ᐅ Renovation of an Older Building (1966): Two-Family House – Floor Plan Sketch
Created on: 30 Jul 2018 13:39
H
HappyDee45
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
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
Climbee schrieb:
In my opinion, a facade renovation would be one of the first things to do.For a multi-family house built in 1966, it might make sense to address this, but it shouldn’t be the very first step. There are other measures that are cheaper, easier to carry out, and more efficient.
Much more important:
Windows (from 1998, so already done)
Insulating the top floor ceiling for €12/m² (not walkable) or €40/m² (walkable) – small expense and little work; the U-value improves from 1.5 to 0.1–0.2 W/m²K
Insulating the basement ceiling for €20/m² – small expense and little work; the U-value improves from 1.5 to 0.2 W/m²K
Upgrading the heating system to renewable technology depending on its age – 10–30% savings
Facade renovation: significantly more difficult to do yourself than insulating the floor and basement ceilings. Materials cost around €30/m², but it requires a lot of work and is therefore expensive. Professional work costs between €100 and €150/m², and the U-value only improves from 1.5 to 0.2 W/m²K.
Multi-family houses from the 1960s sometimes already had U-values around 1.0 depending on wall construction – so the benefit is even lower there.
There are more pleasant things than explaining to a single child (whose two siblings don’t exist yet, in a house with space for four more children) that vacation (except on the balcony or roof terrace) is not possible, because mom and dad dislike tenants so much that they prefer to heat a half-empty three-family house.
The small additional costs (please imagine this being sung in the spirit of Johanna v. Koczian) add up to the equivalent of an amazing family vacation lasting an entire year.
And the old clunker stays as is, since leasing payments for a new one are not feasible.
Even with a million-dollar inheritance plus an extra sum, I wouldn’t consider living with three persons in a threefamily house.
Not all tenants have a rat on their shoulder, cook spoiled meat, or tear off sinks at night ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
The small additional costs (please imagine this being sung in the spirit of Johanna v. Koczian) add up to the equivalent of an amazing family vacation lasting an entire year.
And the old clunker stays as is, since leasing payments for a new one are not feasible.
Even with a million-dollar inheritance plus an extra sum, I wouldn’t consider living with three persons in a threefamily house.
Not all tenants have a rat on their shoulder, cook spoiled meat, or tear off sinks at night ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Basically, I can understand wanting to live alone in your own house. What I really don’t get in this context is why someone would then buy a three-family house.
Okay, I could understand it if they said: great plot, I’ll tear down the old building and build a top-notch single-family home! But to go through an extensive renovation (even if the layout actually makes sense here), accept a fortune in operating costs, and then in the worst case, not even have a child?
And honestly: the house isn’t so charming that I would suspect a sudden love-at-first-sight as the reason...
But whatever, the original poster wants it that way, and we don’t have to understand it. I find Till’s suggestions very valid and would definitely follow them. For me, renovating the façade before moving in would mainly be because it’s really unpleasant to live in a building that’s undergoing façade renovation (speaking from experience—I spent a summer living behind plastic sheeting…). And something like that doesn’t get done in just two or three weeks.
Okay, I could understand it if they said: great plot, I’ll tear down the old building and build a top-notch single-family home! But to go through an extensive renovation (even if the layout actually makes sense here), accept a fortune in operating costs, and then in the worst case, not even have a child?
And honestly: the house isn’t so charming that I would suspect a sudden love-at-first-sight as the reason...
But whatever, the original poster wants it that way, and we don’t have to understand it. I find Till’s suggestions very valid and would definitely follow them. For me, renovating the façade before moving in would mainly be because it’s really unpleasant to live in a building that’s undergoing façade renovation (speaking from experience—I spent a summer living behind plastic sheeting…). And something like that doesn’t get done in just two or three weeks.
H
HappyDee451 Aug 2018 07:27... does it always escalate this quickly here? ;-)
Basically, this was about constructive criticism of the floor plan ... you have somewhat strayed from the topic. The reasons for taking over the house/land are more family-related and have no place on the internet. The whole house also has a great emotional value. However, I would prefer not to go into that in the vastness of the internet.
More about the facts. Correct – the staircase is indeed quite difficult to integrate into the living space, but we will manage that. I don’t see it as a problem. Of course, this entire project will never compete with a perfectly planned house when it comes to all these details. The charm comes from a completely different direction. The basement is in great condition – as is basically the entire house! In principle, my parents lived there until recently, and you could just redo some wallpaper and laminate flooring and move in – done. But now we are taking the chance to invest some money in renovation. The attic floor has already been insulated – we are now refining that a bit more in connection with the new roof and creating a proper separation between the heated and unheated areas. At the same time, insulating the basement ceiling is planned. The heating system is nearly 15 years old, but throwing it out now would still be a waste of money. The boiler was replaced 4 years ago. We are renewing the pipes and removing the old radiators. Heating recesses will be bricked up. All glass blocks will be removed and replaced with new windows, or in the staircase bricked up and fitted with windows. Including a new front door. But now I have somewhat drifted away from the original topic of the floor plan.
The additional costs are quite high – that’s correct. I have calculated these at the mentioned 750€ (euros). More details can be found here -> https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/hausnebenkosten-kalkulation-380qm.28281/ And yes – it is very likely that this amount is calculated a bit on the high side, but it’s better to budget a little more. What the whole floor plan topic has to do with our holiday plans, cars, etc., I don’t know – I would prefer to leave that unaddressed here.
So – is there any more constructive criticism on the floor plans? The feedback so far has been very well received at home!
Basically, this was about constructive criticism of the floor plan ... you have somewhat strayed from the topic. The reasons for taking over the house/land are more family-related and have no place on the internet. The whole house also has a great emotional value. However, I would prefer not to go into that in the vastness of the internet.
More about the facts. Correct – the staircase is indeed quite difficult to integrate into the living space, but we will manage that. I don’t see it as a problem. Of course, this entire project will never compete with a perfectly planned house when it comes to all these details. The charm comes from a completely different direction. The basement is in great condition – as is basically the entire house! In principle, my parents lived there until recently, and you could just redo some wallpaper and laminate flooring and move in – done. But now we are taking the chance to invest some money in renovation. The attic floor has already been insulated – we are now refining that a bit more in connection with the new roof and creating a proper separation between the heated and unheated areas. At the same time, insulating the basement ceiling is planned. The heating system is nearly 15 years old, but throwing it out now would still be a waste of money. The boiler was replaced 4 years ago. We are renewing the pipes and removing the old radiators. Heating recesses will be bricked up. All glass blocks will be removed and replaced with new windows, or in the staircase bricked up and fitted with windows. Including a new front door. But now I have somewhat drifted away from the original topic of the floor plan.
The additional costs are quite high – that’s correct. I have calculated these at the mentioned 750€ (euros). More details can be found here -> https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/hausnebenkosten-kalkulation-380qm.28281/ And yes – it is very likely that this amount is calculated a bit on the high side, but it’s better to budget a little more. What the whole floor plan topic has to do with our holiday plans, cars, etc., I don’t know – I would prefer to leave that unaddressed here.
So – is there any more constructive criticism on the floor plans? The feedback so far has been very well received at home!
HappyDee45 schrieb:
... does this always escalate so quickly here? ;-)I would say: YES. 😉 As the saying goes: high involvement product.
What still bothers me is the corridor between the newly chosen bedroom and the new nursery leading to the terrace. It’s just awkward. But so far, I haven’t come up with any elegant solution... *keeps pondering*
H
HappyDee451 Aug 2018 11:15Currently, this hallway does not even exist. At the moment, the planned bedroom is still a living room, which also serves as a passage room to the terrace. We find a passage room to the terrace inconvenient in any case, so we tried to redesign the corridor to create direct access to the terrace. We actually don’t think this solution is that bad...
Creating access from under the terrace or from outside is simply too complex.
Creating access from under the terrace or from outside is simply too complex.
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