Dear forum members,
We bought a plot of land last autumn and are currently deep into the floor plan design. We would like to share our current draft with you and welcome any comments and opinions.
[F]irst some preliminary information about the plot and its buildability:[/F]
Best regards
We bought a plot of land last autumn and are currently deep into the floor plan design. We would like to share our current draft with you and welcome any comments and opinions.
[F]irst some preliminary information about the plot and its buildability:[/F]
- 1000 m² (10,764 sq ft) rear plot, southwest facing (so southwest is on the left side of the site plan)
- Building boundary up to approx. 16 m (52 ft) behind the property line (up to the dashed line on the site plan)
- No zoning plan (construction according to § 34 of the Building Code)
- Groundwater at surface level and peaty soil (exact geotechnical report pending), so piled foundation required and no basement
- Affordable! (Our maximum budget for the house including foundation slab is €230,000)
- Country house style
- Bright, large windows facing south/garden
- Open living/dining/kitchen area
- Family of four, 1 bedroom and 2 children’s rooms
- Not oversized, max 150 m² (1,615 sq ft), preferably less
- Solid construction using Ytong blocks (for us the most cost-effective option, although we would have liked to build with wood as well).
- Developed ourselves after studying various floor plans (including from the book "Affordable Building with a Small Budget" by Achim Linhardt) with support from architect friends and our planner (an independent civil engineer).
- Dimensions 12.50 x 7.50 m (41 x 25 ft) (the measurements shown on the site plan are from an earlier draft).
- What we like: open living area, all main rooms have large windows facing the garden, efficient size, although the children’s and bedroom could be smaller, sewing/work nook behind the stairs upstairs, plenty of wall space for large wardrobes in the upstairs bedroom and hallway on the ground floor, light shaft in the stairwell, staircase (we originally wanted a straight run staircase but it would have taken too much space; the one with three quarter turns is also fine with us).
- What we don’t like 100% yet: the height of the house from the outside. It is currently planned as a two-story house with an eaves height of 6.2 m (20 ft), with the ground floor 2.84 m (9 ft 4 in) high and the upper floor 2.60 m (8 ft 6 in) high. The gable roof will be an uninsulated, unfinished cold roof, mainly because of the economical prefabricated truss construction method. This is a bit disappointing because I really like sloped ceilings and did not want the character of a townhouse. Lowering the roof with a knee wall of about 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) and an insulated roof with open sloped ceilings would probably be more expensive due to the rafter/beam construction. We would also lose the garden view through the floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows.
- Simple: What do you think about the floor plan?
- Can you still imagine the relatively tall two-story house having a country house character? Maybe it depends on the facade design and choice of materials? Do you think it looks too “blocky,” especially from the front entrance side? Or would a lower eaves height with an attic conversion including a knee wall be preferable?
- We are still unsure how to arrange the windows on the garden side. The drawing with the elevations shows two possible versions. We actually prefer it when the upper floor window is centered over the lower window front. However, this does not align the interior line of sight from the entrance door to the garden/patio door (see ground floor plan). This represents version two; for version one, the window front would have to be shifted about one window width to the right, so that the patio door is behind the dining table. With the window front shifted left, the interior looks better to us, but from the outside it looks strange if it is offset from the upper floor window, right? What do you think?
Best regards
20 pages of discussion and in the end, it will fail because of the budget.
Don’t be mad at me, but with that money, I built my house 5 years ago and spent 6 months at the construction site from morning till evening. You say friends and family help, but don’t they have to work too, or do they only build on weekends? Will the contractors wait for you to finish with the electrical rough-in before continuing?
If you’ve already changed the floor plan 10 times in one week, I don’t want to imagine how long it will take to decide on technology, fixtures, tiles, or wall paint.
Don’t be mad at me, but with that money, I built my house 5 years ago and spent 6 months at the construction site from morning till evening. You say friends and family help, but don’t they have to work too, or do they only build on weekends? Will the contractors wait for you to finish with the electrical rough-in before continuing?
If you’ve already changed the floor plan 10 times in one week, I don’t want to imagine how long it will take to decide on technology, fixtures, tiles, or wall paint.
la.schnute schrieb:
Ah, good point. I wouldn't have thought that stair designs differ so much in cost, but I will research that further.Absolutely... Double-stringer steel staircase over 3 floors with budget-friendly beech treads: 6,500 EUR
Flat-stringer steel staircase with the same configuration: 12,000 EUR
Upgrade to premium-grade oak treads with lamella construction: 2,000 EUR
All prices are without landings and customization.
The prices mentioned are from one year ago.
Pinky0301 schrieb:
Since the desired house is meant to be rather elongated: how about sprucing up a semi-detached house floor plan a bit? Elongated semi-detached houses are the least comparable to floor plans with four windowed sides.
la.schnute schrieb:
Including circulation areas, the quarter-turn staircase interestingly takes up more space than the landing stair, The two-flight stair as you planned is economical because the entry and exit points are close together. Where you planned the landing (which is practically a step), five winders would fit—in other words, four more—meaning the entire staircase would then be two steps shorter on each flight.
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saralina879 Mar 2020 07:23Maybe I missed it: Which heating system are you planning to install?
With six to seven square meters (65 to 75 square feet) allocated for the utility room, it might be a bit tight depending on what else needs to go in there. Our architect says we need at least 12 square meters (130 square feet).
I quite like the currently preferred floor plan — we wouldn’t build it that way because we didn’t want exactly what you are aiming for (a linear layout of kitchen, dining area, and living room, with the staircase in the living space), but since you have a different vision, I think it works well.
By the way, the storage space discussion applies to everyone who doesn’t want to build a mansion. For some, it’s simply hard to understand that not everyone has the same standards in this regard. Don’t worry about it.
With six to seven square meters (65 to 75 square feet) allocated for the utility room, it might be a bit tight depending on what else needs to go in there. Our architect says we need at least 12 square meters (130 square feet).
I quite like the currently preferred floor plan — we wouldn’t build it that way because we didn’t want exactly what you are aiming for (a linear layout of kitchen, dining area, and living room, with the staircase in the living space), but since you have a different vision, I think it works well.
By the way, the storage space discussion applies to everyone who doesn’t want to build a mansion. For some, it’s simply hard to understand that not everyone has the same standards in this regard. Don’t worry about it.
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Pinkiponk9 Mar 2020 07:52la.schnute schrieb:
...Am I correct in understanding that not all the windows are drawn in the plans yet?Similar topics