Hello,
My wife and I visited a model home park for prefabricated houses yesterday, and we noticed that each house offered various features and floor plans whose practical benefits I don’t quite understand. That’s why I’m starting this thread, hoping you can explain the advantages of these choices or point out what I might be missing and why it still makes sense to design a house that way:
1. Almost every house had floor-to-ceiling windows installed. What’s the purpose of these? I imagine they would be terrible both in summer and winter. Wouldn’t it get extremely hot in summer? And in winter, don’t you constantly have to lower the blinds so that anyone passing by can’t look directly into the living room or inside the house? Also, isn’t the effort to clean those windows huge? Am I missing something? Do they have advantages that I don’t see?
2. There wasn’t a single house where the kitchen and dining area were separated from the living space; at best, the kitchen was separated from the dining area. I understand that having everything open makes the space appear larger and is better for hosting many people, but isn’t it very impractical? If I’m frying or cooking something in the kitchen, doesn’t the whole living room end up smelling like food? It would also bother me that as soon as my wife or I have guests over, the other person couldn’t sit in the living room and watch TV quietly, for example. This might sound a bit picky, but for me, it’s important that everyone can invite their friends without the other person always being within earshot or needing to get out of the way somehow. Why are open-plan ground floors so common? What are the real advantages?
3. The balconies on the upper floor are always accessible from one of the children’s bedrooms and the parents’ bedroom. Doesn’t that significantly affect privacy? I can’t imagine it’s great if my child can constantly knock on our bedroom door via the balcony, for example. Also, if you have two children, wouldn’t the one without a balcony be at a disadvantage?
I don’t want to bias you with my opinions here—I’m completely open to your views because I’d like to be convinced of the benefits. So I would like to know your reasons for including such features in your plans. Alternatively, has anyone built in a more “traditional” way and can speak to the practicality of these layout choices?
Best regards
My wife and I visited a model home park for prefabricated houses yesterday, and we noticed that each house offered various features and floor plans whose practical benefits I don’t quite understand. That’s why I’m starting this thread, hoping you can explain the advantages of these choices or point out what I might be missing and why it still makes sense to design a house that way:
1. Almost every house had floor-to-ceiling windows installed. What’s the purpose of these? I imagine they would be terrible both in summer and winter. Wouldn’t it get extremely hot in summer? And in winter, don’t you constantly have to lower the blinds so that anyone passing by can’t look directly into the living room or inside the house? Also, isn’t the effort to clean those windows huge? Am I missing something? Do they have advantages that I don’t see?
2. There wasn’t a single house where the kitchen and dining area were separated from the living space; at best, the kitchen was separated from the dining area. I understand that having everything open makes the space appear larger and is better for hosting many people, but isn’t it very impractical? If I’m frying or cooking something in the kitchen, doesn’t the whole living room end up smelling like food? It would also bother me that as soon as my wife or I have guests over, the other person couldn’t sit in the living room and watch TV quietly, for example. This might sound a bit picky, but for me, it’s important that everyone can invite their friends without the other person always being within earshot or needing to get out of the way somehow. Why are open-plan ground floors so common? What are the real advantages?
3. The balconies on the upper floor are always accessible from one of the children’s bedrooms and the parents’ bedroom. Doesn’t that significantly affect privacy? I can’t imagine it’s great if my child can constantly knock on our bedroom door via the balcony, for example. Also, if you have two children, wouldn’t the one without a balcony be at a disadvantage?
I don’t want to bias you with my opinions here—I’m completely open to your views because I’d like to be convinced of the benefits. So I would like to know your reasons for including such features in your plans. Alternatively, has anyone built in a more “traditional” way and can speak to the practicality of these layout choices?
Best regards
B
blablub123420 Jul 2017 07:04Electric roller shutters:
For some, definitely a nice gimmick – in my opinion, unnecessary costs, and it won’t save you from having to close the shutters manually for your entire life.
For some, definitely a nice gimmick – in my opinion, unnecessary costs, and it won’t save you from having to close the shutters manually for your entire life.
W
winnetou7820 Jul 2017 07:16For us, this is a must-have for the bungalow.
My wife prefers to have all the roller shutters closed for security reasons.
Since I travel a lot for work, she is often alone with our 2-year-old daughter in the mornings and evenings.
Manually opening 14 roller shutters would be too much for her.
Electric roller shutters with timers and astronomical functions are worth their weight in gold.
However, as we found out, you have to be prepared to pay a gold price for them.
My wife prefers to have all the roller shutters closed for security reasons.
Since I travel a lot for work, she is often alone with our 2-year-old daughter in the mornings and evenings.
Manually opening 14 roller shutters would be too much for her.
Electric roller shutters with timers and astronomical functions are worth their weight in gold.
However, as we found out, you have to be prepared to pay a gold price for them.
C
Caspar202020 Jul 2017 07:21blablub1234 schrieb:
Electric roller shutters:
For some, definitely a nice gimmick – in my opinion unnecessary costs, and there’s no need to spend your whole life closing the shutters manually.Try telling that to the 92-year-old among us with her walker. For her, it’s a real struggle every morning and evening.
Or to small children; they also love playing with the cords and just lifting the shutters a bit. That leads to some nasty burns.
We have now retrofitted motors, including "home automation." My son and wife are happy, especially when you can lower all the shutters at once. And so quietly.
We also use them during the day for shading.
Medicine Cabinet
We don’t have one. Instead, we are getting a 50 cm (20 inch) pantry cabinet with internal pull-out drawers. I originally wanted a medicine cabinet as well.
Large Bathtub
Okay, I admit it. We’re getting a huge one—a trapezoidal bathtub for two people side by side. I’m really looking forward to it. We take baths quite often, usually together.
Fireplace
Oh, my favorite topic. I’m a self-proclaimed fireplace “opponent.” I just don’t really like them. We have one in our current apartment. The heat is certainly nice, but the mess, the effort, and so on annoy me so much that I’m very happy to skip the fireplace in the house. For heating purposes, fireplaces are no longer practical in new homes anyway, and for occasional cozy warmth the price (including ongoing costs like chimney cleaning), the loss of space (also on the property for storing wood), and the effort weren’t worth it, since we would probably only use it one or two times a year. Instead, we invested that money in a controlled mechanical ventilation system, which I’m really excited about. I’m a fresh-air enthusiast but also very sensitive to cold, so I hope the ventilation system will be perfect for me. Fireplaces are really a matter of personal taste; some people love them, but not me.
Open Mezzanine/Gallery
Not my thing at all. In my opinion, it only works well in very large houses. In standard single-family home sizes of up to about 200 m² (2,150 sq ft) of living space, I find it out of place. But tastes differ.
Vaulted Gable Rooms
Simply not to my taste.
Arrow Slit Windows & Skylights
I generally don’t mind them, and depending on the house style, both can look quite nice (at least from the outside). However, we decided against them because they didn’t fit the overall design of our house and I prefer windows that offer a proper view outside. Skylights sometimes give off a basement-like feeling, which I really don’t like. A friend of mine has only skylights in the main bathroom; it’s nice because you can shower there without worrying about being seen from outside, but the whole bathroom feels like a basement, which I dislike. Neighbors have an open living-dining area with just one long skylight in the living room and large floor-to-ceiling windows in the dining area. Still, the living room corner feels uncomfortable, too dark, too closed off, “basement-like,” even though just a few meters away there are large floor-to-ceiling windows. But that part of the living room doesn’t get any of the light or the generous view of the garden. Personally, I’m not a big fan of skylights, though of course it depends on their height. We have “skylight-like” windows in the cloakroom and utility room, with sill heights a bit over 1.40 m (4 ft 7 in), which I find just about acceptable. I find arrow slit windows nicer, but that didn’t work out with our floor plan.
Anthracite-Colored Windows
We have those. I simply find them attractive. My parents’ house from the 1970s already had anthracite aluminum windows, and I always liked that look. So we chose anthracite-colored windows on the outside regardless of current trends. I don’t mind that they’re so popular right now—it just shows our taste isn’t so unusual. I generally do what I like regardless of whether it’s trendy or outdated, although I do sometimes get caught up in trends from time to time.
Urban Villa
We have one too. I really like this style and I’m not ashamed of it. I hate sloping ceilings because I’ve lived in an attic apartment for many years and find it terrible. So having no sloping ceilings, or at least very high knee walls, was a top priority for us. Of the house style options, we liked the urban villa the most.
Electric Roller Shutters
We have those everywhere too. Operated by switches next to the doors, so we don’t have to walk around to each window to raise or lower the shutters. I’m looking forward to the electric shutters and consider them a worthwhile investment, even though they’re obviously a convenience rather than an absolute necessity.
---
I also have a trend for discussion: T-shaped wall/partition in the bathroom—what do you think about it? At first, we were really enthusiastic about it; it seemed stylish and different. By now, it feels like everyone is doing it. We eventually decided against it, partly because our bathroom layout isn’t suitable (not ideal even for an L-shaped partition), but mainly because I find it often makes bathrooms feel very cramped. A bathroom that’s actually quite large turns into a seemingly tight little room where you have to navigate around what feels like a thousand corners to get to the toilet or shower. I noticed this in model homes and also with neighbors who have it—those bathrooms feel very confined and awkward. Our bathroom feels much more spacious at the same size. Still, I think a T-partition wall is a cool idea and I like it in principle; the bathroom just really needs to be large enough for it.
We don’t have one. Instead, we are getting a 50 cm (20 inch) pantry cabinet with internal pull-out drawers. I originally wanted a medicine cabinet as well.
Large Bathtub
Okay, I admit it. We’re getting a huge one—a trapezoidal bathtub for two people side by side. I’m really looking forward to it. We take baths quite often, usually together.
Fireplace
Oh, my favorite topic. I’m a self-proclaimed fireplace “opponent.” I just don’t really like them. We have one in our current apartment. The heat is certainly nice, but the mess, the effort, and so on annoy me so much that I’m very happy to skip the fireplace in the house. For heating purposes, fireplaces are no longer practical in new homes anyway, and for occasional cozy warmth the price (including ongoing costs like chimney cleaning), the loss of space (also on the property for storing wood), and the effort weren’t worth it, since we would probably only use it one or two times a year. Instead, we invested that money in a controlled mechanical ventilation system, which I’m really excited about. I’m a fresh-air enthusiast but also very sensitive to cold, so I hope the ventilation system will be perfect for me. Fireplaces are really a matter of personal taste; some people love them, but not me.
Open Mezzanine/Gallery
Not my thing at all. In my opinion, it only works well in very large houses. In standard single-family home sizes of up to about 200 m² (2,150 sq ft) of living space, I find it out of place. But tastes differ.
Vaulted Gable Rooms
Simply not to my taste.
Arrow Slit Windows & Skylights
I generally don’t mind them, and depending on the house style, both can look quite nice (at least from the outside). However, we decided against them because they didn’t fit the overall design of our house and I prefer windows that offer a proper view outside. Skylights sometimes give off a basement-like feeling, which I really don’t like. A friend of mine has only skylights in the main bathroom; it’s nice because you can shower there without worrying about being seen from outside, but the whole bathroom feels like a basement, which I dislike. Neighbors have an open living-dining area with just one long skylight in the living room and large floor-to-ceiling windows in the dining area. Still, the living room corner feels uncomfortable, too dark, too closed off, “basement-like,” even though just a few meters away there are large floor-to-ceiling windows. But that part of the living room doesn’t get any of the light or the generous view of the garden. Personally, I’m not a big fan of skylights, though of course it depends on their height. We have “skylight-like” windows in the cloakroom and utility room, with sill heights a bit over 1.40 m (4 ft 7 in), which I find just about acceptable. I find arrow slit windows nicer, but that didn’t work out with our floor plan.
Anthracite-Colored Windows
We have those. I simply find them attractive. My parents’ house from the 1970s already had anthracite aluminum windows, and I always liked that look. So we chose anthracite-colored windows on the outside regardless of current trends. I don’t mind that they’re so popular right now—it just shows our taste isn’t so unusual. I generally do what I like regardless of whether it’s trendy or outdated, although I do sometimes get caught up in trends from time to time.
Urban Villa
We have one too. I really like this style and I’m not ashamed of it. I hate sloping ceilings because I’ve lived in an attic apartment for many years and find it terrible. So having no sloping ceilings, or at least very high knee walls, was a top priority for us. Of the house style options, we liked the urban villa the most.
Electric Roller Shutters
We have those everywhere too. Operated by switches next to the doors, so we don’t have to walk around to each window to raise or lower the shutters. I’m looking forward to the electric shutters and consider them a worthwhile investment, even though they’re obviously a convenience rather than an absolute necessity.
---
I also have a trend for discussion: T-shaped wall/partition in the bathroom—what do you think about it? At first, we were really enthusiastic about it; it seemed stylish and different. By now, it feels like everyone is doing it. We eventually decided against it, partly because our bathroom layout isn’t suitable (not ideal even for an L-shaped partition), but mainly because I find it often makes bathrooms feel very cramped. A bathroom that’s actually quite large turns into a seemingly tight little room where you have to navigate around what feels like a thousand corners to get to the toilet or shower. I noticed this in model homes and also with neighbors who have it—those bathrooms feel very confined and awkward. Our bathroom feels much more spacious at the same size. Still, I think a T-partition wall is a cool idea and I like it in principle; the bathroom just really needs to be large enough for it.
We did not plan for a pull-out pantry cabinet. The kitchen is big enough. A friend of mine is really enthusiastic about her pull-out pantry.
We have a large bathtub for two, but not the largest model. It’s cozy for two people, and one person still can’t really swim laps — except for the little one.
We do not have anthracite-colored window frames. It doesn’t look good on a gray facade, and we were advised against it. At temperatures over 30°C (86°F), they heat up much more than white frames and take significantly longer to cool down in the evening and at night. Whether this has a noticeable effect inside the house, I have no idea.
Electric roller shutters—essential for a passive house.
My mother complains about the large shutters, and my mother-in-law can hardly raise the normal ones without pain. None of us are getting younger, so it’s a must-have.
City villa. Yes, our floor plan used to be rectangular, narrow, and long, but now it’s square. We do have a pitched roof, and that will stay. I would say it’s not a city villa despite having two full floors, especially since I understand the term “villa” differently.
We have a large bathtub for two, but not the largest model. It’s cozy for two people, and one person still can’t really swim laps — except for the little one.
We do not have anthracite-colored window frames. It doesn’t look good on a gray facade, and we were advised against it. At temperatures over 30°C (86°F), they heat up much more than white frames and take significantly longer to cool down in the evening and at night. Whether this has a noticeable effect inside the house, I have no idea.
Electric roller shutters—essential for a passive house.
My mother complains about the large shutters, and my mother-in-law can hardly raise the normal ones without pain. None of us are getting younger, so it’s a must-have.
City villa. Yes, our floor plan used to be rectangular, narrow, and long, but now it’s square. We do have a pitched roof, and that will stay. I would say it’s not a city villa despite having two full floors, especially since I understand the term “villa” differently.
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