement.

mrsmuggleton ~ I chose to go with one sink so that I can have a makeup sitting area. More important to me. For the last 3 years I have been in a master ensuite that is 6ftx7ft, so this one will seem like a palace :-) I agree with teh door to teh bath, its just such a samll area though. Maybe I will do dbl pocket doors, so that I can close off if wanted. I can't believe how many new houses have nothing between the master and the bath, not even a small door, but MASSIVE openings. At least the doorway is off the hall, originally it was off the retreat area which cut into my usable wall space. I also agree with your comment about the laundry. I don't like how he layed it out. I am going to cut the length of the cabinets on the opposite wall, that way I have a good square working area for ironing and hanging. I haven't designed the cabinets yet, but they will be very functional. Most people have small washers and IF they have a dryer, it is NOT vented outside. The house that I got to only live in for 4 months had 3 laundry rooms. Yea, no one has a mud room here and I have had to educate many on the functionality of them. I purposely built those cubbies into the garagebut if I could one inside I would, but space is at a premium.

For those that don't understand the Australian market, it is very different and everything is very small. My last house I designed and built was 10,000sf on 2 acres, with everything custom made (all interior/exterior doors, windows, 2 dbl storey hand forged iron staircases, all cabinetry). Took 2 years to build and I only lived in it for 4 months before hubby was transferred out of the country. Still own it, its been sitting empty for 3 years. Now I have a lot just shy of 9000sf and putting a 2200sf main level, 780 sf upstairs. AND everyone is telling me the house is HUGE!!!! None of the lots on my street are more than 5,500sf with a width of only 45 ft wide. Pricing is also over the roof. The land alone was $400k! The materials are US "apartment quality". Where we would put in wooden cabinets in the US, here they are happy with 2pack or what I call particle board laminated cabinets. Some even have their laundry rooms as part of the kitchen, and they really don't care if they have a garage or not. Many houses have tiled floors in the living areas and carpet in bedrooms. We will have reclaimed hardwoods on main, carpet up. They build right on top of each other. My garage will end up almost touching the garage of the house next door. This is why we designed the house so that everything will face out, so that I have the illusion of having space. I am moving 45 minutes out of the Melbourne inner circle, just so that I have some open sky to see. It is going to be a heck of a school commute twice a day, but I need the open space.

So I have designed this home as much as I can to "American Standards" while still keeping within Aussie limitations, so I don't overbuild. Everything here that is not 80 years old is very modern, where I am more of a "French Country" kinda girl. It has been hard trying to incorporate everything I need to make a house more functional, when the market here doesn't care, lol!

Just one final note, the Veranda has the bi-fold doors so that it can be completely opened up and outside meets inside. We are installing motorized "cafe blinds" (heavy clear plastic sheeting, like what you would find in an outdoor area of a restaurant)on the outside perimeter so that it can be used year around and have extra inside area if we are having a large gathering. Might do this to the patio/eating area too.

I really like your plan but if I might suggest a couple of minor tweaks...

1) Flip the entry door to the masterbedroom so that it opens against the powderroom wall instead of against the masterbath wall. That way, when the bedroom door is open it won't partially block the entry to the bathroom.

2) Then, after doing the above, you can move the the opening to the masterbath toward the front of the house so that it starts about 1 ft from the wall separating the toilet room from the rest of the bath. This would allow you to put in a swinging door that opens toward the toilet room wall. Because this door would open more than 90 degrees, when fully open it should not block the entry to the toilet area.

3) The space between the shower and tub in the master bath looks like it is too narrow to be of any particular use. Have you considered just incorporating it into the shower area thereby making a large "neo-angle" shower instead of a rectangular one?

4) In the pantry, if you swap sides with the narrow and deeper cabinets so that, as you come into the pantry you are facing the narrow shelves instead of the deeper ones, it would help alleviate the sense that one was "walking into shelves." You could also angle off a couple of inches of the corner of the shelf is closest to the pantry door so there is no corner sticking out to accidentally walk into. If you don't need or want enough deep cabinetry to cover the entire right hand wall, you could use narrow shelving or cabinets for the 4 or 5 feet closet to the pantry window. (I don't agree about getting rid of the pantry window. That window is on the front of your house and, while you didn't post your front elevation, I suspect you need the pantry window to maintain the "rythm" of the repeating windows across the front of the house.) Across the end of the pantry (under the window), I'd put in a base cabinet to provide another work surface. I might even put another sink in under the pantry window thereby convert the entire pantry into a working "butler's pantry".

5) It isn't totally clear to me where that mountain view is in relation to your house but if by "to the right" you meant toward the northeast, I would want a window on the northeast wall of the study to capture that view. You might also consider windows on the NE and SW exterior walls of the girls' rooms upstairs. Although they already have lovely large windows, light from two directions is always nice - especially if the view in those directions is good.

6) In the kitchen, I would center the sink in the center of the curving bulkhead. Aesthetically, I just think having the sink centered would be more pleasing. You might want to move the dishwasher to the other side of the sink but this shouldn't be a problem if your aisleways are wide enough. (I'm guessing you'll have 42" or more.)

Is that HP/OVEN a wall oven? I hope not because you really should have at least 12" of free counter top on either side of your stove to set things down if you need to. 18" would be better. But a wall oven right next to the stove would mean you would have no free countertop space on that side. Not good.

If you are planning a fancy hood over your stove, I would also love to see some way to line the stove and hood up with your island but with the current size kitchen, I see no way to do that.

I'm not understanding exactly what you meant by moving a kitchen wall by 18 inches to make room for trim around the office door... but you do need to figure out a way to gain a few inches there.

Is your intention to move the counter with the sink 18" into the dining room area? If so, then I would consider flipping the (undercounter???) oven and stove because, with the wider kitchen, I think that might allow you to line up the stove and hood with the island and still have 12" or so of counter space to the right of your stove. which might allow you to line up the stove and it's hood with the island. Note however that your sink is already a good long distance from your fridge. If you move it 18" further away, I would put the prep sink on the side of the island closet to the fridge. That would give you a prep zone on the front side of your island and a clean up zone on the backside. Be aware that you'll have traffic through your kitchen prep zone so you'll want that aisle to be nice and wide. 4 ft minimum, 4.5 ft would be better.

7) Do make absolutely sure how deep an alcove you will need for your refrigerator/freezer. Better to lose a couple of inches more pantry space now than wind up with your built-ins not fitting!

8) Upstairs, I don't know about your daughters but my experience with teenaged girls is that there are certain times of the month when they might want a hot soaking bath instead of a shower. Plus, bathtubs in some of the secondary bedrooms would give the house more resale value since families with small children want tubs. So, instead of the small showers, I would consider putting in a tub/shower combo up against the front (windowed) wall in each of those upper bathrooms. Move the toilets where the vanities currently are and the vanities where the showers currently are. If I'm reading the dimensions correctly, those windows are only 24 inches (600 mm) tall anyway - so the bottom of the window is probably 4.5 to 5 ft from the floor. That means that if someone were showering right in front of the window, only their head would be visible from the street. So privacy isn't really an issue. But, even if it is, you can use glue-chip glass in the windows. To protect the windows from moisture while showering, you can either slope the inner window sill slightly and tile it, or hang a second shower curtain (cut short) where it can be pulled across the windows.

9) Also, be very careful when planning to put pocket doors in closets. Remember that your clothes hanging rod has to be supported by solid bracing... not just sheetrock. There may not be enough room in a standard thickness wall for both a pocket door and that necessary bracing to support a clothes hanging rod.

10) I definitely agree about insetting the laundry room door and was going to suggest that until I saw that you had already intended to do it.

11) I'm not sure what you mean by dryers in Australia not being vented to the outside. Dryers put out a tremendous amount of lint. If they are not properly vented, where does the lint go? Into a wall cavity? Or is it just dumped in the space between the dryer and the wall? I can't imagine having to pull my dryer away from the wall constantly to clean behind it! And if the lint is just dumped into the the space between walls (vented into the walls), it is going to build up and, combined heat from the dryer, become a huge fire hazard. So, even if nobody else vents their dryers to the outside in Australia, I strongly encourage you to insist on properly venting yours. It can be vented through your roof if you don't want the vent on the front of your house.

Just my ideas on how to make a lovely plan just tiny bit better! I do hope you'll post the elevation drawings because it is a great plan. And, when you start building, [pst some pics of the property and views. It sounds beautiful!

Thank you BEVANGEL for your suggestions :-)

I am having a hard time getting the server to come up so that I can download the elevation plans. I will do it as soon as it comes back up. I am not crazy about the top floor being sunk into the roof line, but it's a bit cheaper. I am already the most expensive home in the area, so I have to save where I can.

1,2 & 3. Yes, I had also intended to flip that door. Makes no sense to have it open the way it is currently. Good idea on a door placement for the bath, too. I am thinking of moving the shower to sit alongside the tub, maybe also moving the toilet 90 degrees and having the opening face the shower. But do like your idea of an angled shower, as long as it it big enough. People here don't go for big showers like we do in the US.

4. Good switch on the pantry shelving. The window is staying but is almost to the floor so can't put anything in front of it. I will post a drawing of the elevation so you can see how the windows will work. They are not my fav or my style, but when in Rome.......

5. You can't capture the view from the right side of the house, because another house will end up right next to us. The views are from straight out the back and the left side of the house. I am thinking of putting corner windows in the girls bedrooms, though.

6. Agree with you on the sink, it was on my "fix list". The sinks are massive, I think they end up being 3ft in length. the dishwasher will also be switched. I have decided to go with a 100cm stand alone oven/stove to make that area more open and yes, it will be centered. In regards to making the kitchen wall 18" shorter, it is the wall with the stove on, and it will be shortened from the garage end, just going to take 18" off the end. And I guess I shouldn't say "wall", just the cabinetry, lol. Island will be 4' deep, and walkways will be 4' also. No sink in island, I want the whole are for prep. The counter to the left & right of sink and sink is for prep, the sink comes with special cutting boards, colanders and drying racks, turning it into its own prep area. The area is 13.5' long, 10.5' of counter space if you take the sink out. I will post a pic of the "Inspiration Kitchen" I have used. With people able to walk along from the left to rear of the house (on the golf course paths) I needed to have the areas opened up to the view but still a bit private. When I saw this kitchen I knew that it was just what I was looking for. At first the kitchen was down the left side and rear of the house.

7. The fridge is a Meile Integrated and has been spec'd into the plans. :-)

8. I have thought about the tub/shower combo and might be used in the end. I have one daughter that loves baths and one that NEVER takes them. We put one in the Master because I like them too and my youngest girl could use that if she likes. Although, here in Australia you don't find many tubs, because of the drought. It's a 50/50 split whether you find them in a Master or not. Everyone is extremely water conscience (4 minute showers) and grey/rain water is used for toilets, wash and landscaping. Water tanks are required in our development.

9. The closets will have custom cabinetry built out so I should not have to worry about rods against pocket door areas. But you have given me the knowledge to watch out for that, thank you!!

10. In regards to the dryers, yep, I gotta pull the dryer away from the wall every couple of weeks to wipe it down, And in the summer the laundry gets STICKY!!! I don't get it!? YES, mine will be vented out. I am actually not in the norm here, most people don't even have dryers, they hang everything outside or around the house to dry. Some friends can't believe how much I use the dryer. Lots of times people have a small dryer that is mounted to the wall, above the washer.

Imwonderwoman,
I hadn't thought of space for seating to do makeup.
I have noticed a lot of plans having open plan bedroom/bathrooms now....not for me..:)
You may find the link below interesting.

Bevangle,
Dryers in Aust are vented out the front. There is a lint filter in the door. Dryers are not used all that much here.
I only use mine on the wettest days when the clothes have that damp feeling and I feel they need 10 Min's in the dryer just to make sure the clothes are really dry. My clothes line is a fold away sort, it opens out under the veranda, so the clothes are always under cover, from either sun or rain.

Here is a link that might be useful: Housing trends

I knew mrsmuggleton that you either lived in Australia or had so previously, just by the way you worded some things. :-) We love Melbourne, fantastic place to live and love the theatre opportunites for the kids. Our dryer has a vent in front, but mainly blows out thru a hole in the back of it. The wall is always covered in gunk. I am bad and stick everything in the dryer. The new house will have a clothes line. Our corporate rental doesn't have one.

I feel the same way about the open bathrooms, not me at all, so I loved your suggestions on door placement. I am going to definately re-think that area, it hasn't been my favorite. But like I said, my current ensuite is 7'x6' so even this design is better than what I currently have. :-) You get to a point where you stop being so picky. We are getting down to the final stages, just tweaking a bit here and there. We have been working with the builder for a year now on designing this thing, hubby and I are to a point where we just want it done now. We wasted 12 months with another builder before the current one, they couldn't even come close to getting the plans right. At one point they put a 2 story atrium in the smack dab middle of the house, even though I never asked for one. Nice feature, but I don't even keep houseplants because I kill them!!! :-)

lol, I had read that article when it came out and was quite surprised by the findings. I guess it all depends on where you live in the US and where you live in Australia. I am currently in the inner circle of Melbourne and in my last development in the US, the smallest homes where 32 squares, but then you could add another 10 squares with the basement. And your lot size was at least double of what you get here in Aussie, and that was just for the smallest homes. It is obvious in our design that I am trying to utilize the space to its maximum. No formal living or dining. The eating area will be nicer than then norm, but not as nice as a formal area would be.

Here are links to the 2 pictures of the kitchen and surrounding areas that I used in our design.

http://photos.gardenweb.com/home/galleries/2010/02/inspiration_kitchen.html

http://photos.gardenweb.com/home/galleries/2010/02/inspiration_kitchen_2.html

Here is a link that might be useful: inspiration kitchen

yea, finally got freePDF to work!!! Here is the front/back elevation as promised. Let me know what you think. Like I said, its not my favorite, but I can work with it :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: front/back elevation

That kitchen looks very nice...though I am a huge fan wall ovens..(back problems)
Elevation looks nice as well....Do you have to have small windows in front? I noticed the back view has larger windows/sliding doors.

You were very lucky to find a 10 acre block so close to Melbourne...;):):):):):)