ᐅ Floor plan of a 1.5-story house with a captain’s gable, covering just under 200 square meters

blubbernase schrieb:
ok, and now?

Many have pointed out where the floor plan is problematic – myself included. Redesign it completely instead of just moving walls around in a suboptimal layout. Brick facades in Lower Saxony are quite common.

K1300S schrieb:

You still have some time, although depending on the provider, not much. But you’re building in NI? I’m not familiar with that area, but in NRW there are quite a few good general contractors who are happy to do a custom design with you. Ours even got really excited when we mentioned we wanted brickwork. (That probably doesn’t happen every day anymore.) You need one like that too.

I’ve called all sorts of companies here. Many drop out as soon as I say we don’t want in-person first meetings but rather want to do everything via Zoom/Teams. Then not all of them offer painting/flooring. Some say the client really needs to be involved onsite during construction to resolve many things. Those are all deal breakers. Some take several weeks just to get back to us and are unavailable during that time. With long-distance building, that’s a direct exclusion criterion. We still have Roth Massivbau on our radar, but we don’t feel comfortable there.

We had one company, Ö-Haus, but unfortunately, they don’t build in our area.

driver55 schrieb:

Well, you basically dismissed almost everything: kitchen table that doesn’t fit front or back, kitchen generally unergonomic, 0.5 sqm (5 sq ft) “rooms,” roof windows, etc.
Nothing really fits together in that house, which is why I only criticized the 42 (square meters/square feet) for hallway/stairs/living area. The rest is pointless because “moving walls” won’t improve it either.

Well, I’m missing the why.

Kitchen table: we arranged the kitchen around this table with boxes and a cupboard here and didn’t find it cramped at all. So I can’t understand the “doesn’t fit” comment.
Why is the kitchen unergonomic? It’s just a regular L-shape. Again, I can’t follow that comment.

0.5 sqm (5 sq ft) room: in our current rented house, we have two of those “mini rooms” and love them! Everything sorted inside, vacuum cleaner fits, spare parts, toolkit. Why is that bad? We’ve lived with it for five years and find it great.

Well, you don’t have to respond to this; I just wanted to show why I simply don’t get these comments. I’ll just take away that they don’t like it. Other than “too much hallway,” I couldn’t find any objective points. The routes we use frequently are not really long; the way to the front door is long, and that’s also my initial question: does that eventually get really annoying?

haydee schrieb:

Redesign instead of moving walls in a suboptimal floor plan.

We definitely won’t do a full redesign if we like everything except the entrance area.

blubbernase schrieb:

Many already lose interest when I say that we won’t have in-person initial meetings but want to do everything via Zoom/Teams.

That’s quite unusual. I know this might not help you now, but we handled it the same way with our provider (due to COVID). It was new and unfamiliar to them too, but they accepted it without complaints, even though we are only 100 km (62 miles) apart. So you probably just had bad luck.

Maybe you could ask again here in the forum with an approximate location of your building site. Someone here might know a suitable contact.

Alright, let’s do the calculation example for the kitchen table: room width 4.21m (14 feet), cabinet 63cm (25 inches) away, door opened 90cm (35 inches), leaving 2.68m (8 feet 9 inches) for table and chairs. Table is 1m (3 feet 3 inches) wide, chair depth about 2 x 60cm (24 inches), leaving just under 50cm (20 inches) for all maneuvering activities, walking space, getting up, pushing the chairs back, or someone automatically getting a chair in their back.

- From a traffic flow perspective, an L-shaped layout is not the best choice. On top of that, you’re either constantly walking around the dining table (as currently drawn) or pushing it further towards the terrace (which in my opinion is too small for the cabin and number of people). This creates a bottleneck to get to the piano, the terrace, the "play corner" (where are things supposed to be stored there, since there is no cupboard depth?) and the passage to the living room.
- A couch for 5 people (plus possible guests) is planned as a 3-seater sofa. A chair in the bay window might be a bit tight if it’s meant for watching along, and a chaise lounge approximately 1.6m (5 feet 3 inches) deep isn’t very big; a longer one would extend into the hallway passage.
- A half-height partition wall for the TV would be better if it were at least an extension of the bay window wall, so you wouldn’t have that awkward extra corner.
- A small room or built-in cupboard can work well if the niche allows. But installing additional "protrusions with less space than a regular cupboard," as in the kitchen, seems odd to us.
- If you’re not tall, you might be able to manage under the sloped ceiling. Is that really the standard for your house in an overall project that could soon run into seven figures depending on the plot? Just “it works”?
- Two bathrooms upstairs but only one where all 5 people are supposed to shower.
- Toilet on the ground floor; on your drawing, the toilet with the angled installation has only about 5cm (2 inches) clearance to the door, and the passage into the shower is just under 60cm (24 inches) depth 75cm (30 inches)?
- Two doors in the vestibule and two more in the garage — I would optimize to remove at least one to create more wall space, probably even two.
- On the ground floor you have about 20sqm (215 sq ft) hallway/vestibule space. Available coat storage is the 0.49m² (5.3 sq ft) wall cupboard plus the three colorful boxes in the vestibule, but max 40cm (16 inches) deep. Additionally, the hallway lacks the feel of a gallery or similar; it really is just a relatively dark connecting corridor.

Here it is not a lack of space; there is at least enough area and the individual room sizes listed on paper seem quite plausible at first. The bedroom could use a bit more room for more than 2m (6 feet 6 inches) of wardrobes for two people 😉.

The transit area, which only costs space but yields nothing because of the design that prevents wardrobe, built-in cupboard, or storage options, is disproportionately large and thus expensive. The partial basement will probably not provide a cost advantage due to the necessary connection with the foundation slab.

You are entitled to the “coziness,” but personally, I wouldn’t enjoy walking through 3 doors and 15–20m (50–65 feet) of the house with every grocery bag, so yes, I would find that quite annoying. Like everything else, just a food for thought 😉

And yes, this is very direct, but I hope it makes you question some things. If all answers are “Great, we want it exactly like that,” then good luck with the project and hopefully a reliable builder or similar.

Let me put it another way.
If you have to move around boxes inside a 200 m² (2,150 sq ft) house just to check if the table fits, something is wrong.
And I really wonder again whether you don’t see the mess!?
There’s only 50 cm (20 inches) clearance from the cupboard (and that only when sitting at the table), with the door right behind you on the other side.
All that, but with 25 m² (270 sq ft) of hallway/living space.

And a kitchen measuring over 3.50 + 4.2 meters (11.5 + 13.8 feet) is not a normal L-shape.

And so on, and so forth.

blubbernase schrieb:

I just wanted to show why I simply can’t make sense of the comments.

blubbernase schrieb:

I’m just taking away that it’s not liked.

Let’s put it this way: it’s poorly executed or not done professionally.
……..

blubbernase schrieb:

It fits on the lot like this, the terrace is really quite small.

Personally, I also don’t get much from a statement like that. I wonder: is there any personal feeling, passion, or excitement for this house at all? Is there a real enthusiasm to finally realize the big dream, or is it just about taking your small rooms and what you know, your rented average home 500 km away for the necessary move?

blubbernase schrieb:

Thanks for the feedback, but I find it hard to take anything concrete from it except "go to the architect."

Yes, I understand. Usually, that is actually the core message.
In this case, if it is indeed going to be built with Gussek Haus (which unfortunately is nowhere stated), then the expert for you is the architect from Gussek Haus. They owe you a house design that you can be happy with.

blubbernase schrieb:

We have to see during the selections, going Friday for the preliminary selections.

I think you haven’t planned any criticism or changes at all, right?!

blubbernase schrieb:

Or basically walk through the front garden to the upper floor every evening because the staircase is right at the entrance, shudder.

Such staircases are planned for very small houses because they use the least amount of space. No reason to ridicule—or shudder at—it.

blubbernase schrieb:

All these floor plans where you can see the couch or living room table right from the entrance are an absolute horror for us.

That is often done intentionally because it gives the feeling that the house invites you to feel comfortable. You can see what’s beautiful waiting for you. That brings joy, even when your hands are full of shopping.

… but now to the fundamentals, from which hopefully you can draw conclusions for yourself.

blubbernase schrieb:

Knee wall is planned with about 130cm (51 inches) and above the toilets there will be Velux windows, so that should negate it, we’re not that tall either.

- The front edge of a toilet must be at least 2 meters (6 ft 7 in) high according to technical standards.

- Velux skylights are expensive and considered emergency escape windows; they are used to improve ceiling height mostly in renovations.

- Staying with the attic: the bathroom needs a proper window.
- For a household of up to 5 people, the bathtub should be larger than just a seat-sized tub. Plan storage space as well.
- The shower screen is too short and blocks light for the sink area (if the gable also ever gets the required window).

- Washing machine and dryer in a secondary bathroom: try running a full load plus handwashing plus drying and interim storage daily until the weekend for ironing.

- Children’s rooms are on the east side, so they get light only when they’re at school.

- The windows are too small for the rooms, roughly 1/8 to 1/10 of the floor area.

- The east facade looks like the bricklayer was drunk.

- The south facade with the different window widths looks like the carpenter lost his mind—or the designer.

Looking at the ground floor:
- You yourself noted the terrace is too small. It can probably be paved larger.
- The table is in the kitchen’s way when the outdoor table is set, presumably daily in summer?!
- Kitchen is too far from the terrace.
- Patio furniture blocks the door.
- Kitchen has no tall cabinet for the oven.
- Side-by-side fridge is too narrow and cannot be opened properly.
- The kitchen run will be too small over the years; chairs block 1/4 of the cabinets as well as the cook.

- Storage room ruins the space and takes necessary area.
- Piano by the south window: the sun will damage it.
- Basement stairs open outward, not inward: that makes them a nuisance in the hallway.

- The hallway is too long and narrows like a telescope…
/ No wardrobe. Do you only own one jacket and a few pairs of shoes?

blubbernase schrieb:

How silly is such a long hallway? We have a construction deadline by when it must be ready to live in by 2023. The architects just took forever.

A long hallway is really impractical!
Hopefully architects don’t just throw something together quickly, so it takes time. Especially with many clients.

blubbernase schrieb:

Why is the kitchen unergonomic? It’s just a normal L-shape. I don’t understand that comment.

That might be because you simply don’t or don’t want to think about it.
Google “kitchen ergonomics.”

In your case, the annoying table is obvious; the person sitting there gets the drawer handle right between their shoulder… okay, you can move the table. But you can’t claim not to see the bottlenecks there?! 🤨

blubbernase schrieb:

“Mini rooms” and we think they’re great! Everything’s sorted in there, vacuum cleaner fits, spare parts, screw set. Why is that bad? We’ve lived with it for 5 years and love it.

We live in the 21st century; half-rooms are no longer noteworthy.
Maybe you should put your “great” rooms in the basement?

blubbernase schrieb:

That’s actually my initial question: does it eventually get really annoying?

That hallway annoys me just by looking at it.
I come home with my work bag and two other bags…I have no free hand to turn on the light, and I definitely wouldn’t want to walk such long distances. It’s like a dark abyss as long as my entire house… you can’t sugarcoat everything.