Plans for a house, Part 1

Coming up with a design for a house to build in the tropics on a mountain side is a real challenge.  There are so many possibilities and we do not have a lot of experience with this.  Fortunately, we were able to visit a number of relatively modern houses in north Bali in a two week period of time.  Plus we had a two week rental in a superb house which we had been considering to buy.  However, it got sold before we could decide.  It was modern, open with very high ceilings and had an 18 meter pool.  It is an absolute requirement to have a pool of at least 18 meters for Susan's daily swim.

Susan and I spent a weekend drawing primitive sketches of potential designs going from A to Z.  I was focused on a small compound like a Balinese Kampung and Susan focused on a house with everything under one roof.  Besides a long pool, we felt that we needed a large and very open living space adjacent to a modern kitchen that could be used by us as well as Balinese staff.  Furthermore, a master bedroom area separate from other bedrooms plus an open-air bathroom which is typically seen in Bali villas.  Of course, we need a nice guest area that could be self contained.  We might rent the house when we are sailing and would prefer to have our master bedroom area kept private for those occasions.  We think two large guest rooms each with a large glass door for a sea view and a private bath/shower would do the job.  We are also in favor of having a small office/study adjacent to the master bedroom area with a bath that could also potentially be used for guests.

Susan's original concept

Here is the first drawing that we actually chose to follow thru on.  Susan did the preliminary sketch, then Roland redid it to get the scale more true to what we wanted.

Next came the work of Kadek, the architect.  Kadek's wife just had a new baby, so he was not able to join us with Roland for the first couple of work sessions.  I think that worked really well, as we were able to go back and forth with Roland and refine what we were really looking for.

Kadek's third drawing

 After only a couple of iterations and some back and forth, Kadek had a drawing that was really close to what we think we would like to build.

We spent 3/4 of a day with Roland going over details like heights of doors, windows, kitchen counters, roof tile, floor tiles and terracotta all the way to kitchen sink faucets and shower fixtures.  It was exhausting and I am sure that we will have to modify some of those items, but at least we began to have a "granular" think about it all.

We have not seen an "elevation" so really do not have a feel for the "look" of a house like this.  We have some ideas for the roof which may be great, but may be odd or impractical.  We shall see.

Potential position of house on the plot