Dear forum members,
We bought a plot of land last autumn and are currently deep into the floor plan design. We would like to share our current draft with you and welcome any comments and opinions.
[F]irst some preliminary information about the plot and its buildability:[/F]
Best regards
We bought a plot of land last autumn and are currently deep into the floor plan design. We would like to share our current draft with you and welcome any comments and opinions.
[F]irst some preliminary information about the plot and its buildability:[/F]
- 1000 m² (10,764 sq ft) rear plot, southwest facing (so southwest is on the left side of the site plan)
- Building boundary up to approx. 16 m (52 ft) behind the property line (up to the dashed line on the site plan)
- No zoning plan (construction according to § 34 of the Building Code)
- Groundwater at surface level and peaty soil (exact geotechnical report pending), so piled foundation required and no basement
- Affordable! (Our maximum budget for the house including foundation slab is €230,000)
- Country house style
- Bright, large windows facing south/garden
- Open living/dining/kitchen area
- Family of four, 1 bedroom and 2 children’s rooms
- Not oversized, max 150 m² (1,615 sq ft), preferably less
- Solid construction using Ytong blocks (for us the most cost-effective option, although we would have liked to build with wood as well).
- Developed ourselves after studying various floor plans (including from the book "Affordable Building with a Small Budget" by Achim Linhardt) with support from architect friends and our planner (an independent civil engineer).
- Dimensions 12.50 x 7.50 m (41 x 25 ft) (the measurements shown on the site plan are from an earlier draft).
- What we like: open living area, all main rooms have large windows facing the garden, efficient size, although the children’s and bedroom could be smaller, sewing/work nook behind the stairs upstairs, plenty of wall space for large wardrobes in the upstairs bedroom and hallway on the ground floor, light shaft in the stairwell, staircase (we originally wanted a straight run staircase but it would have taken too much space; the one with three quarter turns is also fine with us).
- What we don’t like 100% yet: the height of the house from the outside. It is currently planned as a two-story house with an eaves height of 6.2 m (20 ft), with the ground floor 2.84 m (9 ft 4 in) high and the upper floor 2.60 m (8 ft 6 in) high. The gable roof will be an uninsulated, unfinished cold roof, mainly because of the economical prefabricated truss construction method. This is a bit disappointing because I really like sloped ceilings and did not want the character of a townhouse. Lowering the roof with a knee wall of about 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) and an insulated roof with open sloped ceilings would probably be more expensive due to the rafter/beam construction. We would also lose the garden view through the floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows.
- Simple: What do you think about the floor plan?
- Can you still imagine the relatively tall two-story house having a country house character? Maybe it depends on the facade design and choice of materials? Do you think it looks too “blocky,” especially from the front entrance side? Or would a lower eaves height with an attic conversion including a knee wall be preferable?
- We are still unsure how to arrange the windows on the garden side. The drawing with the elevations shows two possible versions. We actually prefer it when the upper floor window is centered over the lower window front. However, this does not align the interior line of sight from the entrance door to the garden/patio door (see ground floor plan). This represents version two; for version one, the window front would have to be shifted about one window width to the right, so that the patio door is behind the dining table. With the window front shifted left, the interior looks better to us, but from the outside it looks strange if it is offset from the upper floor window, right? What do you think?
Best regards
la.schnute27 Apr 2022 09:25Hello, oh my, it’s actually been half a year since we moved in. I wanted to take and share photos much earlier, but as usual... other things had priority. For example, in winter we had to remove all the window sills again because we had forgotten the moisture barrier behind them.
But now, at least some impressions from our furnished and lived-in house. There are still some cluttered corners, but those will probably stay like that for a while – maybe never fully disappear. However, we really feel comfortable here.
But now, at least some impressions from our furnished and lived-in house. There are still some cluttered corners, but those will probably stay like that for a while – maybe never fully disappear. However, we really feel comfortable here.
How did you manage with your budget?
In some areas, it’s clear that cost-conscious decisions were made. This is not meant negatively. It often allows more room for personalization.
Take the shower curtain alone—the color and texture make me curious to feel it. It doesn’t seem like a typical plastic item.
In some areas, it’s clear that cost-conscious decisions were made. This is not meant negatively. It often allows more room for personalization.
Take the shower curtain alone—the color and texture make me curious to feel it. It doesn’t seem like a typical plastic item.
la.schnute27 Apr 2022 12:21haydee schrieb:
How did you manage with your budget?
You can tell in some places that cost-saving decisions were made. That’s not meant negatively. It often leaves more room for individuality.
Just the shower curtain alone. The color, and I’m tempted to feel its texture. It doesn’t look like a plastic piece. Overall, when we moved in, the cost was about €224,000 (without pile foundation and kitchen, including the concrete slab and external shading). The budget was €230,000, so it actually worked out very well. I should mention: this really only covers the house itself, excluding additional costs like land development, surveying, or landscaping. That’s how I had stated it when I created the thread. Additional costs for things like land development, pile foundation, and the kitchen add another €100,000 on top. Whatever is left now will be invested in the surroundings.
So, we didn’t quite have the budget to move into a house on a perfectly designed plot with a blooming garden 😉. Garden landscaping will happen gradually. We recently commissioned a covered entrance and a porch. The terrace will be built later this year as a DIY project, and the driveway paving will also be done later this year. However, paving is incredibly expensive, so that probably won’t happen. We’re considering a gravel or crushed stone driveway cover and will see how that works out.
The shower curtain is nice, isn’t it? 🙂 It’s made of linen with a waterproof liner and was quite expensive for a shower curtain. But still cheaper than a glass screen.
Although I have to confess, since moving in six months ago, only ONCE have my sister and her husband used the downstairs shower on New Year’s Eve. Otherwise, it’s been completely unused by us so far. This reminds me of the saying that a second shower is often unnecessary... maybe it will come in handy when the kids go through puberty.
We are generally satisfied with the floor plan. A few small things become apparent in daily life that aren’t perfect, or that we initially underestimated:
- My sewing and home office space is upstairs in the walk-in closet with a sliding door separating it from the bedroom. The sliding door does not block much sound at all. Sewing while my partner is trying to sleep is almost impossible. Also, my home office is quite isolated, and when the delivery person comes, I have to rush through the ENTIRE house to open the gate. I’m already thinking about moving my desk and sewing area to the gallery sometime. There’s enough space there.
- We still really like the staircase in the living room in almost every situation. But when everyone wants to use the bathroom upstairs at the same time, the way to the downstairs bathroom is longer than if the staircase ended near the front door and thus close to the guest bathroom. Generally, I don’t like walking barefoot through the sometimes sandy entrance area to the guest bathroom in the mornings. But having a bathroom right next to the living room/kitchen isn’t ideal either. I don’t know how that could have been optimized. Hopefully the hallway won’t be so sandy once our entrance porch is finished.
- When the kids are home in the afternoon hanging out or roughhousing on the sofa, it can be hard for my partner to concentrate while working in the home office. We could still put up a wall and a door between the living and work areas. But then we wouldn’t be able to hang our hammock anymore 😉. And between hammock and peace for working, the hammock will probably win 😉.
Well, in the end, you always have to make compromises, set priorities for your own wishes, and cannot fulfill everything. This is especially true when more people live together. But fundamentally, we feel very comfortable, and there’s no major flaw that makes us regret anything we would have done completely differently afterwards.
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