Category Archives: new home design

Measuring Up

Last weekend we got out the measuring tape and chalk and marked out our new house.  It’s big!  Which is what we wanted, but because of the position of our current house, on an angle, the depth into the backyard isn’t a lot further.  We will have a much smaller driveway, just under 3m wide, but enough to get a car down.  To achieve this we will have to dig out the front of the property a bit more than planned, but having it higher means we have to be further from the boundary.  We would also like to decrease our set back from the front boundary, to give us a bit more space in the back  (I don’t understand why we have front yards at all since they are never used), but I need to speak to the council about what we can do there.

This weekend we did some repairs on our garage, which will be staying (we hope) so we decide to try out some colour schemes since it needed to be repainted.  We chose Dulux Pearl Lusta/Abbey White as the main colour and Slate Blue for the accents.  The first coat is on, Hubby is not convinced, but we’ll see how it goes.  We’re only doing the front until we’re happy with it.

 

Measuring up the front yard - position of the house, verandah and drive way.
Measuring up the front yard – position of the house, verandah and drive way.

 

Measuring up the back yard - edge of the deck. Even our dog Dermie was excited!
Measuring up the back yard – edge of the deck. Even our dog Dermie was excited!

 

Measuring up the back yard - position of the house, verandah and drive way.
Measuring up the back yard – position of the house, verandah and drive way.

 

Measuring up the back yard.
Measuring up the back yard.

 

Measuring up the back yard.
Measuring up the back yard.

 

The Attic?

We need to rethink the attic.  The builder came out this morning to discuss the design proposal and look at some of our options.  The attic is a problem.  At it’s highest point it is only going to be about 2m high, to get it any higher we’ll need to increase the roof pitch which is going to cost a lot more.  2m is OK for hubby and myself (we’re short), but if Oscar’s current height is anything to go by he’s going to tower over us, and it won’t be long before he does!  So if we keep it, the question is what will it be used for?  Mum’s retreat maybe?  Probably not :(.

 

Attic Section

 

There are a few more changes to investigate as well, including a red gum bench top in the kitchen and a period facade over the oven and cook top.  We are also looking at bamboo flooring, something we had previously investigated as part of the low VOC requirements.

We also had a walk around our site and keeping the trees at the back and the beautiful Jacaranda out front is no problem.  The sewerage line can come down between the trees and angle of to the sewer point.  The driveway needs to mostly go, but we knew that anyway.