ᐅ Realistic Cost Estimate: Single-Family Home with Challenging Site Access
Created on: 20 Jan 2023 10:50
S
schmeissrein
Hello everyone,
I have been following this forum for a while and first of all, a big thank you to everyone who shares their advice here and sometimes also speaks hard truths. I didn’t originally want to create a new thread but intended to form an opinion based on other discussions. However, you convinced me that this building project is too individual for that. So here is our plan:
- Building a new single-family house in the far north of Germany (Schleswig-Flensburg region).
- Plot size is over 1000sqm (10,764 sq ft).
- Total square meters are not so important as long as the layout works.
- Basement is not planned.
What we would like:
- Open-plan kitchen-living area of at least 36m² (388 sq ft).
- Guest room (at least 10m² / 108 sq ft) and small guest bathroom with shower on the ground floor, so that in old age, with disability, or a broken leg, the ground floor can be used independently and possibly serve as a bedroom.
- Utility room / storage room / pantry with heat pump of at least 8m² (86 sq ft) (KfW 40 standard would be great, of course).
- Upper floor with three rooms (1 office, 1 master bedroom, 1 child’s room) each at least 14m² (151 sq ft) and one bathroom. Our dream would be a “walk-in” (what a silly word – aren’t all showers walk-in?) shower to avoid having to clean those limescale-rusty, annoying shower enclosures.
- We could contribute labor for garden landscaping and painting/wallpapering; otherwise, we would prefer a turnkey build.
As for the house style, regionally typical Frisian houses or captain’s houses (with all the “cute” features like small gables, etc.) are in consideration, or also not completely unimaginative “normal” single-family houses. We are not afraid of Bauhaus-style concrete marvels either, but those tend to be more expensive. In terms of fittings, no “gold-plated faucets” and no smart home – but decent and presentable.
The big BUT: the plot is not connected to utilities, and the distance to the street is about 65m (213 ft), of which 50m (164 ft) is a paved driveway and paved parking area that would have to be dug up (across another property). The connection costs and incidental construction costs worry us quite a bit. Does anyone have experience with such a “mammoth connection” for a relatively small building project? What realistic costs should we expect for both?
We would greatly appreciate any thoughts on this project, thank you very much in advance!
I have been following this forum for a while and first of all, a big thank you to everyone who shares their advice here and sometimes also speaks hard truths. I didn’t originally want to create a new thread but intended to form an opinion based on other discussions. However, you convinced me that this building project is too individual for that. So here is our plan:
- Building a new single-family house in the far north of Germany (Schleswig-Flensburg region).
- Plot size is over 1000sqm (10,764 sq ft).
- Total square meters are not so important as long as the layout works.
- Basement is not planned.
What we would like:
- Open-plan kitchen-living area of at least 36m² (388 sq ft).
- Guest room (at least 10m² / 108 sq ft) and small guest bathroom with shower on the ground floor, so that in old age, with disability, or a broken leg, the ground floor can be used independently and possibly serve as a bedroom.
- Utility room / storage room / pantry with heat pump of at least 8m² (86 sq ft) (KfW 40 standard would be great, of course).
- Upper floor with three rooms (1 office, 1 master bedroom, 1 child’s room) each at least 14m² (151 sq ft) and one bathroom. Our dream would be a “walk-in” (what a silly word – aren’t all showers walk-in?) shower to avoid having to clean those limescale-rusty, annoying shower enclosures.
- We could contribute labor for garden landscaping and painting/wallpapering; otherwise, we would prefer a turnkey build.
As for the house style, regionally typical Frisian houses or captain’s houses (with all the “cute” features like small gables, etc.) are in consideration, or also not completely unimaginative “normal” single-family houses. We are not afraid of Bauhaus-style concrete marvels either, but those tend to be more expensive. In terms of fittings, no “gold-plated faucets” and no smart home – but decent and presentable.
The big BUT: the plot is not connected to utilities, and the distance to the street is about 65m (213 ft), of which 50m (164 ft) is a paved driveway and paved parking area that would have to be dug up (across another property). The connection costs and incidental construction costs worry us quite a bit. Does anyone have experience with such a “mammoth connection” for a relatively small building project? What realistic costs should we expect for both?
We would greatly appreciate any thoughts on this project, thank you very much in advance!
X
xMisterDx17 Apr 2023 13:44BackSteinGotik schrieb:
Are the 12m² (130 square feet) the total area, or 12m² (130 square feet) of living space with additional space under the sloped ceiling?
Personally, I have found that 14m² (150 square feet) of living area, plus 1-2m² (10-20 square feet) of floor space under the slopes, to be quite reasonable so far; bigger is always possible, but this size feels balanced to me. The space under the sloped ceiling is only counted at half or not at all for good reasons, since it is only partially usable. Also, I haven’t seen a knee wall (short wall) in this context.
However, looking at the drawing from Hanghaus2023, the guest room on the ground floor has exactly the same size as a child’s bedroom upstairs. That is 12.66m² (136 square feet) without a knee wall. This means the 12.66m² (136 square feet) upstairs includes the knee wall; according to the living area regulations, it comes down to about 10.5m² (113 square feet)… that is tiny.
schmeissrein17 Apr 2023 13:45Okay, we’ve established that everything is a mess 😀 now that we know what we planned wrong, does anyone have specific suggestions on how to do it better?
@K a t j a
So now we have everything from tiny to downright excessive 😀 it’s not easy to find something productive in all this input.
@K a t j a
So now we have everything from tiny to downright excessive 😀 it’s not easy to find something productive in all this input.
X
xMisterDx17 Apr 2023 13:51schmeissrein schrieb:
Okay, we've now established: everything is wrong 😀 Now that we know what we planned incorrectly, does anyone perhaps have concrete suggestions on how to do it better?
(...) As long as you don’t really know what you need? No.
The question of how many children you want has to be clarified for sure. Regardless of whether it actually works out in the end or not.
schmeissrein17 Apr 2023 14:09@xMisterDx
You can’t be serious, right 😀? Can you be hired to hold this gun to the chest of a young mother who nearly died from bleeding during her first childbirth?
You can’t be serious, right 😀? Can you be hired to hold this gun to the chest of a young mother who nearly died from bleeding during her first childbirth?
schmeissrein schrieb:
@K a t j a
So now we have everything from tiny to utterly crazy 😀 It’s not easy to create something productive from all the input.I don’t see any contradictions. The children’s rooms are rather too small, and the walk-in closet is unnecessarily large. The question will be what you can afford, and that will depend on the site development / utility connections.Similar topics