ᐅ 170 m² single-family house in rural Bavaria

To be honest, not at all. We don’t have any and don’t plan to install any.

We have a gazebo with sliding panels, mainly because we struggle more with sunlight coming in from the side. It is removed in autumn. We definitely notice how shading reduces the amount of light inside.

With glass, I would be concerned about heat buildup.

Play areas like sandboxes, paddling pools, and swimming pools are covered by sun sails.

One was planned initially, but now we don’t want one. Maybe the next summers will be rainier, and I’ll present one in 2023. It can be retrofitted. I just wanted to mention that 3 meters (10 feet) is too shallow. Especially at the garden table, people don’t always sit straight. Chairs get pushed back, people slouch, there’s a lot of movement. Suddenly, someone ends up with half the chair on the grass.

I don’t like the floor plan. For example, I would expect the staircase to be on the northeast side facing the street, so the office can be oriented towards the garden on the southeast side. This would also allow you to mirror the upper floor and place the master bedroom on the quiet garden side instead of by the street.

I would give the master bedroom 3 sqm (32 sq ft) more, taking 3 sqm (32 sq ft) away from one of the children’s rooms to keep it fair. For parents, 14 sqm (150 sq ft) including the closet is really tight. A different layout would be necessary to achieve this space distribution. The door to the small bathroom next to the head of the bed and the toilet flush directly on the partition wall mean that this bathroom can’t be used without disturbing someone sleeping in the bed. I would probably make the small bathroom accessible from the hallway, so anyone can use it as a secondary bathroom if the family bathroom is occupied. Then put the toilet, sink, and shower fittings on the exterior wall.

Especially on the ground floor, I find the hallways oversized. In my opinion, that’s wasted space. A half-bathroom doesn’t need 4.5 sqm (48 sq ft) without a shower; half that would be sufficient. I would place the pantry in the basement and have just a large storage cupboard in the kitchen. In the basement, you have a better chance of keeping food cool than on the southeast side next to the kitchen. Plus, there’s plenty of space in the basement, which is missing in the living-dining-kitchen area. Compared to the house size, it’s pretty cramped. The pantry would best go right under the stairs in the basement, giving the shortest route from the entrance when you come home with groceries.

Cold air doesn’t rise, and finished basements are not really cold. That’s why a windbreak (vestibule/mudroom) is generally no longer necessary nowadays. At least in my house, cold air has never come up from the basement.

I find the exterior quite bland because all the windows are perfectly aligned. I would make the dining area glazed much more generously, possibly with corner windows. I’m also not a fan of placing the sofa in front of a window; I would rather put the TV below the window, in a corner, or on the northwest wall and enjoy the view outside. So, the sofa should be placed along the office wall.

For the terrace roof, I would choose glass including shading options or a retractable louvered roof. However, this does not work with the extra strip on the southeast side. What is that for?

What I like: the separate cloakroom and the half-landing staircase.

Of course, the question is how to design the roof over the bay window when using glass or louvers. I think the kitchen bay with a framed roof looks much nicer.

Adding glazing around the corner might be a change worth considering. And the "neatly stacked windows" are the traditional style I prefer. I’m a very organized person, so that probably reflects in my choice.

The pantry in the kitchen isn’t my idea, but my wife’s. Otherwise, I could move in alone 😉

Having the bedroom facing east has the downside of a nearby draft corridor. Facing west offers more quiet (although it might be a bit warmer in the summer).

XxTankerxX schrieb:

Otherwise, I can move in alone 😉

Women 🙄 😉

XxTankerxX schrieb:

There’s a rail line nearby.

If the street is quieter, that definitely makes sense!

XxTankerxX schrieb:

I think the kitchen bay window with roof trim looks much nicer.

That actually confused me more: the flat roof which meets the sloped roof of the bay window at about two-thirds of its width (see southwest elevation).
By the way, glass roofs are never completely flat—you always need a slight slope. I don’t understand how a corner solution like this would work. The southwest section would have to slope in a different direction than the southeast section.

Würfel* schrieb:

Women 🙄;)

If the street is quieter, that definitely makes sense!

What confused me more was the flat roof that meets the sloped roof of the bay window at about two-thirds of its width (see southwest view).
By the way, for glass roofs there is never a 100% flat roof—you always need a slight slope. I can’t figure out how a corner solution like this is supposed to work. The southwest section has to slope in a different direction than the southeast section.

I attached an image from Google. There are plenty of ways to realize a corner design.
Clearly, it needs a certain pitch—that doesn’t bother me—but I want to keep it as flat as possible.

So either I use just a canopy on the south side and cover the bay window separately with a pitched roof. The choice of materials is easier in this case.

-Or-

A canopy extending from the south side all the way to the east side and over the bay window, all neatly integrated in one go. However, this raises the question of material selection.