V
ViciousJake7 May 2013 08:41… or not?
Hello everyone,
my wife and I are looking for a stylish home that can meet our space requirements in a single full-story design. Unfortunately, it’s proving to be much more difficult than we expected.
Our needs:
In addition to the basic rooms—kitchen, living/dining, bedroom, bathroom—we would like:
2 children’s bedrooms
2 home offices
1 guest room
1 extra shower toilet for the children in the attic
1 guest toilet
1 utility room
We are fully aware that this number of rooms is quite unusual. However, we need the offices for work, and since our closest relatives live 140m (87 miles) away, a guest room is also necessary.
We currently have a plot reserved (1052m² (11,323 sq ft)). The budget is €400,000, minus the land (€40,000), leaving €350,000 for the house and garden. We would like to keep €10,000 as a reserve.
Because of the expected high space requirements, we favor a basement where supplies, storage, technical equipment, and my office can be housed. A prefabricated home company (solid construction) quoted us about €63,000 for the basement (+ €4,000 for two additional rooms in the floor plan).
We knew that basements no longer cost just €30,000, as they now have to meet KfW-55 energy efficiency standards (in our case). But that the price would be more than double, we did not expect.
Overall, we are quite shocked. We are currently waiting for the full offer, but we can already estimate that the cost probably starts with a 4, so it far exceeds our budget.
Included alongside the basement are some premium features: a walk-in shower (plus a shower screen €1,500 and the cost of waterproofing under the tiles), a sauna connection (sauna itself not included), and two additional Velux windows in the attic.
We realize now that we were probably too naive when approaching pricing, but it still can’t be true that you can’t find a suitable home for €350,000. We have already looked at around 100 floor plans, but without a basement and/or very extensive modifications, we never managed. From what we know, these get very, very expensive even with prefabricated homes.
Do you have any ideas, nice floor plans we might have overlooked, or practical suggestions? We currently have a general inquiry with a prefabricated home provider but have little hope…
Best regards,
Jake
Hello everyone,
my wife and I are looking for a stylish home that can meet our space requirements in a single full-story design. Unfortunately, it’s proving to be much more difficult than we expected.
Our needs:
In addition to the basic rooms—kitchen, living/dining, bedroom, bathroom—we would like:
2 children’s bedrooms
2 home offices
1 guest room
1 extra shower toilet for the children in the attic
1 guest toilet
1 utility room
We are fully aware that this number of rooms is quite unusual. However, we need the offices for work, and since our closest relatives live 140m (87 miles) away, a guest room is also necessary.
We currently have a plot reserved (1052m² (11,323 sq ft)). The budget is €400,000, minus the land (€40,000), leaving €350,000 for the house and garden. We would like to keep €10,000 as a reserve.
Because of the expected high space requirements, we favor a basement where supplies, storage, technical equipment, and my office can be housed. A prefabricated home company (solid construction) quoted us about €63,000 for the basement (+ €4,000 for two additional rooms in the floor plan).
We knew that basements no longer cost just €30,000, as they now have to meet KfW-55 energy efficiency standards (in our case). But that the price would be more than double, we did not expect.
Overall, we are quite shocked. We are currently waiting for the full offer, but we can already estimate that the cost probably starts with a 4, so it far exceeds our budget.
Included alongside the basement are some premium features: a walk-in shower (plus a shower screen €1,500 and the cost of waterproofing under the tiles), a sauna connection (sauna itself not included), and two additional Velux windows in the attic.
We realize now that we were probably too naive when approaching pricing, but it still can’t be true that you can’t find a suitable home for €350,000. We have already looked at around 100 floor plans, but without a basement and/or very extensive modifications, we never managed. From what we know, these get very, very expensive even with prefabricated homes.
Do you have any ideas, nice floor plans we might have overlooked, or practical suggestions? We currently have a general inquiry with a prefabricated home provider but have little hope…
Best regards,
Jake
B
Bauexperte7 May 2013 10:02Hello Jake,
Have you considered that one of the home offices could serve as a temporary guest room? Usually, when guests are visiting, no work is being done :-)
Where is the plot located, and what do the building setbacks and textual regulations say about it?
By the way, you are mistaken regarding the remaining budget for the house. You have less than 300,000€ left for the building itself.
Building underground is the most expensive option you can choose. That is why I initially asked about the building setbacks.
Given your budget combined with your room requirements, I would advise you to avoid prefab house suppliers and instead look for solid construction providers. If possible, forgo a basement and consider expanding the attic instead. With the right roof pitch, two home offices can easily fit in that space, and one of them can be designed to accommodate guests temporarily.
My gut feeling is that at this point you won’t find a good match with traditional suppliers; no standard plan will cover your room needs. In my opinion, you need a creative architect who, while being imaginative, keeps your budget in mind.
Regards, Bauexperte
ViciousJake schrieb:
We are fully aware that having this number of rooms is not very common. However, we need these home offices for work, and since our closest relatives live 140km (87 miles) away, a guest room is also necessary.
Have you considered that one of the home offices could serve as a temporary guest room? Usually, when guests are visiting, no work is being done :-)
ViciousJake schrieb:
We currently have a plot reserved (1052m² (11,325 sq ft)). The budget is 400,000€, minus the plot (40,000€), which leaves 350,000€ for the house and garden. We would like to plan 10,000€ as a reserve.
Where is the plot located, and what do the building setbacks and textual regulations say about it?
By the way, you are mistaken regarding the remaining budget for the house. You have less than 300,000€ left for the building itself.
ViciousJake schrieb:
Due to the expected high space requirements, we have favored a basement where storage, utility rooms, and my home office can be located. A prefab construction company (solid build) quoted us about 63,000€ for a basement (+4,000€ for two additional rooms on this plan). We knew basements no longer cost just 30,000€, since they have to be built to KfW-55 standard (in our case). But we didn’t expect more than double that.
Building underground is the most expensive option you can choose. That is why I initially asked about the building setbacks.
ViciousJake schrieb:
Do you have any ideas, nice floor plans we might have missed, or useful suggestions? Currently, we have made a first general inquiry with a prefab house supplier but have little hope...
Given your budget combined with your room requirements, I would advise you to avoid prefab house suppliers and instead look for solid construction providers. If possible, forgo a basement and consider expanding the attic instead. With the right roof pitch, two home offices can easily fit in that space, and one of them can be designed to accommodate guests temporarily.
My gut feeling is that at this point you won’t find a good match with traditional suppliers; no standard plan will cover your room needs. In my opinion, you need a creative architect who, while being imaginative, keeps your budget in mind.
Regards, Bauexperte
V
ViciousJake7 May 2013 16:55Hello Bauexperte, thank you very much for your reply.
I will go through it section by section:
Of course, we have thought about that. But legally, it is not possible for us to use the home office as a guest room.
The plot is in Lower Saxony, Diepholz district. The textual regulations state that one full story is allowed, and 0.3 is the permitted building coverage ratio.
If the building setback line means the buildable area (according to Wikipedia), then it is 0.3 of 1052m² (about 350m²).
In principle, except for the guest accommodation, yes, that’s possible. But each home office is already filled with several Billy bookcases, two desks each, etc. So it might get tight, right? Not to mention the temperatures in summer.
That is my concern as well. But whether that will work out within the budget is questionable. Not to mention the additional stress that bringing everything into the house causes… We came to the providers because we can’t just take time off and closely supervise the build, so the “one-stop solution” seemed appealing.
As I said, the big issue is that our home offices are necessary, must be lockable, and thus inaccessible to guests. In principle, one larger office would also be necessary, but then the marriage would be over before the first mortgage is even paid off 😉
Best regards, Jake
I will go through it section by section:
Bauexperte schrieb:
Have you ever considered that one of the home offices could temporarily serve as a guest room? When visitors are at the house, usually no one is working :-)
Of course, we have thought about that. But legally, it is not possible for us to use the home office as a guest room.
Bauexperte schrieb:
Where is the plot located, and what do the building setback lines and textual development regulations specify?
The plot is in Lower Saxony, Diepholz district. The textual regulations state that one full story is allowed, and 0.3 is the permitted building coverage ratio.
Bauexperte schrieb:
Building into the ground is the most expensive option you can choose. That’s why I initially asked about the building setback line.
If the building setback line means the buildable area (according to Wikipedia), then it is 0.3 of 1052m² (about 350m²).
Bauexperte schrieb:
With an appropriate roof pitch, two home offices easily fit in this space, and one of them can be designed to also temporarily accommodate guests.
In principle, except for the guest accommodation, yes, that’s possible. But each home office is already filled with several Billy bookcases, two desks each, etc. So it might get tight, right? Not to mention the temperatures in summer.
Bauexperte schrieb:
From my gut feeling, at this point you are in the wrong place with traditional providers; no standard planning will fulfill your room requirements. What you probably need is a creative architect who — while being creative — keeps your budget in mind.
Regards, Bauexperte
That is my concern as well. But whether that will work out within the budget is questionable. Not to mention the additional stress that bringing everything into the house causes… We came to the providers because we can’t just take time off and closely supervise the build, so the “one-stop solution” seemed appealing.
As I said, the big issue is that our home offices are necessary, must be lockable, and thus inaccessible to guests. In principle, one larger office would also be necessary, but then the marriage would be over before the first mortgage is even paid off 😉
Best regards, Jake
If guests stay overnight 4 times a year, hotel costs would be around 400 per year.
Over 10 years, that amounts to 4,000.
Living space is more expensive.
Just a small thought 😉
Is it possible to count the additional home offices towards the house? I mean in terms of taxes somehow? And include that accordingly in the financing?
Also just a thought – unfortunately, I’m not an expert in these matters…
Over 10 years, that amounts to 4,000.
Living space is more expensive.
Just a small thought 😉
Is it possible to count the additional home offices towards the house? I mean in terms of taxes somehow? And include that accordingly in the financing?
Also just a thought – unfortunately, I’m not an expert in these matters…
V
ViciousJake7 May 2013 17:41Hello ypg,
I think the next hotel is about 15km (9 miles) away 😉 So in the evening, relaxing with wine or whisky will only be possible by taxi 🙁
And the property tax can be deducted later on your taxes. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really help much with the financing either.
Regards, Jake
I think the next hotel is about 15km (9 miles) away 😉 So in the evening, relaxing with wine or whisky will only be possible by taxi 🙁
And the property tax can be deducted later on your taxes. Unfortunately, that doesn’t really help much with the financing either.
Regards, Jake
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