Honestly, I wouldn’t rent or feel comfortable in any of these options.
You are making a mistake with the basement: Southeast, where the slope is, the basement side would be exposed and theoretically accessible by vehicle. You are digging out the underground side of the basement, which would be completely counterproductive. Also, the basement would lose its function from a building regulation perspective.
You’re planning in a way that means you wouldn’t have a terrace at all or be able to step outside from the kitchen or living room...
You are making a mistake with the basement: Southeast, where the slope is, the basement side would be exposed and theoretically accessible by vehicle. You are digging out the underground side of the basement, which would be completely counterproductive. Also, the basement would lose its function from a building regulation perspective.
You’re planning in a way that means you wouldn’t have a terrace at all or be able to step outside from the kitchen or living room...
To be honest, I’m not sure how to improve the missing comfort feeling in the living room 🙁 During the holiday, I’ll also try to have my husband come up with a layout plan—maybe he has a better idea for the room arrangement.
Does the basement then no longer count as a basement from a building regulation perspective, or is it simply uncommon? I’m aware that we probably won’t be building a typical run-of-the-mill house 🙂 We definitely have different preferences than many people (for example, we have never even owned a sofa).
The living room has a sliding door that leads out to the balcony. From there, we thought it might make sense to have a staircase leading directly down to the garden. We haven’t really planned for a terrace in the garden. We figured grilling and eating can also be done on the balcony. And in the garden, you can simply place a lounge chair wherever you want—there’s more than enough space for that.
Does the basement then no longer count as a basement from a building regulation perspective, or is it simply uncommon? I’m aware that we probably won’t be building a typical run-of-the-mill house 🙂 We definitely have different preferences than many people (for example, we have never even owned a sofa).
The living room has a sliding door that leads out to the balcony. From there, we thought it might make sense to have a staircase leading directly down to the garden. We haven’t really planned for a terrace in the garden. We figured grilling and eating can also be done on the balcony. And in the garden, you can simply place a lounge chair wherever you want—there’s more than enough space for that.
...First, you have to be able to get into the garden to move the loungers 😉
Regarding the basement: if the basement counts as a full story, it might no longer be permitted to build it as is – check the building plan / zoning plan.
And why create a driveway there where a huge amount of earth has to be moved? That all costs a lot [emoji33][emoji848]
I’m not exactly a financial expert, but I know where the extra costs go... looking at the size of your house, a garage within the thermal envelope, a balcony plus two roof terraces, a basement, L-shape, upper recessed story... you’ll easily exceed 500,000 (currency).
Write down your space requirements. If you don’t like wide hallways, that’s fine, but a staircase—whether in the hallway or elsewhere—still needs enough space to be comfortable. Also, having adequate storage space for coats and shoes for at least three people is not just nice but necessary. Where else would you put that???
But don’t fixate on the room sizes just yet.
Then share this with the planner or architect, provide them with the property documents, and wait for their ideas.
Honestly: just “letting my husband plan for an evening” won’t work.
There are amateurs who have been working on their own plans for two years, usually free of many beginner’s mistakes by then, others have a talent for planning and can design something useful within a few days. Even those of us who have been involved in this for years rarely produce something acceptable within 2-3 hours. However, someone who has studied this and has professional experience can implement the building plan / zoning plan better. For example, I don’t understand the purpose of the stepping on a pitched roof at all and question whether you understood or interpreted this correctly.
For instance, I would suggest a pitched roof house for you since you don’t want it too modern.
And then there are some doubtful ideas with you, like the myth that you sleep safer upstairs or that grilling on a balcony is just as good as on a terrace 😉
May I ask why you want to build?
And may I ask what exactly you want to shield from the neighbors or the street?
Regards, Yvonne
Regarding the basement: if the basement counts as a full story, it might no longer be permitted to build it as is – check the building plan / zoning plan.
And why create a driveway there where a huge amount of earth has to be moved? That all costs a lot [emoji33][emoji848]
I’m not exactly a financial expert, but I know where the extra costs go... looking at the size of your house, a garage within the thermal envelope, a balcony plus two roof terraces, a basement, L-shape, upper recessed story... you’ll easily exceed 500,000 (currency).
Write down your space requirements. If you don’t like wide hallways, that’s fine, but a staircase—whether in the hallway or elsewhere—still needs enough space to be comfortable. Also, having adequate storage space for coats and shoes for at least three people is not just nice but necessary. Where else would you put that???
But don’t fixate on the room sizes just yet.
Then share this with the planner or architect, provide them with the property documents, and wait for their ideas.
Honestly: just “letting my husband plan for an evening” won’t work.
There are amateurs who have been working on their own plans for two years, usually free of many beginner’s mistakes by then, others have a talent for planning and can design something useful within a few days. Even those of us who have been involved in this for years rarely produce something acceptable within 2-3 hours. However, someone who has studied this and has professional experience can implement the building plan / zoning plan better. For example, I don’t understand the purpose of the stepping on a pitched roof at all and question whether you understood or interpreted this correctly.
For instance, I would suggest a pitched roof house for you since you don’t want it too modern.
And then there are some doubtful ideas with you, like the myth that you sleep safer upstairs or that grilling on a balcony is just as good as on a terrace 😉
May I ask why you want to build?
And may I ask what exactly you want to shield from the neighbors or the street?
Regards, Yvonne
Hmm, I wouldn't have expected the driveway costs to be that high since the excavator is already on site anyway. With a 100sqm (1,076 sq ft) basement, a 10sqm (108 sq ft) driveway shouldn’t make much of a difference, right?
A friend of mine recently had a house built for around 700k, with 300sqm (3,229 sq ft) of living space plus a basement, including blasting work, a balcony, everything top-notch. So it seems unlikely to me that over 500k would be realistic for half the size, right?
We estimated our space needs at about 150sqm (1,615 sq ft), or 160sqm (1,722 sq ft) with the new plan. At the moment we have 80sqm (861 sq ft) and no living room, and we're basically packed to the brim. We made a list of rooms and their approximate sizes, which looked something like this:
Master bedroom: 20sqm (215 sq ft)
Children’s bedroom: 15–20sqm (161–215 sq ft)
Bathroom + WC x2: 20sqm (215 sq ft)
Living room: 25sqm (269 sq ft)
Kitchen + dining room: 30–40sqm (323–430 sq ft)
Office: 10–15sqm (108–161 sq ft)
Until now, we stored our two pairs of shoes in a small shoe cabinet in the hallway (90x90cm (35x35 inches)), and two jackets by the door — never needed much space. Now I’ve actually planned for more than that since we might have a child someday.
Regarding the setback, I actually called the building authority again because I wasn’t sure if I understood it correctly, but I’ll definitely make another appointment with them.
The idea of sleeping on the upper floor probably came from my grandmother, who always sleeps with the window open and would never sleep on the ground floor. My mother even swapped rooms on vacation if she had to stay on the ground floor. Is grilling on the balcony really an issue? I thought that would be great – right now, condominiums with roof terraces and penthouses are booming here. That should definitely be possible. I even toured one with a hot tub on the balcony o.O
We want to build because we’d like to create our own home. So far, we’ve only lived together in rental apartments, and we want more peace from neighbors, more freedom, and above all to invest money with a clear conscience into something permanent instead of just paying rent, which is a long-term loss.
The balcony should not be overlooked from either side by neighbors, because we just want to enjoy our privacy. We don’t want neighbors standing by the fence gossiping or staring at our steaks on the grill—just total relaxation for us after work.
A friend of mine recently had a house built for around 700k, with 300sqm (3,229 sq ft) of living space plus a basement, including blasting work, a balcony, everything top-notch. So it seems unlikely to me that over 500k would be realistic for half the size, right?
We estimated our space needs at about 150sqm (1,615 sq ft), or 160sqm (1,722 sq ft) with the new plan. At the moment we have 80sqm (861 sq ft) and no living room, and we're basically packed to the brim. We made a list of rooms and their approximate sizes, which looked something like this:
Master bedroom: 20sqm (215 sq ft)
Children’s bedroom: 15–20sqm (161–215 sq ft)
Bathroom + WC x2: 20sqm (215 sq ft)
Living room: 25sqm (269 sq ft)
Kitchen + dining room: 30–40sqm (323–430 sq ft)
Office: 10–15sqm (108–161 sq ft)
Until now, we stored our two pairs of shoes in a small shoe cabinet in the hallway (90x90cm (35x35 inches)), and two jackets by the door — never needed much space. Now I’ve actually planned for more than that since we might have a child someday.
Regarding the setback, I actually called the building authority again because I wasn’t sure if I understood it correctly, but I’ll definitely make another appointment with them.
The idea of sleeping on the upper floor probably came from my grandmother, who always sleeps with the window open and would never sleep on the ground floor. My mother even swapped rooms on vacation if she had to stay on the ground floor. Is grilling on the balcony really an issue? I thought that would be great – right now, condominiums with roof terraces and penthouses are booming here. That should definitely be possible. I even toured one with a hot tub on the balcony o.O
We want to build because we’d like to create our own home. So far, we’ve only lived together in rental apartments, and we want more peace from neighbors, more freedom, and above all to invest money with a clear conscience into something permanent instead of just paying rent, which is a long-term loss.
The balcony should not be overlooked from either side by neighbors, because we just want to enjoy our privacy. We don’t want neighbors standing by the fence gossiping or staring at our steaks on the grill—just total relaxation for us after work.
You have a conceptual error: you want to overcome the height difference with a 90° turn from the street, which will be at least 2 meters (6.5 feet) higher than the ground level of your basement, within 3 meters (10 feet) plus the space in front of the garage.
My parents’ architect made the same planning mistake back then. The distance from the street to the garage door is about 4 meters (13 feet) with about a 1-meter (3 feet) height difference. Whenever my father buys a new car, he has to test first whether it has enough ground clearance to get into the garage.
You probably won’t be able to access the property from the south, only from the west, but then on the south side instead. 😉
It’s also important to clarify early on how the finished road’s terrain profile is supposed to look.
In general, building on a slope is never an easy solution, so having an architect involved here is highly recommended.
I had posted a floor plan example with enough space on one level, which could be worth considering—whether a walk-out basement and a single story above it is possible.
-------------
Regarding the bathroom... if you adjust the rooms upstairs, you can easily fit both a shower and a bathtub in the bathroom there. And on the ground floor, bathroom access shouldn’t really be right in front of the entrance door.
By the way, why do you need such a huge office for family use?
My parents’ architect made the same planning mistake back then. The distance from the street to the garage door is about 4 meters (13 feet) with about a 1-meter (3 feet) height difference. Whenever my father buys a new car, he has to test first whether it has enough ground clearance to get into the garage.
You probably won’t be able to access the property from the south, only from the west, but then on the south side instead. 😉
It’s also important to clarify early on how the finished road’s terrain profile is supposed to look.
In general, building on a slope is never an easy solution, so having an architect involved here is highly recommended.
I had posted a floor plan example with enough space on one level, which could be worth considering—whether a walk-out basement and a single story above it is possible.
-------------
Regarding the bathroom... if you adjust the rooms upstairs, you can easily fit both a shower and a bathtub in the bathroom there. And on the ground floor, bathroom access shouldn’t really be right in front of the entrance door.
By the way, why do you need such a huge office for family use?
RobsonMKK schrieb:
The area with the sofa looks like a waiting room, a complete passageway.
In my opinion, that just doesn’t work. Oh yes, going to the toilet through the "living room" — here more like a hallway with a sofa. Also, these two floor plan variants actually create traffic areas precisely by trying to avoid corridors.
ypg schrieb:
Regarding the basement: if the basement becomes a full storey, it might no longer be allowed to be built that way -> BePlan. In Germany, fully underground full storeys are irrelevant, but building regulations from Germany probably don’t apply in Austria, since different rules apply there.
ypg schrieb:
For example, I don’t understand the purpose of the stepping with a pitched roof at all and I also question here whether you really understood or translated this correctly. What is probably meant is that setbacks are generally required, even with roof types other than flat roofs, still in the style of a stepped storey. For example, this would also work in a “Tuscan style.”
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Similar topics