We've seen the architect's initial drawings for the possible future shape of our house. That drew into sharp focus why our architect is an architect and I'm not. I don't want to talk myself down too much - I downloaded google sketchup and had a play, that is the extent of my training. I was pretty happy with what I'd drawn, but I was probably more impressed with my geekdom. But to the sketches. We were presented with four main options, each of which nigh-on nailed all the criteria we had specified. I quickly discounted two of the options; not because there was anything particularly wrong with them, rather they placed the kitchen a little too centrally in the new living area. For us the kitchen is not the central focus, so it makes more sense to have it at one end, then dining and then lounge.
My plans had been for a box bolted to the back of the current house. While the sketches are similar, they extend the addition towards one boundary. The lower ground floor becomes around half as wide again as the current house and the top floor about as wide as the current house but offset. It makes for a more interesting design bit adds no extra cost. Where my design would have required excavation to ensure no floor level change from our current house to the new (upper) ground floor the sketches have a couple of steps up into the new master bedroom. By doing that the new lower ground floor can also be a little higher. High enough to require less excavation - a huge potential cost saving when you're living on sandstone.
The highlights; our deck could be 13m long. The master bedroom could be huge and have a large walk in wardrobe. We get four bedrooms and a study, two bathrooms plus an en suite. The living area would also be around 13m long, all open plan and light. Anyway, rather than continue trying to describe a picture I'll just shut up. We were a bit excited.
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