Hello everyone! Welcome back to Casa Almora. I have just returned from the latest architect meeting where we learnt of the next steps in the process of getting this build on its way. There is about one month left of detailed drawings to do then one month of engineering. During these eight weeks, the plans go back to council for a second amendment so they can ensure the detailed drawings align with their approved plans. We haven't changed anything too drastically, and the architects assure us that there is no room for objection. So, if all goes well in the next eight weeks - that is, decisions are made efficiently - we will be organising a builder in April, if not May. The build itself is estimated to be nine months long. Finally some short term time frames!
At this very meeting, we again discussed the endless nooks and crannies of the plans. Well, not quite. But it certainly seemed that way. The first point in need of consideration and confirmation was the fridge. Our kitchen joinery has a wall of seemless cabinets that discretely house two single fridges that will in effect become a dual-door fridge. This photo was our interior architect’s inspiration:
I like it, but I want to see shaker panel doors. Our fridge will be hidden behind two cupboard fronts, and a third will be a full-length normal cupboard. It took my mum a while to comprehend that we have to use special 600mm deep fridges versus your standard fridge that juts out 150mm from the joinery. If we had a standard fridge, the seamless design would be, well, not seamless, and the walkway would be crimped. She eventually approved the design when the architect suggested moving the fridge back to the pantry: a big turn off.
The kitchen island is designed to accommodate the stove top and drawers. We plan on installing a gas stove that is flush with the counter; this will allow the cook to glide the pot straight onto the hobs without lifting it up. However, having the stove in the island brings about an issue with the range hood. We don’t want a range that will obstruct the sight lines out of the kitchen, and we don’t want a conventional, boxy range, either. Our latest and greatest idea is to have a range hood that is flush with the ceiling. (See this link for more http://www.condari.com.au/products/thermidor/). I believe it is made by QASAIR which is a really good brand for range hoods, according to our architect. Hopefully this is the one we install (or similar), because it wont fight with the ceiling pendant we will hang over the dining table. Ultimately the architects want to be sure the range we install is strong enough and reliable, otherwise we might end up with brown stains on the ceiling. Ew.
One of the architects proposed an island design that aesthetically appeared as a piece of furniture. You can see it in this 3D elevation:
It's a little too contemporary for my liking. The drawers float, and the legs extend out to create a “table” which is really the breakfast bar. I understand it's meant to be a design statement and contribute to the airiness of the room but I personally don't like the double table look. You can see a dining table example in the elevation and it looks funny to me. I imagine a normal kitchen island with shaker panel profiles. I won't give up with these shaker panels!!
In the 3D rendering you can also see the East wall with the three cupboards and shelf, but it's missing the skylights that run straight above that wall. You can see them in this 2D elevation, the dashed rectangles above the grey:
The skylights, or "roof windows", run the entire length of the kitchen/dining/living extension on the East side. Our house in its pre-renovated condition is very dark, so the more light we include the better. I need to remember to ask if the skylights can be opened, hopefully they are. You'll also notice in the elevation above the low joinery on the left and the beam (one of two). The low joinery is designed to extend straight from the kitchen down to the end of the living room; thus creating some contemporary form of a dining room buffet and media unit in the living room. I'll like it if the drawers are shaker panelled and stone topped.
The beams, we have decided, will be exposed. Not only is this the more affordable option but it will add architectural interest to the room. I said to the architect I was worried they would dictate the space in terms of centring furniture and light fittings between the beams but she reassured me that the beams were positioned in the space so that there was enough room between them to have comfortable furniture layouts and centre lights accordingly. You can see this in the floor plan and 3D rendering below:
Seeing this elevation above makes me question the necessity (and aesthetics) of the low joinery in the dining area. Maybe that space should be reserved for free standing furniture. It might be nice to have a break from the joinery and help zone the spaces.
I'm still concerned about the asymmetry of the kitchen. You can see in the drawings below and above that the range hood is not centred on the island, nor is the stove top. But I think this will be resolved if the range hood is the aforementioned QASAIR flush one, and the stove top is sunken into the counter. You can also see the proposal for having the joinery 150mm clear above the floor, which we actually haven't yet rejected or approved, but I think we're likely to stick with floor-fixed island. This drawings also depicts the skylight positioning; titled in the pitch of the ceiling to match the angle of the roof.
The second drawing below is the kitchen wall with the marble. It's the only wall of balanced symmetry in the kitchen. We're going to have two ovens underneath the counter but I worry this decision will be regretted when the parentals grow old and have to bend down to pull the roast out of the oven. If I had it my way I'd have two wall ovens. Who knows what we'll end up with. This kitchen always seems unresolved in one way or another.
There is a theme of marble that runs throughout the house. Carrara marble to be exact. It’s on the kitchen counters, the walls and even in the powder room. Whether it stays in all these places or is replaced with more affordable quartz stone I am not sure, but I like it, probably more so on the walls than the kitchen counters. It's an impractical work surface according to my research and I would be in a constant panic that a spill would cause a permanent stain. It's probably easier to have it on a wall and admired as art. It seems a little exuberant to have marble in a toilet. That's rich coming from me (the girl who wanted, and still wants, a wrapping paper station in the store room), but that's in effect what the room is! Nothing more, nothing less.
In the powder room the marble is supposed to be on the lower half of the wall, underneath the mirror and the basin. I don't know... I always just imagined nice tile designs in all of the bathrooms, including the powder room. You might recall the designs I like; I've blogged about my favourite tiles before! We're now going to install the faucets on the basin rather than on the mirror, just in case the plumbing has to be accessed the mirror won't need to be removed.
The above drawing is the bathroom downstairs, the one my sister and I will be sharing. It's adjacent to the laundry and powder room. This layout has always been the same since council if I remember rightly. What we changed was the functionality of the space, basically. The shower was crimped to create a random nook/niche/nooche (I made that last one up) on the outside for reasons unknown to me. I didn't like it at first because I thought my shower was too small, but it's at least 1000mm wide (a metre) and from memory 1400mm length wise. It's decent. Its setup will prevent the vanity jutting up against the shower screen glass, which probably makes for cheaper glass installation seeing as it will only be one simple panel. But I want a shower door. It will contain the water, simple.
The vanity was the subject of great discussion. I think I blogged about it being a basic strip of counter with inadequate storage space, i.e. cupboards underneath, which was a definite no-no because drawers are SO much more efficient in space use and functionality. So I asked for drawers, at least one each for my sister and I, and two sinks. No one could agree on the two sinks so we have an above-counter trough sink with two taps. I'd prefer separate, of course, but then the drawer storage situation becomes less and less and less to make room for more plumbing. I'm just following what the architect has to say for this one. She included a tall built-in storage cupboard in the bathroom which is perfect, so I don't really have to complain. I don't have a 3D rendering to show you of the bathroom, but the vanity at the moment is floating and I'm hoping we can get away with a floor-fixed vanity because I'm not a fan of the floating look. Maybe I'll end up with more storage.
We also had the window by the bath enlarged by double its original size because it wasn't making great use of the real estate that wall provided. Now there will be more natural light in the bathroom.
In the laundry room we're opting to keep our top loader washing machine rather than buy a new front loader to gain bench space. The idea of bench space was to fold laundry. In my family, your laundry is thrown into a basket for you to fossick through (until you find half your wardrobe you've been missing for the last who-knows-how-long). Nobody folds laundry except their own. How selfish. So, we are just sticking to the 400mm deep counter top that is above the three tilt laundry hampers that you can see above. Then there will be six shelf slots above the counter. There will be a sink on the opposite wall, with a cupboard underneath for cleaning products, then the washing machine and dryer.
Once a living room, then a study, now wasted space disguised as a library is our "Reading Nook". Sorry to be cynical, but I don't see this space being used except to catch dust. I wish my parents would leave the actual nook (where the built-in shelves are) as a nook, so that there's room for at least a writing desk for someone to set up a laptop. It looks odd with that lonesome armchair just plonked by the wall. It could be livened up with a knock-out, giant piece of art on that wall instead.
This ensuite bathroom - floor plan above - stresses me out. We have issues with windows, with toilet placement, with mirrors and it should be so simple. This bathroom needs to have as many windows as possible. One parent has major claustrophobia and cannot, I repeat, cannot handle being in a room with minimal to no windows at eye level. As it is drawn right now, there is one. In the toilet. Yes, there are two major skylights, but more windows in the walls are required. The frustrating thing is, we had council approve the original design with a big window in the wall where the vanity is now. The new redesign saw the window be covered up with a mirror. The architects have now said they're going to try and put a window in either side of the vanity and perhaps one in the shower. But that's after we swap the toilet with the shower because my parents are self-conscious concerned about the flush noise of the toilet going down the pipe that is adjacent to the wall with the middle entrance. And God forbid, guests might hear you flush. Apologies for my cynicism, but I suppose if it can be avoided then why not, it's probably best to.
Roof window and the window by the W.C.
My parents wanted a huge WIR that was equal in storage distribution and generous in storage solution. And it is. It's also practical. There's an ironing board built in to the wall. The shoe storage module holds up to 70 pairs of shoes, a system made by Elfa. To fit this in, the wardrobe got enlarged slightly as each module is 600mm. This had a knock on effect with the adjacent master bedroom and balcony.
So the bedroom got pushed along 300mm which increased the wardrobe space, but added to the overhang of the second storey above the living room downstairs. The overhang was originally designed to be a screened balcony - screened because of council regulations. Otherwise, the windows would have to be opaqued 1.7m from the floor. Now my parents are second-guessing the "balcony" with its 1.7m tall screen fencing and wonder whether it will just be a dirt collector. It has always been too shallow for a table and chairs so it's basically pointless. If they remove it completely, the overhang will reduce significantly, and the budget will be slightly relieved, but the windows will have only 30cm of clear glass right at the top.
Despite the glass issue on the North wall, the East wall window will have clear glass because it's up high, designed to be above the bed (see below). There's two more windows on the opposite wall, but I think they're 1.7m of opaque glass. The ceiling is vaulted to create a greater sense of space, and there's a bulk head to create a recess for a chest of drawers on the South wall.
In the upstairs living room there's windows on the South, West and East walls. My claustrophobic parent wanted a fourth window on the North wall. But the architects said that was too much. I reminded everyone that too many windows would restrict furniture placement. This room has a raked ceiling, so it will also have an added sense of space. It gets a balcony as well, but this one is nicer as it won't have the 1.7m screen fencing due to its South facing position not looking into neighbouring yards.
The architects still think it's bizarre we want to divert visitors to the side door or "Middle Entrance". I don't think they have faith in our idea. I admit, I didn't. But Mum came up with a solution, probably one of her best ideas for this project thus far, I kid you not. Her idea; drum roll please... A small, brass, engraved sign, affixed to the original "Front Door" graved with a kind message, ushering guests to the side door. It's so simple! I don't know how I'd feel about hawkers going down the side of the house. Actually, I do know. I'd hate it. I think we need an intercom system at the front gate, which is your regular picket fence sort of gate, not a wrought iron 10ft tall gate, so it might be a bit funny, OR have the sign say "No Hawkers", then hopefully they'll skedaddle.
I'll leave you with two more 3D renderings of the living extension. It's pretty cool.
So that's it from me for now. Another meeting in two weeks which I don't think I'll be in attendance for, but nonetheless these plans finally have a visible horizon line in the distance.
Wishing you all a fantastic Friday
XO
HAVE YOUR SAY IN THE COMMENTS BELOW
