My House Plans.. ..so Far

[Pugwash]

I agree. Keep us updated, at your own speed.

[jdkno]

I am in the US so some of my terminology might differ from yours so bare with me.

Have you gotten the final construction drawings drawn up by an architect yet?

Your design is pretty nice; however I did notice a few things. I notice there is a considerable amount of space wasted being used for hallways and such.

For example there is a hallway behind the den area on the main floor that appears to do nothing but separate the stairs from the den. There is also another hallway running perpendicular to that hallway that does nothing but allow access to the Master bedroom, Master bath, and a second bedroom.

Just wondering but what is L shaped room behind the stairs?

As for your disp. Rooms. Once the house is constructed the only thing you will be able to do to change the layout would be inside of the rooms themselves without messing up any adjacent finishes. I am not sure what you meant by leaving them with concrete floors and just a ceiling, but my suggestion would be to get the walls and ceilings in, finished and at least a prime coat of paint on them for the time being. It will save you money over paying someone to come back out later and do the work, it will also keep a lot of mess and dust out of your house once you are living in it.

In the dinning room there is a double door to access the porch, I would slide that door opening into the middle of the wall, it will give it a much cleaner look than being all the way in the corner as well as leave you space to put a piece of furniture of some sort on each side of the door opening.

In the garage I would put a door from the garage to the hall leading to the stairs. Right now you will have to walk out of the garage into the room listed “sport” to get to the stairs. If you put a door direct from the garage to the hall you could eliminate the extra door in the sport and straighten out the angle wall by the bathroom giving more space in the bathroom and eliminate the close proximity of the door and vanity top.

In the Master bath, the toilet is right there when you open the door. I know it is your house but I would consider moving that to the far end.

The kitchen could use a bit more natural light by way of a window on the other wall.

Its your house but I am just giving you my honest opinion based on years of experience here in the states. I know we have a different style of building here so that probably is the big difference. I am not trying to criticize in any way I am sure the view alone would make that house worth it for me if it only had 1 room a toilet and a shower.

[Everythingape]

@Jdkno Thanks for looking at the plans in detail

It's actually interesting that you should mention the things you do, as most of the issues have been discussed and dealt with by myself and my architect!

The plans I've posted in my first post are quite preliminary, and basically my sketches.

I should post updated drawings, many of the professionals I've shown these sketches to have pointed out the same things you do.

If I understand you correctly:

The hallway you come up into when you come up the stairs is there to connect the rooms, so to speak. Or divide them, depending on how you see it. I think it would be weird to come directly up the stairs to a door. (This could be tradition and habit speaking).

The hallway perpendicular to this is there to separate our bedrooms and main bathroom from the rest of the house. There's an arch drawn in those plans, but it's supposed to be a door. This is to create some privacy (and quiet for the kid) when entertaining guests.

The L-shaped room behind the stairs is the laundry room, where we'll have a deep freezer, washing machine, tumble dryer and so on. It'll also contain a rough kitchen for preparing fish for cooking or whatever you want to keep out of the kitchen. It'll also be like a "wet" wardrobe. for when you come in from the snow or rain.

The disp.rooms: These are my own projects, the hired hands will leave them with a smooth concrete floor and ceiling, and I'll start dividing them, and finishing them off myself when I am ashore from work and have 5 weeks off. I'm quite handy, me.

The double porch doors have been moved to the center of the wall, just like you suggested.

The sliding doors dividing the kitchen and dining room are traded for 180degree-opening double french doors.

The sliding door from the kitchen to the laundry room is replaced by a normal door, and moved a bit closer to the center of the house on the wall.

The garage is cut down to one, leaving a wooden deck on columns above the outer part.

The "sport" storage is removed completely, as the garage would be too short to be useful. So the door now directly enters the hallway. I've added a door on the other wall of the garage to enter what will be a storage/workshop under the deck outside. From there I'll have access to the enclosed "airing-trench"-space behind the house foundation.

I didn't think of straightening the angled wall out in the bathroom though! Thanks! Great idea.

The toilet in the main bathroom will be moved, haven't decided where yet, we'll have to see how big a tub we can fit!

The kitchen has a little window on the wall in question in these plans, but in the new one it's a lot bigger, so now it has two windows.

The chimney has been moved a bit, and adjusted to a single stack type.

It's funny how small it all looks now we've started the base. They say it's normal, that it gets bigger when you get the walls up. I hope it's true.

I've opted for more rooms instead of very big rooms I think.

Anyway, thanks a lot for your suggestions. Feel free to make more.

[jdkno]

SOunds like you are on the right track. Believe me a raw slab will always look small. My uncle built a house that has 10K sqft on the slab and it looked small when it was just poured, once the walls went up it is huge.

Here is what I somewhat did to the drawings you put up.

Main floor:

Door from dinning to deck centered

Wall and hall seperating stairs from den removed, this opens up the den alot, also no sense in hiding the stairs if you finish them right they will add alot to the look of the house.

Master bath, moved the toilet to the far corner away from the door, you had ALOT of counter space there so I took some out and put a double bowl counter across from the toilet. You could also put a full height linen closet directly as you walk through the door for extra storage. All I saw was that you had a shower unit in there but I would center the window, make it a bit bigger and put a tub right there between the toilet and shower. I would do a built in whirlpool with a tile enclosure, possibly even a step.

Guest Bathroom, I would put a corner vanity in, less space and very unique or possibly even a pedestal sink, I also added a pocket door in that location as it gives you more floor area in the bathroom not having to allow for the door swing.

I didn't realize you wanted the hall by the bedrooms for seperation but you could always just put a wall and a door from the bathroom wall to the bedroom wall and move the master door over into the hall.

The bedroom you had seemed a bit unusefull for anything other than a baby room. Single bed with what didn't seem like alot of room to adjust. I cut into your laundry room to facilitate a closet, moved the door around to a pretty much useless nich of the room. By adding the built in closet I got back the room you had what looked like a wardrobe hutch in.

Den area, by getting rid of the hall it is really opened up and what you could classify as a "Great Room" I was also able to add a double entry door to the dinning which makes for a great presentation when you walk your guests inot there to eat. Plus Double entry doors will make the smallest of rooms look alot bigger.

Ground Floor:

You already took care of the garage/hall door so thats done.

Since you are going to a single garage door I would remove the single passage door and center the garage door, possibly move the passage door to sidewall under the raised porch.

I also shortened up the hall and made the movie room bigger which will allow for a bar.

I rearanged the 3 disp. rooms and I think they would serve better this way plus the one to the rear now has what you would call a "nich" to put a computer desk, built in shelving etc. By straightening out the 10m2 disp. room it is less awkward and can be turned into a bedroom later on if need be.

Hope you don't mind my input, and like I said earlier I think your design was very nice to begin with. I am just very anal about unused space that can be turned into very good living space. Hallways are becoming a thing of the past, here at least, because when you think about it it is in essence wasted space.

I would very much like to see the new designs if you have them and could upload them.

Edited February 14, 2007 by jdkno

[Everythingape]

Damn.. WHERE WERE YOU 3 MONTHS AGO?!

I've been staring at the drawings for so long I've gone blind. ..stuck in a rut, you know?

I appreciate your opinion, so don't take it as a rejection when I stick to most of my plans.

I really like the look of the den when the hallway is gone, and I like the concept of a "great room", but I am very much for having the hallways in that area. I do like borders and divisions in a house, even though you are completely correct about them being mostly wasted space.

I could never have a direct-access toilet from a living room like that. An option would be to have an angle in the room, allowing the private area to be distributed from a small hallway.

Another thing about the hallways is that I want rooms to be accessible without having to go through another.

That also applies to the movie room on the ground floor. It's meant to be a TV/fireplace/guy-room, and thus people walking through it to access the rooms in the back would ruin it. Same goes for the den upstairs.

This being said, I have to say the hallways and how to access rooms have been one of the most difficult things I have done with this. Especially downstairs. We have to have some concrete supporting walls on the back wall, and this ruined my initial plan of having a hallway running the length of the house along the back wall.

Some things are too late to change, but I'll talk some of this over with my contractor tomorrow.

The smaller bedroom upstairs is intented as a baby room really, with the kids moving downstairs when they get older.

(I have one child, 2 years old so far) But we've thought about moving the door to where you moved it opening outwards from the niche.

Don't look too much at how the interior in the rooms is set up, as it's just fill to avoid naked drawings.

My girlfriend really likes how you set the bathroom up, this will be considered! The tub will be a corner 140x140cm combined bubble bath and steam shower cabinet, thinking about making a tiled frame for the tub to blend it to the wall tiles:

The window on the wall is stretched to 120cm and centered on the wall.

Under the deck we'll have a workshop/woodworking/whatever room so we're putting in a door in the garage to access this.

We're also building a large 2-car garage with a loft next to the house.

Today I had a meeting with the plummers about fitting water-borne floor heating. Saves a lot over a few years, as heating around these parts is needed 8-9 months of the year. (also a reason for having separated rooms)

The finished drawings will have quite a few changes to them, but I'll scan them or see if I can get a PDF to upload.

Thanks!

-TG-

[jdkno]

I see what you mean about the straight shot from hall to toilet. I know here the big rage is to put the toilet inside of its own little room somewhat like a stall with a door. The alternative to that would be to put up a partial height partition something along the lines of 4' or so and come out about 4' from the wall, that way you wouldn't be totaly enclosed but from most points inside the bathroom you wouldn't be seen.

The water floor heater is a great idea for colder climates, for me though lets just say it is a nice sunny 70 deg outside where I am at so we really only use heat for about 2 months out of the year.

I see what you mean about the hallways, I guess thats why it helps for the designer to sit down with the client and go over the details.

The shower unit you picked out is nice, I have never actually seen one like that before. Looks somewhat futuristic. Just out of curiosity what is the cost on one of thoes things?

Edited February 14, 2007 by jdkno

[Everythingape]

The floor heating is all the rage in Norway now, you can't really build a modern home and base your heating on wood and straight electric heaters, as the juice is getting more and more expensive now.

Independent sources state savings as high as $1200-1500 a year compared to panel heaters.

I do have free birchwood to my heart(h)'s desire though.

The shower units go for around $2500 and up, depending on how much you want it to do. But the telephone/mp3/cd/fibre optic lighting isn't really what I am after. It's just a nice tub for relaxing, and letting the kid have a dip with her ducks.

This particular one is $2800.

I suspect they are alot cheaper over your end.

Here you can see some details if you click the pics.

http://www.dittnyebad.no/index.php?action=...amp;prevstart=0

[KB]

Oh and Ape........................Happy Birthday Mate

Ken

[Everythingape]

Oh and Ape........................Happy Birthday Mate

Ken

OOH! A birthday band!

Thanks a lot Kenbergie! ..I'm gaining on ya!

[cornerstone]

Hey - happy birthday!!

What more could I do than take the liberty of......wait for it.....don't peek.....redesigning your new home!!

I think you'll approve!

Have a good one!

[jonthebhoy]

My father smokes salmon and trout all year

I was a twenty a day man but I had to give up.

JTB

Hope you had a laugh on your birthday Ape?

[Everythingape]

OMG Cornerstoned! A norwegian's dream house!! (There actually ARE doorbells that play Take on me)

@ JTB, good thing you cut down on those!

Warning on the pack:

STURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING; THESE THINGS WILL GILL YOU!

Thanks for the good wishes, mates

[Everythingape]

A photo showing the trench behind the house, quite typical for norwegian houses that are dug into a slope.

You're pretty much guaranteed not to have a raw or moisty ground floor now or in the future.

Takes some extra work, but it's well worth it, in my opinion.

A photo taken today after we took the formwork off the sole foundation.

It's nice to see a litt progress every day, as this is basically what I am doing on the house myself.

After we're done with the foundation and the block walls, I'm letting the carpenters move in (not the musical family) and do their stuff.

After that, I'm not doing much before we start lining and decorating the interior.

Edit: Added a pic before pouring the concrete.

[jonthebhoy]

A photo taken today after we took the formwork off the sole foundation.

It's nice to see a litt progress every day, as this is basically what I am doing on the house myself.

After we're done with the foundation and the block walls, I'm letting the carpenters move in (not the musical family) and do their stuff.

After that, I'm not doing much before we start lining and decorating the interior.

Good stuff. Looks a nice tidy strike on the forms.

You've only just begun and it's going to take some time but when you're finished, you'll be on the top of the world.

JTB

[jdkno]

Hey Ape, have you ever thought of making this more of a free structure so to speak? In other words you add steel beams to span the floor seperations and attach the ceiling/floor joist to the beams. This way there are NO load bearing walls in the house with the exception of the exterior walls.

Also on your plans there seemed to be a big column right where the entry to the ground floor movie room is. If you used the steel beams you could probably eliminate that and just need to add a steel column there that would easily fit inside of a standard wall.

Only reason I ask is that it seems like you are still playing with the layout, seeing as you are about to pour the slab its getting close to finalize everything. Using the steel beams would allow you to get the perimeter framing done and the house closed in before you have to lock yourself into a layout. The only things you would have to be dead set on is where the plumbing enters the slab on the ground floor.

[Everythingape]

JDKNO, too late for that I am afraid.. I don't really have a say in how it's supported.. The people selling me the house has to follow their rules and regulations. Getting them to calculate strength without any load bearing walls would be nigh on impossible. (I understand, of course, that steel beams would be as strong and stronger than load bearing brick walls)

Norwegian building code is very strict, based somewhat on tradition, and I think it would be quite a hassle to get approval for anything out of the norm.

I already had to fight them to avoid having a supporting column in my garage! They can be very anal.

Just look at the two short supporting wall soles we've had to make on the back wall.. A total waste of material and space now we have the trench wall taking off any load coming from behind.. They refused to eliminate them.. -shrug-

And under the master bathroom we have to have a beam spanning the supporting walls on the ground floor, just because we wanted the tub up there.

The big column you saw going through the house is the chimney.

It's an eyesore placed like that, and I am trying to work out a way to hide it inside a corner.

The contractor approved the changes I made to the garage and the bathroom angle you pointed out. But I still had to make an air lock between the garage and the hallway. So that's an extra wall and door next to the stairs, but I am making that into a wardrobe, so it's no big deal.

[Everythingape]

This week I've been busy building the foundation wall.. A lot of hard work, but we've been really effective and it's all gone smooth. Hiring a masonry expert really paid off, as he makes everything easier knowing all the tricks.

(photo taken with phone)

[KB]

That's really moving along ape and I just love that view.

Ken

[Everythingape]

I'll make sure to snap a few of the sunset come summer, Kenberg!

I've thought about moving to the city, but I just couldn't let go of the horizon and the coast..

I chose a lot a bit on the outskirts of the village as I'll never have people build close to me. I'd be a hermit if I could.

See the lighter spot of yellow grass on the headland in the top middle of the pic? There's a small lake up there, with some of the best rainbow trout fishin' in norway! Regular 2kg, occasional 8kg fish. I go flyfishing there a lot.

[HauteHippie]

Looks very nice. If I understand the drawings correctly, the kitchen is on the second floor? So when you come home with a car full of groceries, you have to carry them all the way up the stairs to put them away? That seems non-optimal to me. Something to think about anyhow...

EDIT: just noticed that you've moved well beyond the architectural drawing stage now... so ignore my suggestion.

[jonthebhoy]

Mmm.............planning some gabions at the back of the house?

JTB

[Everythingape]

Mmm.............planning some gabions at the back of the house?

JTB

What's a gabion? Something military, no? I assume you saw the black cloth on the slope. It's there to keep the dirt earth mass from sliding down and making a mess before we fill it all up with rocks and whatnot.

@chieftang, thanks for your concern mate, but a kitchen on the ground floor? ..never.

I'm gonna sit eating my Fruit Brute looking at the sun rise from me second floor kitchen table.

[spooky driver]

good luck with the house building....i've just finishes my own build (pity my wife says in not but nevermind) this is a pic of our roof!!

[Everythingape]

Thankee Spooky River, I too wanted arches and such on my house, but my girlfriend wouldn't let me.

[spooky driver]

this is the front...sorry about the poor pic! (it's interesting to see the different styles through out the world don't ya think)