ᐅ Single-family house approximately 155 sqm – located at the edge of open fields – any experiences or ideas?
Created on: 22 Jun 2018 13:52
B
balbi21
Hello everyone,
I have been following this great forum for a while and would now like to share my current planning status – since many eyes can surely see more than just four.
We have been planning to build a house on a plot at the edge of a field (unfortunately facing rather east) – ideal for 2 people, but definitely suitable for 5 since my children from a previous marriage still visit regularly. Therefore, some rooms are planned as children’s rooms initially but should be usable later for other purposes (sauna, guest room, etc.).
At the moment, the land situation is still tricky and may take a few more weeks – so everything regarding the design is still open, meaning it is all still in the "pre-planning" stage...
We ourselves are two working adults who enjoy cooking, walking, and wellness – and need little “waste space.” However, there is an “inner conflict,” as one prefers open, spacious rooms while the other prefers a cozy atmosphere. After several attempts with an age-appropriate bungalow with a basement, and an urban villa with a hipped roof, we have currently settled on a “classic” detached house with a gable roof, but with a high knee wall (1.70m (5 ft 7 in)) as a compromise between coziness = sloped ceilings and open space = full ceiling height *g*.
More about us gladly in the discussion. I have now started with the questionnaire:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: approx. 700 sqm (7,535 sq ft)
Slope: No
Site coverage ratio: 0.30
Floor area ratio: 0.45
Building plot, building line, and boundary: Building plot on the street side, field edge location, area towards the field to remain open for nature conservation/hedgerow. Building area approx. 500 sqm (5,382 sq ft) of the 700 sqm (7,535 sq ft) plot.
Edge construction: No special conditions
Number of parking spaces: 2 required
Number of floors: 2 full stories permitted
Roof shape: All types permitted
Style: Everything except log cabin houses permitted
Orientation: East-southeast
Maximum height/restrictions: Max height 9.5 m (31 ft 2 in)
Other requirements: Minimum 3 m (10 ft) distance from street to garage/building
Owners’ Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Modern, clear, open: gable or hipped roof (possibly 2 shed roofs?), urban villa or classic detached house architecture
Basement, floors: Rather no basement, instead 2 floors + usable attic
Number of people, ages: 2 (around 40 years old) (+ 3 occasional visitors/kids aged 9, 12, 14)
Space Requirements on Ground and Upper Floors
Ground floor: Open living, dining, and kitchen area (generous kitchen + pantry?), office, utility/technical room, guest WC
Upper floor: Children's room 1 (later guest room), children’s room 2 (later sauna/gym), master bedroom, walk-in closet, bathroom
Office: Home office
Guests per year: 3 children (9, 12, 14), occasional guests
Open or closed architecture: Preferably airy and open
Conservative or modern construction: Rather modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Both options welcome
Number of dining seats: At least 6
Fireplace: Yes, preferably visible from living, dining, and kitchen areas
Music/sound system wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: Not necessary, possibly a roof terrace on the garage?
Garage, carport: For 2 cars, possibly workbench, tools, bicycles
Utility garden, greenhouse: No
Additional wishes/special features/daily routine and reasons:
- Different work schedules require that one person can get up early, get dressed, and get ready while the other can continue sleeping
- The 3 children will eventually visit less regularly or no longer all at the same time -> rooms need to be usable long term and flexibly
House Design
Designed by: Basic design by a prefab house company, further modified by myself in SweetHome3D.
What do you like particularly? Why?
- Connecting garage to the main house (dry access with groceries)
- “Parents’ wing” (one door closed, no one getting into our closets or bedroom)
- Room usage concept (no rooms that become unnecessary later)
- Pantry behind kitchen (can house grain mill, non-decorative appliances, etc., in the back room)
- Office next to living room: During tax time, you’re not separated from your cooking partner and remain within calling distance without a walkie-talkie
What do you dislike? Why?
Pantry has no connection to the garage – open kitchen might be too small? (Bay window already enlarges the living space somewhat)
Price estimate according to architect/planner: about 400k
Personal price limit for house including fixtures: Would be nice to stay under 700k total costs including 150k for the plot...
Preferred heating system: fresh-air heat pump
What could you do without in detail/additions? Too many floor-to-ceiling windows.
What you cannot do without: open living/dining/kitchen area
Why did the design evolve this way?
Generation 5.5 house, Weberhaus as a base, changed in 3 discussions and personal work – after having first considered a bungalow with basement (first attempt) and then an urban villa (second attempt).
What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Even if the house looks like a “standard model,” the details (I believe) are what make it somewhat special – it would be great to get tips and ideas on what we might have overlooked or forgotten in the planning and what we should consider, since it is so early in the design phase and we still have everything in hand...
I would appreciate creative suggestions, ideas, questions, etc. and look forward to the following discussion.
Best regards,
Björn
I have been following this great forum for a while and would now like to share my current planning status – since many eyes can surely see more than just four.
We have been planning to build a house on a plot at the edge of a field (unfortunately facing rather east) – ideal for 2 people, but definitely suitable for 5 since my children from a previous marriage still visit regularly. Therefore, some rooms are planned as children’s rooms initially but should be usable later for other purposes (sauna, guest room, etc.).
At the moment, the land situation is still tricky and may take a few more weeks – so everything regarding the design is still open, meaning it is all still in the "pre-planning" stage...
We ourselves are two working adults who enjoy cooking, walking, and wellness – and need little “waste space.” However, there is an “inner conflict,” as one prefers open, spacious rooms while the other prefers a cozy atmosphere. After several attempts with an age-appropriate bungalow with a basement, and an urban villa with a hipped roof, we have currently settled on a “classic” detached house with a gable roof, but with a high knee wall (1.70m (5 ft 7 in)) as a compromise between coziness = sloped ceilings and open space = full ceiling height *g*.
More about us gladly in the discussion. I have now started with the questionnaire:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: approx. 700 sqm (7,535 sq ft)
Slope: No
Site coverage ratio: 0.30
Floor area ratio: 0.45
Building plot, building line, and boundary: Building plot on the street side, field edge location, area towards the field to remain open for nature conservation/hedgerow. Building area approx. 500 sqm (5,382 sq ft) of the 700 sqm (7,535 sq ft) plot.
Edge construction: No special conditions
Number of parking spaces: 2 required
Number of floors: 2 full stories permitted
Roof shape: All types permitted
Style: Everything except log cabin houses permitted
Orientation: East-southeast
Maximum height/restrictions: Max height 9.5 m (31 ft 2 in)
Other requirements: Minimum 3 m (10 ft) distance from street to garage/building
Owners’ Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Modern, clear, open: gable or hipped roof (possibly 2 shed roofs?), urban villa or classic detached house architecture
Basement, floors: Rather no basement, instead 2 floors + usable attic
Number of people, ages: 2 (around 40 years old) (+ 3 occasional visitors/kids aged 9, 12, 14)
Space Requirements on Ground and Upper Floors
Ground floor: Open living, dining, and kitchen area (generous kitchen + pantry?), office, utility/technical room, guest WC
Upper floor: Children's room 1 (later guest room), children’s room 2 (later sauna/gym), master bedroom, walk-in closet, bathroom
Office: Home office
Guests per year: 3 children (9, 12, 14), occasional guests
Open or closed architecture: Preferably airy and open
Conservative or modern construction: Rather modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Both options welcome
Number of dining seats: At least 6
Fireplace: Yes, preferably visible from living, dining, and kitchen areas
Music/sound system wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: Not necessary, possibly a roof terrace on the garage?
Garage, carport: For 2 cars, possibly workbench, tools, bicycles
Utility garden, greenhouse: No
Additional wishes/special features/daily routine and reasons:
- Different work schedules require that one person can get up early, get dressed, and get ready while the other can continue sleeping
- The 3 children will eventually visit less regularly or no longer all at the same time -> rooms need to be usable long term and flexibly
House Design
Designed by: Basic design by a prefab house company, further modified by myself in SweetHome3D.
What do you like particularly? Why?
- Connecting garage to the main house (dry access with groceries)
- “Parents’ wing” (one door closed, no one getting into our closets or bedroom)
- Room usage concept (no rooms that become unnecessary later)
- Pantry behind kitchen (can house grain mill, non-decorative appliances, etc., in the back room)
- Office next to living room: During tax time, you’re not separated from your cooking partner and remain within calling distance without a walkie-talkie
What do you dislike? Why?
Pantry has no connection to the garage – open kitchen might be too small? (Bay window already enlarges the living space somewhat)
Price estimate according to architect/planner: about 400k
Personal price limit for house including fixtures: Would be nice to stay under 700k total costs including 150k for the plot...
Preferred heating system: fresh-air heat pump
What could you do without in detail/additions? Too many floor-to-ceiling windows.
What you cannot do without: open living/dining/kitchen area
Why did the design evolve this way?
Generation 5.5 house, Weberhaus as a base, changed in 3 discussions and personal work – after having first considered a bungalow with basement (first attempt) and then an urban villa (second attempt).
What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Even if the house looks like a “standard model,” the details (I believe) are what make it somewhat special – it would be great to get tips and ideas on what we might have overlooked or forgotten in the planning and what we should consider, since it is so early in the design phase and we still have everything in hand...
I would appreciate creative suggestions, ideas, questions, etc. and look forward to the following discussion.
Best regards,
Björn
balbi21 schrieb:
We thought it would be practical to have a door into the garage—especially if it’s sized so that supplies, a chest, wine, or other items can be stored there—and you don’t always have to open a 5m (16 ft) wide garage door just to grab something...Is the garage heated? And what is the purpose of the storage room if the supplies are actually kept in the garage? Maybe it’s worth reconsidering the space needed for storing supplies in general.
balbi21 schrieb:
We were thinking of using this area, for example, to store items like vacuum cleaner, mop, or other small miscellaneous things—rather than leaving the space under the stairs open, where you wouldn’t want to place anything “unattractive.”Not much fits in there, though: keep in mind that the space is almost inaccessible. Perhaps the door could be placed on the side so you can also use the depth under the stairs.
balbi21 schrieb:
We still need to find a place for a wardrobe (coat rack or similar)—I was currently thinking of having a shoe cabinet in the utility room, where an air-to-water heat pump (e.g. from Proxxon) will be installed, mounted above the washer/dryer; but with a water tank and a battery storage, it might actually get a bit tight?Uh… by wardrobe I don’t mean just a coat rack, but the cabinet where everything is kept. ALL coats, ALL shoes, and ALL bags...
kaho674 schrieb:
As I said, there are two adults and the children are guests, if I understood correctly.The children are not guests. They are his children. However, they only stay every two weeks or so. The problem is that children have a right to privacy, especially with a weekend-only parent. I would reduce the size of the children’s rooms. Ultimately, they will only spend time there when they are sleeping.
I would have the plan redesigned!
ypg schrieb:
The children are not guests. They are his children. However, they only come about every two weeks or so.
The problem is that children have a right to privacy, even with a weekend dad. But I would make the kids’ rooms smaller. In the end, they will only stay there when they’re being noisy. Interesting point. So it’s more like the children permanently use the guest room as a bedroom. If guests come, they would then have to sleep in the kids’ room. That wasn’t clear to me.
Should you really plan for three kids’ bedrooms then? Like one downstairs and two upstairs? Or can you expect the teenagers to share one room? That’s a bit odd, isn’t it? If that’s the case, I would probably consider converting the bike storage room into a utility or technical room for the house. Then keep the laundry or utility room as is, and have the three kids’ bedrooms (two upstairs and one downstairs). That way you have three kids’ bedrooms, but they’re only used occasionally. Sounds like an expensive space with low use, right? How do other fathers handle this?
ypg schrieb:
I would have it redesigned! Yes, the whole thing somehow doesn’t add up. With the diagram about the building envelope / plot boundary, no one can really make sense of it. How wide and long can the house actually be at most?
ypg schrieb:
Perhaps position the door to the side, so the space beneath the stairs can also be used. I personally think the nicest solution is to build in drawer cabinets under the stairs, each the width of one step.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Actually, I think I may have explained a bit confusingly how everyday life is for us:
There are two of us (my wife and me), and I have three children from my first marriage who currently stay with us every other weekend from Friday evening to Sunday evening, and spend part of their school holidays with us. They currently live far enough away that it is easy to pick them up, but they can’t just “drop by” spontaneously in between.
That’s why, when we think about building a house, it seems to me a bit “wasteful” to have three children’s bedrooms for only 2 out of 14 days, with those rooms being “empty” the other 12 out of 14 days—but we still need space for the children to sleep and hang out. Also, the children are getting older, so in a few years they will probably need less space for sleeping, and it will be less likely that all three of them will stay overnight at the same time. This means the current situation is temporary for about 4–5 years, after which the “room” should be usable for other purposes besides just “children’s bedrooms.”
With the current plan, we thought about keeping the two upstairs rooms (guest room + sauna) as children’s rooms for now (the two girls in the large room, the boy in the “small” room)—but even if they no longer come regularly, the rooms can then be used well as guest and sauna rooms, and you won’t be annoyed by empty rooms.
(To test whether this works, we have already furnished the rooms according to their future purpose—it doesn’t make sense to set up a room with two beds, label it as a sauna, and then realize in five years that the window is in the way.)
How do other “weekend families” handle this? Do you all keep a room reserved for each child?
Downstairs, the workspace should be a separate room from the living room, large enough to be used as a ground-floor bedroom if needed (for aging?), with the possibility of creating a doorway to the hallway.
This would mean having one less room, that’s true—but having a “workspace” where you can leave papers, documents, files, etc. on the desk without having to clear them away on weekends is something I really don’t want to miss—see above. I had imagined one room upstairs for two children and one room for one child—even if it seems a bit inconvenient with the shower bathroom downstairs...
Maybe the large bathroom upstairs should be accessible from the hallway instead of being inside the master bedroom area?
Thank you all very much for the kind and constructive discussion
Best regards,
Björn
There are two of us (my wife and me), and I have three children from my first marriage who currently stay with us every other weekend from Friday evening to Sunday evening, and spend part of their school holidays with us. They currently live far enough away that it is easy to pick them up, but they can’t just “drop by” spontaneously in between.
That’s why, when we think about building a house, it seems to me a bit “wasteful” to have three children’s bedrooms for only 2 out of 14 days, with those rooms being “empty” the other 12 out of 14 days—but we still need space for the children to sleep and hang out. Also, the children are getting older, so in a few years they will probably need less space for sleeping, and it will be less likely that all three of them will stay overnight at the same time. This means the current situation is temporary for about 4–5 years, after which the “room” should be usable for other purposes besides just “children’s bedrooms.”
With the current plan, we thought about keeping the two upstairs rooms (guest room + sauna) as children’s rooms for now (the two girls in the large room, the boy in the “small” room)—but even if they no longer come regularly, the rooms can then be used well as guest and sauna rooms, and you won’t be annoyed by empty rooms.
(To test whether this works, we have already furnished the rooms according to their future purpose—it doesn’t make sense to set up a room with two beds, label it as a sauna, and then realize in five years that the window is in the way.)
How do other “weekend families” handle this? Do you all keep a room reserved for each child?
Downstairs, the workspace should be a separate room from the living room, large enough to be used as a ground-floor bedroom if needed (for aging?), with the possibility of creating a doorway to the hallway.
kaho674 schrieb:
As I said, there are two of them and the children are guests, if I understand correctly. So I would plan one large guest room upstairs (for two children) and make the workspace downstairs optionally a second guest room with a shower in the guest bathroom. I would use the guest room upstairs as a studio when the children are gone, and the room downstairs again as a workspace.
This would mean having one less room, that’s true—but having a “workspace” where you can leave papers, documents, files, etc. on the desk without having to clear them away on weekends is something I really don’t want to miss—see above. I had imagined one room upstairs for two children and one room for one child—even if it seems a bit inconvenient with the shower bathroom downstairs...
Maybe the large bathroom upstairs should be accessible from the hallway instead of being inside the master bedroom area?
Thank you all very much for the kind and constructive discussion
Best regards,
Björn
ypg schrieb:
Is the garage heated??? And then what is the purpose of the storage room if the supplies are stored in the garage anyway?In our experience, there are always many items that you don’t necessarily need in the living area (the 3rd and 4th beverage crates, a fridge for fruit, or a box of potatoes, etc.)
The storage room behind the kitchen is also partly intended as a “preparation kitchen,” since we make flour and flakes ourselves and therefore have many appliances around, as well as many drawers and bags of grains and cereals. A KitchenAid in the main kitchen looks nice, but too many appliances there would take up a lot of space—so the idea is to move some work surfaces and storage to a back room.
Best regards,
Björn
I think a rear utility room is a good idea. I wouldn't consider a retirement bedroom at "around 40": in this generation, it will generally be common to respond to the approach of retirement by building again.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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