ᐅ Plans Ready Just Before Applying for Building Permit – Your Feedback?

Created on: 23 May 2020 13:36

Hello everyone,

Attached are our current plans before submitting the building permit / planning permission application.
I would appreciate your feedback of any kind, including suggestions for cost savings or any potential mistakes by the architect / draftsman!

Project: Single-family house with basement, granny flat (mainly for rental, 40m² (430 sq ft) * €11 = cold rent) in the basement, double precast concrete garage + 2 terraces.
Construction type: Prefabricated wooden frame house + precast concrete basement + precast concrete garage.
Compared to our plans from a few months ago, we have:
- mainly reduced the living area by about 25%, thus also reducing the house length and width.
- changed the kitchen and garage to a simple standard form with standard dimensions for a precast concrete garage 6 x 6m (20 x 20 ft).
- changed the window design.
- added a photovoltaic system + battery storage for KfW 40+ standard.

Good luck
Luke

Zoning plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 670m² (7200 sq ft)
Slope: yes
Floor area ratio: 0.3
Site occupancy index: 0.5
Building envelope, building line and boundary: not rectangular. Please see the draft.
Perimeter development:
Number of parking spaces:
Number of floors:
Roof type: gable roof
Style:
Orientation:
Maximum heights / limits:
Additional requirements:

Owner’s requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Modern, gable roof, square, practical...
Basement, floors: basement + ground floor + attic. Basement: with granny flat / guest apartment + storage room, utility room, etc.
Number of occupants, ages: 37 + 37 + 4 (planned) AND 1 tenant in the granny flat in the basement (internship student (companies in the area with many practical training positions), construction workers, hospital staff (local hospital), or occasional family/future in-laws visiting for several weeks, or later potentially own children)
Room requirements on ground floor, upper floor
Office: family use or home office? Family use. Ground floor office in the living room for dad + private PC + occasional home office. Separation possibly planned by glass partition.
Overnight guests per year: on average 2 persons 3 times per year
Open or closed architecture
Conservative or modern building style: modern, simple, timeless
Open kitchen, cooking island: cooking island
Number of dining seats: 6-8
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall:
Balcony, roof terrace: no balconies, but 2 terraces on the ground floor
Garage, carport: garage (precast concrete double garage)
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: no kitchen garden
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, please also explain why some things are desired or not

House design
Who designed the plan: architect
What do you particularly like? Why?:
What don’t you like? Why?:
Price estimate according to architect / planner: €400-450k (including additional building costs)
Personal budget limit for house including fittings: €400-450k (including additional building costs)
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump, centralized ventilation system

If you had to give up, which details / expansions
- could you give up:
- could you not give up:

Why is the design the way it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner?
Which wishes were implemented by the architect?
A mixture of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion?

Property data of a residential house plan: ground floor 65 m² (700 sq ft), upper floor 64 m² (690 sq ft), total 129 m² (1390 sq ft), garage 33 m² (355 sq ft).

White two-story villa with gable roof, garage, two cars, balcony with people.

Modern white two-story villa with terrace, people on the deck, cars in driveway.

Isometric 3D view of a white house with dark roof, terrace with people and cars.

Modern white single-family house with terrace, garden furniture, orange parasol, car and people.

Basement floor plan with technical room / utility room, hallway, sleeping area, living, kitchen, bathroom and garage.

Ground floor plan: living / dining, kitchen, hallway, terrace; scale 1:100.

Attic floor plan: bedroom, two children’s rooms, bathroom, hallway; scale 1:100

Northeast and northwest views of a modern house on a sloped site with windows and garage.

Architectural plan: house with garage, stairs, terrace; sections and elevations

-XIII-23 May 2020 17:50

#19

hampshire schrieb:

For accessory dwelling units (ADUs), a property owner can receive excellent grants and calculate a business case that, given current interest rates, is a safe bet—even when assuming periods of rental vacancy. However, maintaining a higher liquidity reserve is advisable in the accessory apartment model.

Here it comes again, this "one." When it comes to investments, it doesn’t matter where the money comes from—financing costs are simply part of the expenses. There are four questions to answer:

How much am I putting in?
How much will I get out?
By when will I have recouped my investment?
How confident can I be that my answers to the first three questions are correct?

Usually, I appreciate your balanced perspective, but here I find what you say quite risky. This is not a professional investment environment, and such general advice is more likely to harm the original poster than help them.
And what good are the best repayment grants in 10 years if now there isn’t enough money to put the roof on the house (to put it somewhat bluntly)?

hampshire23 May 2020 17:58

#20

-XIII- schrieb:

Normally, I am a fan of your balanced perspective, but here I find what you wrote quite risky.

Thank you – it can indeed be misunderstood. Therefore, I add: If the project is planned very tightly, do not include the accessory apartment in the financing if you want to be on the safe side.

hanse98723 May 2020 18:21

#21

hampshire schrieb:

I like the house design. It is straightforward and intended for people who want to live with few belongings — the available floor space, for example, would be more than enough for us. Apparently, that’s not the case for @hanse987. Nevertheless, the comment is very useful because you need to know what you’re getting into.

Views can be very different. I already need a room just for my hobbies!

But where would you put the things you need every day? Vacuum cleaner, mop, bucket, cleaning supplies, broom, ... Should all of that be stored under the basement stairs and then carried down from the upper floor every time?

Since there is no crawl space, where do you store items you don’t use often, like suitcases, Christmas decorations, ...? In the end, the garage is almost the only option left.

I reviewed the elevations again. What exactly is that retrofit chimney for old buildings?
And where is the mentioned office supposed to be?

Lucky-Luke23 May 2020 19:39

#22

hanse987 schrieb:

Opinions really do differ. I definitely need a room for my hobbies!

But where would you store things you use daily? Vacuum cleaner, mop, bucket, cleaning supplies, broom, etc. Should all of these go under the basement stairs and then be carried up from the upper floor every time?

Since there’s no crawl space, where do you store items you don’t use often, like suitcases or Christmas decorations? In the end, it almost only leaves the garage.

I’ve looked at the plans again. What exactly is the retrofit chimney for old buildings?
And where is the office that was mentioned?

Office "option." Yes, yes, I know, in the dining room, but that’s exactly how I want it. I like to watch my family while I’m working or pursuing hobbies (IT and electronics nerd). If needed, there’s a glass partition.

House floor plan: kitchen, dining/living, office, hallway/foyer, shower/toilet, terrace.

ypg23 May 2020 19:40

#23

Lucky-Luke schrieb:

When I was a student, I lived in a basement apartment in a single-family house with someone. Everything was great.

But that doesn’t mean you have to build a basement apartment yourself...!
Sure... but this will just turn into the same old discussion because you insist on your point of view, argue everything your way, and would rather give up living space like in a single-family house than forego the extra income from the basement unit. I think you’re simply set on having a basement apartment. And so you build

Lucky-Luke schrieb:

the planting as well

kaho674 schrieb:

Instead of watching the kids play in the garden, you watch noisy cars pass by when you’re sitting at the table.

... or an unkempt garage roof. Don’t tell me about green roofing or planting on a roof terrace. You only manage to get garden tools or water into that area by going through a lot of effort. You do it for half a season and then give up on nice greenery on that terrace. All effort, no success—but there’s always charming plastic privacy screens you can fall back on.

hampshire schrieb:

For basement apartments, a builder can get great subsidies and run a business case,

hampshire schrieb:

How much do I get back?

How much am I investing for others? What am I sacrificing? Privacy in the single-family house! A basement apartment doesn’t make sense here: best hillside location facing south and west, entrance facing northeast—you could plan a fantastic 160m² (1,722 sq ft) solely for yourself if you’re willing to walk down the stairs to the basement living area. Instead, you build the basement apartment right in the middle of the plot, which you—or your student tenant’s car—have to constantly drive around, and where the tenant will park their own car. Rear exterior stairway, and I bet there will be one in front too. Garages are not continuously used as passageways into the house (only in the wildest dreams of a Barbie dream house). The kids park their fleet in front of the garage and the basement unit’s door and circle around the house including the parking space to get inside. What madness to have the tenant constantly on display and share the garage driveway with their entrance?! And then there’s that ’90s-era roof terrace perched like a cage on top of the garage. The slope is absolutely misused here.
If the basement apartment were located somewhere other than the rear part of the property, it would be different, but here I just see the quite compact construction as not compatible with a basement apartment.

Lucky-Luke schrieb:

I would welcome architect’s/drawer’s mistakes!

Missing parking space, as @hanse987 already pointed out. Your own house and tenant’s “slave” always on display like you both are. Architects rarely consider this. They also don’t care where shoes, file folders, or beer crates go.
Garden use: after work, the plants are watered while the grill is fired up. Should the hose run through the kitchen?

hanse987 schrieb:

But where would you put the everyday items like vacuum cleaner, mop, bucket, cleaning supplies, broom, …? Should all of that be stored under the basement stairs and carried down from the upper floor every time?

Lucky-Luke schrieb:

Looking forward to your feedback of any kind,

From the outside, the house has lost much of its original concept. The small roof overhang, the rational windows, and the three stories make it look like a multi-family house with little charm. The window sills restrict views of the property.
That would all be fine if you were building a house where you can express yourself. But I don’t see that here.
A dedicated office space is nowhere to be found.

Crossy23 May 2020 20:43

#24

My feedback: Don’t make yourself unhappy. This is well beyond your budget.
Your basement will cost almost the same as your other floors. Or do you think it will be cheaper? In (mostly) living space quality.

I bet that, all in all, you will end up closer to 500,000–550,000.

ᐅ Plans Ready Just Before Applying for Building Permit – Your Feedback?

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