ᐅ Floor plan and elevations of a single-family house with approximately 1,700 sq ft on a sloped site
Created on: 6 Dec 2022 21:01
K
Karl-Jupp
Dear forum members, today we would like to present our floor plan and hope for positive feedback and suggestions on possible improvements. Our basic wish is for a bright house with 4 bedrooms on the upper floor and a living-level basement designed to accommodate 2 offices. We see the basement as necessary, especially due to the sloping site. The ground floor will then provide a spacious living and kitchen area. We have now received the first plans from the architect and would like to optimize them as much as possible with your help. The furniture layouts are only examples and still need to be finalized. Note: The room labeled as an office on the upper floor is intended to become Child 3’s bedroom. The guest room in the basement will be a combined guest/office room. The design of the outdoor areas, such as the terrace and the shape of the new property boundary, still needs to be planned in more detail.
Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 702 sqm (7,555 sq ft)
Slope: yes, approximately 1.7 m (5.6 ft) higher at the street than at the rear of the property
Site coverage ratio: 0.35
Floor area ratio: none
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: garage minimum 5 m (16 ft) from street, house minimum 3.5 m (11.5 ft)
Number of parking spaces: no requirement
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: gable, hip, or pyramid roof with pitch between 22° and 43°
Orientation: southwest
Owner requirements
Roof type: preferably gable roof
Basement, floors: basement yes, preferably 2 full stories
Number of occupants, ages: 4 (35, 33, 4, and 2)
Room requirements on ground and upper floors: preferably 3 children’s bedrooms on the upper floor
Office: 2 home office spaces desired
Guest stays per year: about 10 times per year from grandparents, hence a guest room
Conservative or modern design: rather modern, I would say
Open kitchen, kitchen island: kitchen island
Fireplace: desirable
Balcony, roof terrace: possibly convert the garage roof later into a balcony
Garage, carport: garage for 1 car with sufficient storage space for bicycles
Additional wishes/details/daily routine, including reasons for choices:
We wanted the 3 children's bedrooms and the master bedroom on the upper floor. Additionally, a small bathroom for the parents there. The basement made sense to us because of the sloping site. It should provide one dedicated office and one combined office/guest room, both with daylight windows. Additionally, a large hobby room for versatile use is desired. On the ground floor, a pantry and laundry room connected to the garage were requested. Later on, it should be possible to convert the garage roof into a terrace.
House design
Origin of the design: Architect based on our detailed requirements (see above).
What do you particularly like? Why?
Our room layout wishes have been implemented.
What do you not like? Why?
The bathrooms on the upper floor and the living area on the ground floor may be too small.
Estimated cost according to architect/planner: not available yet. Probably around 650,000 - 700,000 € (including additional building costs)
Preferred heating technology: air or ground-source heat pump
If you had to give up some details/extras
- Could give up: fireplace, possibly 2nd bathroom on upper floor, walkable garage roof
- Could not give up: 4 bedrooms on upper floor, basement with 2 offices
Why is the design the way it is now?
Our basic considerations were passed on directly to the architect. He has largely implemented our specifications and added some minor touches.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
We find the existing floor plan generally well done and hope to receive constructive criticism and further suggestions from you to optimize it.
Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 702 sqm (7,555 sq ft)
Slope: yes, approximately 1.7 m (5.6 ft) higher at the street than at the rear of the property
Site coverage ratio: 0.35
Floor area ratio: none
Building envelope, building line, and boundary: garage minimum 5 m (16 ft) from street, house minimum 3.5 m (11.5 ft)
Number of parking spaces: no requirement
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: gable, hip, or pyramid roof with pitch between 22° and 43°
Orientation: southwest
Owner requirements
Roof type: preferably gable roof
Basement, floors: basement yes, preferably 2 full stories
Number of occupants, ages: 4 (35, 33, 4, and 2)
Room requirements on ground and upper floors: preferably 3 children’s bedrooms on the upper floor
Office: 2 home office spaces desired
Guest stays per year: about 10 times per year from grandparents, hence a guest room
Conservative or modern design: rather modern, I would say
Open kitchen, kitchen island: kitchen island
Fireplace: desirable
Balcony, roof terrace: possibly convert the garage roof later into a balcony
Garage, carport: garage for 1 car with sufficient storage space for bicycles
Additional wishes/details/daily routine, including reasons for choices:
We wanted the 3 children's bedrooms and the master bedroom on the upper floor. Additionally, a small bathroom for the parents there. The basement made sense to us because of the sloping site. It should provide one dedicated office and one combined office/guest room, both with daylight windows. Additionally, a large hobby room for versatile use is desired. On the ground floor, a pantry and laundry room connected to the garage were requested. Later on, it should be possible to convert the garage roof into a terrace.
House design
Origin of the design: Architect based on our detailed requirements (see above).
What do you particularly like? Why?
Our room layout wishes have been implemented.
What do you not like? Why?
The bathrooms on the upper floor and the living area on the ground floor may be too small.
Estimated cost according to architect/planner: not available yet. Probably around 650,000 - 700,000 € (including additional building costs)
Preferred heating technology: air or ground-source heat pump
If you had to give up some details/extras
- Could give up: fireplace, possibly 2nd bathroom on upper floor, walkable garage roof
- Could not give up: 4 bedrooms on upper floor, basement with 2 offices
Why is the design the way it is now?
Our basic considerations were passed on directly to the architect. He has largely implemented our specifications and added some minor touches.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
We find the existing floor plan generally well done and hope to receive constructive criticism and further suggestions from you to optimize it.
@Sunshine387 I know the warmth from wood very well. Yes, it’s a different kind of warmth. It also takes more effort than just turning up the thermostat.
@motorradsilke When do you ever need it to be 3-4 degrees warmer quickly in the evening?
We decided against it and never regretted it. Even though—or precisely because—we are familiar with heating with wood and own our own forest.
Houses from the 1970s and 80s, before energy efficiency standards and airtight insulation, are often overheated in winter.
Modern houses don’t cool down as quickly, there are no drafts, and far fewer thermal bridges, so the feeling of warmth is different.
It’s subjective and a personal choice. With 10,000 Euros (about $11,000), you can also get a nice photovoltaic system.
@motorradsilke When do you ever need it to be 3-4 degrees warmer quickly in the evening?
We decided against it and never regretted it. Even though—or precisely because—we are familiar with heating with wood and own our own forest.
Houses from the 1970s and 80s, before energy efficiency standards and airtight insulation, are often overheated in winter.
Modern houses don’t cool down as quickly, there are no drafts, and far fewer thermal bridges, so the feeling of warmth is different.
It’s subjective and a personal choice. With 10,000 Euros (about $11,000), you can also get a nice photovoltaic system.
haydee schrieb:
@Sunshine387 I am quite familiar with the warmth of wood. Yes, it feels like a different kind of warmth. It also requires more effort than just turning up the thermostat.
@motorradsilke When do you really need to quickly raise the temperature by 3-4 degrees in the evening?
...
It's subjective and everyone has to decide for themselves. With 10,000 Euros you can also get a decent photovoltaic system.And then you can also run it at 1 degree higher room temperature.
Whether you like that or what it’s worth to you is up to each individual / it’s subjective. But to relate this back to the thread, the key question is whether there is any budget left or not... and that’s why this thread is stalling here.
The majority (or all?) of the active users in this thread say that the design cannot be done within the mentioned budget. Now the original poster needs to clearly state whether there is any flexibility in the budget.
Based on the previous comments, it seems to me that there is still a lack of overall understanding of how much everything around it will cost in Euros. That’s why I cautiously asked about the landscaping contractor. But I might be mistaken.
In any case, I don’t think the floor plan discussion will progress as long as this issue remains unresolved.
M
motorradsilke7 Dec 2022 14:17haydee schrieb:
@motorradsilke When do you suddenly need it 3-4 degrees warmer in the evening?
Every evening for us.
We keep the heating at 20 to 21 degrees Celsius (68 to 70°F). That’s usually fine during the day, but in the evening it feels too cold for us.
Even the piece of photovoltaic system I could get for 10,000 euros (if I could buy it now) wouldn’t help me much with that.
But as you said, it’s subjective.
I didn’t want to start a debate about it. Everyone just has their own opinion.
Karl-Jupp schrieb:
We are considering a basement mainly because of the sloped site. But you’re filling in the entire slope at the back. What difference would the basement make there?
Karl-Jupp schrieb:
On the ground floor, this results in a spacious living and kitchen area. Still, the kitchen is tiny, the dining area feels narrow and uncomfortable, and the lounge corner is rather small! Even if that’s not obvious at first glance, to me this is one of the worst layouts you can make. A lot of square meters are used up but in the end there’s still no real space. The guest shower on the ground floor is too large in comparison. There are two more showers upstairs—are they really necessary? The kitchen pantry is also inefficiently wide—if it’s used as a utility room with a washing machine, having access through the kitchen is really inconvenient. This brings up the point that laundry would be better off in the basement, but there should at least be a laundry chute somewhere.
The drainage for the mechanical ventilation system (Kiba) was already mentioned as a critical point—I would be interested in the solution as well. The space wasted on the chimney upstairs is also remarkable.
The massive excavations around the house for the light wells are absurd. Who wants to live in a garden where you constantly need guardrails? That’s expensive and ends up looking ugly. The terrace is artificially raised and squeezed half behind the garage because everywhere else the land slopes steeply downward.
Honestly? I would scrap this plan entirely.
I don’t see a site plan with dimensions, building setbacks, and so on, so alternative options are only speculative: If it were my project, I would design a larger footprint to accommodate the wish for 4 bedrooms plus a bathroom and master bathroom on the upper floor. This would ease the tightness on the ground floor and allow space for the technical rooms. I would eliminate the basement and instead consider expanding into the attic by maximizing the roof pitch. This provides natural light without disrupting the garden with extensive excavations, and the roof has to be paid for anyway. The large hobby room would be cut due to budget constraints. The two offices would move upstairs, with possibly some storage space left over. End of story.
I would carefully plan the heights for the terrace and access path to minimize excavation at the front and keep the rear fill as low as possible.
K
Karl-Jupp7 Dec 2022 20:58So. The children are in bed now, so I can reply. A few topics have actually piled up by now. Thanks for the feedback so far. I’ll try to organize it:
1.) Budget and Cost Framework:
We are currently planning with a prefabricated house and have obtained two quotes so far for turnkey houses based on our basic requirements. The conditions were: upper floor with about 80 sqm (860 sq ft) and 2 bathrooms, ground floor set back partially with a shower bathroom, basement usable as living space, fireplace, photovoltaic system + battery storage, air-to-water heat pump. So regarding the area and main cost factors, it matches what the architect planned. The result was the mentioned €650,000 - 700,000 (approx. $700,000 - 750,000). We want to build the garage ourselves, so this cost is not included. Also, inside the house, we want to do some parts ourselves (with a friend who is a reinforced concrete specialist), so the offered turnkey house costs will be somewhat lower. Depending on the current interest rate situation, our budget goes up to about €750,000 (approx. $800,000), so we assumed the house including the garage fits within the budget. We are still waiting for a detailed evaluation in coordination with the architect. Since I didn’t see this as a big problem, I hadn’t explained the details of the DIY parts and previous offers in detail so far.
2.) Fireplace:
This has been discussed extensively and it’s interesting to know the pros and cons. It is a “nice to have” for us. We might decide to remove it.
3.) Plot:
We are not yet fully satisfied with the current design of the new land gradient because the terrain still slopes down from the street to the house. We would prefer a gentle incline up to the front edge of the house. We imagine the land dropping more steeply next to the house where the basement windows are than before, so that we would not need any daylight wells at the rear basement window and the side rear basement window at all. Then a horizontal terrain level at the middle ground height between the back of the building and the rear property boundary. From the terrace down to the garden, there would be stairs and a planted slope. The difference in height would be about 1.20 m (4 feet). We want to discuss this next with the architect. Since we planned to discuss this with the architect first, I mentioned that the outdoor area is still unclear and should be planned in more detail. But feel free to share your thoughts already?
It is important to us to have a level space in the garden at the back. As it is now, a lot of fill would be necessary. Since we think the budget is sufficient, we want to keep the basement as it is.
1.) Budget and Cost Framework:
We are currently planning with a prefabricated house and have obtained two quotes so far for turnkey houses based on our basic requirements. The conditions were: upper floor with about 80 sqm (860 sq ft) and 2 bathrooms, ground floor set back partially with a shower bathroom, basement usable as living space, fireplace, photovoltaic system + battery storage, air-to-water heat pump. So regarding the area and main cost factors, it matches what the architect planned. The result was the mentioned €650,000 - 700,000 (approx. $700,000 - 750,000). We want to build the garage ourselves, so this cost is not included. Also, inside the house, we want to do some parts ourselves (with a friend who is a reinforced concrete specialist), so the offered turnkey house costs will be somewhat lower. Depending on the current interest rate situation, our budget goes up to about €750,000 (approx. $800,000), so we assumed the house including the garage fits within the budget. We are still waiting for a detailed evaluation in coordination with the architect. Since I didn’t see this as a big problem, I hadn’t explained the details of the DIY parts and previous offers in detail so far.
2.) Fireplace:
This has been discussed extensively and it’s interesting to know the pros and cons. It is a “nice to have” for us. We might decide to remove it.
3.) Plot:
We are not yet fully satisfied with the current design of the new land gradient because the terrain still slopes down from the street to the house. We would prefer a gentle incline up to the front edge of the house. We imagine the land dropping more steeply next to the house where the basement windows are than before, so that we would not need any daylight wells at the rear basement window and the side rear basement window at all. Then a horizontal terrain level at the middle ground height between the back of the building and the rear property boundary. From the terrace down to the garden, there would be stairs and a planted slope. The difference in height would be about 1.20 m (4 feet). We want to discuss this next with the architect. Since we planned to discuss this with the architect first, I mentioned that the outdoor area is still unclear and should be planned in more detail. But feel free to share your thoughts already?
It is important to us to have a level space in the garden at the back. As it is now, a lot of fill would be necessary. Since we think the budget is sufficient, we want to keep the basement as it is.
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