Hello everyone,
After following this forum for what feels like forever, I finally have to “lay all my cards on the table.” Some time ago, we bought a plot of land in rural Lower Saxony right next to our current apartment, and now we want to slowly but surely start the house building process.
I’ve filled out the questionnaire as much as possible. For roof style, number of floors, building setback lines, etc., I only have information from an old preliminary building inquiry made by the previous owner of the land. However, a lot has changed since then (several houses with two full floors, etc.), so I can well imagine that two full floors won’t be a problem.
I’ve attached the floor plans for the ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF), as well as a relevant excerpt from Google Maps. The two floor plans are not oriented to north, so I added a north arrow there. The Google Maps image is oriented north. The red frame roughly marks the property. The small red box on the street marks the lowered curb for the driveway access. The larger red box roughly indicates the area where the house including the carport is planned to be located. I hope this is enough for now?
Zoning Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 1978 sqm (about 0.49 acres)
Slope: No
Building setback lines and building boundaries: 6.0 and 19.0 m (about 20 and 62 feet) from the street-side property boundary (still being clarified, a lot has changed recently)
Number of floors: 1.5 or 2 (still being clarified, a lot has changed recently)
Roof style: Gable roof
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Gable roof
Basement, floors: No basement, 1.5 or 2 floors
Number of residents, ages: 4 people (33, 32, 5, 2 years old)
Room requirements on GF, UF:
GF: Kitchen with dining area, living room (can be separated), office, guest bathroom with shower, utility room, small storage space
UF: 2 children’s bedrooms, bathroom, storage room, master bedroom
Office: Family use or home office? Home office
Number of overnight guests per year: Negligible
Open or closed architecture: rather closed
Conservative or modern style: a “middle ground”
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island, living room can be separated
Number of dining seats: 6 permanently
Fireplace: No
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Carport for one car and possibly a simple parking space in front of the house (cars are for us purely practical items)
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: Unclear
Other: The kitchen island is intentionally only 1 meter (39 inches) deep. This seems like a comfortable depth for us since both of us can easily reach the far end (we’re both not very tall, about 170 cm (5’7”), and we tested by placing a 1-meter-wide wooden board on our current countertop). A nice side effect is that this frees up more space for the dining table. Overall, we still plan to discuss the kitchen layout further in the other forum.
House Design
Who designed the plan: Do-it-yourself with the probably usual approach (we looked at many floor plans from friends and prefab house providers)
What do you like most and why? We’re quite happy with the design. We really like the sliding door in the dining area and the large window in the living room because of the direct connection between garden and indoors. The sliding door between living and dining rooms allows retreat to the living room when guests are over (it’s not a big deal that you still have to walk through the dining area). The staircase should be separated from the living space but not located in a direct dirt/splash zone. The children’s rooms are sufficiently large and have south-facing windows overlooking the garden.
What do you dislike and why? We’re still tinkering with the exterior and window positions. Especially upstairs, the window layout is far from finalized. For the stairs, I grabbed a floor plan from a stair builder that fits (concrete stairs); I hope the dimensions are also realistic in real life?
Personal budget for the house including fittings: 300k, the average price per square meter given by our banking contact pretty much matches the costs of several friends currently building (rural Lower Saxony, about 1650 - 1850 €/sqm)
Preferred heating system: Heat pump with horizontal loop collector
If you had to give up anything, which details / features could you do without?
- Could do without: Honestly, not much
- Cannot do without: Office, sliding door, kitchen island
Why does the design look like it does now?
We looked at many floor plans from friends and prefab house suppliers. Changing existing plans mostly didn’t help, so in the end we spent nights drawing our own plans (which is fun, anyway).
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
We managed to fit our entire room program into our limit of about 150 sqm (about 1,615 sq ft). When mentally going through our typical day, the floor plan works quite well and all rooms seem sufficiently sized.
What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan summed up in 130 characters?
Since we are still happy with it after letting it “sit for a while and reviewing it again,” the question naturally arises whether we have overlooked something fundamental. Does anything stand out as a problem that wouldn’t work? Something we would regret for the next 30 years? More specifically: is the kitchen with the dining area too narrow or too long and narrow?
I look forward to hopefully plenty of feedback.
Thanks in advance!
After following this forum for what feels like forever, I finally have to “lay all my cards on the table.” Some time ago, we bought a plot of land in rural Lower Saxony right next to our current apartment, and now we want to slowly but surely start the house building process.
I’ve filled out the questionnaire as much as possible. For roof style, number of floors, building setback lines, etc., I only have information from an old preliminary building inquiry made by the previous owner of the land. However, a lot has changed since then (several houses with two full floors, etc.), so I can well imagine that two full floors won’t be a problem.
I’ve attached the floor plans for the ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF), as well as a relevant excerpt from Google Maps. The two floor plans are not oriented to north, so I added a north arrow there. The Google Maps image is oriented north. The red frame roughly marks the property. The small red box on the street marks the lowered curb for the driveway access. The larger red box roughly indicates the area where the house including the carport is planned to be located. I hope this is enough for now?
Zoning Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 1978 sqm (about 0.49 acres)
Slope: No
Building setback lines and building boundaries: 6.0 and 19.0 m (about 20 and 62 feet) from the street-side property boundary (still being clarified, a lot has changed recently)
Number of floors: 1.5 or 2 (still being clarified, a lot has changed recently)
Roof style: Gable roof
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Gable roof
Basement, floors: No basement, 1.5 or 2 floors
Number of residents, ages: 4 people (33, 32, 5, 2 years old)
Room requirements on GF, UF:
GF: Kitchen with dining area, living room (can be separated), office, guest bathroom with shower, utility room, small storage space
UF: 2 children’s bedrooms, bathroom, storage room, master bedroom
Office: Family use or home office? Home office
Number of overnight guests per year: Negligible
Open or closed architecture: rather closed
Conservative or modern style: a “middle ground”
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island, living room can be separated
Number of dining seats: 6 permanently
Fireplace: No
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Carport for one car and possibly a simple parking space in front of the house (cars are for us purely practical items)
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: Unclear
Other: The kitchen island is intentionally only 1 meter (39 inches) deep. This seems like a comfortable depth for us since both of us can easily reach the far end (we’re both not very tall, about 170 cm (5’7”), and we tested by placing a 1-meter-wide wooden board on our current countertop). A nice side effect is that this frees up more space for the dining table. Overall, we still plan to discuss the kitchen layout further in the other forum.
House Design
Who designed the plan: Do-it-yourself with the probably usual approach (we looked at many floor plans from friends and prefab house providers)
What do you like most and why? We’re quite happy with the design. We really like the sliding door in the dining area and the large window in the living room because of the direct connection between garden and indoors. The sliding door between living and dining rooms allows retreat to the living room when guests are over (it’s not a big deal that you still have to walk through the dining area). The staircase should be separated from the living space but not located in a direct dirt/splash zone. The children’s rooms are sufficiently large and have south-facing windows overlooking the garden.
What do you dislike and why? We’re still tinkering with the exterior and window positions. Especially upstairs, the window layout is far from finalized. For the stairs, I grabbed a floor plan from a stair builder that fits (concrete stairs); I hope the dimensions are also realistic in real life?
Personal budget for the house including fittings: 300k, the average price per square meter given by our banking contact pretty much matches the costs of several friends currently building (rural Lower Saxony, about 1650 - 1850 €/sqm)
Preferred heating system: Heat pump with horizontal loop collector
If you had to give up anything, which details / features could you do without?
- Could do without: Honestly, not much
- Cannot do without: Office, sliding door, kitchen island
Why does the design look like it does now?
We looked at many floor plans from friends and prefab house suppliers. Changing existing plans mostly didn’t help, so in the end we spent nights drawing our own plans (which is fun, anyway).
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
We managed to fit our entire room program into our limit of about 150 sqm (about 1,615 sq ft). When mentally going through our typical day, the floor plan works quite well and all rooms seem sufficiently sized.
What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan summed up in 130 characters?
Since we are still happy with it after letting it “sit for a while and reviewing it again,” the question naturally arises whether we have overlooked something fundamental. Does anything stand out as a problem that wouldn’t work? Something we would regret for the next 30 years? More specifically: is the kitchen with the dining area too narrow or too long and narrow?
I look forward to hopefully plenty of feedback.
Thanks in advance!
The number of floors is at least clearly defined in your design: the upper floor only works with vertical walls, not as an attic with a sloped roof.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
lulzwoot schrieb:Precisely these kinds of imperfections are what you want to eliminate when building new, aren’t they?
Currently, I have 40cm (16 inches) between the bed and the wall, and that is enough for me.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
lulzwoot schrieb:
After reading this forum for what feels like ages, I finally have to "lay my cards on the table." The staircase, based on this plan and the drawing in the questionnaire, is already quite outrageous and deserves a firm spanking.
The rest doesn’t even need to be discussed here, because if the staircase doesn’t fit, the whole house doesn’t fit. Good evening.
Eating and cooking space of 6.20 m (20 ft) is sufficient. The countertop run is 60 cm (24 inches) deep, with a distance of 120 cm (47 inches) between the runs, and the island is 100–120 cm (39–47 inches) wide. This leaves approximately 320–350 cm (126–138 inches) of space for the table and chairs.
However, the passage to the living room would then be in the wrong place, making it difficult to walk through. Home builders often like to install a wide sliding door in the middle of the wall. This means the table or kitchen island must be circled around, making everything more complicated.
A better alternative is to have two glass sliding doors, one at each end of the living room wall. The sliding door on the terrace side, when open, makes the rooms feel larger, especially if only a narrow piece of wall separates the living room window front from the dining area where the sliding door meets the wall. The living room itself also has floor-to-ceiling glazing.
However, the passage to the living room would then be in the wrong place, making it difficult to walk through. Home builders often like to install a wide sliding door in the middle of the wall. This means the table or kitchen island must be circled around, making everything more complicated.
A better alternative is to have two glass sliding doors, one at each end of the living room wall. The sliding door on the terrace side, when open, makes the rooms feel larger, especially if only a narrow piece of wall separates the living room window front from the dining area where the sliding door meets the wall. The living room itself also has floor-to-ceiling glazing.
lulzwoot schrieb:
- We were almost worried that 2 meters (6.5 feet) width for the stairs wouldn’t be enough (but hope dies last, as they say).2.20m x 2.20m (7 ft 3 in x 7 ft 3 in) is a good minimum size. The staircase is a crucial element. If it doesn’t fit, everything has to be redone.lulzwoot schrieb:
- Distance between kitchen counter and island: I had read everywhere about 120cm (47 inches), mainly because that allows opening drawers opposite each other at the same time. If I move the island a bit further into the room, I get 1.10m (43 inches). I will check this later in our kitchen.Yes, 1.20m (47 inches) is the common standard. Yours is just over 1 meter (39 inches). If you know that, why not do it the right way from the start?lulzwoot schrieb:
- Oops, that was unintentional, hopefully the living room fits better with the kitchen. At least it’s more of a cozy and lounging space. I also followed the usual dimensions: 120cm (47 inches) from table to island and 130cm (51 inches) from table to living room sliding door. Is that really too tight?Can’t follow that. The tightness mainly comes from the passage between the dining table and the living room. If you move the island, it will get tight there as well.lulzwoot schrieb:
- The shower in the guest bathroom is planned to be level with the floor, with a simple curtain that will probably mostly remain open. That way it’ll be easy to reach the sink.You want your guests to stand in the shower just to wash their hands? Seriously, that’s absurd – such planning makes no sense. The problem may be less serious: put the shower in the other corner, with the toilet and sink to the left or right. Without measurements, hard to say.lulzwoot schrieb:
- In the bedroom I could rotate the bed and put it against the other wall, which would give much more space in front of the wardrobe. Or push the bed further against the wall without the wardrobe (then I would have to lie there, my wife would get the wider passage. Currently I have 40cm (16 inches) between bed and wall, which is enough for me too).Rotating the bed is an option. Then plan the window placement accordingly. The other suggestion is as absurd as the shower and sink idea.lulzwoot schrieb:
Overall it seems more like the house length is lacking than the width. Am I right?Well, you’re already at 160m² (1,722 sq ft) instead of 150, and it still lacks width. But if budget is no issue, making it bigger is almost always possible.Thank you very much for all the helpful feedback!
For clarity, I will skip quoting all further replies:
- I have sketched other parts of the kitchen, but that’s currently just for overview and far from final planning.
- The staircase is now 2.20 x 2.20 meters (7.2 x 7.2 feet).
- The shower has been removed from the guest bathroom.
- We really like the idea of sliding doors on the left and right in the living room!
- We slightly widened the hallway upstairs in front of the bedroom.
- I “simulated” 1.10 meters (43 inches) between countertop and island yesterday. That is completely sufficient for us.
- Also, the 70 cm (28 inches) between the wall and bed on “my side” works for now. If it annoys me later, I’ll just rotate the bed.
I hope I haven’t missed any of the previous comments.
ypg schrieb:According to which "concept"? Yes, I have seen the staircases in the template thread. Then I browsed further here in the forum and found a thread where the staircase was only 2x2 meters (6.5x6.5 feet). There it was more or less considered "still okay." But I don’t understand the tone now.
The staircase, according to this concept and the illustration in the questionnaire, is already a bit cheeky, and it really deserves a good spanking.
11ant schrieb:Absolutely. With the 40cm (16 inches) I actually wanted to express that the 70 to 80 cm (28 to 31 inches) there is totally sufficient for me.
Exactly, those imperfections are what you want to fix when you’re building new — right?
kaho674 schrieb:Oops, then we better leave it as is regarding size.
Well, you are already at 160m² (1,722 sq ft) instead of 150, and it still lacks width. But if budget is no issue, making it bigger is almost always possible.
For clarity, I will skip quoting all further replies:
- I have sketched other parts of the kitchen, but that’s currently just for overview and far from final planning.
- The staircase is now 2.20 x 2.20 meters (7.2 x 7.2 feet).
- The shower has been removed from the guest bathroom.
- We really like the idea of sliding doors on the left and right in the living room!
- We slightly widened the hallway upstairs in front of the bedroom.
- I “simulated” 1.10 meters (43 inches) between countertop and island yesterday. That is completely sufficient for us.
- Also, the 70 cm (28 inches) between the wall and bed on “my side” works for now. If it annoys me later, I’ll just rotate the bed.
I hope I haven’t missed any of the previous comments.
I still find it acceptable.
However, around the dining table, it still feels too cramped and cluttered for me. You can’t walk freely to the terrace; you always have to squeeze past the table. It’s placed right in the walkway. That would drive me crazy.
I don’t understand why you don’t want to rotate the bed. Having a window behind the headboard isn’t ideal. But all the windows need to be replaced anyway.
Plan the bathroom! I would try to include a laundry chute there.
However, around the dining table, it still feels too cramped and cluttered for me. You can’t walk freely to the terrace; you always have to squeeze past the table. It’s placed right in the walkway. That would drive me crazy.
I don’t understand why you don’t want to rotate the bed. Having a window behind the headboard isn’t ideal. But all the windows need to be replaced anyway.
Plan the bathroom! I would try to include a laundry chute there.
Similar topics