Hello everyone 🙂
finally, the time has come – the contract with the general contractor is signed, the first draft from the architectural firm has arrived, and so has the disappointment 🙁
I have revised the questionnaire and only included the relevant points:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size – 1461 sqm (15715 sq ft)
Floor area ratio (FAR) – 0.4
Site coverage ratio – 0.4
Building envelope, building line and boundary – 3 m (10 ft) – garage allowed on boundary (see attachment)
Number of floors – 1 full story
Roof shape – 22°-50° (22°-50°) hip or gable roof
Homeowner Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type – bungalow without angle, but (*sigh*) now with a 25° hip roof
Number of residents, age – 2 (29, 35) – 1 child planned
Overnight guests per year – about 10
Open kitchen, kitchen island – semi-open / kitchen separated from dining area by sliding door
Number of dining seats – 6 to 8
Garage – double garage with extension
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why certain things are or are not wanted:
- Desired rooms: 2 children’s rooms, 1 bedroom with adjoining walk-in closet, living/dining area with semi-open kitchen, guest WC with shower, main bathroom with shower and bathtub, utility room.
- Separation of public and private areas
Excerpt from my notes to the architectural firm:
Bedroom:
- Preferably north-facing, no terrace access
- Walk-in closet attached
- Bed including nightstands requires approx. 3.10 m (10 ft) room width and approx. 2.50 m (8 ft) room depth
Children’s Rooms:
- Preferably on south side
- Separate from living area
- Room size between 13 and 15 sqm (140 and 161 sq ft)
Utility Room:
- Space for geothermal system and other technical equipment, washing machine
- Storage space plus room for potential later-installed photovoltaic battery
- Access to garage if possible
Hallway:
- Width approx. 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) to 1.80 m (6 ft) – at least in the entrance area
- Hallway to private rooms may be narrower
Kitchen:
- Terrace access
- Preferably north-facing
- Separable from dining room by sliding door
- No kitchen island
- Pantry if possible
Living and Dining Area:
- Dining table length approx. 2.20 m (7 ft 3 in)
- Terrace access
Living/dining area and kitchen preferably arranged in an L-shape
That’s about all for our wishes 🙂
House Design
Design by:
- Architect based on the above wishes
What do you especially like? Why? – the separation between public and private areas
What do you dislike? Why? – living/dining and kitchen area is too small for us; utility room door leads outside; walk-in closet is not attached to bedroom; no sliding door between kitchen and dining room
Price estimate: fixed price for construction start 2022 – $252k including various special features (e.g., electric blinds, integrated insect screens, two-tone windows, aluminum front door, underfloor heating with cooling function, 6 LAN outlets, garage slab 6x9 m (20x30 ft), ...)
Personal maximum budget for the house, including equipment: $320k without ancillary building costs
Preferred heating technology: geothermal with deep drilling (already included in the house price)
If you had to give up* on certain details or expansions:
- Could give up: access from garage to utility room (already removed due to specific property), pantry (also removed)
- Cannot give up: walk-in closet, spacious living/kitchen/dining area
Since I am not sure if I am allowed to share the architect’s draft, I have sketched the floor plan on graph paper and would like your opinions.
Exterior walls are 36.5 Poroton (approx. 14 inches), interior walls according to specifications are 11.5 and 17.5 Poroton (approx. 5 and 7 inches).
Furniture measurements (except those mentioned above) are not yet known, as these will be purchased new after moving in.
I once started another thread (gable roof bungalow 145 sqm (1560 sq ft) feasible) – but somehow I’m unable to link it :-/
The images are only available as JPGs 🙁
If I forgot anything or anything is unclear – please tell me 😀
Thanks in advance for your suggestions 🙂
Regards
finally, the time has come – the contract with the general contractor is signed, the first draft from the architectural firm has arrived, and so has the disappointment 🙁
I have revised the questionnaire and only included the relevant points:
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size – 1461 sqm (15715 sq ft)
Floor area ratio (FAR) – 0.4
Site coverage ratio – 0.4
Building envelope, building line and boundary – 3 m (10 ft) – garage allowed on boundary (see attachment)
Number of floors – 1 full story
Roof shape – 22°-50° (22°-50°) hip or gable roof
Homeowner Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type – bungalow without angle, but (*sigh*) now with a 25° hip roof
Number of residents, age – 2 (29, 35) – 1 child planned
Overnight guests per year – about 10
Open kitchen, kitchen island – semi-open / kitchen separated from dining area by sliding door
Number of dining seats – 6 to 8
Garage – double garage with extension
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why certain things are or are not wanted:
- Desired rooms: 2 children’s rooms, 1 bedroom with adjoining walk-in closet, living/dining area with semi-open kitchen, guest WC with shower, main bathroom with shower and bathtub, utility room.
- Separation of public and private areas
Excerpt from my notes to the architectural firm:
Bedroom:
- Preferably north-facing, no terrace access
- Walk-in closet attached
- Bed including nightstands requires approx. 3.10 m (10 ft) room width and approx. 2.50 m (8 ft) room depth
Children’s Rooms:
- Preferably on south side
- Separate from living area
- Room size between 13 and 15 sqm (140 and 161 sq ft)
Utility Room:
- Space for geothermal system and other technical equipment, washing machine
- Storage space plus room for potential later-installed photovoltaic battery
- Access to garage if possible
Hallway:
- Width approx. 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in) to 1.80 m (6 ft) – at least in the entrance area
- Hallway to private rooms may be narrower
Kitchen:
- Terrace access
- Preferably north-facing
- Separable from dining room by sliding door
- No kitchen island
- Pantry if possible
Living and Dining Area:
- Dining table length approx. 2.20 m (7 ft 3 in)
- Terrace access
Living/dining area and kitchen preferably arranged in an L-shape
That’s about all for our wishes 🙂
House Design
Design by:
- Architect based on the above wishes
What do you especially like? Why? – the separation between public and private areas
What do you dislike? Why? – living/dining and kitchen area is too small for us; utility room door leads outside; walk-in closet is not attached to bedroom; no sliding door between kitchen and dining room
Price estimate: fixed price for construction start 2022 – $252k including various special features (e.g., electric blinds, integrated insect screens, two-tone windows, aluminum front door, underfloor heating with cooling function, 6 LAN outlets, garage slab 6x9 m (20x30 ft), ...)
Personal maximum budget for the house, including equipment: $320k without ancillary building costs
Preferred heating technology: geothermal with deep drilling (already included in the house price)
If you had to give up* on certain details or expansions:
- Could give up: access from garage to utility room (already removed due to specific property), pantry (also removed)
- Cannot give up: walk-in closet, spacious living/kitchen/dining area
Since I am not sure if I am allowed to share the architect’s draft, I have sketched the floor plan on graph paper and would like your opinions.
Exterior walls are 36.5 Poroton (approx. 14 inches), interior walls according to specifications are 11.5 and 17.5 Poroton (approx. 5 and 7 inches).
Furniture measurements (except those mentioned above) are not yet known, as these will be purchased new after moving in.
I once started another thread (gable roof bungalow 145 sqm (1560 sq ft) feasible) – but somehow I’m unable to link it :-/
The images are only available as JPGs 🙁
If I forgot anything or anything is unclear – please tell me 😀
Thanks in advance for your suggestions 🙂
Regards
driver55 schrieb:
You can hardly use the 2m² (22 sq ft) in the utility room right in front of the window. That space is actually good for a washer and dryer.
driver55 schrieb:
But now I have to mow the lawn... It’s stormy here 🤨
ypg schrieb:
The washing machine and dryer would fit well there.
It’s very windy here 🤨That’s exactly where the washing machine will go 😉
driver55 schrieb:
Whether the final evaluation will be negative or positive, everyone can decide for themselves.
General: I only skimmed the history, but if the contract was signed on April 30th, you can’t really expect the final floor plan just three weeks later. It doesn’t read as if there were multiple previous meetings, drafts were drawn up, and after the sixth appointment the signature was finally requested. So the contractor's brainstorming only started on April 30th.
- I’ve seen a very unusually shaped plot. The main entrance is practically around the corner of the house. You’re actually quite flexible there...
- I wouldn’t want a noisy heat pump (those don’t get quieter over the years) near the dining/living area, just like a spinning washing machine. The utility room should be located somewhere “in between” (bathroom/utility room/...) or pushed to the farthest corner of the house.
- The 2 m² (22 sq ft) in the utility room right in front of the window is hardly usable. Even a 30 cm (12 inch) shelf would block part of the window... And that’s exactly where you’d want to store all the pantry items on deep shelves. Washing, heating, and storage all on 11 m² (118 sq ft), hmm. Potatoes smelling like laundry detergent…?
- The cloakroom is too small. (If the floor plan is basically to stay as it is, I would reduce the size of the main bathroom (which could be optimized) and dedicate the whole wall to a cloakroom/shoe cabinet, etc. You don’t have any other storage space. (There’s no ladder to the attic for seasonal items like Christmas/Easter decorations, after all.)
- I read that the small office had to be sacrificed, as well as the house/garage access and the L-shaped bungalow design that was abandoned! Why?
- Maybe the kitchen could be moved “forward” (the living/dining area is deep enough), then made into a complete U shape, so the heat pump could be “hidden” behind it... but then you’d probably have to redo everything, you know what I mean...
- You can never have enough cabinets. I would try to find space in the bedroom for 2–3 m (6.5–10 ft) of wardrobe.
- The end of the hallway (child 2) will be/is dark; a small improvement would be a glass door into the living room.
- ...
As I said, you’re still at the beginning of planning, not at the final stretch.
Now I have to mow the lawn... 😉Well, highly unusual... I’d say more like special 😉 ... but at least nice and big 🙂
Regarding your comments ...
I’ll take up your note about the heat pump and look into it in more detail... My latest info was that the heat pump runs at 50 decibels—about as loud as a refrigerator... We’ll probably have to visit our friends again (they built with the same general contractor, so we assume we get the same heat pump)... but last time we didn’t consciously notice any noise in the utility room... well, we were talking anyway... If it only gets louder over its lifetime, that’s probably the least of our problems—our ears tend to get worse rather than better over time... 😉 Still—see above, I’ll take a closer look at it...
Regarding the washing machine ... phew ... I often hear this drama about noise here... ours is now 5 years old, located in the kitchen... the living room is about the same distance away (the machine is actually running right now)... I can hear it spinning—yes, but very quietly—with the doors open, if I pay attention, and the TV isn’t on... my partner doesn’t hear it at all (probably because he’s afraid of having to empty it later 😉) But well... everyone’s sensitivity to noise is different.
Potatoes smelling like detergent?! ... come on ... that’s a bit silly now 😉 ... No available space at all is probably an exaggeration... And the attic ladder is drawn in the hallway—you must have missed that when you only skimmed the thread... so there is access to the attic... Christmas decorations will definitely find their way up to the roof and back down 😉
Regarding the cloakroom ... well ... what can I say ... actually, I didn’t really want a separate one anyway 🙂
The office had to go for purely practical reasons... the other rooms had priority and there was no space left for an office... twice a week I can use my partner’s desk (or like now, work with the laptop on the couch *oooups*) and until a child arrives, we can still use the guest room as an office...
The access from the garage to the house, along with the pantry and the office, were all nice-to-haves—due to the specific plot, these were dropped... now we’re even considering whether we want to build a garage at all 😉
Why no L-shaped bungalow?! ... simply because we wanted a rectangle! 😉
A door with glass paneling will come, but it’s not essential, since the door to the living room will be permanently open anyway... otherwise the two cats would protest... :-o ... and I don’t really want to risk that—the cats are not only persistent but also loud if they don’t like something (by the way—louder than the washing machine) ... :-P Otherwise, experience has shown that in the dark, a switch can fix the problem if necessary 😉
I understand your points ... but they seem quite subjective to me ... so please forgive me if I don’t necessarily follow them...
Regardless, I already signed the contract on April 22, 2021 😉 ... without having received any drawings beforehand ... might be unusual, but I still have a very good feeling about the general contractor ... sounds strange, but it’s true... 😉 Between the first draft posted here and the current one, there have been several changes by the architectural firm, as mentioned... So I’d say we’re not at the start, but very much in the final phase 😉
But still—thanks for your input ... the heat pump point might actually not be such a bad one 🙂
Schniebi schrieb:
My latest information was that the heat pump has a noise level of 50 decibels ... similar to a refrigerator ... And what happens to refrigerators? — right, they get louder as they age!
Schniebi schrieb:
Since the door to the living room will be left open anyway ... otherwise the two cats will probably protest Installing a pet door won't significantly affect the house price ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
M
Myrna_Loy22 May 2021 17:20I really find the floor plan balanced and harmonious now.
11ant schrieb:
And what happens to refrigerators? — right, they all get noisier with age!
Adding a cat flap won’t blow the house price up ;-) Yes, but so do we, and hearing usually doesn’t improve 😉 ...
I get that ... and I’ll take care of it again ...
No, not that, but whether these cats are smart enough to understand the purpose of the cat flap — I wouldn’t bet on it 😉 ...
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