Come on a journey of inspiration & adventure while renovate & restore a beautiful Victorian home 'St Elmo' in the picturesque Hunter Valley, Australia & laugh at a few of our family adventures along the way.




Sunday, August 1, 2010

A concept plan

Well here she is, the concept plan....
This is version 4 of my dream home, I had to scale down until it would fit our budget & be a practical size, it started out about 9 metres longer than this, with another bedroom & an activity room.It was way to big & I think we would have had a lot of unused space.
I don't have a copy of what downstairs will look like, there will be a double garage that you drive into at the left end of the house & underneath the kitchen & family room area will be a large room,that we will use as a kids activity room  gym & toilet. To start with it will just be a big open space that we will finish at our leisure or when budget permits....


Please excuse the poor quality, it was a plan that was scanned & emailed to me, which I then had to print out & re scan & save it to my photo files.  Finally I was able to access the image to post.The dark grey areas are veranda's with a pergola on the bottom floor of the back left hand corner.
The centre area if the plan has the entry situated between a formal lounge & dining room, hopefully creating a grand entrance. The large room in the middle is a family room & meals area that opens onto the alfresco. The kitchen is off to the left, with an island bench & walk in pantry, the staircase opens into the family room.


I am hoping to create a mixture of these two kitchens. I will be having overhead cupboards & if I can make the budget stretch to it, I would love to take them to the ceiling, I expect that would add a lot to the cost as we have 2.7m ceilings. I will be having pendant lights like the kitchen above, my dream guy is an electrician & will be doing all of the electrical installation himself.
I really love the simplicity of the island below.
Any advice or experiences on this my stylish friends?

Off to the right is 3 bedrooms for the kids & you walk thru a vanity area to go to the bathroom, separate toilet or laundry. I wanted my kids to be able to get ready in the morning without fighting over the bathroom, girls can do their hair, whilst the man child uses the shower & the toilet is still accessible for whom ever may need to use it( these are daily issues that I face, resolved). My laundry has plenty of storage & bench space for folding washing & ironing without having to pack it all away immediately. The bedrooms are large enough to accommodate queen size beds, side tables, dressers, a  built in robe & still leave room to move about.
The left end of the house has another child's bedroom  & the master bedroom. The master bedroom has a walk in robe & ensuite. The toilet in the ensuite has its own separate room.
Both the ensuite & main bathroom will have a bath tub under the window & a separate shower. The main vanity area & ensuite will each have a double vanity.When I read this I realize we don't sound like we are very good at sharing, he he he!!!
I would like something a little like this image below

I think I would like a mirror the same size as the vanity in the kids area, to add extra light & make the space appear larger, but in the ensuite possibly two smaller mirrors, one over each basin.
 What do you think ?

The formal lounge will have french doors to access the front veranda, a gas fireplace with a lovely traditional style mantel & be flanked by open shelving. I love the formal fireplaces with display shelves either side, but I also wanted to create extra light in the family room as it is a long room & allow for air flow from the front to the back of the house, following design principles for passive heating & cooling. We have hot summers & although we will install ducted reverse cycle air conditioning, it is expensive to run, so the more measures we take to create an energy efficient home the better.I hope to have it look a little something like the images below, although I will be painting them white.

My dream guy loves the two way gas fireplaces so it may end up with the fireplace & mantle in the family room as well yet. This would depend on the cost for the actual fire place fitting into our budget.


So this is the plan so far, tiles on the floor, hopefully 60cm x 30 cm porcelain in a sandy sort of colour, laid in a running bond pattern, carpet in the formal lounge, dining & bedrooms in a similar tone. The walls to be painted in a yellow based cream & all trims white. Kitchen to be white with the bench tops to be a square form laminate or ceasar stone either a shade darker or shade lighter than floor tiles.The bathrooms following on in the same colour scheme.
I will pick the flooring first & work my way up from there. A lot of the furnishing I currently own was purchased around a warm white colour scheme so I will need to keep with this look, I do love these colours anyway. The last 2 houses we renovated, we painted in Dulux Chalk USA although I think I am leaning towards Dulux Hogs Bristle in varying strengths this time, depending on the tile colour.

Any ideas or suggestions to save me some costly or disappointing mistakes guys????

CHEERS
Trish xx




15 comments:

Cameron said...

I think it is so awesome that you're preparing for your dream home!!! I hope I get to build mine one day! You have such great taste, I'm sure your home will be beautiful!

Leigha said...

How wonderfully exciting! Cannot wait to see the progress...

Unknown said...

I love your plan Trish I love that you have thought ever detail through....I think the island bench is perfect just as bench space I would make it extra deep to help stop feet marks on the back panels where your stools are...of course you also need an electrical point in the side of your island...probably all things you know....
Try and add some storage in your guest room...this would be useful as linen storage for your room also if need be.
I think you have thought everything through...well done.

Tara said...

Trish,your home will be fantastic..I cant wait to follow your progress..Stay stress free and enjoy;;xx

Olivia Popovic said...

Hi Trish
The floor plan looks and sounds fantastic!
We painted our place in Hogs Bristle, I highly recommend using this colour as it looks great, especially in large rooms.
Olivia

GoldenValley50 said...

Wow - it just looks amazing! I have kept kitchen #2 in my "dream kitchen" wish file ever since I first saw it in HB. I agree - I love the simplicity of its island bench. It is going to be such fun watching it all unfold. I would say "trust your instincts" - from what I can see (and hear) it will be beautiful! :)Sharyne

Unknown said...

So exciting Trish! I love those pics, it's going to be gorgeous! Nice to be able to do some of it at your leisure and when budget permits instead of either giving up what you want or over extending yourself. You're very clever!!! I can't wait to see it so I can't imagine how excited you are!
Jxx

brismod said...

How exciting for you! When we did our kitchen last year we built our cupboards to the ceiling because having an older home meant we had little in the way of storage space. We have 3m ceilings. It actually did not add too much to the price of the kitchen. xx

Honey I'm Home Blog said...

How fun, I'm so excited for you! Lucky, lucky, lucky!

Warmly, Michelle

Jenny said...

Hi Trish, sounds fabulous! I agree with making sure your kitchen bench is wide enough for the stools etc and add power-points either side (we did and love it). I was also wondering if your island bench will have a sink in it? Everything else sounds great. I agree with the paint colour and I would go with two mirrors in your ensuite. Perhaps the ventian style you love? I bet you can't wait for it to start. Looking forward to this journey with you. Have a great week.

Paper Tree Studio said...

How exciting Trish to be nearing the finalised plans!! It all sounds wonderful - I would also go with the two mirrors in the ensuite - why not?! Can't wait for you to start. Have a happy Monday. Michelle

Anonymous said...

Hi Trish,
The floorplan looks so workable! I love the set up at the kid's bedroom/bathroom end. The vanity outside of the shower and bath area is an excellent idea! I have the same two pictures in my kitchen inspiration folder. I love how the second picture opens up to the BBQ area. We had to chop a lot off our house plan too and in the end, I am glad. Better for the budget and less to clean. Also gives us more space in the backyard!
Thanks for showing us your floorplan!

M said...

Trish, it sounds like you have everything well and truly under control! The value in really thinking your project through and making good decisions will be evident in the finished project.

It will be great to see how everything comes together.

M

lisa mae said...

yay so exciting, i love watching this process unfold and can't wait for the next stage lisa xox

Unknown said...

Your floor plan looks very well thought out and practical. I like it and I loke all of the ideas that you have for your home. I am really looking forward to following you through the adventure of building your dream house and dreaming of the day I can build mine! xx

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