ᐅ Experience and Advice on Single-Family Home Planning – Suggestions or Feedback?
Created on: 8 Oct 2025 12:36
J
JulianR
Hello everyone,
As the name suggests, we want to build a single-family house. I would appreciate any advice or general feedback on our plans. Here is a brief overview of the key details:
We have received approval from our local authority (71254 Ditzingen) for a single-family house plot. The dimensions are approximately 27.5 meters (90 feet) north-south by 15.5 meters (51 feet) west-east. The buildable area extends across the entire plot, so it would be possible to build a garage, carport, or similar structure right on the boundary. For those interested in the exact details: plot number 26 on this plan ditzingen.de/de/bauen-wohnen/ob-dem-korntaler-weg includes more information and the zoning plan.
We have been considering building for several years and have also visited a model home park. In principle, we have decided on a prefabricated house. Based on personal visits, reviews, and experiences from our network, we focused on the builders Weberhaus and Schwörerhaus (both offering customized floor plans) and have had initial discussions with both. Given the characteristics of the plot and our preferences, the Artis 300 model from Fingerhaus would also be a good fit. The designs from these builders are quite similar: guest room/office on the ground floor, shower bathroom on the ground floor, kitchen ideally separable by a sliding door but this is not a must, two children's bedrooms, bathroom, and master bedroom on the upper floor. The house would have a basement as well, the plot is mostly flat. One draft features a side entrance on the east with a slightly recessed niche for some shelter and a garage behind it. Would you recommend this?
Now, I wonder if the quality at Fingerhaus (particularly regarding sound and heat insulation) can match that of the other two. In general, I would be grateful for tips on what to watch out for when dealing with these builders and also regarding the expected costs (we do not have concrete offers yet, but they will come soon). Additionally, during my recent search I was impressed by Sonnleitner, mainly because of their emphasis on using mostly wood. Sonnleitner wooden house: I know this is quite a different option, but maybe you have experience with them as well?
Thank you very much and best regards
Julian
As the name suggests, we want to build a single-family house. I would appreciate any advice or general feedback on our plans. Here is a brief overview of the key details:
We have received approval from our local authority (71254 Ditzingen) for a single-family house plot. The dimensions are approximately 27.5 meters (90 feet) north-south by 15.5 meters (51 feet) west-east. The buildable area extends across the entire plot, so it would be possible to build a garage, carport, or similar structure right on the boundary. For those interested in the exact details: plot number 26 on this plan ditzingen.de/de/bauen-wohnen/ob-dem-korntaler-weg includes more information and the zoning plan.
We have been considering building for several years and have also visited a model home park. In principle, we have decided on a prefabricated house. Based on personal visits, reviews, and experiences from our network, we focused on the builders Weberhaus and Schwörerhaus (both offering customized floor plans) and have had initial discussions with both. Given the characteristics of the plot and our preferences, the Artis 300 model from Fingerhaus would also be a good fit. The designs from these builders are quite similar: guest room/office on the ground floor, shower bathroom on the ground floor, kitchen ideally separable by a sliding door but this is not a must, two children's bedrooms, bathroom, and master bedroom on the upper floor. The house would have a basement as well, the plot is mostly flat. One draft features a side entrance on the east with a slightly recessed niche for some shelter and a garage behind it. Would you recommend this?
Now, I wonder if the quality at Fingerhaus (particularly regarding sound and heat insulation) can match that of the other two. In general, I would be grateful for tips on what to watch out for when dealing with these builders and also regarding the expected costs (we do not have concrete offers yet, but they will come soon). Additionally, during my recent search I was impressed by Sonnleitner, mainly because of their emphasis on using mostly wood. Sonnleitner wooden house: I know this is quite a different option, but maybe you have experience with them as well?
Thank you very much and best regards
Julian
H
hanghaus202324 Oct 2025 20:41Maybe you could tell us what you don't like about the Artis 300.
JulianR schrieb:
Suggestions for improvement welcomeWithout knowing your specific needs: this layout has several issues. You can’t even reach the sink properly. The structural stability is questionable, the living space is too narrow, the dining area is too large, you cannot place toilets in a room corner, and pantries are usually not planned inside an already "finished" space, which results in a suboptimal room layout.nordanney schrieb:
The ground floor usually follows the layout of the upper floor, not the other way around. And the staircase is one of the key elements, maybe even THE central point.
They belong to the rooms. Adding them on later won’t look good – and it also has to fit with the upper floor.
P.S. Sloped walls are (almost) always problematic in planning and usually just a workaround to hide issues. And now one more question: What rooms do we see here on the ground floor? Maybe I didn’t provide enough context to explain where we are in the process and why we approached it this way. The designs from Weberhaus and Schwörerhaus are both fine for the upper floor and have the staircase roughly in this position. That means I’m confident everything will fit together, perhaps with only minor compromises. Of course, we want to plan the windows properly in the end; for now, we just wanted a rough idea of the room layout. The planners have this now, and if anything doesn’t work out – whether windows don’t fit or circulation paths are problematic – this should become apparent with the current planning.
Actually, I found the sloped wall quite interesting because it solves a few problems and makes the layout a bit more unique. Having everything perfectly straight and aligned side by side wouldn’t appeal to me. What you can see here is: northwest kitchen with pantry, north entrance hallway, northeast guest bathroom, below that the staircase to the upper floor and basement, and below that an office/guest room, with the remainder being living and dining areas.
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
Maybe you could tell us what you don't like about the Artis 300. I actually like the floor plan, but I really don’t like the straight staircase that you have to walk around. I would also like to be able to separate the kitchen with a sliding door, which is possible with the Artis but would be complicated.
ypg schrieb:
Without knowing your needs: there is nothing good about it.
You can’t even get to the sink. The structural stability is questionable, the living area is too narrow, the dining area too large, you can’t place toilets in a corner of a room, and you don’t plan pantries inside a “finished” room, which makes the space deficit worse. To be honest, I didn’t fully understand the issue with the sink. The kitchen layout will be adapted to the room; do you think the space ultimately wouldn’t be usable? We’re using pre-made furniture from a standard range without planning every detail yet. As long as the rooms work, the furnishings will also come together. The toilet in the corner is a fair point, but maybe swapping it with the sink could solve the problem? The pantry idea is meant to make use of the necessary built-in depth of the sliding door. If that doesn’t work out, it can of course be removed. Hopefully, our contacts can provide information about the structural stability—obviously, that is a critical factor. The living area is deliberately designed to be a bit separate, similar to our current living room, except that the sofa there separates the space by facing away from it.
Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the feedback, especially regarding the structure and the toilet layout, which I find convincing. Maybe I should add what I like about the design so it’s more understandable. The entrance hallway wasn’t important to me until I paid attention to it in show homes. I like that it’s not too small. A guest bathroom and an office/guest room on the ground floor were our wishes for age-appropriate living. The kitchen has a bay window partly so you can look out onto the street, and partly to visually design the roof over the entrance. The angled entrance to the living room is so you can see the whole room at once (I also assume it can be nicely designed with a glass door and maybe glass blocks on either side). True, the bathroom was a bit tricky, though I found the size acceptable—I’ve seen smaller. Furnishing it was difficult, so improvements and alternative layouts would be welcome. The living area was actually too narrow at first, but I ended up liking it because it’s just a bit separate. And a “too large” dining area? Well, I’m not worried about that.
JulianR schrieb:
A guest bathroom and an office/guest room on the ground floor was our wish for age-appropriate living. How exactly is an office/guest room of 3 x 3.3 m (10 x 11 ft) considered age-appropriate? As for the bathroom, age-appropriate design doesn’t seem to have been considered at all; it’s already very difficult to plan properly.
Apart from that... a 12 sqm (129 sq ft) hallway plus stairs, but only room for a 150 cm (59 inch) wardrobe.
Kitchen... the 13.8 sqm (148 sq ft) room consists of about one third circulation space and pantry corner, so the rest with the island layout is basically unusable.
JulianR schrieb:
As long as the rooms work, the furniture will find its place. That’s simply not true; you need to have clear ideas about the rooms, their intended uses, and realistic furniture layouts based on those uses.
Regarding structural engineering, I agree with @ypg.
Besides that
kbt09 schrieb:
The initial post https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/grundriss-planung-unbedingt-vor-beitrag-erstellung-lesen.11714/ is missing... For example, where is the utility room? The house connections? Will there be a basement? What budget is planned?
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