Hello,
I have been reading along for some time now and finally dare to share a floor plan here.
First, here is the list of questions:
Zoning Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 576 sqm (6,200 sq ft)
Slope: Yes, slight. According to the site plan, the top "right" corner is at 295.4 meters (970 feet), lower at 293.88 meters (964 feet), left side goes from 295.17 meters (968 feet) to 293.43 meters (963 feet)
Floor area ratio: 0.3
Building envelope, building line and boundary: Applies to house number 16
Surrounding buildings
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of stories: 2 full floors required, plus optional recessed floor (setback floor)
Roof type: Flat roof, max. 5° pitch
Maximum height/limits: Max. 10 m (33 ft) high
Additional requirements: Equipment (heat pump) must be integrated, not external. Maximum of 2 residential units. Specific exterior colors required, rainwater should infiltrate (soil report says this is unlikely). Roofs must be greened. No oil or gas heating allowed.
Client requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Actually, none specified.
Basement, floors: No basement, 2 floors.
Number of occupants, ages: 4 people — 2 adults, 2 children
Ground floor space needs: Daily life (living, kitchen, dining, technical room, guest room)
Upper floor: Family (2 children's rooms, master bedroom, separate bathrooms), home office
Office: Home office, second workspace for occasional use such as a work window sill for example in the bedroom
Guests per year: Currently few.
Open or closed architecture, conservative or modern style: Either is fine.
Open kitchen, kitchen island: We are still considering. Initial wish was separate pantry like in the floor plan. An island would be nice if space allows.
Number of dining seats: Normally 4, rarely up to 8.
Fireplace: None.
Music/stereo wall: Multi-room audio with central unit in technical room.
Balcony, roof terrace: Neither.
Garage, carport: 1 garage
Other wishes: Central vacuum system, laundry chute, smart home (KNX) (I am mostly doing this myself, yes, I am a certified electrician, can program, but will also get additional help)
House design
Who designed the plan:
- Planner from a construction company: Correct, with some input from us. Based on an existing plan.
Price estimate by architect/planner: approx. 485,000 € (euros) for the house, approx. 210,000 € for the plot including basic services (survey, soil report, etc.)
Personal price limit for the house including features: approx. 800,000–850,000 € (including land)
Preferred heating technology: Heat pump
If you had to give up, which details/extra features could you skip:
- Could skip:
- Cannot skip:
Why is the design like it is now? For example:
Standard design by the planner? Yes, with minor wishes from us (wall between study and child’s room 2, T-walls in bathrooms, porch roof, conservatory, pantry)
What do you find especially good or bad about it? So far it seems to fit; apart from possibly the pantry/dining room, we don’t see major issues yet. But that’s why I’m here now.
Edit: The furniture shown in the floor plans can be safely ignored. Planners seem to like adding these.
Best regards
Ganneff
I have been reading along for some time now and finally dare to share a floor plan here.
First, here is the list of questions:
Zoning Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 576 sqm (6,200 sq ft)
Slope: Yes, slight. According to the site plan, the top "right" corner is at 295.4 meters (970 feet), lower at 293.88 meters (964 feet), left side goes from 295.17 meters (968 feet) to 293.43 meters (963 feet)
Floor area ratio: 0.3
Building envelope, building line and boundary: Applies to house number 16
Surrounding buildings
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of stories: 2 full floors required, plus optional recessed floor (setback floor)
Roof type: Flat roof, max. 5° pitch
Maximum height/limits: Max. 10 m (33 ft) high
Additional requirements: Equipment (heat pump) must be integrated, not external. Maximum of 2 residential units. Specific exterior colors required, rainwater should infiltrate (soil report says this is unlikely). Roofs must be greened. No oil or gas heating allowed.
Client requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Actually, none specified.
Basement, floors: No basement, 2 floors.
Number of occupants, ages: 4 people — 2 adults, 2 children
Ground floor space needs: Daily life (living, kitchen, dining, technical room, guest room)
Upper floor: Family (2 children's rooms, master bedroom, separate bathrooms), home office
Office: Home office, second workspace for occasional use such as a work window sill for example in the bedroom
Guests per year: Currently few.
Open or closed architecture, conservative or modern style: Either is fine.
Open kitchen, kitchen island: We are still considering. Initial wish was separate pantry like in the floor plan. An island would be nice if space allows.
Number of dining seats: Normally 4, rarely up to 8.
Fireplace: None.
Music/stereo wall: Multi-room audio with central unit in technical room.
Balcony, roof terrace: Neither.
Garage, carport: 1 garage
Other wishes: Central vacuum system, laundry chute, smart home (KNX) (I am mostly doing this myself, yes, I am a certified electrician, can program, but will also get additional help)
House design
Who designed the plan:
- Planner from a construction company: Correct, with some input from us. Based on an existing plan.
Price estimate by architect/planner: approx. 485,000 € (euros) for the house, approx. 210,000 € for the plot including basic services (survey, soil report, etc.)
Personal price limit for the house including features: approx. 800,000–850,000 € (including land)
Preferred heating technology: Heat pump
If you had to give up, which details/extra features could you skip:
- Could skip:
- Cannot skip:
Why is the design like it is now? For example:
Standard design by the planner? Yes, with minor wishes from us (wall between study and child’s room 2, T-walls in bathrooms, porch roof, conservatory, pantry)
What do you find especially good or bad about it? So far it seems to fit; apart from possibly the pantry/dining room, we don’t see major issues yet. But that’s why I’m here now.
Edit: The furniture shown in the floor plans can be safely ignored. Planners seem to like adding these.
Best regards
Ganneff
M
motorradsilke24 Jun 2025 16:59Ganneff schrieb:
If you do it this way, you might consider giving the utility room a secondary entrance (on the wall side with the garage, but not inside the garage). Then you could also add a utility sink for washing up if you come in dirty from gardening or similar. Although I would first check the price tag, as a secondary door is more complicated than just moving walls. We have the same setup and I love it. Quickly washing hands, grabbing a bucket of warm water to wash the motorcycle, hanging laundry outside right away...
That’s one of the features I wouldn’t want to do without.
Here’s another suggestion for the guest room and bathroom. Maybe a closet or something similar could still fit in there.
motorradsilke schrieb:
We have the same, and I love it. Quickly washing hands, grabbing a bucket of warm water to wash the motorcycle, hanging laundry outside right away…
This is one of those things I didn’t want to be without.
Here’s a suggestion for guest rooms and bathrooms: maybe add a cupboard or something similar there. I’ll keep that suggestion in mind; for now, I’m just waiting to see the response to this request.
The only concern I have about the secondary entrance is that it could be an additional potential entry point for unwanted visitors. (Although the question then is whether that or the terrace is easier to access).
Papierturm24 Jun 2025 17:04Ganneff schrieb:
Alright. Based on input from @ypg and @motorradsilke, I did some more sketching and just quickly sent it by email to the company—let’s see what they say. I’m not sure if the bathroom in my layout is big enough; they can adjust it better in their software to fit it just right. It’s enough to illustrate the idea. I would definitely prefer it this way. The bathroom would be quickly accessible from the entrance and also quite accessible from the living area, making it convenient for visitors too.
If you do it like this, you could consider giving the utility room a separate entrance (on the wall side adjacent to the garage, but not through the garage). Then you could add a utility sink there for washing up when coming in dirty from gardening or similar activities. However, I’ve also asked about the price—having an extra door is a different matter than just moving walls around. Besides the official cost estimate (depending on the manufacturer for the door and sink connection), there will be an additional hidden cost here.
The most important aspect of the utility room is wall space. It needs a lot of it. Of course, it’s nice and important to have space in the center for drying or ironing laundry.
But most of the equipment in the utility room requires wall mounting: meters, main connection box, photovoltaic system and battery storage, washing machine, and so on. I would first check whether the available wall space in the utility room meets my needs. If there’s still some left over, then adding a door is something to consider afterward.
This option is definitely great. I would just make sure it fits spatially first.
W
wiltshire24 Jun 2025 17:07Ganneff schrieb:
He simply installs modules from one manufacturer that are not locally accessible, for example via Modbus, but instead require querying the manufacturer’s cloud. Photovoltaics on a flat roof is really straightforward. I would build an east-west system with a very simple Triton mounting system (or another machining-free system), and since you have an electrical background, you’ll also find an inverter that supports your preferred interface.
Papierturm schrieb:
One of the most common arrangements is the living/dining area next to the toilet on the ground floor. That doesn’t match our living habits at all.
ypg schrieb:
However, some also consider swapping the guest/toilet area with the technical room... that could be an option! I see the slight separation of the guest room as an advantage. I definitely wouldn’t swap those.
ypg schrieb:
Many try to plan the toilet away from the dirty area. That surprises me. In our everyday life with children playing outside a lot, the route to the toilet through the front door was at least as common as going from the living room. @Papierturm just mentioned this while I was writing.
Ganneff schrieb:
The roof construction is really not important to us. The roof construction is no problem either, except that @11ant finds it ugly. But he doesn’t live opposite and will get over it. A green flat roof – to me, that sounds good and quite sensible. In densely built-up areas, green roofs help the local microclimate significantly because the roof heats up much less than a pitched roof with concrete tiles.
Regarding Fingerhaus – I have no personal experience with the company’s quality. What I do remember positively is a salesperson who moved from Fingerhaus into the software industry, where I also worked. We had a joint training period and kept in touch repeatedly. I liked his customer-oriented approach and the genuine interest he had in his clients’ needs and challenges. Ultimately, he didn’t enjoy direct software sales as much and returned to Fingerhaus. Since then, I have had a positive impression of the company.
M
motorradsilke24 Jun 2025 17:11Ganneff schrieb:
I'll keep that suggestion in mind; for now, I’m just waiting to see the reaction to this request.
The only concern I have about the side entrance is that it could be another potential entry point for unwanted visitors. (Though the question remains whether the side entrance or the terrace is easier to access). You need to secure it accordingly, just like the front door.
Ganneff schrieb:
IF they actually influenced this, it would have been a project spanning many years, and the plan is already somewhat old. But – the others failed FOR US due to reasons completely unrelated to the roof. So you could have chosen a different construction company? – then the tax issue probably wouldn’t have arisen. Who were these other companies, and where did they fail (or rather: fail to convince)?
Ganneff schrieb:
The roof structure really isn’t important to us. (Although I do like a green flat roof). A green roof is beneficial for the climate and generally good for biodiversity. But its construction is critical, and the planting substrate is heavy.
Here, solutions that conceptually fall under “prefabricated house” designs might be advisable. So a roof construction concept as a key differentiator and potential stumbling block for competitors, including many details to be carefully considered (for example, ventilation pipe penetrations). Hence my idea of a development project.
wiltshire schrieb:
The roof construction isn’t a problem either, only that @11ant finds it ugly. But he doesn’t live opposite, and he will get over it. I never said that, especially not referring to the technical construction. After all, this is not planned to be a design disaster, such as adding a monstrous roof overhang and/or a massive parapet.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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