lets get things straight.
1. i'm not a contractor. i'm not trying to sell you anything.
this is my own house, on my own piece of land. not a documentation on some other fella house/project.
2. respect is warranted. this is not kopitiam.

the initial plan was to acquire this land and build a house at this location:

effective ~10,000 sqft after minus all the road reserve and sea reserve.

imagine opening your door to this, every morning, for the rest of your life.


and kitchen and deck opens up to this


there's a wave breaker as you can see, and even at high tide, the sea level doesn't rise past the barrier. even then there's a drainage system to avoid seawater from going into paddy fields. MADA takes great precaution to avoid such situation from ever happening.

the land deal however, didn't went through. sigh.
proceeding with backup plan.

This post has been edited by paskal: Jun 19 2018, 03:08 PM

proceeding with backup plan.

~7000 sqft effective (100ftx70ft).
with a small stream in front of the land. and the soil is naturally good for plants.

not as nice, but i do get ~15km unobstructed view at the back. naturally windy, and safe from tsunami hahaha.

This post has been edited by paskal: Nov 9 2014, 05:25 PM

if you engage an architect, insist that they do a site survey or site study.
it's the only way to check for sun movement and wind direction in the area. simple info that will make your house cooler and properly ventilated.

avoid orientating the largest wall in the house against sunshine as it will heat up the area inside. avoid arranging bedrooms directly facing the evening sun as it'll make your room hot at night.
and change the direction of your window opening to guide wind into your house, rather than deflecting them away.



can't find the complete 3D design since there's so many interation and revisions to the plan. it's in here, somewhere.
but the cheapest i got quoted for this plan is RM260k.
basic house, basic equipment, good build quality (from contractor past build history).

specs agreed for RM260k:
12 feet wall
metal deck (because roof pitch is only 5 degrees x 40 feet)
insulated roof
folding door, folding window
full plaster ceiling, 10 feet high
normal downlight, cfl bulb
normal ceiling fan with regulator
16" tile, entire house
full height tile in bathroom
normal paint, indoor and outdoor
normal bathroom finishing
no outdoor tile
no glass railing as in pic

IIRC 4 bathroom, 5 bedroom, 1 ht room, wet & dry kitchen, separated guest living room & dining area, family area, 2nd floor family area, 2 decks.
~3000 sqft interior floorspace.
translates to ~RM86-something psft

edit: (refer post below for accurate floorspace)

This post has been edited by paskal: May 5 2014, 10:23 AM

found the floorplan to the 3D which i've submitted for quotation.


correction it's not 2400 sqft. total interior space is 3143 sqft.
RM260k, which translate to ~RM83 psft.

deck and porch at half of the interior price. total build price not breaching RM300k.
5 bedroom, 1 ht room.
separated wet & dry kitchen.
2 family area at ground floor & 2nd floor.
6 bathroom
indoor store room
separated guest area & dining area

hard to believe?
believe it.

2 friends managed to negotiate with the same contractor and got their houses build for RM75 & RM78 psft. already finished construction in 2013 and moved in.

spot on.
after discussion with friends and relatives owning double storey houses, they advised against proceeding with the plan since there's no constraint with land area.

but but but. double storey looks really nice.
but they suggested that it's a nuisance having to climb up and down the stairs everyday.

no ID. contractor only gonna include a concrete table top at the wet kitchen.

did considered flat roof, but considering the amount of things that could go wrong with the concrete, i would pass.
also considered a parapet wall, with metal decking to cover. but considering that it'll only welcome fungus growth, also avoided.

anyway i didn't get the seaside land.

there's an entrance there, family entrance. the space is the walkway.

how did you arrive at that estimation? another couple of hundred thousand just for interior design is a bit too much don't you think?

if it's an agricultural land, you're entitled to 1 building per each land title. so don't have to change the land type if you're thinking of building.

otherwise you need to change the type to residential or development. changing agricultural type to residential do take time and you need written consent from your local council. they have specific rules on what type of land that cannot be changed so be wary.

site survey.



there's 2 prevalent wind direction, which change according to the northeast or southwest monsoon season.
sunrise and sunset movement are also shown. the sun rises at relatively the same position but sets at different location according to the season.

land plot is actually square, but drawn in trapezoid because i'm bad at drawing artsy.
drawing not according to scale. it's a sketch afterall.

there's quite a number of arrangement that we could make to integrate the view, wind direction and sunshine.
the only thing that have to be fixed is the car porch which should be facing the entrance.


in total, i think there's more than 20 revisions made to the plan before we finalized the layout.
friends commented that if were to engage an architect for all of this, it's surely going to cost me an arm just for the drawing.


no idea. maybe the land + house value is lower because the land type is agriculture.

first check with your land office. as land code is different from state to state. then check with your local council because they're the one you're gonna be submitting the plans to.

thanks for the suggestion. we indeed have positioned the layout so that the wind is directed into the house, tho not following the one in your picture.
reason being, the wind do get quite violent at times, so arranging large glass panels directly opposing them is avoided in my design.

the side of the house facing the wind direction are filled with bedrooms. nice view from the bedroom, smaller glass panels facing the wind and hidden from the entrance/service road.

you're considering that much glass panel to your design? it's gonna be hard to secure from break-ins with that much unprotected glass. and adding iron grille to it would just be too ugly.
what's your idea on this issue?

wahlauweh. issit true? at the recent homedec, i was quoted something around ~RM70+ psft for folding doors and windows with 8.38mm laminated glass. indeed i'm considering them as the budget for folding door & window is RM20k.

gosh. all this discussion make me wanna revise the plan, AGAIN. arghhhh

sketched the outlook if should i use parapet walls to cover the low angle roof.
and got this:

10 degrees pitch and 5 degrees pitch, covered with 3' parapet wall.


17 degrees pitch and 5 degrees pitch, 6' parapet


3' parapet, 5 degrees pitch.

but i still think this looks better:

15 degrees pitch


17 degrees pitch

we've experimented with quite a number of roof design:


any suggestion?

something like this?

floorplan:


with dimension:

walls, windows and openings added.


all the walls are spec-ed at 12cm, except for the ht room wall which is spec-ed at 24cm.
24cm ala DIY style. double bricked wall with an air gap to have maximum sound attenuation. thick wall, so should have no problem mounting double door to the ht room. if required. maybe.


walls and interior spaces rearranged so that there's minimal cutting needed to the tile.
since it's DIY, i could spec the walls and spaces to be in exact feet length, to the nearest cm, nearest half a meter or whatever i want. might as well spec it to be in multiples of 60cm.

why's that? any particular reason it's not recommended?

you could say that. i'll try and post the 3d for the wet kitchen.
not planning to put cooker hood on top of the cooking area. so there's no top cabinet at the cooking cabinet. just exhaust fan.

nope. just gonna leave it empty. air gap.

don't have it yet. it's all diy, so haven't draw.
got a sketch for the main structures tho. drawn sketched by a civil engineer.

solar panels are not viable for implementation. the cost is too high.
the house will be built in area that have lots of sunshine, but the panel cost is too much considering how much output it generates.

trying to avoid those as budget is limited. we're steering clear of negative spaces to maximize interior space.
tho internal garden will be implemented as part of future extension plan.

refer plan below.

the master bedroom size is already 17'x15'. the toilet took a lot of space since wife really (really really) wants a jacuzzi in there.
so to fit in a 1.5mx1.5m jacuzzi we have to compromise the bedroom size.

i have to agree the master bedroom size isn't as large as most RM1million houses that i've been, but for my requirement it's adequate. i'm not planning to put a TV or a work desk in there. my previous main bedroom is only 12'x12'

budget constraints.

do more extensive research for the solar feed-in-tariff to change your mind.
currently it costs circa RM10k for 1kW panel. say you get 10 hours of sunlight from 8am-6pm everyday, generating 10kW of electricity.
that's 10 unit of power, which you paid in average 30 cents per unit from TNB. so everyday you generate RM3 of electricity at best case scenario.
every month RM90. so RM10k will take you 9.2 years to break even. in a perfect situation.

after 10 years something will almost certainly break. and if it does then there goes your investment.
the only reason people are going for solar FIT is because TNB is paying them a lot more compared to the rate. 4-5 times more.
read more about the solar fit tariff. there's even a few threads here in lowyat.

no. further north near the border to perlis.

logic not found.
we purposely put the kitchen there so it's easier to see if someone's coming through the entrance and porch.
furthermore it's not wet kitchen there. it's the dry kitchen, which is more functional as the dining area.

i find it a hassle having to drag an entire trunk full of groceries through the main door, living room, pass the dining area just to get to the kitchen.
the proposed plan fully separate guest and family area. guests don't have to see the kitchen and family area. and family members have easy access to the family area and bedrooms.

natural ventilation is indeed considered. together with sun orientation.
sun movement and natural lighting for the proposed design is even simulated in google earth and sketchup to make sure i don't get too much sunlight and heat up the house.

any good idea on how to improve the ventilation? i've posted the wind direction and sun movement before.


it is quite small. the HT room is the single biggest room in the house.
for the current funding situation, must make do. can move the master bedroom to another part of the house if should i proceed to extend the house. refer extension plan below.


something like this. not in any way final.
but i could add another ~1000 sqft to the house for another RM80-100k. additional 4 more bedrooms and an indoor garden.
in 10 years time, maybe. if necessary.

i'm not an architect. not familiar as to how flats are designed.
it looks like a flat, designed like a flat, but 3x the space of a flat. must be an expensive condo.

tiles bought.
niro granite basaltina.
grey basalt and dark grey basalt.

these have been sitting outside for a couple of weeks now. for testing purposes.

we're going for a modern look, without all that shiny shiny mirror finish floor effect.


experimented with a couple of designs, and opting for a simple straight parallel line across the room.

proposed tiling plan.

most of the house will be using the basaltina, except for main living room and guest dining area.
wife wants a cement or concrete finish for that area.

she won't let me put the same tile in my ht room.

i didn't hire anyone. it's DIY so i (we) did it ourselves. pandai pandai try try like that one. haha
tho there's an architect directly involved in the design. indirectly involved an electrical engineer, mechanical engineer and 3 civil engineer. well basically everyone from my wife's office.

residential plan submission for my area only involves the local council. but since it's a rural area even the local council doesn't bother about it. check with your local council.

the tile is freakin durable. kindda expected from a full bodied heavy duty tile. i've compared the tile after sitting outside for 1 month against the others from the box and there's no fading.

thanks. i've came across the site before. it's properly measured and the results are quite scientific in nature.
too bad the owner passed away. no wonder it's not updated for quite a while. would really to know how the current cost of their fully air-conditioning cost since the entire house is fully air conditioned 24/7.

after a few years the air-cond efficiency drop and the cost goes up. i've read that it used to cost them RM70/month to fully air-cond the house 24/7.