Hello everyone,
after we secured our plot, we spoke to several construction companies. Some only offer the building volume and want to create the floor plan after signing the contract. That feels a bit like “buying a pig in a poke” to us.
One company approached things differently and, after a several-hour discussion, presented a concept that we would like to share and discuss with you here.
Here is first the questionnaire:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot: F 1.6
Plot size: 394 m² (14.7 x 26.8 meters), no slope
Building envelope: 8.7 x 12.0 meters (11.7 x 12.0 meters minus 3 meters (10 feet) setback towards the east)
Orientation: Southeast to south
Floor area ratio / site coverage ratio: 0.4 / 0.8
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full stories (additional stepped-back floor is allowed)
Roof type: flat roof
Energy standard: at least KFW 55
Energy sources: photovoltaic system and air-to-water heat pump or ground-to-water heat pump
Homeowners’ Requirements
The architectural style, roof shape, and building type are basically set by the development plan and are acceptable to us (otherwise, we would not have applied for the plot).
We (2 adults and 2 elementary school children) plan to build without a basement, with 2 full stories, and a 9-meter (30 feet) garage. Our planned energy source is a ground-to-water heat pump.
We need 1 bedroom, 2 children’s rooms, 1 office (for home office), kitchen, living and dining room, guest toilet (without shower), bathroom (with shower and bathtub), cloakroom as a built-in wardrobe, and of course a utility room. Additionally, storage space is required. We do not expect overnight guests.
We are aiming for a rather modern design with an open kitchen (with a peninsula) and an L-shaped living and dining area (6 dining seats, no fireplace).
Since we do not want a “traditional” entrance canopy, we would prefer a “modern” solution.
House Design
The design comes from a medium-sized general contractor in the region, with its own project draftsmen and an architect.
What we particularly like is that all our requirements have already been fully implemented in the first draft. Even extras like a bench and an interior light well, which we only mentioned in passing, have been included. In our view, the entrance canopy was also well realized, even if it costs a few square meters of living space.
Especially the storage spaces (and the cloakroom) were very well implemented from our point of view. In the first draft, the bathroom was 2.5 m² (27 sqft) smaller, and there was a storage room in front of it. Instead of the fixed storage room, there is now space in the hallway to optionally place a (built-in) closet or remove it later when the children no longer live at home. This redesign also made it possible to add an additional window in the bathroom. Whether this is really necessary is still open.
The kitchen and living/dining area were efficiently designed despite the 42 m² (452 sqft) size.
The guest toilet might be a bit oversized, but worse things exist.
The office window might look better if centered in the room, but the window below it in the kitchen makes this more difficult.
The window in the bedroom behind/above the bed may not be perfect either. We have considered several options and concluded that this is the best solution.
With 16 windows, the house feels like it has quite a lot. We wouldn’t know which one to give up—except maybe the second window in the bathroom. We are also wondering whether the large window in the dining area really needs to be that big.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Do you have any suggestions on what we could adjust in the floor plan? Any ideas about the windows (large one in dining, two floor-to-ceiling in bathroom, central in office, behind/above bed in bedroom)? Perhaps we can discuss the kitchen layout here or in a separate thread later.
after we secured our plot, we spoke to several construction companies. Some only offer the building volume and want to create the floor plan after signing the contract. That feels a bit like “buying a pig in a poke” to us.
One company approached things differently and, after a several-hour discussion, presented a concept that we would like to share and discuss with you here.
Here is first the questionnaire:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot: F 1.6
Plot size: 394 m² (14.7 x 26.8 meters), no slope
Building envelope: 8.7 x 12.0 meters (11.7 x 12.0 meters minus 3 meters (10 feet) setback towards the east)
Orientation: Southeast to south
Floor area ratio / site coverage ratio: 0.4 / 0.8
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full stories (additional stepped-back floor is allowed)
Roof type: flat roof
Energy standard: at least KFW 55
Energy sources: photovoltaic system and air-to-water heat pump or ground-to-water heat pump
Homeowners’ Requirements
The architectural style, roof shape, and building type are basically set by the development plan and are acceptable to us (otherwise, we would not have applied for the plot).
We (2 adults and 2 elementary school children) plan to build without a basement, with 2 full stories, and a 9-meter (30 feet) garage. Our planned energy source is a ground-to-water heat pump.
We need 1 bedroom, 2 children’s rooms, 1 office (for home office), kitchen, living and dining room, guest toilet (without shower), bathroom (with shower and bathtub), cloakroom as a built-in wardrobe, and of course a utility room. Additionally, storage space is required. We do not expect overnight guests.
We are aiming for a rather modern design with an open kitchen (with a peninsula) and an L-shaped living and dining area (6 dining seats, no fireplace).
Since we do not want a “traditional” entrance canopy, we would prefer a “modern” solution.
House Design
The design comes from a medium-sized general contractor in the region, with its own project draftsmen and an architect.
What we particularly like is that all our requirements have already been fully implemented in the first draft. Even extras like a bench and an interior light well, which we only mentioned in passing, have been included. In our view, the entrance canopy was also well realized, even if it costs a few square meters of living space.
Especially the storage spaces (and the cloakroom) were very well implemented from our point of view. In the first draft, the bathroom was 2.5 m² (27 sqft) smaller, and there was a storage room in front of it. Instead of the fixed storage room, there is now space in the hallway to optionally place a (built-in) closet or remove it later when the children no longer live at home. This redesign also made it possible to add an additional window in the bathroom. Whether this is really necessary is still open.
The kitchen and living/dining area were efficiently designed despite the 42 m² (452 sqft) size.
The guest toilet might be a bit oversized, but worse things exist.
The office window might look better if centered in the room, but the window below it in the kitchen makes this more difficult.
The window in the bedroom behind/above the bed may not be perfect either. We have considered several options and concluded that this is the best solution.
With 16 windows, the house feels like it has quite a lot. We wouldn’t know which one to give up—except maybe the second window in the bathroom. We are also wondering whether the large window in the dining area really needs to be that big.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
Do you have any suggestions on what we could adjust in the floor plan? Any ideas about the windows (large one in dining, two floor-to-ceiling in bathroom, central in office, behind/above bed in bedroom)? Perhaps we can discuss the kitchen layout here or in a separate thread later.
kaho674 schrieb:
I was missing some of your feedback here. For me, it would feel like a temporary kitchen, similar to one in a holiday rental, for a lifetime. You say you’re not a catering service, but are you aware of the kitchen’s size?
That’s what I’m wondering. Currently, we have a closed kitchen of 6.5 m² (70 sq ft) and almost everything arranged along a 2.6-meter (8.5-foot) wide countertop. Sometimes we get in each other’s way, but we haven’t had any serious conflicts yet.
We will ask the general contractor again if he has a similar house and how the kitchen was designed there.
@kbt09 is the kitchen expert here. Do you have any ideas for this kitchen?
ypg schrieb:
Do you take out every single sheet of paper? Of course not. Newspapers go in the newspaper basket and are sorted out from time to time. In the kitchen cabinet with the waste bins, one could also include a bin for paper, or alternatively place a box in the utility room.
ypg schrieb:
And how many do you think you’ll have after the house is finished? I just counted: we have 10. Maybe 5 more will come with the house, if any... just digitize them and you can access them from anywhere.
ypg schrieb:
Our 70-cm (28-inch) boxes don’t fit anywhere, for example. Ours, at 57 cm (22 inches), do fit, though.
ypg schrieb:
Your office cabinet is expected to hold more than it can; the hallway closet fills up quickly. I appreciate you bringing that up.
What’s your alternative? Build 20 m² (215 sq ft) more?
We’ve gone through all our current storage spaces and concluded that the planned areas will suffice. We aren’t even counting the hallway closet at this point.
ypg schrieb:
But finally, someone is planning with planting in mind here. So you would extend the garage all the way to the end of the terrace?
kbt09 schrieb:
I meant both bathroom windows, of course. OK.
I’d like to revisit the following points about our floor plan:
- What do you do with the window in the hallway if the bathroom window on the east side is no longer floor-to-ceiling? From the outside, a floor-to-ceiling window wouldn’t look right anymore, right?
- In the kitchen, we’re considering making the floor-to-ceiling window 12.5 cm (5 inches) narrower. A width of 1.01 meters (40 inches) should still be enough, right?
- How can the office window be positioned so that it’s centered but still matches the exterior appearance with the kitchen window? Or does it not matter if the office window is centered or not?
- In the bedroom, we’re thinking about lowering the window sill height by 12.5 cm (5 inches). This would still allow for a 1.2-meter (47-inch) headboard below the windowsill, and the window handle would be a bit lower.
- For the bedroom, we are considering moving the wall with the door 1 meter (3 feet) toward the top of the plan so that the wall aligns with the bathroom wall. This wouldn’t really add much space to the bedroom, but the door would no longer open into the room and could instead swing next to the office wall.
- In the hallway, instead of the closet opposite the door, a niche could be built to fit a built-in wardrobe. It might look a bit tidier. But then we’d have to build a cabinet about 1.2 meters (47 inches) wide there. The current floor plan with the closet is just one option.
I wouldn’t place the kitchen in that location, or at least not in that layout. I really like Katja’s floor plan from Post 20, especially because of the bedroom arrangement and so on. In general, I would always position the kitchen next to the terrace. Just last night, after the cinema, we went out for a nightcap on the terrace – it was great having the kitchen right there, making it easy to get drinks. However, I don’t have a suitable floor plan on hand at the moment.
I also don’t like having windows directly behind the headboards of beds.
I also don’t like having windows directly behind the headboards of beds.
kbt09 schrieb:
I really like Katja’s layout from post 20, As already mentioned:
The floor plan isn’t bad, although the entrance side of the house doesn’t look very modern or welcoming...
Where is there more storage space in this floor plan? OK, the kitchen has one more good cupboard. The office and utility room seem to be about the same size, and there would be no space for our optional cupboard in the hallway. We like our floor plan, and at least a few of you don’t think it’s too bad either.
We’ll take a few points on board, and maybe some of you can help with my questions from post 31?
- Additionally, I have a question about the window in the cloakroom. Would it make sense not to make it floor-to-ceiling, so that when changing clothes or going to the bathroom, one doesn’t feel quite so exposed to people on the street or the neighborhood square?
-SCEPS- schrieb:
- In the kitchen, we are considering making the floor-to-ceiling window 12.5cm (5 inches) narrower. 1.01 meters (3 feet 4 inches) should be wide enough, right?
- How can we position the window in the office so that it is centered but still aligns visually with the kitchen window from the outside?
I would keep both as they are: a rough opening of 113cm (44.5 inches) is better because this "window" will also be used as an exit, for example to pick chives; and the office window should be aligned in a straight line—not just on the same axis—with the window above.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Thank you for your feedback @11ant.
We spoke again with the general contractor today. Making the kitchen 10 cm (4 inches) wider would be possible (at the expense of the hallway). This would at least allow the cabinets to be visually arranged in a 45/60/90 cm (18/24/36 inch) grid.
We spoke again with the general contractor today. Making the kitchen 10 cm (4 inches) wider would be possible (at the expense of the hallway). This would at least allow the cabinets to be visually arranged in a 45/60/90 cm (18/24/36 inch) grid.
Good evening everyone,
We reviewed the windows once again with the main contractor using a 3D animation, and it was quite surprising how the appearance changes when, for example, the bedroom and bathroom windows are moved further outward (matching the distance of the bathroom and utility room). The house suddenly looks a bit wider, even though its actual width remains the same.
We also reconsidered how the bedroom might be designed and furnished differently. One option we looked at involved replacing the bedroom window on the north side with a window on the west side, but it looked bad from both directions.
The office would become a bit narrower, but a 250cm (98 inches) wardrobe would still fit in there. The passage between the wardrobe and the office wall is 89cm (35 inches). The TV would probably be mounted on the wall using a swivel bracket.
This version resulted from that (although I made the window wider with Photoshop than it is in the actual plan):
Then I mirrored the room once more, and it looks like this:
In your opinion, does either version improve the bedroom?
Alternatively, the original layout could be kept but with a slightly wider window:
We reviewed the windows once again with the main contractor using a 3D animation, and it was quite surprising how the appearance changes when, for example, the bedroom and bathroom windows are moved further outward (matching the distance of the bathroom and utility room). The house suddenly looks a bit wider, even though its actual width remains the same.
We also reconsidered how the bedroom might be designed and furnished differently. One option we looked at involved replacing the bedroom window on the north side with a window on the west side, but it looked bad from both directions.
The office would become a bit narrower, but a 250cm (98 inches) wardrobe would still fit in there. The passage between the wardrobe and the office wall is 89cm (35 inches). The TV would probably be mounted on the wall using a swivel bracket.
This version resulted from that (although I made the window wider with Photoshop than it is in the actual plan):
Then I mirrored the room once more, and it looks like this:
In your opinion, does either version improve the bedroom?
Alternatively, the original layout could be kept but with a slightly wider window:
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