ᐅ Floor plan, KfW55EE semi-detached house, 150 m² living space, 380 m² plot, second row
Created on: 6 Jan 2022 15:56
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Wolfson
Hello experienced home builders. We are planning the construction of a KfW55EE semi-detached house attached to an existing building and would greatly appreciate your feedback. Thank you very much in advance!
Development Plan / Restrictions
Homeowners’ Requirements
House Design
Development Plan / Restrictions
- Plot size: 380 m² (4090 sq ft)
- Slope: no, almost flat
- Site occupancy index (floor area ratio): 0.4
- Floor space index (floor area ratio): 0.6
- Building window, building line and boundary: see attached sketch
- Edge development: semi-detached house attached to existing building
- Number of parking spaces: 1
- Number of floors: 1 full floor
- Roof type: gable roof 40°
- Style: country house
- Orientation: lighting is challenging, see attached sketch
- Maximum heights / limits: wall height 3.5 - 4.5 m (11.5 - 15 ft), base height 0.3 - 1 m (1 - 3 ft), height must be adapted to the neighboring house. For cost reasons, the fire protection wall to the neighbor must not exceed the gable wall dimensions of the neighbor (cannot be a weather-exposed wall).
- Additional requirements:
- Exceeding the site occupancy index by 20 m² (215 sq ft) allowed.
- If no easement area is available on the front plot (for access and parking for the front house), transfer to the rear plot possible using a land-use easement.
- No ancillary structures allowed on garden area.
- Neighbor’s house must be underpinned. The neighbor’s basement is set back 1.5 m (5 ft) from the boundary where the attachment will be made. In this area, concrete supports of 3 - 3.5 m (10 - 11.5 ft) depth serve as underpinning for a former terrace and shed.
- Sketch:
- Neighbor’s gable wall to be attached:
Homeowners’ Requirements
- Style, roof type, building type: wooden house / country house
- Basement, floors: A basement for utility purposes would be ideal to accommodate building services, (food) storage, space for 1-4 sports bikes, and workshop, but it most likely exceeds our budget (we have a local contractor’s offer and several rough estimates from prefabricated basement manufacturers). Therefore, we plan to add a garage on the right side, even though this means sacrificing a kitchen window facing northeast. Ideally, we want to integrate building services, a workbench, and a small food storage in the garage. Bikes (e.g., sports bikes mounted on walls and city bikes on the floor) should be stored there as well. The garage should be accessible for a trailer and small excavator, so it needs front and rear doors. Ideally, it should also have doors for easy access to the garden. If no car parking space remains, that would not be a major issue. However, we do not fully understand the development plan regarding the garage…
- Number of people, ages: 2 adults and 2 children (3, 6)
- Space requirements on ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF):
- GF:
- Should be suitable for use in old age with bedroom and small bathroom (to minimize stairs)
- Office / guest room combo
- Small shower bathroom
- Living / dining / kitchen area
- UF:
- 2 children’s rooms
- Bedroom
- Bathroom
- Attic: storage, possibly later conversion
- Office: family use or home office?: Home office, about 70% even after the pandemic. Also, the workspace should serve as a private small home studio / home recording room. Possibly a second workspace may need to be integrated. For overnight stays, a sofa bed is planned. Later (in old age), the office should be convertible into a bedroom since most daily living will be on the ground floor.
- Overnight guests per year: at least once per month 1-2 people, possibly 3-4 times a year a 3-5 person family with small children (improvising with children’s room use is easily possible)
- Open or closed architecture (see initial draft)
- Conservative or modern construction: Home builder and construction method are fixed: Hagemann wooden house including wooden facade
- Open kitchen, cooking island: Yes, a cooking island with stove is desired. We plan to buy a used kitchen (private or used kitchen suppliers) once dimensions are fixed and adapt accordingly.
- Number of dining seats: 4-6 daily, extendable to about 10
- Fireplace: yes, due to well-insulated house and underfloor heating, rather a small freestanding storage stove (about 4-6 kW)
- Music / stereo wall: current system is classic 2.0 stereo, no new plans yet. We do not have a TV. However, having an option for family movie nights without major alterations would be good, e.g., space for a hidden monitor to connect a laptop and suitable stereo system arrangement…
- Balcony, roof terrace: wooden terrace with gaps for water infiltration desired
- Garage, carport: not absolutely needed for parking, but a garage as basement replacement (see basement). However, we are not 100% sure if this is even permitted under the development plan.
- Kitchen garden, greenhouse: garden currently has a walnut tree and we want to plant 1-2 smaller fruit trees. We also plan to grow vegetables, berry bushes, etc.
- Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons for choosing or excluding certain options:
- Big challenge is the orientation and lighting; however, for financial reasons, we have to make compromises (e.g., sacrifice the kitchen window for the garage as a basement replacement or limit the number and size of windows).
House Design
- Who designed the plan: We are building with Hagemann Haus. The design comes from the architect commissioned through Hagemann. We have two drafts so far:
- Without basement and with utility room
- With basement where the kitchen has more space by removing the utility room
- What do you particularly like? Why?
- We prefer the layout with the larger kitchen, especially since we want the kitchen slightly recessed to visually separate it better from the living/dining area and gain more space. As we cannot afford the basement, we hope to integrate the heating system into the attached garage. According to our energy advisor, this should be possible. We have not yet discussed this with the architect.
- What do you dislike? Why?
- The kitchen island is missing in the plan so far.
- Price estimate by architect/planner: for the house (excluding most additional costs) currently 290k. This includes all trades (plumbing, electrical, heating, etc.) except floors, internal doors, and painting. Some details aren’t included yet, such as extra windows beyond the standard—further recalculation with the architect’s draft needed. Current personal estimate including all building-related costs is about 435k.
- Personal price limit for the complete house: 450k
- Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump, plus photovoltaic system with about 6.5 kWP (prepared for a later battery storage retrofit)
- Driveway will be shared up to the property boundary with the owner of the front house, as they want to place their parking in the rear area. The plan is to pave two drive lanes with a green strip in the middle. If finances are tight, possibly just gravel.
- Current two drafts:
- External appearance largely identical:
- Floor plans (furniture shown is only illustrative; our actual furniture looks different):
- VERSION 1) with externalised building services, shown with basement, idea is to build with garage. Currently, a carport is planned but will not be realized. Instead, ideally the garage:
- GF:
- UF:
- Section: height is fixed, it is just slightly (about 2 cm [1 inch]) below the neighbor’s height. Attic accessible either by stairs or ladder/fold-down stairs (staircase shown in version without basement):
- VERSION 2) with integrated utility room, if garage is for some reason not feasible:
- GF:
- Upper floor identical.
- Section, here with stairs to attic:
- You could waive:
- Floor-to-ceiling windows on the upper floor
- In theory (though we don’t really want to):
- Fireplace (estimated at around 10k with chimney)
- Open wooden beam ceiling (10k)
- You could not give up:
- Garage for building services, workbench and storage
- We communicated our room needs, lifestyle for old age, etc., to the architect, and this draft resulted.
- What do you think makes it particularly good or bad? Almost all needs are met, except for space for workbench, sports bikes, drink crates, etc. in the no-basement version.
If you had to give up, which details or additions would you sacrifice
Why is the design as it is now? For example
What is the most important fundamental question about the floor plan in 130 characters or less?
How do we manage without a basement? Feedback on the floor plan and design welcome!
Many thanks in advance to everyone who has read this far and for all tips, suggestions, and comments!
ypg schrieb:
How is the property boundary designed on the northwest side? Is it a soft or hard boundary?
...
Has it come up whether you are allowed to build further out towards the garden? For example, just a narrow conservatory (a flower window) on the ground floor that also lets in light from above?
...
What is northwest of the property?
...
It seems that if there is no building on the northwest side, the back there is relatively open?The most important thing in this context is that, according to the development plan, no auxiliary structures are allowed in the garden area. The garden area starts directly behind the blue line behind the garage/house. That means we cannot extend the building towards the northwest.
ypg schrieb:
Did I miss it? Why the huge garage now, if it limits you so much with only one vehicle movement that only allows driving straight ahead?We wouldn’t even need a garage for the car; it is currently parked outside. But since we cannot build a basement, we need space for:
- Building services equipment (hot water boiler and photovoltaic system technology)
- Workbench
- Bicycles
- Winter/summer tires
- Beverage crates
- Possibly additional food storage
- etc.
ypg schrieb:
If the front property gets its parking space where you marked it, you could create a shared driveway WITHOUT a green strip, so you both always have enough space to turn around. Maybe even a carport/carport extension with a storage room behind each for bicycles and garbage bins?That’s a good idea, and the driveway up to the front house’s parking spot will be financed jointly. However, negotiating with the owner is quite challenging because he wants to spend as little money as possible and use as little land as possible for the driveway. The area immediately around the parking space could still be designed without a green strip and to make turning easier, which would benefit both parties. But a shared carport or similar is unfortunately not possible, especially since there is no space for it on our property and it would also reduce natural light even further.
ypg schrieb:
What is the workshop for?Even in the rented apartment, I am always building things using trestles on the balcony, in the courtyard, or in the stairwell. Owning a house will certainly not reduce that, so space for a workbench would be great.
ypg schrieb:
Then the planned garage will take away the last natural light on the ground floor on this side, right?Yes, the lighting situation is already not great, and this obviously doesn’t help because we will lose two windows that get morning light. However, considering what it would mean to give up the space needed for the items listed above, we decided to prioritize having a garage. To improve the lighting situation at least a little, we thought about larger interior windows/skylights between the study and kitchen, as well as between the bathroom and stairwell on the upper floor.
filosof schrieb:
Fitting an office with two workspaces and an additional sofa bed into just under 12m² (130 sq ft) seems like quite a challenging task to me. I am currently designing the house using Sweet Home 3D and have noticed the same. One idea is to possibly move the wall slightly toward the kitchen.
Version 1: I find the space for the seating area a bit tight, but a smaller sofa could definitely fit. Could the fireplace become somewhat cramped along the interior wall next to the door? That shouldn’t be underestimated! Especially if you also want a wood storage area, etc.
Version 2: Fitting the kitchen, dining area, and seating area into about 8 meters (26 feet) of length is really tight. The width of over 5 meters (16 feet) is great, but ultimately doesn’t add much. We have a seating and dining area around 8 meters (26 feet) in length, and I find that spacious and acceptable, but it shouldn’t be any less. Otherwise, you almost end up sitting right at the kitchen countertop.
Version 2: Fitting the kitchen, dining area, and seating area into about 8 meters (26 feet) of length is really tight. The width of over 5 meters (16 feet) is great, but ultimately doesn’t add much. We have a seating and dining area around 8 meters (26 feet) in length, and I find that spacious and acceptable, but it shouldn’t be any less. Otherwise, you almost end up sitting right at the kitchen countertop.
Wolfson schrieb:
The most important thing in this context is probably that, according to the development plan, no outbuildings are allowed in the garden area. That’s not what I mean by unrestricted! The question is whether anyone can look inside. Whether there is still traffic, someone lives there. If not, then I would fill every possible space with windows.
Wolfson schrieb:
Building services (hot water boiler and equipment for photovoltaic system) But not in the garage?!
Wolfson schrieb:
Crates of drinks The garage isn’t heated, is it?
Wolfson schrieb:
To at least slightly improve the lighting situation, we thought I was thinking of a bay window, one meter deep, 4–5 meters wide (4–5 meters). Or across the entire width of the house, open at the top. A conservatory, so to speak.
Wolfson schrieb:
I’m currently designing the house with Sweet Home 3D and noticed exactly the same. Here, we are considering shifting the wall slightly towards the kitchen. Show us!
Maybe like this: smaller office with a partition wall that can be moved “in old age.” Because “in old age” you don’t need as much lounge space, and the dining area can be reduced. (If you even choose to do ground floor sleeping “in old age”… :rolleyes 🙂 The all-round solution severely limits you for the next 20 years.
Storage room under the stairs.
A guest could sleep on the sofa or in the children’s room, whatever… or at a hotel… second workspace… let’s be honest: people will sit at the dining table anyway. (Or in my suggestion with the conservatory. You can’t and shouldn’t expect a fairly compact house to adapt perfectly to every situation. That would restrict daily life too much.)
But don’t forget that you could also create a backup room in the attic for guests or as an office: it will be a bit cozy, but it’s possible. You could have a narrow, cheaper secondary staircase installed above the existing one. There could also be a roof window to bring in light from above, if the stairs to the attic have no risers.
I would place the fireplace on the west side; otherwise it will get too warm for everyone.
C
Costruttrice13 Jan 2022 11:38I would be very cautious about the garage if you plan to use it exclusively from the start as a storage, utility, workshop, or technical room, leaving no space for a car. Key point: the designated use of the garage.
Friends of ours (from Bavaria) were reported because they used their garage as storage for their business, while their car was always parked on the street. Neighbors noticed the garage was completely filled with other items and informed the authorities, resulting in the garage (which was a boundary structure) being prohibited from use for purposes other than those intended. They also had to pay a fine.
Friends of ours (from Bavaria) were reported because they used their garage as storage for their business, while their car was always parked on the street. Neighbors noticed the garage was completely filled with other items and informed the authorities, resulting in the garage (which was a boundary structure) being prohibited from use for purposes other than those intended. They also had to pay a fine.
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