Hello everyone,
The planning for our construction project is gradually becoming more concrete, so we would really appreciate your feedback on our floor plan ideas. I have attached our first floor plan concept below. Windows, doors, etc., are not yet finalized; at this stage, we are focusing mainly on the general room layout. The square meterage is probably not yet exact, as after subtracting the sloped ceilings (I believe!), it comes to about 150 m2 (1,615 sq ft), which is likely beyond our budget, but the overall shape and layout of the house roughly match our vision.
Our given conditions are:
Building plot 10x10 m (33x33 ft), one-and-a-half storey construction. The plot is approximately 575 m2 (6,190 sq ft), about 30 m (98 ft) east-west and about 20 m (66 ft) north-south. The house is planned to be positioned in the northeast corner, with the roof ridge running east-west (not sure if this is mandatory, but it seems logical, right?).
We are a family of five with grandparents living far outside our city (Berlin), and therefore we would like:
At minimum: open-plan living-dining-kitchen area, large utility/storage room, one shower bathroom, one family bathroom, four bedrooms
Ideally: an additional room (office/guest) and/or usable extra space in the attic
All this as cost-effectively as possible, since our budget for the house alone is 190,000 EUR.
Based on the previous recommendations, we would like to include a staircase to the attic right from the start, even if we may not finish the attic immediately.
After visiting a 134 m2 (1,442 sq ft) sample house of a well-known manufacturer over the weekend, we found that the six rooms we want are technically accommodated there with some charm, but it felt a bit cramped.
So, we tried creating a floor plan that makes the house somewhat larger overall, allowing space on the ground floor for a shower bathroom and a slightly bigger extra room, as follows:
The middle bedroom in the attic works because it is fully located in a dormer. We actually really like this layout, and a house with such a dormer also looks attractive from the outside. Our concern, however, is that the dormer might be too expensive, and/or that even with somewhat more square meters than the sample house, the rooms might still feel a bit tight.
The alternatives we are considering are as follows:
First, to forgo the fourth bedroom on the upper floor and instead have three equally sized bedrooms plus a bathroom there. In that case, a resident would have to temporarily relocate to another room when grandparents visit or the attic would need to be clearly designated as overflow space. It would then be important that the extra room on the ground floor is large enough to serve as a fully functional private room (which we have tried to plan accordingly on the ground floor).
Second, if we cannot afford the dormer, we attempted to maximize the attic space by moving the bathroom to the center, so that all four bedrooms still have proper windows. This resulted in the following layout:
Aside from the fact that the feeling of cramped space remains here as well, what bothers me about this variant is that, unlike the version with the dormer, it would later be difficult to create 2-3 well-shaped rooms from this space, which would actually be an attractive option for when the children move out.
This is where we are so far! Tomorrow we have an appointment with the architect’s office, into which we would like to go with as clear ideas as possible. Therefore, we would really appreciate any feedback today that could help us to refine and improve the ideas presented here. Thank you in advance for your suggestions!
Best regards,
Kazazi
The planning for our construction project is gradually becoming more concrete, so we would really appreciate your feedback on our floor plan ideas. I have attached our first floor plan concept below. Windows, doors, etc., are not yet finalized; at this stage, we are focusing mainly on the general room layout. The square meterage is probably not yet exact, as after subtracting the sloped ceilings (I believe!), it comes to about 150 m2 (1,615 sq ft), which is likely beyond our budget, but the overall shape and layout of the house roughly match our vision.
Our given conditions are:
Building plot 10x10 m (33x33 ft), one-and-a-half storey construction. The plot is approximately 575 m2 (6,190 sq ft), about 30 m (98 ft) east-west and about 20 m (66 ft) north-south. The house is planned to be positioned in the northeast corner, with the roof ridge running east-west (not sure if this is mandatory, but it seems logical, right?).
We are a family of five with grandparents living far outside our city (Berlin), and therefore we would like:
At minimum: open-plan living-dining-kitchen area, large utility/storage room, one shower bathroom, one family bathroom, four bedrooms
Ideally: an additional room (office/guest) and/or usable extra space in the attic
All this as cost-effectively as possible, since our budget for the house alone is 190,000 EUR.
Based on the previous recommendations, we would like to include a staircase to the attic right from the start, even if we may not finish the attic immediately.
After visiting a 134 m2 (1,442 sq ft) sample house of a well-known manufacturer over the weekend, we found that the six rooms we want are technically accommodated there with some charm, but it felt a bit cramped.
So, we tried creating a floor plan that makes the house somewhat larger overall, allowing space on the ground floor for a shower bathroom and a slightly bigger extra room, as follows:
The middle bedroom in the attic works because it is fully located in a dormer. We actually really like this layout, and a house with such a dormer also looks attractive from the outside. Our concern, however, is that the dormer might be too expensive, and/or that even with somewhat more square meters than the sample house, the rooms might still feel a bit tight.
The alternatives we are considering are as follows:
First, to forgo the fourth bedroom on the upper floor and instead have three equally sized bedrooms plus a bathroom there. In that case, a resident would have to temporarily relocate to another room when grandparents visit or the attic would need to be clearly designated as overflow space. It would then be important that the extra room on the ground floor is large enough to serve as a fully functional private room (which we have tried to plan accordingly on the ground floor).
Second, if we cannot afford the dormer, we attempted to maximize the attic space by moving the bathroom to the center, so that all four bedrooms still have proper windows. This resulted in the following layout:
Aside from the fact that the feeling of cramped space remains here as well, what bothers me about this variant is that, unlike the version with the dormer, it would later be difficult to create 2-3 well-shaped rooms from this space, which would actually be an attractive option for when the children move out.
This is where we are so far! Tomorrow we have an appointment with the architect’s office, into which we would like to go with as clear ideas as possible. Therefore, we would really appreciate any feedback today that could help us to refine and improve the ideas presented here. Thank you in advance for your suggestions!
Best regards,
Kazazi
Draw in a staircase as it should be, with the correct width. That will place you right at the front door? How deep is the guest bathroom? Toilet and shower + sink in 3m² (32 sq ft)? A shower measures 0.9 x 0.9 meters (35 x 35 inches). How much space is left for the toilet then?
ypg schrieb:
There is also a member here in the forum who had to plan several bedrooms, as required. The house is built in Bavaria, but by a nationwide manufacturer... not too expensive either (under 200,000) – either she will contact us here herself or I can connect you via private message if desired.Here she is
We also needed three children's rooms, and we considered whether to add another room on the ground floor and make the kitchen / living-dining area smaller, or to slightly reduce the size of the upper floor. How big do children's rooms have to be? When the children are small, they usually play downstairs with the parents; when they get older, they often spend time outside; and for teenagers, basically just a bed to hang out is enough. So we made the rooms upstairs a bit smaller and instead created a nice spacious area on the ground floor:
We have a knee wall of 1.80 m (Rough structural measurement!). Our external dimensions are 8.84 * 10.64 m (29 ft (9.2 m) * 35 ft (10.6 m)).
The rooms are adequate, but certainly not large. We could have added an extra room on the ground floor where the kitchen is now. However, then the area would have become too small and cramped. For occasional guests, it wasn’t worth it to us.
Our house price was actually just under 200,000 € when we signed in 2012. It would certainly have been more expensive in 2013, and since 2014 prices have increased further, so the prices mentioned by Bauexperte here are quite accurate.
My building blog is linked here in the forum if you want to read it
Hello and thanks again to everyone
@Jaydee – nice floor plan! We also considered a higher knee wall and will definitely check this afternoon how high it is allowed to be and what costs it might involve. My concern is that with a very high knee wall *and* an attic suitable for conversion, we might not meet either the financial constraints or the permitted dimensions, so we will probably have to choose between a similar floor plan to yours with even smaller rooms or an additional room on the ground floor.
How do you manage when you have guests? And since the importance of a well-functioning entrance hall, especially for larger families, has been mentioned several times, how do you find yours, which is relatively small in terms of square meters? Also, do you plan to convert the attic later, or is your roof now so shallow due to the high knee wall that it wouldn’t really make sense anymore?
@Wastl – You’re right, the staircase didn’t work as it was. We made some improvements. Regarding the downstairs shower bathroom, I have seen several with this size and layout, at least on paper, and even one in a show home which I found acceptable – at least if the shower is walk-in level. Has anyone had concrete negative experiences with such a small shower bathroom downstairs?
Best regards,
Kazazi
@Jaydee – nice floor plan! We also considered a higher knee wall and will definitely check this afternoon how high it is allowed to be and what costs it might involve. My concern is that with a very high knee wall *and* an attic suitable for conversion, we might not meet either the financial constraints or the permitted dimensions, so we will probably have to choose between a similar floor plan to yours with even smaller rooms or an additional room on the ground floor.
How do you manage when you have guests? And since the importance of a well-functioning entrance hall, especially for larger families, has been mentioned several times, how do you find yours, which is relatively small in terms of square meters? Also, do you plan to convert the attic later, or is your roof now so shallow due to the high knee wall that it wouldn’t really make sense anymore?
@Wastl – You’re right, the staircase didn’t work as it was. We made some improvements. Regarding the downstairs shower bathroom, I have seen several with this size and layout, at least on paper, and even one in a show home which I found acceptable – at least if the shower is walk-in level. Has anyone had concrete negative experiences with such a small shower bathroom downstairs?
Best regards,
Kazazi
Many questions ...
No, we won’t convert anything more. We have an attic height of 1.20 meters (4 feet).
Our situation is only partially comparable with yours. Yvonne (ypg) also mentioned that we have three kids’ rooms upstairs and that this is definitely possible.
Kazazi schrieb:Well, we have 3 children living with us part-time. So two of the kids’ rooms are only partially occupied. We host my parents or my sister when the children are not home or at least one room is free. Otherwise, everyone can share a room. Sometimes three kids sleep in the same room—that’s something people do on vacation anyway.
How do you handle it when you have guests?
Kazazi schrieb:That will work for us. We only have one full-time resident child here, so we are mostly three people at home. The other “children” are already quite grown (12, 14, and 17), so they are fairly orderly (and don’t have thousands of pairs of shoes, rain boots, jackets, hats, etc.).
And, since the importance of a well-functioning hallway, especially in larger families, has been mentioned several times already, how do you manage with yours, which is relatively small in terms of square meters?
Kazazi schrieb:
And do you plan to convert the attic later, or is your roof so flat because of the high knee wall that it wouldn’t make sense anymore?
No, we won’t convert anything more. We have an attic height of 1.20 meters (4 feet).
Our situation is only partially comparable with yours. Yvonne (ypg) also mentioned that we have three kids’ rooms upstairs and that this is definitely possible.
All right, that makes sense. With our current 8-, 7-, and 2-year-old permanent dirt magnets and my forest kindergarten man, we will probably need a larger hallway for now.
OK – I’ll get back to you once our ideas have developed further after today’s discussion.
Thanks again to everyone!
OK – I’ll get back to you once our ideas have developed further after today’s discussion.
Thanks again to everyone!
Hello everyone,
There’s some news .
After our meeting with the architect last Tuesday, we finally received the first draft today. I’ve attached it here and would really appreciate your feedback so we can provide solid input as quickly as possible.
We ultimately decided on the option with three rooms plus a bathroom upstairs and a fourth room downstairs, plus preparations for converting the attic into a potential sixth room for work or guests in the future. In the meantime, we want to create a small workspace in the bedroom (since we have good experience with that) and have one child on the ground floor.
In the draft we received, I’ve already noticed a few things we would prefer to be a bit different and had partly discussed with the architect, but apparently not all of it made it onto the plans...
I’m interested in your opinions on the draft itself as well as on the changes we want. Also, please let us know if you see any major cost traps anywhere, where a small change might save a lot of money.
As always, thank you very much in advance!
Our change requests so far:
1) On the ground floor, we actually don’t want a third gable but only on the attic level (as a dormer), similar to, for example, the Town & Country Flair 134 or Mare Lotse 121 models. I think the gable on the ground floor looks nice, but I guess it will be significantly more expensive compared to having it only on the attic? Otherwise, if the dormer also turns out to be too expensive, we’d remove it and hope that the floor plan still works well without it – does anyone have concerns about this?
2) The door to the living room should ideally be slightly further east and/or narrower so that we can have coat storage in the southeast corner of the hallway. We probably have to give up the double door there, since otherwise it would spoil the symmetry with the garden door. Or do you think this is not a big deal (especially if the gable is removed), and how could this best be solved?
3) The southwest corner of the living room should actually have more of a glazed corner effect. After the meeting, we imagined two doors or floor-to-ceiling windows meeting at the corner, with only a small bit of wall between them, similar to what’s seen in models like the Alto SD 200 or Calvus SD 200 by Heinz von Heiden. To do this, the west window could simply shift to the right, and the two corners could become floor-to-ceiling windows or doors, right? Or does anyone have a better or more cost-effective idea?
4) We might also extend the terrace around the southwest corner... but that probably doesn’t matter much for the floor plan right now, does it?
5) Room 1 should also have a garden door (instead of a window).
6) The attic windows are missing. Also, I think we need a cross-section and/or floor plan for the attic to better understand its dimensions, right?
7) There should be a walk-in shower in the northeast corner of the ground floor WC – this might already be shown, and I’m just not reading it correctly...
8) One more question about the stairs – for now, we want them as drawn, closed, to gain storage space, etc., in the utility room. Alternatively, an open staircase with coat or storage space underneath would also be an option. Any opinions on which is more practical/attractive/affordable?
Best regards,
Kazazi
There’s some news .
After our meeting with the architect last Tuesday, we finally received the first draft today. I’ve attached it here and would really appreciate your feedback so we can provide solid input as quickly as possible.
We ultimately decided on the option with three rooms plus a bathroom upstairs and a fourth room downstairs, plus preparations for converting the attic into a potential sixth room for work or guests in the future. In the meantime, we want to create a small workspace in the bedroom (since we have good experience with that) and have one child on the ground floor.
In the draft we received, I’ve already noticed a few things we would prefer to be a bit different and had partly discussed with the architect, but apparently not all of it made it onto the plans...
I’m interested in your opinions on the draft itself as well as on the changes we want. Also, please let us know if you see any major cost traps anywhere, where a small change might save a lot of money.
As always, thank you very much in advance!
Our change requests so far:
1) On the ground floor, we actually don’t want a third gable but only on the attic level (as a dormer), similar to, for example, the Town & Country Flair 134 or Mare Lotse 121 models. I think the gable on the ground floor looks nice, but I guess it will be significantly more expensive compared to having it only on the attic? Otherwise, if the dormer also turns out to be too expensive, we’d remove it and hope that the floor plan still works well without it – does anyone have concerns about this?
2) The door to the living room should ideally be slightly further east and/or narrower so that we can have coat storage in the southeast corner of the hallway. We probably have to give up the double door there, since otherwise it would spoil the symmetry with the garden door. Or do you think this is not a big deal (especially if the gable is removed), and how could this best be solved?
3) The southwest corner of the living room should actually have more of a glazed corner effect. After the meeting, we imagined two doors or floor-to-ceiling windows meeting at the corner, with only a small bit of wall between them, similar to what’s seen in models like the Alto SD 200 or Calvus SD 200 by Heinz von Heiden. To do this, the west window could simply shift to the right, and the two corners could become floor-to-ceiling windows or doors, right? Or does anyone have a better or more cost-effective idea?
4) We might also extend the terrace around the southwest corner... but that probably doesn’t matter much for the floor plan right now, does it?
5) Room 1 should also have a garden door (instead of a window).
6) The attic windows are missing. Also, I think we need a cross-section and/or floor plan for the attic to better understand its dimensions, right?
7) There should be a walk-in shower in the northeast corner of the ground floor WC – this might already be shown, and I’m just not reading it correctly...
8) One more question about the stairs – for now, we want them as drawn, closed, to gain storage space, etc., in the utility room. Alternatively, an open staircase with coat or storage space underneath would also be an option. Any opinions on which is more practical/attractive/affordable?
Best regards,
Kazazi
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