Connecting house and garden: plan where you will go outside

Choose the destinations

Start with the outdoor moments you genuinely want in an ordinary week. A large entertaining terrace might be useful, but it should earn its place alongside the washing line, garden shed and somewhere to have ten quiet minutes.

For a hypothetical household that eats outside most evenings, I would test the dining spot and kitchen connection early. For keen gardeners, I would also trace the route from the vegetable beds to somewhere muddy shoes and tools can stay. Those are different briefs, even if both households ask for indoor-outdoor flow.

• Choose three outdoor activities you expect to use often.
• Note which room each activity needs to connect with.
• Include the practical jobs that photographs tend to leave out.

Check the place as well as the connection

MBIE's planting and landscaping guidance recommends considering the whole site, including seasonal sun, shelter, local conditions and the eventual size of plants. I would use that as a prompt to test each proposed outdoor destination at the time you expect to use it.

Ask the design team what they know about that spot and what still needs checking. A lovely view and a comfortable place to spend an evening are separate questions.

The published Seaside Escape design at Waikanae Beach arranges shared spaces and covered connections around a sheltered courtyard. I find that a useful example of giving the outdoor destination a clear role in the plan. The arrangement still needs to suit your own site and household.

Draw the whole journey

Print the site and floor plans on one sheet. Mark each destination, then draw the journey from the relevant room. Imagine carrying a tray out, bringing a basket of washing back or returning with wet shoes. Mark every place where you need to open something, turn, step or put things down.

Ask for door positions and opening directions to be shown. Include outdoor furniture, paths and garden beds so you can see what occupies the space beyond the opening.

• Does the route pass through someone's settled seating area?
• Where will you put down what you are carrying?
• Can someone tend the garden without bringing everything through the living room?
• What changes when the doors are closed or it is raining?

Give the edge between inside and outside an owner

I would ask the building and landscape designers to review this edge together. Ask them to show the proposed levels in a section drawing, explain the approach to drainage and identify any access or consent questions. A sketch that looks continuous is a starting point for that discussion.

MBIE also highlights the effect of paving on stormwater. Keep that in the conversation when deciding how much of the garden becomes a hard surface.

• Who coordinates the doorstep, terrace and garden levels?
• Who resolves the relationship between planting, paths and the building?
• Which outdoor works are included in the current scope?

Picture the garden on moving day

Finally, ask for two versions of the landscape discussion: what will be there at handover, and what is intended as planting establishes or later work happens. I would want the routes and outdoor activities we have planned to make sense in both.

If you would like help putting those relationships onto a plan, bring your site information and a short list of outdoor routines to a conversation. We can work through what deserves attention first.