ᐅ Stepped upper floor (townhouse) or Frisian-style house with a flat roof gable?

Hello,

I have been reading along for a while now. We (2 adults without children) are considering making a change in our living situation. We are still looking at rental houses, but are gradually leaning towards buying a home. Existing properties are very hard to find. Honestly, in the last 2 years, I haven't found anything I even wanted to view (things look better on the rental market). We have already visited home shows and had a financial consultation. Our market research has shown that building is about the same price as buying existing properties (existing homes are not cheaper) and obviously also offers design advantages.

So, we are still at the very beginning. The reason for this post is that we have an appointment soon with a home builder (I already have countless catalogs here). The background is: we now know our financial situation, but we don't really know what the whole process might cost. Before we start properly (looking for land, etc.), we want to know what we can afford and whether we can get what we envision. Otherwise, we would probably wait longer.

Now we have a fundamental discussion. My partner would like to build a stepped-storey house (city villa). I basically like the idea, as long as it's not a plain box shape. There are different design options.

I have gone through various catalogs and come to the following conclusion: A city villa is significantly more expensive from the base price than, for example, a Frisian-style house or similar designs.

Our compromise would be something like a Frisian-style house with a flat gable roof.

After playing around with the floor plans, I realized something else: A city villa requires a much larger footprint than a "normal" house with a pitched roof. This, of course, affects the budget.

I have come up with the following pros and cons for myself:

City Villa:
Pros:
- Straight walls on both floors / no slanted ceilings
- Modern design

Cons:
- Price
- Less space overall
- No attic that can be converted

Frisian House with Flat Gable Roof:
Pros:
- Price
- Storage space
- Usable space under the roof

Cons:
- Sloped walls upstairs
- Either no skylights or you have to deal with the drawbacks of them
- Flat gable roof could present waterproofing challenges over time

To give you a better idea of what we are imagining:
- Double garage (with a room at the end)
- No open kitchen, but separated (e.g., with a sliding door) and still enough space for 4 people to comfortably eat in the kitchen; plus a dining room for 6 people as standard, possibly extendable to 8 or 10
- Guest toilet with shower on the ground floor
- Storage room (for house electronics, tools, canned goods, beverage crates, freezer on the ground floor)
- 2 children's rooms
- 1 main bedroom with walk-in closet (possibly 2 smaller walk-in closets also an option)
- Bathroom with bathtub and walk-in shower (90 x 120cm (35 x 47 inches)) and double sink
- Laundry room for washing machine, dryer, and space for drying clothes
- We need a “man cave” which can also be used as a home office (no external visitors)
- Ventilation system (central or decentralized still undecided) with heat recovery
- Small room for photography equipment, desk, and PC (an attic conversion would be ideal)
- Storage space for decorations not currently in use, suitcases, books, old toys, extra chairs, etc. (ideal: converted attic)
- Nice to have: a built-in masonry fireplace integrated into the wall so no chimney pipe is visible
- KfW 70 standard (though probably not KfW 70+ house)
- (For Frisian house) converted attic with fixed staircase

Additionally, if we had the option for someone to stay overnight properly, we would get visitors 2-3 times a year, each time 2-4 people. This is not a priority, though.

The next challenge I currently see is that I absolutely want a floor plan where the couch faces sideways to the window. So basically looking straight at the TV and to the right or left into the garden (south side). Such a floor plan seems impossible. Does anyone have an idea on this?

In summary:
- City villa: yes or no?
- Where would I get storage space in a city villa?
- Do I really need more square meters for a city villa?
- Is the city villa always more expensive?
- Can I fit my requirements in 150-160m² (1600-1700 sq ft)?
- How can I arrange the living room to have a side view into the garden and a direct TV view at the same time?

I understand that some will say that you can’t plan anything without land because only then do you know what the zoning/building permit/planning permission allows. But we want to know beforehand what we want and if it’s even feasible. It’s clear that the zoning and orientation of the plot will ultimately be decisive. We are already looking for plots and only consider those with a south orientation. What we want and what we actually get are, of course, two different things.

I would still appreciate helpful answers to these questions to make our project a bit more tangible.

Thank you very much.

Greetings from the far north.

CarinaJ