ᐅ Hillside House in the Southwest Palatinate – Our Home Construction 2.0
Created on: 9 Sep 2022 18:13
K
kati1337
Good evening everyone
I’m starting a small collection thread here for photos and progress updates on our second building project.
We’ve already moved to the Palatinate region to be closer to the construction site. Now we’re watching eagerly and happily as our (hopefully final) dream home takes shape near family.
One big challenge still ahead of us is the facade design. I really love the Nordic style with brickwork and mullioned windows. That won’t be possible here for two reasons: firstly, no one here can do bricklaying, and secondly, it would stand out too much. We will be going with a rendered facade. How to design the colors of the facade and windows to still create some country house / cottage charm is currently still a work in progress mentally.
Otherwise, I’m sharing our plans here and how it will eventually be built.
The support pillar marked near the kitchen island could be removed for a small extra cost, so that will be gone.
The room for “garden equipment” under the garage will get a partition wall for structural reasons.
It won’t be fully finished living space like in the house, but underfloor heating will be installed, along with a lockable door and a window. It’s meant to store garden tools but also some of the building services equipment, since the utility room (HAR) is quite small, and maybe be used as a party room.
We had three construction companies in the final selection. In the end, we chose the “doer” – a builder recommended to us here by friends and family. No website, no smartphone, but he is on site every day himself working in overalls. He has a very good reputation in this area and now rarely builds single-family homes. We were a bit lucky through personal connections and a very friendly initial phone call to get our foot in the door. So far we are very satisfied with this choice.
I’m starting a small collection thread here for photos and progress updates on our second building project.
We’ve already moved to the Palatinate region to be closer to the construction site. Now we’re watching eagerly and happily as our (hopefully final) dream home takes shape near family.
One big challenge still ahead of us is the facade design. I really love the Nordic style with brickwork and mullioned windows. That won’t be possible here for two reasons: firstly, no one here can do bricklaying, and secondly, it would stand out too much. We will be going with a rendered facade. How to design the colors of the facade and windows to still create some country house / cottage charm is currently still a work in progress mentally.
Otherwise, I’m sharing our plans here and how it will eventually be built.
The support pillar marked near the kitchen island could be removed for a small extra cost, so that will be gone.
The room for “garden equipment” under the garage will get a partition wall for structural reasons.
It won’t be fully finished living space like in the house, but underfloor heating will be installed, along with a lockable door and a window. It’s meant to store garden tools but also some of the building services equipment, since the utility room (HAR) is quite small, and maybe be used as a party room.
We had three construction companies in the final selection. In the end, we chose the “doer” – a builder recommended to us here by friends and family. No website, no smartphone, but he is on site every day himself working in overalls. He has a very good reputation in this area and now rarely builds single-family homes. We were a bit lucky through personal connections and a very friendly initial phone call to get our foot in the door. So far we are very satisfied with this choice.
B
Benutzer 100115 May 2023 23:30For control freaks, the wrong contractor; for me, the right one.
That’s how I would put it.
That’s how I would put it.
Offtopic schrieb:
For control freaks the wrong builder, for me the right one.
That’s how I would put it Yes, for control freaks it definitely wouldn’t be suitable.
But we are often impressed by what he manages to do on the side because he sets high standards for himself.
When we got the quote back then, we had both a garage and a carport priced. The garage was too expensive for us, so we said the carport would be enough. The difference was five figures, I don’t remember the exact number, I’d have to check.
When we met during construction, he initially said, “Of course, it will be properly built with masonry.” I thought that was already good. Then at some point he said, “I’ll put a pyramid roof on it, just like on the main house. Otherwise, it would look like crap.” — That really made me happy. By now, the carport even has preparations for a garage door (“It wouldn’t make sense not to include that in the shell stage”), a sash window with a window sill, and the inside is plastered.
At some point, we talked with him about what a crazy “carport” he had actually built for us. He said, “If you want a door, you have to pay for it, that’s not included.” 😀
S
Sunshine38716 May 2023 00:08Yes, time runs differently in rural areas. For us, all additional requests were agreed upon verbally, and extra electrical outlets as well as the preparation for a wallbox with a power connection in the garage (an idea we had during construction) were not charged separately. Who does that anyway? Suddenly, there was also a frosted glass partition next to the terrace, separating us from the neighbor. The builder’s comment was that it wouldn’t look good visually on the house without some kind of partition there. In the end, our new build was completed exactly 2 days before the contractually agreed final deadline. Overall, we were very satisfied. All trades worked excellently and collaboratively. Apart from one negative Google review from a neighbor who was bothered by the construction noise, there are no other Google reviews with text from our one-person company plus secretary, and we don’t have a website. But the workmanship was top quality. We were always a bit skeptical whether everything would go smoothly and finish on time, but in the end, everything worked out perfectly. The advice given during construction was also very helpful. For example, we had initially planned the shower too wide, and the builder pointed out that it would make the area around the washbasin very tight. So, we reduced the width from 100 cm (39 inches) to 90 cm (35 inches), and the length from 2 m (6.6 feet) to 160 cm (5.2 feet), which prevented the bathroom from feeling completely cramped. And all this was done during the construction process without any delay. Local builders without websites are truly the best. Also, regarding complaints after the fact: one of the cellar window shafts was so exposed that snow easily got inside and water would remain there after heavy snowfall. Within just two weeks, a glass roof was installed over it free of charge.
J
Jurassic13516 May 2023 06:31That really sounds like a great stroke of luck. I also prefer this approach – most of the time, you don’t have much, if any, knowledge about construction. I would be grateful if the contractor and the trades took care of everything and installed the right things without me interfering with my lack of experience. Of course, they have to be very trustworthy for that, but he seems to fully meet that requirement, bingo 😀 I’m definitely happy for you that it’s going well, especially with a baby, since you really don’t need the extra stress.
By the way, I’m roughly from the area of your first house 🙂 So it’s interesting for me to see how a house is built on a slope.
By the way, I’m roughly from the area of your first house 🙂 So it’s interesting for me to see how a house is built on a slope.
W
WilderSueden16 May 2023 08:58kati1337 schrieb:
Are you having any problems? You were roughly from around here too, I think?You’re definitely still north of Stuttgart, so Northern Germany 😉 I just measured it roughly, and it’s about 175 km (110 miles) as the crow flies. If you ever come near the western shore of Lake Constance, feel free to get in touch.
The main problem is that my general contractor is poorly organized. Many things are done spontaneously or on short notice, which hasn’t worked well over the past two years because the materials don’t arrive at the construction site within two days. The site management is more like a lemon picker. And of course, the problems only become apparent afterwards. The masons were partly quite off; the house drained into the stormwater sewer system completely. I’m still waiting three months after moving in for an acceptable handover report because no one updates the corrections to the original version. Things like that.
WilderSueden schrieb:
The site management is more like a butterfly trying to fold lemonsDo you mean the construction manager is just good enough to lean against walls but not strong enough to step on? (SCNR)Similar topics