ᐅ Expanding a Two-Family House into a Three-Family Home – Looking for Ideas
Created on: 12 May 2022 10:10
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Baubiene321
Hello everyone,
we are facing the following “problem”:
We have an old house (foundation 9 x 10 meters (30 x 33 feet)). On the ground floor lives my mother (65 years old), on the first floor my grandmother (almost 90 years). The attic is currently used as an office. There is one main entrance with a shared staircase. The house has an unfinished basement. It was built in 1951.
We are a family of four and are looking for ideas on how to renovate/extend the house so that we can all live in it together. So far, we don’t have any perfect solution or clear ideas. For the roof, we would prefer a single-pitched roof. Maybe an extension in the form of a cube or a terraced house on three levels with (roof) terraces, or an additional floor (although we prefer not to increase the height of the house too much). We would rather extend the house in length and width than in height.
For our apartment, we imagine a large kitchen-living area, an open living room, a small guest bathroom (not mandatory), two children’s bedrooms, a bathroom with shower and bathtub, a bedroom, and possibly a storage room. Lots of glazing/window fronts. Ideally, our apartment would have its own separate entrance.
The great-grandmother’s apartment could be rented out at some point.
We would like to renovate and rebuild the house as energy-efficiently as possible (passive house standard, if possible). The plot is about 800 square meters (8,600 square feet).
Has anyone done a similar project or have ideas for the planning?
We appreciate every tip or suggestion!
Thank you 🙂
we are facing the following “problem”:
We have an old house (foundation 9 x 10 meters (30 x 33 feet)). On the ground floor lives my mother (65 years old), on the first floor my grandmother (almost 90 years). The attic is currently used as an office. There is one main entrance with a shared staircase. The house has an unfinished basement. It was built in 1951.
We are a family of four and are looking for ideas on how to renovate/extend the house so that we can all live in it together. So far, we don’t have any perfect solution or clear ideas. For the roof, we would prefer a single-pitched roof. Maybe an extension in the form of a cube or a terraced house on three levels with (roof) terraces, or an additional floor (although we prefer not to increase the height of the house too much). We would rather extend the house in length and width than in height.
For our apartment, we imagine a large kitchen-living area, an open living room, a small guest bathroom (not mandatory), two children’s bedrooms, a bathroom with shower and bathtub, a bedroom, and possibly a storage room. Lots of glazing/window fronts. Ideally, our apartment would have its own separate entrance.
The great-grandmother’s apartment could be rented out at some point.
We would like to renovate and rebuild the house as energy-efficiently as possible (passive house standard, if possible). The plot is about 800 square meters (8,600 square feet).
Has anyone done a similar project or have ideas for the planning?
We appreciate every tip or suggestion!
Thank you 🙂
Baubiene321 schrieb:
An alternative would be to build a new house with a granny flat (for Grandma) in the garden and demolish the old house once Great-Grandma is no longer around. But then the current building plot couldn’t be used, and many trees would have to be removed… Are you even allowed to build a second house in the garden? What about floor area ratio / plot ratio restrictions? Have you checked?
Please finally provide site plans and similar documents—why is that so difficult?
It’s really frustrating to talk to a wall…
Baubiene321 schrieb:
Would you generally prefer a new build over renovating to achieve a passive house standard? Actually, I wanted to say: as long as you haven’t „seen“ the house in person, you can’t really make any definitive statements. Now I have to read that you have already been asked several times to „bring something to get something.“ I see something about a wood stove, etc., so we can assume there is a backlog of renovation work. I’ll quote myself here 😉
ypg schrieb:
!!!However, it depends on what is allowed to be built on the plot. -> site coverage ratio, floor area ratio, number of dwelling units... number of storeys, etc....!!! So what do you expect from a forum that really should be looked at by an architect or a civil engineer?
Baubiene321 schrieb:
We don’t want to hire an architect for this idea yet because we already incurred expenses in the first concept involving the attic extension, and of course, the budget is limited. You said that in 2018. Since then, construction costs have almost doubled, material shortages and skilled labor scarcity are not just empty words.
In the end, it is probably your parents’/mother’s house, and you apparently do not have the funds for your own projects...
Have you even discussed it with your parents? You can collect as many ideas here as you want. Ultimately, none of it is feasible if it is not the owners’ concern.
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Baubiene32114 May 2022 19:42Thank you for the assessment. We have an appointment in June regarding the renovation of an old building / new construction with the architect/energy consultant.
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Baubiene32127 May 2023 12:09Unfortunately, you are hearing from me again. Our beloved great-grandmother passed away some time ago. We are slowly regaining the motivation to focus on the renovation/remodeling. The current plan is:
Either to convert the existing house (a building with two separate apartments on the ground floor and first floor; the attic is partially finished, footprint 9 x 10 meters (30 x 33 feet)) into a two-family house OR to demolish and rebuild. Due to the KfW funding available for renovating older buildings on a per-unit basis, a full renovation with extensive redesign, conversion, and extension seems more likely.
Our dream would be to turn the existing house into a semi-detached house with two differently sized units (one half for grandma, the other for us as a family of four). That way, everything would be better separated (separate entrance doors, no shared staircases, separate gardens, etc.). However, this is complicated because of the current staircase layout.
Does anyone have experience with this kind of renovation or can say whether something like this is possible?
At the moment, we are still brainstorming and drawing plans ourselves; an architect has not yet been involved.
Maybe some of you have recommendations or ideas?
Either to convert the existing house (a building with two separate apartments on the ground floor and first floor; the attic is partially finished, footprint 9 x 10 meters (30 x 33 feet)) into a two-family house OR to demolish and rebuild. Due to the KfW funding available for renovating older buildings on a per-unit basis, a full renovation with extensive redesign, conversion, and extension seems more likely.
Our dream would be to turn the existing house into a semi-detached house with two differently sized units (one half for grandma, the other for us as a family of four). That way, everything would be better separated (separate entrance doors, no shared staircases, separate gardens, etc.). However, this is complicated because of the current staircase layout.
Does anyone have experience with this kind of renovation or can say whether something like this is possible?
At the moment, we are still brainstorming and drawing plans ourselves; an architect has not yet been involved.
Maybe some of you have recommendations or ideas?
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NatureSys27 May 2023 12:47Baubiene321 schrieb:
Unfortunately, here I am again. Our beloved great-grandmother passed away some time ago. We are slowly starting to feel motivated again to focus on the renovation/remodeling. The current plan is:
Either convert the existing house (a building with two separate apartments on the ground floor and first floor; attic partially finished, footprint 9x10 meters (30x33 feet)) into a two-family house OR demolish and rebuild. Due to the KFW grants available for renovating older buildings per dwelling unit, a complete renovation with major redesign/alterations/extension is more likely.
Our dream is to turn the existing house into a semi-detached house with two differently sized units (one half for Grandma, the other for us, a family of four). This way everything would be better separated (entrance doors, no shared stairwell, garden, etc.). However, this is complicated because of the stairwell.
Has anyone had experience with or completed a similar renovation and can say whether this is feasible?
At the moment, we are still in the early stages of brainstorming and drawing plans ourselves; the architect has not been involved yet.
Maybe some of you have recommendations or ideas?Perhaps you could upload the current floor plan etc. now. This has been requested for some time.
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