ᐅ Floor Plan: Preliminary Draft from the Prefabricated House Supplier is Available
Created on: 20 Aug 2015 21:49
K
krachbumms
Hello dear experts!
We now have the 5th preliminary draft from our prefab house provider on the table, and the list of our correction requests is noticeably getting shorter.
It’s time to ask the true experts for their opinions.
We won’t (or can’t) change the basic floor plan concept anymore, as we want/need to submit the building permit/planning application soon. But maybe you still have tips, warnings, or new ideas regarding details.
Secretly, I hope this thing will be approved more or less favorably by you – but many here have hoped the same and were bitterly disappointed.
Important to know:
Child 2 will not have a children’s room but a combined dressing room, storage space, and guest room.
Up to this draft, we had planned a 3.75x1.50m (12.3x4.9 ft) bay window (external dimensions) in the dining area, which we wanted to furnish as a dining nook with built-in seating by a carpenter.
Since we fear the costs might spiral out of control, we wanted to see if and how this could also work without the bay window. The final decision for or against the bay will be made once we know how much savings dropping it would bring. My impression: not super spacious, but it works.
I am particularly interested in your feedback on the following details (besides anything else you might notice):
- Narrow doors for the guest toilet and utility room on the ground floor – problematic or totally okay?
- Staircase: better open for light transparency, or with risers and a front wall so you don’t have to look under the stairs every time you come from the living room? How practical or useless is the storage space under an open staircase (without a front wall) in reality?
- How and exactly where is the best way to design the access to the living room: front / middle? Single or double doors? No door at all, just a wide open passage (also to bring light into the hallway)?
- We chose an extremely wide kitchen layout, partly because with the open floor plan you can basically see from the street all the way to the living room sofa. Additionally, there is an option to install roller blinds (Raufstores) in the kitchen (the bay window or dining room window will definitely get Venetian blinds).
- We have worked a long time on the layout of the sanitary fixtures in the upstairs bathroom and were never 100% happy. What is your opinion on the current state? Any improvement suggestions?
- There are nicer things than the niche under the sloped ceiling in Child 1 - definitely. But it’s there, and we wonder how to use it more sensibly: in a children’s room (e.g., as a sleeping place, cozy corner, later maybe a desk) or in a dressing room?
- We originally did not want floor-to-ceiling windows facing the street, but we fear dark rooms even more... The alternative would be windows with a low parapet – but these have only about 2.5 sqm (27 sqft) of glass area instead of 3.3 sqm (36 sqft)...
By now, we are so blind from working on this that I can hardly judge whether this outdoor view is harmonious or not...
Many thanks for your interest and all feedback!
-------------------------------------------
Development plan / restrictions
Plot size: 500 sqm (5382 sqft)
Building envelope, building line and boundary: 15m (49 ft 3 in) deep (excluding extensions), setbacks 3m (9 ft 10 in) from street and sides
Other requirements: 70s style constraints
Homeowners’ requirements: 2 adults, 1 toddler. Office on the ground floor, shower on the ground floor, at least one large built-in closet, high ceilings (275cm (9 ft) on ground floor), entrance on the gable side, “sunny” (house and garden should face the sunny side)
Style, roof shape, building type: classic-modern, gable roof, single-family house
Basement, stories: no basement, 1.5 stories
Number of occupants, ages: 2 x approx. 40, 1 x under 5
Space requirements ground floor / upper floor: total 120-150 sqm (1292-1615 sqft)
Office: family use or home office? Home office
Guest sleepers per year: 1
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: rather modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes (option should exist to convert to closed kitchen in the future if needed)
Number of dining seats: 1
Garage, carport: prefab garage 4x9m (13x30 ft)
House design
Who designed it: customized prefab house (timber frame)
What do you particularly like? The implementation of our requirements
What do you not like? The sloped ceilings due to the low knee wall (building regulation), windowless staircase, narrow entrance hall, rooms on the garden side of ground floor (office and living room) are rather small, niche in Child 1 behind the stairwell, inspection shafts directly in front of the front door
Price estimate according to architect/designer: 230-250K (technical completion excluding sanitary, painting and flooring)
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: 350-400K including additional construction costs, interior finishing, garden, kitchen & more
Preferred heating technology: gas condensing boiler, underfloor heating, mechanical ventilation with humidity recovery
If you had to give up on some details or extensions, which ones?
- Could be given up: possibly the bay window, possibly the shower on the ground floor
- Cannot be given up: built-in closet, office on the ground floor
We now have the 5th preliminary draft from our prefab house provider on the table, and the list of our correction requests is noticeably getting shorter.
It’s time to ask the true experts for their opinions.
We won’t (or can’t) change the basic floor plan concept anymore, as we want/need to submit the building permit/planning application soon. But maybe you still have tips, warnings, or new ideas regarding details.
Secretly, I hope this thing will be approved more or less favorably by you – but many here have hoped the same and were bitterly disappointed.
Important to know:
Child 2 will not have a children’s room but a combined dressing room, storage space, and guest room.
Up to this draft, we had planned a 3.75x1.50m (12.3x4.9 ft) bay window (external dimensions) in the dining area, which we wanted to furnish as a dining nook with built-in seating by a carpenter.
Since we fear the costs might spiral out of control, we wanted to see if and how this could also work without the bay window. The final decision for or against the bay will be made once we know how much savings dropping it would bring. My impression: not super spacious, but it works.
I am particularly interested in your feedback on the following details (besides anything else you might notice):
- Narrow doors for the guest toilet and utility room on the ground floor – problematic or totally okay?
- Staircase: better open for light transparency, or with risers and a front wall so you don’t have to look under the stairs every time you come from the living room? How practical or useless is the storage space under an open staircase (without a front wall) in reality?
- How and exactly where is the best way to design the access to the living room: front / middle? Single or double doors? No door at all, just a wide open passage (also to bring light into the hallway)?
- We chose an extremely wide kitchen layout, partly because with the open floor plan you can basically see from the street all the way to the living room sofa. Additionally, there is an option to install roller blinds (Raufstores) in the kitchen (the bay window or dining room window will definitely get Venetian blinds).
- We have worked a long time on the layout of the sanitary fixtures in the upstairs bathroom and were never 100% happy. What is your opinion on the current state? Any improvement suggestions?
- There are nicer things than the niche under the sloped ceiling in Child 1 - definitely. But it’s there, and we wonder how to use it more sensibly: in a children’s room (e.g., as a sleeping place, cozy corner, later maybe a desk) or in a dressing room?
- We originally did not want floor-to-ceiling windows facing the street, but we fear dark rooms even more... The alternative would be windows with a low parapet – but these have only about 2.5 sqm (27 sqft) of glass area instead of 3.3 sqm (36 sqft)...
By now, we are so blind from working on this that I can hardly judge whether this outdoor view is harmonious or not...
Many thanks for your interest and all feedback!
-------------------------------------------
Development plan / restrictions
Plot size: 500 sqm (5382 sqft)
Building envelope, building line and boundary: 15m (49 ft 3 in) deep (excluding extensions), setbacks 3m (9 ft 10 in) from street and sides
Other requirements: 70s style constraints
Homeowners’ requirements: 2 adults, 1 toddler. Office on the ground floor, shower on the ground floor, at least one large built-in closet, high ceilings (275cm (9 ft) on ground floor), entrance on the gable side, “sunny” (house and garden should face the sunny side)
Style, roof shape, building type: classic-modern, gable roof, single-family house
Basement, stories: no basement, 1.5 stories
Number of occupants, ages: 2 x approx. 40, 1 x under 5
Space requirements ground floor / upper floor: total 120-150 sqm (1292-1615 sqft)
Office: family use or home office? Home office
Guest sleepers per year: 1
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: rather modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes (option should exist to convert to closed kitchen in the future if needed)
Number of dining seats: 1
Garage, carport: prefab garage 4x9m (13x30 ft)
House design
Who designed it: customized prefab house (timber frame)
What do you particularly like? The implementation of our requirements
What do you not like? The sloped ceilings due to the low knee wall (building regulation), windowless staircase, narrow entrance hall, rooms on the garden side of ground floor (office and living room) are rather small, niche in Child 1 behind the stairwell, inspection shafts directly in front of the front door
Price estimate according to architect/designer: 230-250K (technical completion excluding sanitary, painting and flooring)
Personal price limit for the house, including fittings: 350-400K including additional construction costs, interior finishing, garden, kitchen & more
Preferred heating technology: gas condensing boiler, underfloor heating, mechanical ventilation with humidity recovery
If you had to give up on some details or extensions, which ones?
- Could be given up: possibly the bay window, possibly the shower on the ground floor
- Cannot be given up: built-in closet, office on the ground floor
K
krachbumms21 Aug 2015 00:19Oh dear.
The house should not get any bigger (especially not wider), since there are now only about 6m (20 feet) of garden left on the sunny side...
The living/kitchen area is actually perfect for us, possibly with the addition of the bay window. The built-in closet by the front door in the niche next to the kitchen should also ideally remain.
The key question: how to plan the utility room and WC (if necessary without a shower) so that they fit with the half-landing staircase?
It doesn't necessarily have to be a half-landing, but that wouldn't really save any space at the front either...
The house should not get any bigger (especially not wider), since there are now only about 6m (20 feet) of garden left on the sunny side...
The living/kitchen area is actually perfect for us, possibly with the addition of the bay window. The built-in closet by the front door in the niche next to the kitchen should also ideally remain.
The key question: how to plan the utility room and WC (if necessary without a shower) so that they fit with the half-landing staircase?
It doesn't necessarily have to be a half-landing, but that wouldn't really save any space at the front either...
K
krachbumms21 Aug 2015 01:40BeHaElJa schrieb:
18.7 x 17 risers = 3.17 m (10.4 ft). With a 20 cm (8 inch) ceiling and 15 cm (6 inch) floor construction, that leaves a clear room height of 2.82 m (9.3 ft), or am I missing something? Not sure how that will feel... The floor slabs are 295.5 mm (11.6 inches) thick.
What bothers me the most is the low knee wall of only 70 cm (28 inches), which seems to be dictated by the eaves height—or is that the case?
In Child 1's room... you can still fit the bed quite well in a niche by rotating it 90°, with the headboard positioned on the right side in the higher area.
However, in the master bedroom, I don’t want to have to get out of bed to stand up. Having the 2 m (6 ft 7 in) height line so prominently in the room would make me feel cramped under the sloped ceiling.
Is there a possibility to raise the knee wall? Or to choose a steeper roof pitch?
On the ground floor, there are simply too few windows on the sunny side. This is very clear in the elevation drawing… only the narrow terrace door in the kitchen (85 cm (33 inches) rough opening) and the window at the dining table. The side of the house looks quite uninviting as well.
I would probably position the living area towards the bottom of the plan. Because of the sofa placement and such, there are usually more regular windows than full-height windows there anyway. Then place the kitchen and dining area towards the top of the plan, with more full-height windows that also serve as exits to the terrace. That way you get the morning sun with your first coffee.
Whether a landing stair could be a solution would need to be precisely checked with a section drawing for a 70 cm (28 inches) knee wall. I would prefer if the staircase were located directly opposite the door to the central room. I would then consider placing the utility room instead of the study (due to bathroom plumbing above) and positioning the study with a shower bathroom and hallway towards the bottom of the plan. This way, under different usage conditions, the study could also be used as a guest room with a bathroom.
In Child 1's room... you can still fit the bed quite well in a niche by rotating it 90°, with the headboard positioned on the right side in the higher area.
However, in the master bedroom, I don’t want to have to get out of bed to stand up. Having the 2 m (6 ft 7 in) height line so prominently in the room would make me feel cramped under the sloped ceiling.
Is there a possibility to raise the knee wall? Or to choose a steeper roof pitch?
On the ground floor, there are simply too few windows on the sunny side. This is very clear in the elevation drawing… only the narrow terrace door in the kitchen (85 cm (33 inches) rough opening) and the window at the dining table. The side of the house looks quite uninviting as well.
I would probably position the living area towards the bottom of the plan. Because of the sofa placement and such, there are usually more regular windows than full-height windows there anyway. Then place the kitchen and dining area towards the top of the plan, with more full-height windows that also serve as exits to the terrace. That way you get the morning sun with your first coffee.
Whether a landing stair could be a solution would need to be precisely checked with a section drawing for a 70 cm (28 inches) knee wall. I would prefer if the staircase were located directly opposite the door to the central room. I would then consider placing the utility room instead of the study (due to bathroom plumbing above) and positioning the study with a shower bathroom and hallway towards the bottom of the plan. This way, under different usage conditions, the study could also be used as a guest room with a bathroom.
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