ᐅ Building an End-Terrace House as a Self-Managed Project with a General Contractor

Created on: 27 May 2019 10:48
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goalkeeper
Hello everyone,

some of you might have already followed one of my threads about us having to or being allowed to build our end-terrace house on our own responsibility – depending on how you look at it. This means that we are buying an end-terrace plot (215 sqm (2315 sq ft)) in a new development area in the Rhein-Neckar district and will be building on it ourselves – but in coordination with our two terrace neighbors.

The municipality, which sold the plots through a local resident model, ideally wanted applicants to apply as a complete housing group with several families and then build accordingly with a general contractor, construction manager, or architect. Of course, that didn’t really work out, so now there are only individual applicants and also homeowners.

After we were awarded the plot, the addresses of the other terrace neighbors were shared to discuss certain matters, such as roof style, whether or not to have a basement, etc. It was immediately clear that everyone preferred to do their own thing. However, we were still able to agree that the housing group will have a gable roof with a pitch of 35 to 40 degrees (within this 5-degree range).

As the end house, we will build without a basement, while the middle house and the other end house will have basements. This obviously presents a challenge as we would have to make a deep foundation or simply skip it, and the middle house would have to support us, as we will start construction first. The current agreement with the middle house is that we will build a deeper foundation at his expense, as supporting our house later on would be considerably more expensive for him.

We are currently close to signing with the construction manager, the notarization appointment for the plot is at the end of June, and we hope to start construction in the fall of this year. Meanwhile, several other freely planned housing groups are being built around us, which might get in the way with their cranes.

I will document the progress here from time to time – such a self-planned terraced house doesn’t come along very often.
tomtom799 Sep 2020 15:03
Somewhere I saw a calculation that the liter costs around 30 cents.
Climbee9 Sep 2020 15:05
Even if it cost the same as a soda maker or even a bit more, not having to carry bottles anymore is definitely worth it. Especially since the tap water here is of mineral water quality.
I drink mostly water, so that adds up quite a bit.
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guckuck2
9 Sep 2020 15:23
tomtom79 schrieb:

I once saw a calculation stating that one liter costs about 30 cents.

A refill costs around €8 (about $9), and according to advertising, that covers 60 liters (about 16 gallons). I would estimate it’s closer to 45-50 liters (12-13 gallons), depending on the level of carbonation. That puts the price below 20 cents per liter (about 75 cents per gallon).

However, it’s also the convenience and the saved storage space that have kept us from buying water in bottles for years. Especially since the transportation involved in bottled water seems questionable to me, considering we have such good tap water.
Winniefred9 Sep 2020 15:29
As a family of four, one cartridge lasts us about 2–3 months, and I believe it costs around €7.50. When we go on vacation, we always realize how much water we have to carry. We usually carbonate on medium or even lower settings, never on active, at least. So, we use a lot of sparkling water with one cartridge.
opalau9 Sep 2020 15:31
I even found the constant sparkling with the Sodastream too tiring. That’s why now there is a Quooker Cube in the kitchen. Sometimes you do anything for a bit more convenience.
Winniefred9 Sep 2020 15:36
How many liters we consume is hard to say. We don’t only drink water at home. The children get tap water at school. In any case, it’s much cheaper than buying bottled water, which we also clearly notice when we’re on holiday.