Hello everyone,
Last week, an interesting discussion about working from home started at our workplace.
Due to the current situation, many employees have been allowed to work from home. However, there is not always a suitable and/or separate room available for this.
The same question arises when building a new house – should I include a home office, or does it take up valuable space that could be better used, especially in smaller houses?
One colleague set up a garden shed as an office. However, this is not always comfortable; for example, sometimes he has to walk through the garden in the rain to use the bathroom inside the house. Another suggestion was to have an additional room in the garage, but living space is not always allowed there, is it?
Has this question come up for you as well, and if so, how have you handled it?
Last week, an interesting discussion about working from home started at our workplace.
Due to the current situation, many employees have been allowed to work from home. However, there is not always a suitable and/or separate room available for this.
The same question arises when building a new house – should I include a home office, or does it take up valuable space that could be better used, especially in smaller houses?
One colleague set up a garden shed as an office. However, this is not always comfortable; for example, sometimes he has to walk through the garden in the rain to use the bathroom inside the house. Another suggestion was to have an additional room in the garage, but living space is not always allowed there, is it?
Has this question come up for you as well, and if so, how have you handled it?
Thank you for your explanations.
@hampshire I couldn’t work the way you do because it’s never quiet here. Since I either want to solve complex tasks or make a lot of calls, I need, for example, a separate room for that.
Next idea: What about an attic conversion in a new build? Is that cheaper than giving up, for example, 10 sqm (108 sq ft) on the ground floor? We always assume €2,000 per sqm (approximately $190 per sq ft) here in the forum – so saving 20 sqm (215 sq ft) equals €40,000 (about $38,000). Can you get a properly finished attic for less than that? Including insulation, electrical wiring, windows, underfloor heating, and stairs? After all, you do get a decent amount of space.
And does the room affect KFW 55? Should the conversion possibly be done after the blower door test?
@hampshire I couldn’t work the way you do because it’s never quiet here. Since I either want to solve complex tasks or make a lot of calls, I need, for example, a separate room for that.
Next idea: What about an attic conversion in a new build? Is that cheaper than giving up, for example, 10 sqm (108 sq ft) on the ground floor? We always assume €2,000 per sqm (approximately $190 per sq ft) here in the forum – so saving 20 sqm (215 sq ft) equals €40,000 (about $38,000). Can you get a properly finished attic for less than that? Including insulation, electrical wiring, windows, underfloor heating, and stairs? After all, you do get a decent amount of space.
And does the room affect KFW 55? Should the conversion possibly be done after the blower door test?
H
hampshire7 Jun 2020 08:29PyneBite schrieb:
I couldn’t work like you do, since it’s never quiet here. And because I either want to solve complex tasks or spend a lot of time on the phone Everyone is different. I have several years of open-plan office experience and am not easily disturbed. That’s definitely not for everyone. I had set up a home office before, and I often ended up spending an entire evening there, even though I only wanted to “quickly get something done.” Now I am forced to go almost completely paperless, never leave unfinished tasks lying around, and I am fully present for my family and hobbies—without losing focus on my work.
At the moment, however, I have a long-term external project and am provided with an office space.
PyneBite schrieb:
In the forum, we always assume 2000 €/m² (about 185 $/ft²) No one can manage without doing some work themselves at those prices anymore. Construction costs per square meter are as meaningless as a price per square meter for a car. You never master complexity by oversimplifying. That only applies to complicated matters.
I am definitely in favor of having an office on the ground floor. This way, as @hampshire put it, I’m accessible to the family (hobbies come after work) while also having a clear separation—a staircase—to the sleeping area. The door is important to ensure privacy during conference calls and similar situations.
Converting the attic isn’t free either, and if you do it properly (insulation, flooring, heating, windows, possibly a toilet, a different staircase, etc.), you probably don’t save much compared to just having a few more square meters (square feet) of floor space.
Converting the attic isn’t free either, and if you do it properly (insulation, flooring, heating, windows, possibly a toilet, a different staircase, etc.), you probably don’t save much compared to just having a few more square meters (square feet) of floor space.
Since my wife is a teacher, we planned a dedicated office for her right from the start. Due to all the GDPR-related issues, it has to be lockable, and the students’ personal data must be secure. Besides, I want to stay out of it—I don’t have this luxury in our current apartment, and recently I spilled water over some exams. Fortunately, it was only water and not beer after work, and the affected students had written with ballpoint pens, not ink. Phew, lucky break.
Because of the pandemic, we realized that working together in an open-plan space or shared room simply doesn’t work for us. I have video conferences, and she teaches via Teams, also with video. Sure, I could work at the dining table, but I hate typing on a laptop and always need two monitors to be efficient. That would mean two screens lying around somewhere all the time—which would drive my wife crazy because, first, it looks untidy, and second, it reminds you of work.
By now, we are very glad to have planned a “hobby room” in the basement. Since I expect that we will make home office/mobile work standard in our company—even after the pandemic—I will create a workspace in the hobby room with a small partition wall, while she continues to have her own office upstairs.
If I have the chance when building a new home today, I would always include a room intended for office use. Even if it’s just a multipurpose room, like a dressing room/office with extendable tables. It’s something you should and must consider.
I mean, even if you’re a car mechanic today, who says you won’t have serious back problems in 10 years and then need to work in customer service or something similar? That’s when working from home makes sense again. Having to sit at the dining table forever would be really unfortunate.
Because of the pandemic, we realized that working together in an open-plan space or shared room simply doesn’t work for us. I have video conferences, and she teaches via Teams, also with video. Sure, I could work at the dining table, but I hate typing on a laptop and always need two monitors to be efficient. That would mean two screens lying around somewhere all the time—which would drive my wife crazy because, first, it looks untidy, and second, it reminds you of work.
By now, we are very glad to have planned a “hobby room” in the basement. Since I expect that we will make home office/mobile work standard in our company—even after the pandemic—I will create a workspace in the hobby room with a small partition wall, while she continues to have her own office upstairs.
If I have the chance when building a new home today, I would always include a room intended for office use. Even if it’s just a multipurpose room, like a dressing room/office with extendable tables. It’s something you should and must consider.
I mean, even if you’re a car mechanic today, who says you won’t have serious back problems in 10 years and then need to work in customer service or something similar? That’s when working from home makes sense again. Having to sit at the dining table forever would be really unfortunate.
hampshire schrieb:
The construction costs per square meter are just as nonsensicalHaha, I just have to imagine a house the size of a hectare (2.47 acres)https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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