Drawing a bathroom with sketchup

Once we had the floor plans drawn for the house we started to look at the layout of the bathrooms in detail.

The designer had done an fair job of laying out the bathrooms but it obviously isn't his speciality. 

 After talking to a couple of bathroom designers we came up with some layouts we liked and then had to ensure it all fitted together - enter google sketchup.

 

 The picture below shows how simple this is, the background image is our floor plan that we imported in to google sketchup. Trace a view walls and then goto the sketchup warehouse and choose the vanities, showers, toliets etc. Position them and then play with the dimensions to ensure it'll all fit together.

 

 

Designing the house

Requirements. Get you requirements clear before talking to the designer, and be sure to separate "solutions" from requirements.

For example this is a requirement,

- Make the most of the views at the rear of the property. 

And this is a solution,

- Put a deck and a bi-fold door at the rear of the property.

Don't jump to solutions, it's the designers job to translate your requirements in to a solution. 

Write a document on what you want, better yet google search houses and do an image search. Grab the images that you like, the style the features etc in to a document and add to your requirements. This gives the designer a clear idea of the style that you are after.

The document will take some time to complete, you may want to write it over a week or two and keep reviewing and adding to it. Remember once the house is designed you aren't going to be able to just add another room!

Don't forget storage. My wife wanted a "mud room" between the garage and the house so that when we came home we could drop bags, umbrellas, shoes, coats in to a storage room and then move in to the rest of the house. This keeps the foyer of the house clear and tidy. 

House designers

Unless you are planning a very simple house it's a fair bet you wont be designing it yourself.
To get professional help in the design phase you could engage an architect, a house designer, a building company or a building broker.

 The general advice with an architect is that they are for the top end of the market, by top end we're talking projects over $500k. An architect typically works for a fee related to the final cost of the house, the commission can be as high as 25% of the build price.

 More affordable is a house designer who will generate plans and elevations (side views of the house) for a flat fee. In Australia this would come to around $5k - $7k depending on the complexity of the project. On completion of the plans you should own the copyright - an important consideration as you can then engage any builder you wish. One issue with a house designer is that their grasp of costs may be rather loose. You'll give them a budget for the house and they'll design something they "think" can be built for that much. Ask before hand how many of their designs have been built and were they to budget, better yet get an assurance/guarantee that their plans will fit your budget.

Moving down the list we then come to building companies. Now a building company will have their own house designer and will probably offer the plans for free if you build with them. If you don't build with them then check how much the plans will cost and whether you will own copy right. One trap here is that if they generate the plans and you like them you wont be able to second quote from another builder as you don't own the plans!

Building brokers may offer a design service again check out the cost if you do not want to build through them and whether you will hold copyright on the plans.

Lastly, it is very beneficial to have a designer who can visit your site. Believe it or not I've seen several houses where the best view, or the best winter sun, is from the toilet and bathroom!

Choosing the block of land

Every house needs a site.

 Sites generally come in two flavours, vacant (i.e. land without an existing building) and built on. 

Vacant land can appear attractive as there is no existing house to demolish. However a vacant block does come with expenses. For example, have boundaries been surveyed? Is there a stormwater and sewer that can be connected to? Are the utilities (power/water/town gas) present?

Each of these items are potentially costly. For example the water main usually runs under one side of the road or the other. If it runs along the other side of the road from your property then you are looking at serious money for a connection. Imagine the cost of digging across the road (council approvals will be required at the very least), or engaging a specialist who can tunnel under the road. 

If a sewer connection is not possible then you'll need to provide waste treatment to council standards.

If the block has an existing building on it try to get a quote for the demolition before buying the property. There could be hidden costs in asbestos, concrete slabs, basements etc. 

Check the block for views, sunshine (orientation), or neighbours who can overlook your block (i.e. existing buildings with views in to your property.

Council should be consulted for zoning both of your property and the adjacent neighbours. You don't want find the neighbouring property has been zoned for commercial or industrial use once you've started building!

Finally, if you aren't familiar with the suburb do the normal checks on access to schools, public transport, shops etc.

kitchen drawing using sketch-up

Here's a really simple model of the kitchen layout we want. In google sketchup it took very little time to draw. The oven, rangehood and sink are all imported from the sketchup warehouse - easy!

When you start drawing make sure you get the room dimensions correct. The import the kitchen components and scale them to fit (usually you'd only scale the length of a bench, not the height or depth). Once you're happy with the drawing good sketch-up can give you the dimensions of the components, for example the length of bench on either side of the stove, the location of the sink etc.

 With this you can go to a large number of kitchen suppliers and get quotes back for the same kitchen.

Google sketchup model of house

Google Sketchup model.

This is not going to be yet another "we're building a house blog". Let's focus on lessons learnt and share some real knowledge and experience as opposed to "oh wow some bricks got delivered"!

The picture is from a 3D model I made of the house in google sketchup. As it's the first thing I've modeled it took hours and hours (and it's still a bit wonky in places).

The quick way to do it is to load the floor plan, draw around the walls and "pull" upwards. Then insert windows etc. There are many good tutorials around on google sketchup, completing the model will give you a good feel for the spaces within the house.