Hello everyone,
We are currently reviewing whether to make any changes to the standard floor plan from our home builder for our end-of-terrace house. There are stricter guidelines that I’m already sure will disappoint some forum members. Roughly, we’ve been told that exterior walls and the façade, including windows and exterior doors, cannot be altered, and load-bearing walls cannot be moved. This mainly concerns the staircase and stair wall. Most other interior walls, as far as we know, are movable. In principle, we could also move in with the unmodified standard layout, but we do see 1-2 points with potential for improvement (though maybe in the end this just fuels the Spec House Building - Small Changes, Unintended Consequences thread).
I will still fill out the questionnaire, even though most of it cannot be changed for us (in particular Section 1 on the development plan is more the home builder’s area).
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size – 207 m² (2,230 sq ft)
Slope – slight incline, I don’t have exact survey data, but we can’t change anything at the house entrances anyway.
Site coverage ratio – 0.4
Floor area ratio – 0.8
Building envelope, building line, and setback – not relevant since we cannot change the external shell
Edge development – not relevant since we cannot change the external shell
Number of parking spaces (already included) – garage plus parking space in front
Number of storeys – 2
Roof type – gable roof
Architectural style –
Orientation – north/south
Maximum heights / limits – not relevant
Other conditions: Hornbeam hedge along the cul-de-sac on our property (on the west side; in the floor plans it appears on the right because they are not north-oriented)
Homeowners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: fixed by the home builder
Basement, floors: usable basement + 2 full stories + converted attic (already determined by the builder)
Number of occupants, ages: currently 2 (31 and 32); planning for 1-2 children
Space needs on ground and upper floors:
Office: family use or home office? Home office, both partly working remotely. Ideally, a separate space for each would be great, but if that’s not possible with potentially 2 children, it’s manageable.
Guest bedrooms per year: about 3-4 times a year
Open or closed layout: medium? Open transition between kitchen and living area is a must, but overall, some walls are okay.
Conservative or modern building style: –
Open kitchen, kitchen island: tends to “not fully closed” (see above), but we don’t necessarily need an island if something else is more practical or cost-effective.
Number of dining seats: for 4 people
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony / roof terrace: no
Garage / carport: garage included
Utility garden / greenhouse: no (maybe a small bed later we’d do ourselves)
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be included:
We are both partly working remotely. Currently, we have an office and a desk in the living room. If possible, I’d prefer not to keep working in the living room. If two adults move in, it’s absolutely no problem; with one child it’s probably still fine, with two children… well, by then things might have changed anyway. I feel we’ll find a solution, and if someone locks themselves away in the 4 m² (43 sq ft) closet on the first floor (where the walls are still adjustable) or gets a desk in the bedroom, that might work.
House Design
Surroundings: To the south are garages for neighboring terrace houses, then a turning area (end of the cul-de-sac), followed by some individual trees and other detached houses. To the east is our block. Then a few small trees and a railway line (several meters lower). To the west, on our property, there is a city-required hornbeam hedge. We will try to negotiate a passage to the street (for bikes and so on). Since the second escape route on the ground floor is via the terrace, I see some chances, but city officials aren’t always easy.
Planning by:
- Home builder
What do you like especially? Why?
- I see the plan working for us both if the family plan doesn’t happen (then it’s very generous) and with 1-2 children as well.
What don’t you like? Why?
- Ground floor: (main pain point) Entrance is relatively narrow with little cloakroom space. The peninsula kitchen feels too small to work well (and probably requires an expensive extractor in the peninsula). The distance from the sofa to the TV is huge. The basement access is in the living room. We’ll probably manage some kind of furnishing on the ground floor, but right now it doesn’t exactly feel “yes, this is perfect.”
- Upper floor: We’ve debated whether to enlarge the 4 m² (43 sq ft) closet slightly to potentially use it later as an overflow office, but actually we find it as planned not bad at all (and initially more practical).
- Attic: The “landing” could be another possible office space if children come; we considered whether to separate it right away with a wall and door or leave it as shown.
So actually: except for the ground floor, we are quite satisfied; everything else is in the range of “if we want the jack-of-all-trades, maybe some changes could be made – or we keep it as is and see if the need arises.”
If you had to give up something, which details/extensions:
- We can give up: changes to the upper floor and attic
- We cannot give up: at least 1 office
Why is the design as it is now? e.g.
Standard plan from the home builder
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
I think it’s a solid floor plan for young families, but the ground floor worries me a bit. I feel maybe a different staircase shape would have helped, but as far as I’ve been told, that cannot be changed.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
How do we best arrange the ground floor? Should we still make some changes here?
Ideas for potential changes to the ground floor
Maybe reduce the kitchen size and straighten the hallway wall? (We’ve discussed this idea in the kitchen forum but haven’t talked to the planner yet.) The scale is off here (I think my cabinets are too large). The rough structural width in the kitchen at the narrowest point is 248 cm (98 inches), so roughly 240 cm (94 inches) minus about 130 cm (51 inches) for both kitchen sides would leave 110 cm (43 inches) aisle width. Also, the window would be moved to the corner. In return, there would be more cloakroom space in the hallway. Bad idea? Opinions?
Another question is a bit… can we reduce the distance between sofa and TV? I’ve just sketched in our current furniture; it would look roughly like this (sofa 275 x 220 cm (108 x 87 inches)).
Ideas so far include putting a shelf behind the sofa (but that blocks the terrace door more). Any other ideas?
Best regards
We are currently reviewing whether to make any changes to the standard floor plan from our home builder for our end-of-terrace house. There are stricter guidelines that I’m already sure will disappoint some forum members. Roughly, we’ve been told that exterior walls and the façade, including windows and exterior doors, cannot be altered, and load-bearing walls cannot be moved. This mainly concerns the staircase and stair wall. Most other interior walls, as far as we know, are movable. In principle, we could also move in with the unmodified standard layout, but we do see 1-2 points with potential for improvement (though maybe in the end this just fuels the Spec House Building - Small Changes, Unintended Consequences thread).
I will still fill out the questionnaire, even though most of it cannot be changed for us (in particular Section 1 on the development plan is more the home builder’s area).
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size – 207 m² (2,230 sq ft)
Slope – slight incline, I don’t have exact survey data, but we can’t change anything at the house entrances anyway.
Site coverage ratio – 0.4
Floor area ratio – 0.8
Building envelope, building line, and setback – not relevant since we cannot change the external shell
Edge development – not relevant since we cannot change the external shell
Number of parking spaces (already included) – garage plus parking space in front
Number of storeys – 2
Roof type – gable roof
Architectural style –
Orientation – north/south
Maximum heights / limits – not relevant
Other conditions: Hornbeam hedge along the cul-de-sac on our property (on the west side; in the floor plans it appears on the right because they are not north-oriented)
Homeowners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: fixed by the home builder
Basement, floors: usable basement + 2 full stories + converted attic (already determined by the builder)
Number of occupants, ages: currently 2 (31 and 32); planning for 1-2 children
Space needs on ground and upper floors:
Office: family use or home office? Home office, both partly working remotely. Ideally, a separate space for each would be great, but if that’s not possible with potentially 2 children, it’s manageable.
Guest bedrooms per year: about 3-4 times a year
Open or closed layout: medium? Open transition between kitchen and living area is a must, but overall, some walls are okay.
Conservative or modern building style: –
Open kitchen, kitchen island: tends to “not fully closed” (see above), but we don’t necessarily need an island if something else is more practical or cost-effective.
Number of dining seats: for 4 people
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony / roof terrace: no
Garage / carport: garage included
Utility garden / greenhouse: no (maybe a small bed later we’d do ourselves)
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be included:
We are both partly working remotely. Currently, we have an office and a desk in the living room. If possible, I’d prefer not to keep working in the living room. If two adults move in, it’s absolutely no problem; with one child it’s probably still fine, with two children… well, by then things might have changed anyway. I feel we’ll find a solution, and if someone locks themselves away in the 4 m² (43 sq ft) closet on the first floor (where the walls are still adjustable) or gets a desk in the bedroom, that might work.
House Design
Surroundings: To the south are garages for neighboring terrace houses, then a turning area (end of the cul-de-sac), followed by some individual trees and other detached houses. To the east is our block. Then a few small trees and a railway line (several meters lower). To the west, on our property, there is a city-required hornbeam hedge. We will try to negotiate a passage to the street (for bikes and so on). Since the second escape route on the ground floor is via the terrace, I see some chances, but city officials aren’t always easy.
Planning by:
- Home builder
What do you like especially? Why?
- I see the plan working for us both if the family plan doesn’t happen (then it’s very generous) and with 1-2 children as well.
What don’t you like? Why?
- Ground floor: (main pain point) Entrance is relatively narrow with little cloakroom space. The peninsula kitchen feels too small to work well (and probably requires an expensive extractor in the peninsula). The distance from the sofa to the TV is huge. The basement access is in the living room. We’ll probably manage some kind of furnishing on the ground floor, but right now it doesn’t exactly feel “yes, this is perfect.”
- Upper floor: We’ve debated whether to enlarge the 4 m² (43 sq ft) closet slightly to potentially use it later as an overflow office, but actually we find it as planned not bad at all (and initially more practical).
- Attic: The “landing” could be another possible office space if children come; we considered whether to separate it right away with a wall and door or leave it as shown.
So actually: except for the ground floor, we are quite satisfied; everything else is in the range of “if we want the jack-of-all-trades, maybe some changes could be made – or we keep it as is and see if the need arises.”
If you had to give up something, which details/extensions:
- We can give up: changes to the upper floor and attic
- We cannot give up: at least 1 office
Why is the design as it is now? e.g.
Standard plan from the home builder
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
I think it’s a solid floor plan for young families, but the ground floor worries me a bit. I feel maybe a different staircase shape would have helped, but as far as I’ve been told, that cannot be changed.
What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?
How do we best arrange the ground floor? Should we still make some changes here?
Ideas for potential changes to the ground floor
Maybe reduce the kitchen size and straighten the hallway wall? (We’ve discussed this idea in the kitchen forum but haven’t talked to the planner yet.) The scale is off here (I think my cabinets are too large). The rough structural width in the kitchen at the narrowest point is 248 cm (98 inches), so roughly 240 cm (94 inches) minus about 130 cm (51 inches) for both kitchen sides would leave 110 cm (43 inches) aisle width. Also, the window would be moved to the corner. In return, there would be more cloakroom space in the hallway. Bad idea? Opinions?
Another question is a bit… can we reduce the distance between sofa and TV? I’ve just sketched in our current furniture; it would look roughly like this (sofa 275 x 220 cm (108 x 87 inches)).
Ideas so far include putting a shelf behind the sofa (but that blocks the terrace door more). Any other ideas?
Best regards
mayglow schrieb:
Well, very unfortunate. Tecklenburg filed for insolvency today. [...] And we really tried back then to dig through annual financial statements and that kind of stuff, and at least from our layman’s perspective, everything looked quite okay. Sigh. I’ll sort it out later. "Filing" does not necessarily mean there is cause for concern.
mayglow schrieb:
Actually, I’m still quite optimistic that everything will work out fairly well for us, but of course delays are possible. Yes, delays will probably be unavoidable to some extent.
mayglow schrieb:
A future neighbor mentioned that even today construction workers were visibly present at our site. In my assessment, your general contractor employs a large proportion of own staff. They are usually best protected, so the work morale tends to suffer less.
mayglow schrieb:
My hope is that they will somehow reach an agreement with the creditors and that this won’t affect us too much. But we’ll see. Even though my priority is that they properly pay our subcontractors, banks might have different priorities there 😉 Banks themselves are regularly among the creditors, who don’t dictate priorities. However, they are probably the main voices in the creditors’ meeting.
On this topic, you can currently find several posts from me in the threads https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/hausbaufirma-baut-nicht-weiter-alleine-weitermachen-aber-wie.46092/ and https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/bauunternehmen-insolvent-wie-weiter-vorgehen.46528/ as well as mainly https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/traumhaus-ag-schwabenheim-an-der-selz-pfaffenhofen-heinrich-hildmann.46422/ and https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/hattersheim-traumhaus-ag-heinrich-hildmann.46471/ and https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/traumhaus-ag-heinrich-hildmann-wiesbaden-erbenheim.46494/ – I could well imagine that Tecklenburg will enter debtor-in-possession proceedings and emerge healthy from it. What kind of insolvency procedure do you have: voluntary petition?
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
hanghaus2023 schrieb:
Do you have a performance bond? There is a bond of 5% held by the notary, but I still need to reread the exact conditions surrounding it (sigh). I mean, if the house were ready to move into without major defects, they could schedule an inspection, and once that's done, they might have claims on it... (there’s usually a final payment left for "completion" or something like that). Although, if the house is ready to move into without much fuss, I think I’d be quite happy.
11ant schrieb:
In my assessment, your general contractor employs a high number of their own workers. They are the best protected, so morale suffers the least. I’m not so sure about that. We have chatted a bit with the people on site when we were there. The shell builders seemed possibly from Tecklenburg, the site manager definitely, but for many of the follow-up trades it sounded more like various subcontractors (window makers and tilers almost certainly), who were usually local companies from the region. If at some point nothing moves anymore, maybe we would try to speak directly with them, but there probably needs to be a lot more clarified first (including the current status).
I also don’t know if they will still let us onto the construction site. I suspect it wouldn’t be a bad idea to have an expert inspect the current status (though that will probably have to happen anyway as part of the insolvency proceedings?).
Somehow, I only read half of 11ant’s post on the first try – oops. Yes, I’m still going through the links, thanks.
Otherwise, maybe I’m just convincing myself, but "After consultation with the yet-to-be-appointed preliminary insolvency administrator, we will get back to you." Possibly the term "preliminary" indicates they are aiming for self-administration? But maybe that’s not decided yet (I’m not very sure about this), or it is common to appoint a preliminary administrator initially anyway, I have no idea.
11ant schrieb:So far, we also have very limited information, but the wording sounds like they filed themselves (and not, for example, at the request of creditors after they were unable to pay). "that Tecklenburg GmbH has filed an insolvency petition at the Kleve District Court as of today."
What type of insolvency proceeding are you dealing with: voluntary petition?
Otherwise, maybe I’m just convincing myself, but "After consultation with the yet-to-be-appointed preliminary insolvency administrator, we will get back to you." Possibly the term "preliminary" indicates they are aiming for self-administration? But maybe that’s not decided yet (I’m not very sure about this), or it is common to appoint a preliminary administrator initially anyway, I have no idea.
mayglow schrieb:
The structural builders might possibly be from Tecklenburg, the site manager definitely, but many of the following trades sounded more like some subcontractors (window installers and tilers almost certainly), You know I was the window manufacturer myself. If I were a developer, I would also tend to outsource such secondary tasks.
mayglow schrieb:
So far, we only have very limited information, But at least some of it firsthand; I just messaged you for an exchange 🙂
mayglow schrieb:
possibly the “preliminary” indicates that they are aiming for self-administration? No, “preliminary” always applies at first. I believe they are capable of self-administration. Haven’t they commented on that yet?
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
To bridge the resulting liquidity shortfall, Tecklenburg GmbH has decided to file for insolvency with the competent local court.
Despite these challenges, the management emphasizes a positive outlook for continuing the business. Hermann Tecklenburg’s declared goal is to keep the company running and to complete all construction projects with the agreed quality and on schedule. I’d say the insolvency filing is more a legal formality than a cause for concern.
The strong order backlog and project portfolio provide a solid foundation for a successful restructuring during the insolvency process.
Tecklenburg GmbH plans to actively use this phase for restructuring. The focus will be on a sustainable and long-term realignment of the company. To me, this sounds like an application for self-administration with good chances of success (both for the application and the outlook).
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
11ant schrieb:
Window manufacturer, you know, that was me myself. What? I don’t know anything about that.
11ant schrieb:
Filing for insolvency more by law than out of real concern. Well, Google says that during such a filing, all claims are frozen. So I assume no subcontractors are being paid at the moment, and I’d be surprised if much happens then? And then hope that it really is self-administration (?) and that the assessment is correct that they actually want to properly complete the project… (or alternatively that the insolvency administrator also thinks it’s a good idea to continue because there’s a prospect of money…)
But if we’re mainly talking about a delay of maybe a few months (?), I can live with that. We also know someone who went through a developer insolvency with a complete wind-up (long ago and a much smaller developer). They still managed to part ways fairly smoothly and then finished everything by subcontracting themselves and, I believe, with more in-house work. But in the end, they did get to move into their home. So today was a bit of a panic day, but my outlook remains positive. It will work out.
It all just still feels a bit surreal… like just a few days ago we were discussing when the handover might be. Well, well.
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