ᐅ Single-Family Home – New Construction Project from Day One – And the Planning Begins

Tamstar schrieb:

I found the floor plan from #115 to be more streamlined. Not ideal (e.g., small cloakroom, huge open space in front of the living room...), but better suited as a planning basis.

There were several things about #115 that bothered us:

- The square rooms are certainly practical, but we feel they completely lose the sense of coziness. We are big fans of functional and cozy niches. I think the current design reflects this well.
- A pantry accessible only through a door in the kitchen row is a "no-go" for us. Still, the pantry should be directly accessible from the kitchen, which brings me to the next point.
- We don't like the position of the staircase. We would prefer it on the other side. Otherwise, when standing in the hallway, you basically stand directly in the kitchen. The staircase should serve as a room divider between the hallway and kitchen.
- The gallery is in the wrong place.
- Also, there is no cloakroom on the ground floor.
- Overall, the floor plan is too large. Currently, it’s 190 m² (2,045 sq ft). We would prefer something around 180 m² (1,938 sq ft).
- Furthermore, we don't like the exterior view with the windows. We tried to improve this in our current floor plan.

11ant schrieb:

I couldn’t have said it better.

Then please name the software, so others who are amateur planners can try it—that’s exactly the right tool to prevent naive expectations of centimeter-precise accuracy from even arising. Many amateur planners unfortunately get tempted by the idea of fitting their furniture exactly without considering tolerances, plastering, and so on.

If you’re already wisely making such plans, I’d group identical windows together and, for example, refer to windows 3/5/13/15 as 3/3A/3B/3C. This way, one is less likely to create a confusing mix of window formats. It also reduces the risk of specifying easily confused elements with very similar dimensions.

I’ve mentioned that several times in different places. Soon, I might be mistaken for a WH sales rep. It is the floor plan software from Weberhaus.

We worked room by room and numbered the windows.

kbt09 schrieb:

I’m going to agree with that... what happened to 115? A tiny walk-in closet as a trapped room, an extra corridor in front of the kids’ rooms... what convinced you of this?

Instead of the gallery in 115, you could add a small utility room for the washing machine/vacuum cleaner, etc., preferably at the top of the plan. Clean up the ground floor a bit in 115. But not 145.

The walk-in closet has 5.2 m² (56 sq ft). Additionally, there is a built-in wardrobe in the hallway for bed linens, etc. The size is sufficient for us. We simply prefer a walk-in closet rather than a true dressing room.

Washing machine/dryer/vacuum cleaner etc. will go in the utility/technical room.

Tassimat schrieb:

Unfortunately, I haven’t followed this thread, but looking at the front of the house in #115, it somehow lacks normally sized windows. Maybe it’s just my personal taste, but if possible, I would prefer a half-decent symmetrical window arrangement. Not easy on the ground floor: on one side there’s the toilet and utility room, on the other side the office wall is in the way. I also don’t know if I like that kids’ room 1, for example, has both a floor-to-ceiling window and a regular one.

I think the walls don’t line up in #145. The parents’ bathroom upstairs is 4 m (13 ft) wide, utility room + toilet are 3.8 m (12 ft 6 inches).

At first glance, I don’t like the narrow 1 m (3 ft 3 inches) hallway in the new 145.

Oh dear, I’ve only been complaining.

Oh, nonsense! I prefer criticism over flattery any day!

I’m 100% with you on the windows in #115!

We are also very skeptical about the width of the upstairs hallway. We have already considered whether it would make sense to increase to 1.20 m (4 ft). We’ll have to discuss that with the architect at the right time. To prevent the children’s hallway from being too dark, we currently plan two roughly 1 m (3 ft 3 inches) wide floor-to-ceiling interior windows in the wall facing the staircase.

I realize that the current floor plan is not for fans of simple, straightforward, and square layouts. However, every niche and corner has its purpose and is supposed to combine coziness with functionality—as far as the theory goes.

DaSch17 schrieb:

Every niche and corner has its purpose and should combine coziness with functionality

Well, every niche also requires planning effort, carries a risk of errors, and above all, adds to the cost.

DaSch17 schrieb:

I have mentioned it several times in different places. Soon people will think I am a WH sales representative. The floor plan designer is from Weberhaus.

Thanks, I will take a look at it.

DaSch17 schrieb:

We worked room by room and numbered the windows.

I think that’s a good approach and would only deviate where an element repeats in the same size—either identical or reversed in orientation.

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A brief update...

We have now received a first revised offer for our floor plan #145. With turnkey completion at KfW 40 Plus standard and premium fittings, the price is now 440,500 EUR (approximately 2,200 EUR/m²) including the 21 m² (230 ft²) garage area.

We are currently considering how to best use the remaining budget. At the top of our priority list is upgrading from plastic windows to wood-aluminum windows.

Regarding the circulation routes and functionality of the individual rooms, the builder’s planner has no concerns. We have only made minor adjustments, such as modifying the corridor width on the upper floor to 1.20 m (4 feet).

I would like to offer some criticism before you proceed with the construction.

On the ground floor, you end up walking about 7-8 meters (23-26 feet) along a narrow corridor next to the staircase block, where the pantry is hidden. The view is always facing a wall or a cabinet. Also, the view towards the upper floor is blocked by a wall. On the right, you curve through a tight spot around a fireplace (?) or a shelf to get into the living room, where the sofa and TV are squeezed into the corner. Overall, you lose a lot of usable space just for walking around. In #115, you were standing directly in the kitchen, but it did not have this long corridor that cuts the ground floor into two (too narrow) halves.

The same applies upstairs. By relocating the staircase, you create two narrow hallways that take away space from the children's bedrooms and the kids’ bathroom.

I just wanted to illustrate this clearly for you. On the upper floor, you would need to make the gallery accessible to have a second exit from the bathroom (circular flow).

Würfel* schrieb:

I’d like to offer some criticism before you go ahead with the build.

Thank you very much for taking so much time to share your concerns in such detail! I really appreciate it.

Basically, you are pointing out exactly the tricky spots where the floor plan still has some issues. That doesn’t mean we don’t already have some ideas about possible solutions. I’ll try to explain this in the following...

Würfel* schrieb:

On the ground floor, you walk about 7-8 meters along a narrow corridor next to the staircase, where the pantry is hidden.

Strictly speaking, it’s 4m (13 feet) — the length of the stairs. To avoid a cramped or tunnel-like feeling, instead of a solid wall next to the staircase, a glass partition is planned. Basically similar to this picture:

Additionally, there is quite a generous open space above the entrance/hallway, mainly due to the gallery area (marked in yellow):

The open space combined with the glass partition should hopefully prevent the hallway from feeling tunnel-like as you describe. We would like to discuss this with an architect.

Würfel* schrieb:

The view is always onto a wall (or a cabinet).

I fully agree! That is something we are still struggling with. Alternatively, there could be a floor-to-ceiling window there, allowing a view from the entrance area through the hallway to the garden. The downside is that then there would basically be no space left for a cabinet in the living area… This is another thing we’d want to review with an architect.

Würfel* schrieb:

The view into the upper floor also faces a wall.

I don’t see this as a problem at all. The hallway will be very bright. A window or something similar is not really necessary. Perhaps a picture could be hung there so you’re not just facing a plain white wall.

Würfel* schrieb:

Then on the right, you curve through a narrow spot around a fireplace (?) or shelf? to get into the living room, where the sofa and TV are squeezed into a corner.

…around a panoramic fireplace that can be seen from all corners of the living/dining/kitchen area. It is deliberately designed as a “room divider.”

This is not a narrow spot, since there is still 2.0 m (6 feet 7 inches) of space to the sliding door.

The sofa and TV are not squeezed into a corner. This is intentional, to spatially separate this area from the rest of the open living space. The distances between sofa and TV as well as the width of this “living niche” have been carefully measured and aligned using real furniture.

Würfel* schrieb:

Overall, you are wasting a lot of space just for "walking." In post #115, you were standing virtually in the kitchen, but there was no long corridor that divided the ground floor into two (too narrow) halves.

That’s true. The circulation paths take up a lot of square meters of living space. But this is simply due to the desire for an open floor plan. With 100 m² (1,076 sq ft) on the ground floor, it’s natural that quite a bit of space is used for movement.

As previously mentioned, we don’t like option #115 for several reasons. The worst part is that it feels like you are cooking in the hallway…

Würfel* schrieb:

The same applies upstairs. By moving the staircase, you create two narrow corridors that steal space from the children’s bedrooms and the kids’ bathroom.

[ATTACH alt="Dasch17-upper floor.JPG"]49718[/ATTACH]

Are the children’s bedrooms, at almost 14 m² (150 sq ft), not big enough?

The main idea for the upper floor is, among other things, to create two separate living zones by dividing the corridor: one for the parents and one for the children.

The U-shaped corridor also serves to counteract any feeling of congestion upstairs. We plan to install balustrades on both sides of the staircase as well as around the gallery area (marked in red).

This will make the upper floor hallway feel much more spacious and bring in lots of natural light through the gallery window.

Something like this, but basically mirrored, with no exterior wall on the left but another balustrade instead: