Budget Planning - Design
One Devoted Dame
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
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Comments (22)
Mark Bischak, Architect
6 years agoRelated Discussions
Critique my floor plan - small, budget house with a view!
Comments (23)If you do two stories (walk out basement plus main floor) and have master bedroom up and other two bedrooms down, I would think you would want two bathrooms (or at least two WCs). People sleeping downstairs who wake in the middle of the night needing to use the toilet should not have to climb a set of stairs to get to one. If you want the master upstairs, consider putting the laundry room down next to a downstairs WC and cluster both directly beneath the upstairs bath and WC. That will allow you to cluster the plumbing which helps keep costs down. With a second WC and the cost of building stairs, it might or might not be more economical to build two stories than to spread the whole house out on a single floor. But, given your sloping property and your desire to maximize views, I'd go with two stories anyway. Having a second WC or even a second full bath won't cost THAT much more if you can cluster the plumbing. As for critiques of your latest posted plan. I would agree with previous comments that your living room/dining room area won't work very well. With three bedrooms, one assumes that at least occasionally you will have 3 to 6 people staying at the house. The living room would not be at all comfortable for that many people. Plus, do you expect to watch TV, or converse in the living room. No place for a TV and no room to create a conversation area where people sit so that they can look at one another. As designed, you don't really have a LIVING ROOM. You have a dining room with a sofa off to one side. The trip from the master bedroom to the WC requires you to walk thru your closet (wardrobe), out into the dining area, and then turn back down a hallway. Not a trip I would want to navigate during the middle of the night...especially since I have to admit that I often leave my shoes scattered about in my closet and I'd be tripping over them in the dark. Maybe you're a neat-nick and ALWAYS put shoes away exactly where they belong. But, do you really want the only path to your master bedroom to be thru your closet??? Also, you show no closets except the Master bedroom closet and a very small broom closet. Most of us have tons more stuff that needs to be stored away than will possibly fit into those two small closets. Eg, X-mas decorations, extra blankets, towels, and pillows, off-season clothing, the big bag of dogfood, the vacuum cleaner, the ironing board, board games, umbrellas, recycling bins, etc. With no garage, any of that stuff that you own is going to have to be stored somewhere inside your house. The biggest complaint I hear about new homes when people move in is that they don't have enough storage space...and that is often from folks who have a two or three car garage!. And, the space you have allotted a staircase isn't nearly long enough. Even in Australia, I suspect there are building codes that restrict just how steep a staircase can be. Here in the U.S, for a house with eight foot (2.44 m) ceilings and 1 ft thick joists between floors, you would need a staircase run about 13 ft long (3.96 m). Anything less will result in a staircase that is too steep to meet code. Plus, even if you're not restricted by a building code, if you make the staircase steeper than about 40 degrees, it is VERY uncomfortable to use and pretty dangerous. Definitely NOT something you want to deal with in the middle of the night when trying to get the the WC! Suggest you look up the building codes in your jurisdiction and find out exactly what the staircase requirements are. Then you can do a bit of trigonometry to figure out how much linear space you need to devote to your staircase...assuming it is a straight line staircase. (BTW, please don't think that if you design a bent staircase - a U or an L or some other shape) that you can squeeze it into less space. Every bend makes the staircase take up even more room. You need to understand staircase requirements before you begin trying to design two stories and then block out the necessary staircase space first on both floors. Trying to design any two story space without knowing up front how much space must be dedicated to the staircase is an exercise in frustration....See MoreGet plan within budget
Comments (22)Having had a new home built in the last seven years, a custom home was quoted at over $200.00 a square foot. We did a lot of work ourselves and hired our own subs. Moving back to Florida, we bought a foreclosure that was built in 2002 with over 3100 sq. ft. with an additional 1000+ sq. ft. for an indoor pool, surrounded by 9 sliding glass doors. The entire home is built of stuccoed cement block with tiled roofs. wait for it....for $225,000 in a gated community. Then we redid most of the house ourselves with hired subs. It took us a long time to find, but existing houses will give you a much better deal. Please don't let your home put you into financial difficulty. Do you have a large savings for emergencies, college funds for your children, 401k plans at work that you are active in or an IRA? The best gift you can give yourself is peace of mind. I have not had a mortgage for many years (20) and am 62 and retired. My daughter lost her beautiful dream house that she just had to have, and ended up divorced. Just a reality check....See MorePicking out house plans in your budget
Comments (5)We custom built our first house and are now building our second. Most builders we have met with didn't discuss costs at more than a high level until they had the opportunity to review the plans and put together a formal estimate. Similar to your situation, we didn't want to spend money on a set of plans that wouldn't be within our budget. We also weren't interested in "working backwards" and taking things out to adjust the plans to meet our budget. So, we put together a list of things we wanted (ie, number of rooms, approximate square footage of home, finishes, etc), gave that to builders and then asked them to show us plans they had built in our price range. By doing that, we found a builder that already had a set of plans that were almost exactly what we were looking for and that met our budget. I think it saved us a lot of time and frustration....See MorePlease help me plan a budget update
Comments (14)You have a couple of options here...to go ahead and do a facelift now or save the $$ you have now and put it toward a full remodel in a few years (you mention 5 or 6 years). If you can change it enough with some paint, new window treatments, maybe an inexpensive backsplash, and a few decorative touches, could you wait? That way you won't be tearing out in a few short years what you're spending $$ on today. If not, then... How expensive are granite & quartz in your area? I'm asking b/c replacing all your counters w/granite or quartz can be quite expensive...it depends on the "color", the amount you need, the number of "special" cuts (like rounded edges or diagonal on the island and at the corner sink), and the # of cutouts (which wouldn't be many b/c you have a range & only one sink...at least right now). If you plan on replacing your cabinets in 5 or 6 years, do you want to spend several thousand dollars now on counters you will probably not be able re-use? Or if you re-use them, you'll be forcing yourself into the exact same kitchen setup you have now...and you sound like you plan to move things around. (Your plans sound pretty good, btw.) Normally, I would suggest going with a mid-range laminate in your situation...to tide you over until you're ready for a full-blown remodel. However, you want an undermount sink and I seem to recall reading that undermounting a sink w/laminate counters is not cheap...correct me if I'm wrong someone! Sink...I don't think the reason you're having a logjam at the sink is b/c of faucet location, it's b/c the sink is in the corner & it's tough (if not impossible) to have two people at a corner sink...especially if it's a 36" corner sink base instead of 42" or 48" (I can't tell from your pics b/c there's no clear pic of the sink cabinet front-on). I'm not even sure the basin idea will help...yes, it will give you a place for dirty dishes, but it won't help if two of you are trying to both use the sink for prepping/cleaning up/etc. at the same time. It also looks like you have a 2-bowl sink, which normally should help the logjam situation in a single-sink kitchen (there is the single faucet issue, of course). Again, it's the sink's location and lack of frontage for standing that's the issue. I can definitely see how a second sink would help you greatly. If there's any way you can do it, I would recommend trying to do it. However, keep in mind that it will require modifying an existing cabinet to not only accommodate a sink but to also be able to structurally support it + basin(s) full of water. (Your situation is similar to what ours was in our old kitchen. The separation of the Prep & Cooking Zones from the Cleanup Zone and adding a prep sink in the Prep Zone in our new kitchen made a huge difference in our kitchen functionally.) I would also try replacing some of the brown carpeting and painting the rooms around the kitchen...you might be surprised the difference it will make when you don't have so much brown around you! Good luck!...See MoreOne Devoted Dame
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6 years agoMark Bischak, Architect
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Mark Bischak, Architect