ᐅ Creative Ideas for New Home Construction

Hello community,

My wife and I are planning to start designing and building a single-family house (basement/ground floor/first floor) this year. The plot is 800 m² (8600 sq ft) and is located on a gentle slope, so the basement should have ground-level access on one side. The living area will be around 150 m² (1600 sq ft). We have a daughter who is 19 months old, and we are planning to have another child.

From many conversations, I have already gathered a lot of good ideas for the project. However, I’m sure there are many more suggestions that we could consider and possibly adopt.

Some of the things I’m already thinking about include:
- Using rainwater for the toilet and washing machine
- Ridge orientation east/west to allow for future solar panel installation
- Toilet and shower in the basement (with ground-level access as mentioned) so that the kids don’t bring dirt into the living areas after playing
- Planning a niche for storing firewood next to the tiled stove

Who is creative and can contribute more ideas? For those who have already built a house, what would you definitely do again or what would you think about next time?

Thanks in advance!
Christian

- A tip my uncle gave my parents 10 years ago (which we are now implementing): the bedroom and the master bathroom are located on the ground floor, since none of us are getting any younger... this way, everything is already on one level for later years! Also in case something serious should happen (God forbid!), such as needing a wheelchair...

- The fireplace includes a water jacket

- Oh, and we also have an exhaust ventilation system without heat recovery, which is better than one with recovery because fewer ducts are installed, so the probably very expensive duct cleaning is avoided

That's all I can think of right now... my husband always handles the technical stuff

Hope this was helpful

Best regards

Wheelchair is the key word,

which I am also keeping in mind during the current renovation. Since I have been building on the side for 15 years now, I more or less expect that my body will one day “pay the price” for it all.

Whether new construction or renovation, a few things can be planned from the start to avoid major remodeling headaches in case of need, apart from stairlifts and various grab bars, wheelchair-accessible washbasins in the bathroom, and similar adaptations:

- Same floor level throughout, no high thresholds between rooms.
- Doors wide enough, avoid narrow doors especially to the bathroom.
- Don’t plan too much storage only in tall cabinets in the kitchen.
- Plan a walk-in, wheelchair-accessible shower; this seems to be
“trendy” now anyway (which doesn’t matter to me personally, I would
have installed it anyway).
- For a sloped lot, rather create a gently curved driveway or ramp with
as little incline as possible instead of numerous stairs or steep paths.

A note on the water-heated fireplace:
I assume it is intended to be connected to the heating circuit via a buffer tank together with a gas/oil boiler. Unfortunately, feeding the heating circuit only works via a circulation pump, so it stops working during a power outage. To avoid being left in the cold, I believe it is important that the water circuits can be switched off, allowing the fireplace to function purely as a room heater. For this reason, it should be able to deliver all its output as radiant heat directly into the room if desired. Under normal operation, watch how the heat output is distributed: most fireplaces I know mainly heat the water (e.g., 70%) and only a little air. A 24 kW (approximately 81,900 BTU) unit can sometimes heat up 1,000 liters (about 264 gallons) of buffer storage in one hour, after which heat might be vented away. Personally, I prefer a balanced distribution of heat output. Heating the buffer takes a bit longer, but the living space is warmed more quickly through radiant heat. Ultimately, everyone has to decide what is most important to them.

Regards