ᐅ Renovation of an Older Building (1966): Two-Family House – Floor Plan Sketch

Hello everyone,

We are currently planning a renovation of an older house built in 1966. Over the years, the house has been extended and remodeled several times. It has previously served as a two-family home. We are taking over the house now and do not want any "stranger" tenants living in it. This means we want/need to live in the house ourselves as a single-family home for the next 1-2 decades at least.

So, we have the challenge—or luxury—of being able to plan a lot of space.

You can find our first draft attached.

Basement:
We do not want to make any changes here for the most part. Only the electricity meter and related equipment need to be removed from the stairwell as part of the electrical upgrade. We have discussed with the electrician to create an “electrical room” in the workshop for this purpose. Everything else will remain as is.

Ground Floor:
On the ground floor, we plan to remove three walls to create a large open living and dining area including the kitchen. The pantry will be prepared as a potential bathroom (water supply and drainage will be renewed). We might want to add a bathroom there in about 10 years. A full guest bedroom is essential for us, due to family circumstances. The office will serve as a home or remote work space for both of us. The “home theater” will probably remain an unused room for now until we have more budget to invest there.

Upper Floor:
On the upper floor, we plan to move the door to the terrace (currently located in the "children’s room") and relocate the wardrobe wall to create a new hallway with access to the terrace. In the bedroom, we will add a wall to create a second bathroom on the upper floor (currently, there is a kitchen in that space).

Attic:
The attic will remain an unheated area and will remain unused or serve as an attic storage space.

This is roughly our current plan. A structural engineer has already reviewed the walls. Most of the work will be done by ourselves. But here, we want to focus on the floor plan.

We are open to all ideas. Please share any constructive feedback.

Thanks and best regards

It’s a bit difficult to visualize the situation here. Not only is the north arrow missing, but I also assume this is a hillside house, right? The ground floor has a balcony, and the upper floor features a terrace...

The ground floor layout is feasible, but I don’t find the upper floor optimal yet. However, we don’t know which walls are load-bearing and which could be moved. Where is south, and where is north? I find the narrow bathroom problematic; it would be better to fully allocate it to the children’s bathroom, remove the dividing wall, and create a proper bathroom.

What do the exterior views look like? Is it allowed to enlarge or relocate windows? What is the family situation? Do you already have three children? Could the terrace be extended along the entire front, and so on?

I think the information provided is too limited to make any meaningful suggestions.

Really cool. Now that’s what I call a basement.

If you expect meaningful answers, you absolutely need to provide the current state. Then include the planning. Also, the plot, paths and driveways, outbuildings, special features, possibly utilities, wishes, and above all the budget. 🙂

Thanks in advance – I’ll respond to your questions and comments.

Climbee schrieb:
It’s a bit hard to picture this. Not only is the north arrow missing, but I guess this is a hillside house, right?

How do you define a hillside house? I would say, yes, quite easily. The basement on the west side is about 1.80 m (6 feet) below the street level. On the east side, it’s completely exposed. You’re right – I forgot to include a north arrow. I’ll add that later. The sketch needs to be revised anyway. Roughly, north is “bottom left” when you have the plans on the screen.

Climbee schrieb:
The ground floor has a balcony, the upper floor has a terrace…

Both the ground floor and the upper floor have balconies. The terrace was added afterwards. The basement and the ground floor contain rooms like the laundry and home cinema. So the terrace can’t be extended, but it’s large enough as it is.

Climbee schrieb:
The ground floor layout is doable, I don’t find the upper floor ideal yet. But we don’t know which walls are load-bearing and what can be moved. Where is south, where is north? I don’t like the narrow bathroom – better allocate it fully to the kids’ bathroom, remove the wall in between, and create a decent bathroom.

The bathroom and toilet on the upper floor were completely renovated four years ago – it would be a shame to redo everything now.

Climbee schrieb:
What about the exterior views? Are you allowed to enlarge or move windows? What’s the family situation? Do you already have three children? Could the terrace be extended across the entire front? Etc.

We want to keep the windows as they are for now, since they don’t necessarily need to be replaced.

I’ll upload some older plans shortly – I think it will make things clearer. We are also removing the glass blocks in the stairwell and will brick it up (including a window between the ground and upper floors).

We don’t have any children yet – there are currently two of us. Kids are planned.

kaho674 schrieb:
Really cool. Now that's what I call a basement.

If you expect useful answers, you absolutely need to provide the current condition. Then include the proposed plans. Also the site, access roads and driveways, outbuildings, special features, possibly utility lines, wishes, and above all the budget. 🙂

Yes, it’s become clear to me now as well. I’ve uploaded the old plans and hope they are readable. I’m still searching through the documents for the site plan. The plans were not implemented exactly as designed. I’m still looking for the latest version of the plan.

We have many wishes, but overall everything is shown in the plan above. We are still calculating the budget. At the moment, we are just under €200,000 for the renovation work (mostly self-performed), but that should be discussed elsewhere. Here, my main concern was primarily the floor plan and layout.

At first glance, I think the plan is quite well thought out.
Where I would really pause to reconsider is the question of the third children's bedroom. If you really need three, then fine. But if two children's bedrooms are sufficient, I would completely remove the currently planned "closet room" and instead plan a spacious living gallery there. The bedroom would move into the currently planned third children's room, and the dressing room would be placed in the current bedroom. Access to the balcony might need to be relocated.