The Plan

While the block had been progressing, so had our plans. We are building with JKC Custom Builders so we won't be going through display homes and building one of those, but met with an artchitect to discuss and work out exactly what we want.

Initially, we were thinking of going a single story home. We had almost finished the design when we really looked at it, and took the block and fall into consideration and realised it wasn't the best thing to do. After thinking about it a bit and finding out what options we had, we decided to look towards a tri-level house.

After speaking to the builder, he organised us to walk through a house which he had previously built for someone else in Drysdale, that would be very similar to what our idea was. We loved it! We didn't like the idea of 2 stories and lots of stairs in the one place for the kids, but the split level meant there were 2 seperate set of stairs to different levels, which made it seem a bit safer.

As our block kind of has a view, the split level meant we could have our entertaining/dining areas upstairs with a balcony to make better use of the view. Downstairs became the kids bedrooms, bathroom, and laundry. The middle entrance level was our bedroom and study.

We got it drawn up and really liked it. Once the land was complete the builder and architect went to the block and pegged it all out to get a better feel for how it would fit. When we saw the pegs, we knew we made the right decision. The backyard would have been unusable with a single story house. With split level, our yard is so much bigger. Standing in the area where the balcony will be we can already see the You Yangs, Port Philip Bay, and have a fair view towards Geelong. When you think the Balcony will be 2.5m higher than what we were standing on, I think we will be very happy when its all done.

The Final Plan on what we will be building is below.