ᐅ Single-family house 180-190 sqm on a 10x20 m building plot, first draft general contractor proposal

Created on: 28 Oct 2019 12:32

Hello everyone,

My wife and I are planning to become homeowners soon and have had a preliminary floor plan created by our (prospective) prefab home provider based on our first meeting.

We have a specific plot in mind, but the new development area is still being surveyed, and the parcels are being reorganized. Therefore, there is no official site plan yet, only the attached zoning plan excerpt (dashed lines = property boundaries).

We find the floor plan draft interesting at first glance, especially since it doesn’t seem like a standard template from the provider, at least from our perspective. I’ve listed a few points below that I think could be improved – I’m sure you’ll notice more...

Thanks in advance for your assessments!

Thomas

Zoning Plan / Restrictions

Plot Size – 47 sqm (505 sq ft)

Slope – none

Site Coverage Ratio – 0.4

Floor Area Ratio – 0.8

Building Envelope, Building Line, and Setbacks – Building envelope 10 x 20 m (33 x 66 ft), setback 3 m (10 ft) from street/neighboring property, perimeter development possible but not planned

Number of Parking Spaces – 2

Number of Stories – 2 full stories

Roof Type – gable, hip, shed, flat

Architectural Style – modern

Orientation –

Maximum Heights / Limits – 9.80 m (32 ft) from road surface to top of building

Additional Requirements –

Homeowners’ Requirements

Style, Roof Type, Building Type – not fixed (except: no flat roof)

Basement, Number of Floors – 2 full stories, no basement

Number of Occupants, Ages – 3 persons (36, 35, 1), potentially second child in future

Space Requirements on Ground and Upper Floors –
Ground floor: open living/dining/kitchen area, pantry, office/guest room, utility room
Upper floor: bedroom/bathroom/walk-in closet, 2 children’s rooms, kids’ bathroom

Office: Family Use or Home Office? – occasional home office, room shared with guest room

Number of Sleep Guests Per Year – 5–10

Open or Closed Architecture – open

Conservative or Modern Construction – modern

Open Kitchen, Kitchen Island – yes

Number of Dining Seats – 6–10

Fireplace – yes

Music / Stereo Wall – no

Balcony, Roof Terrace – nice to have, not essential

Garage, Carport – carport

Utility Garden, Greenhouse – no

House Design

Designer – general contractor

What Do You Like Especially? Why?
Ground floor: open living/dining area but no direct line of sight from sofa to kitchen, short route from front door to pantry, separated utility room
Upper floor: separation of children’s and master areas, no “trapped” walk-in closet, roof terrace, “sleeping platform” in children’s room

What Do You Dislike? Why?
Overall: floor plan looks very elongated
Ground floor: entrance vestibule (in my opinion unnecessary), coat storage far from front door (alternative under stairs?), WC possibly too narrow, no direct access from kitchen to terrace (planned at SE/SW corner – around the corner), seating nook in kitchen (planned to be removed/replaced with window seat), distance between kitchen island and wall, narrow passage living/dining area if fireplace and piano (175 x 60 cm) are placed as planned
Upper floor: children’s rooms facing north, bedroom facing south, “space” at roof terrace exit, overall space usage (large hallway 20 sqm plus 10 sqm “leftover” as “sauna room” (sauna for 2 persons should be integrated in bathroom), bathroom rather small and walk-in closet quite narrow)

Price Estimate According to Architect/Planner: $465,000 (excluding land and additional construction costs)

Personal Price Limit for the House, Including Equipment: $500,000

Preferred Heating Technology: air-to-water heat pump, possibly with photovoltaic system

If You Have to Give Up Anything, which Details/Features

- Could You Do Without: sauna, kitchen island, roof terrace

-Could Not Do Without: fireplace, office/guest room, separate walk-in closet/dressing room, 2 bathrooms upstairs

Why Is the Design Like It Is? e.g.

Standard Design from Planner? – no

Which Wishes from the Architect Have Been Implemented? – design based on our room program and “wish list” (e.g., fireplace, “window seat” in kitchen, spatial separation of living room and kitchen, no trapped walk-in closet)

What Do You Think Makes It Especially Good or Bad? – bad: space use upstairs (20 sqm hallway + 10 sqm sauna/leftover space), good: separation of “technical area” on ground floor and children’s/master areas upstairs

What Is the Most Important/Basic Question About the Floor Plan in 130 Characters?
Can this initial draft be developed further, or is it better to start from scratch? If the latter, how to improve (classic rectangle?)?

Site plan: two blue building outlines, red access areas, yellow border area, row of trees, north arrow.

Floor plan and site plan with color zones; inset apartment floor plan in center.

Ground floor plan with living/dining/kitchen, hall and utility rooms of a house.

Upper floor plan: sleeping, two children’s rooms, bathroom, shower, hall, walk-in closet, sauna extension.

Attic floor plan: two rooms, stairs, flat roof, measurements, entrance doors.

North elevation of a two-story house with gable roof, windows, and person in front.

East elevation of a modern house, gray facade, dark roof, tree left, person in front.

Two-story house with gray front, large windows; person left, bush right; south elevation.

West elevation of a modern two-story house with gray facade, dark roof, tree right.

Builderbob29 Oct 2019 13:41

#19

@RomeoZwo: Wow, thanks a lot for your effort! It definitely looks much more streamlined, I really like it. I also tried to put something together like this last night, but kept running into problems...

RomeoZwo schrieb:

Personally, I’m not really happy with the position of the kitchen/pantry on the ground floor. I would like to have a glass door opposite the stairs leading to the dining area to make the stairwell feel more open. But I can’t come up with a good idea for that right now...

I don’t think the kitchen location is bad at all, but I would add a (glass) door from the hallway to the living room.

RomeoZwo schrieb:

Do customers/guests come to the office? Otherwise, a more central location in the house might be possible, and you could experiment with the living-dining-kitchen-office layout.

No, no customers come there. Only possible guests are a few overnight visitors. So the room’s location in the house isn’t that important for us. Unlike the short distance from the front door to the pantry/kitchen...

ypg schrieb:

Bad word recognition... Children’s rooms shouldn’t face north.

Yes, that bothered me about the original design as well. Maybe the upper floor layout could just be “mirrored,” for example, in RomeoZwo’s plan moving the bedroom, walk-in closet, and master bathroom to the top of the plan and the children’s rooms to the bottom? But then the children’s bathroom would be right next to the bedroom, and the balcony could only be accessed from the children’s rooms...

ypg schrieb:

Please also include the carport in the plan, as a carport “next to” the house entrance could become very tight. Parking in front of a carport might only be practical on weekends.

True, we’ll plan for that as well. What exactly do you mean by parking in front being inconvenient? I don’t see many options for where a second parking space could go otherwise (we currently only have one car and no need for more).

RomeoZwo29 Oct 2019 13:55

#20

Builderbob schrieb:

That's right, we should definitely include that in the planning as well. In what way do you find the parking space in front inconvenient? I don’t really see many options for where the second parking spot could go otherwise (we currently only have one car and no need for more).

For my first attempt, I simply straightened out your current room layout a bit, placing windows and doors only where necessary for testing. Regarding the site layout, one could consider an entrance on the northeast side, meaning on the narrow side of the house. I think that opens up more possibilities for parking spaces but would make the floor plan more complex or result in longer corridors again.

However, I have an idea that is similar to our current house, just a bit longer and narrower, which eliminates the drawbacks I have noticed so far.

Would a double carport or garage be desirable or completely unnecessary?

For the office, I would suggest the option of placing the kitchen in the current office’s location, then having the dining area with a double glass door leading to the stairs, and the living area on the south terrace. The office could then be located in the southwest, possibly with a double sliding door to open it up to the evening sunlight from the west into the living room. Of course, this depends on whether the office setup is more of a workspace or a study/library atmosphere.

Builderbob29 Oct 2019 17:22

#21

RomeoZwo schrieb:

Regarding the layout on the plot, one could also consider having the entrance on the northeast side, meaning on the narrow side of the house. [...] But I have an idea [...]

I certainly wouldn’t say no if you want to share your idea with me. We’re not fixed on having the entrance on the long side of the house, but from my rather unsuccessful attempts, I also found that having the entrance on the narrow side tends to be (even) more complicated.

RomeoZwo schrieb:

RomeoZwo schrieb:

Would a double carport / garage be desirable or completely unnecessary?

What does completely unnecessary mean? You never know if you might need a second car in a few years, so of course it’s better not to find out then that tandem parking is impractical.
However, I don’t know where you could fit that on the rather narrow plot (with a house width of 9.10m (30 feet), there’s at most 3.90m (13 feet) left until the neighbor...).

RomeoZwo schrieb:

RomeoZwo schrieb:

For the office, I would consider placing the kitchen where the current office is, then the dining area with a double glass door facing the stairs, and in the southeast corner the living area. The office would be in the southwest, possibly with a double sliding door so it can be opened to let the evening sunlight from the west into the living room. Of course, this depends on whether the office is intended more as a workspace or as a library.

Hmm, then the kitchen, dining room, and living room would be in a row. We don’t like that so much; we would prefer it a bit "around the corner" so that you don’t always see the (messy) kitchen from the sofa...

ypg29 Oct 2019 19:04

#22

@Builderbob
Please stick to the original font size... everything else is very hard to read.

Builderbob29 Oct 2019 19:19

#23

@ypg
Sorry, I didn’t change anything intentionally – and for me, my posts also appear in the same font size (according to the tool, I have font size 15) as yours and the other users’. What is the standard then, so I can adjust it manually?

ypg29 Oct 2019 20:57

#24

What you are doing, no idea.
You are probably typing it elsewhere and copying it in here?
At least your font and font size change, as you can see yourself.
The fact is: the smaller it is, the harder it is to read.

ᐅ Single-family house 180-190 sqm on a 10x20 m building plot, first draft general contractor proposal

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