It was the 2nd of December, 2013 when we saw the early stages of professional house drawings come to light. This was 15 weeks ago. A process that was thought to take less than a month took three, but I can finally say we are all done! The plans are finished and are officially signed off to go to council. On Monday the plans will be submitted and we will be a big step closer towards the start of the build.
There were a few dramas before we committed to the final drawings, namely the kitchen and middle entrance. The kitchen's issue was the lack of natural light due to the placement of the pantry. The architects rejigged it to make the pantry basically parallel with the stairs, but it left the flow of the kitchen unsettled becuase it was like the main work space was split up around a corner.
Here's the elevation:
See what I mean by the corner? It's kind of like an L-shaped cross galley style kitchen. Personally, it's too weird and unconventional considering this house isn't intended to be iconic for new architecture trends.
The second issue was the width of the door in the middle entrance. It was orginally about 900mm, slightly larger than a standard interior door. However, the purpose of this particular doorway is to make it comfortable for us and the guests when they are coming and going. The idea is to have it so two people can stand in the doorway and not do the awkward, "Come in, come in!" while walking backwards three metres to make room in the entrance, or at the end during goodbyes and you go to get the door with your guests right behind you but the door is too narrow for all of you to be within any proximity of each other that the guests have to step outside while the host leans on the door frame like the king of the castle. #obnoxious
So, yeah, now its 1200mm . I hope it's wide enough, a lot of thought has gone into this.
The past two weekends saw us over at our neighbours' houses showing them our floorplans and discussing any effects there may be on their property (for example, the ginormous, leaning palm tree needs to be removed, but its roots are underneath the boundary fence, so a new fence will need to be erected.) Both sides of neighbours did not seem peturbed by any of our plans, save for the concern of the garage. The garage of one of the neighbours is dependent on ours, so if we pull it down the other will need to be supported. However, this isn't a problem right now, as the garage is not one of our priorities until a few years down the track.
Both of the neighbours were appreciative that we had taken the time to come and speak to them personally. If you have been reading my blogs for the past few months you would probably notice the one
short-term goal I kept referring to was council submission. And this is
finally achieved! I can't wait to tell you when the plans have been approved, so I hope you're checking Casa Almora regularly to keep up to date!
Xo
P.S. To the readers who know me, I got my braces off today
