ᐅ Hillside House in the Southwest Palatinate – Our Home Construction 2.0

Pinkiponk schrieb:

Unlike most of us, Kati has the privilege of building her second self-occupied house at such a young age. The house, the kitchen, and the shower are certainly perfect for Kati and her family. I envy her for that. I would also love to build again, but right now I don’t have the money.

Thank you, the money part really was a matter of luck. I feel great sympathy for all the young people today who are looking at the property market and wondering “how?”
We are lucky in two ways: first, we couldn’t afford our own house at the current interest rates anymore — or we wouldn’t want to because managing the payments would be very uncomfortable.
And second, we have a builder who is fair and conscientious. We signed the contract with him at the beginning of 2022, and he literally says “a fixed price with me is a fixed price.” We all know what happened to construction cost indexes, especially between 2022 and 2023, and if he wanted to, he could have made life a lot harder for us. If he had passed the increases on to us, we would have had to come up with a huge amount of extra money.

kbt09 schrieb:

Honestly, I almost find it a bit sad that the house build of @kati1337 is coming to an end. I always found the discussions about plot selection, the overall plan, and the individual aspects of this build to be very pleasant — very transparent, very constructive, but also very confident — and there was always a friendly tone in those discussions. I never got the impression that Kati simply ignored or rejected criticisms or suggestions just out of principle. But she always consciously took on board the points she found reasonable and important, and discarded others or defined them as not decisive. She always clarified the detailed questions that mattered to her and took on other matters as managed well by the general contractor. That's why it’s ultimately HER house, the house of HER family. @kati1337, I wish you all lots of joy living in your new home.

That’s so kind of you.
I also find this thread very pleasant, and we definitely won’t stop posting updates anytime soon. Especially in the planning phase, I think it’s very valuable to take all feedback into account. Even the things you then consciously decide against — it’s still important to have heard them in order to arrive at a well-founded, personal decision.
Examples are, for instance, our large hallways / the entrance area, etc. We had already thought about that when it came up more often. In the end, we reached a different conclusion for ourselves, but we were still grateful for the feedback. Some of it has even been incorporated.

OWLer schrieb:

And especially the outdoor areas offer plenty of topics for discussion regarding the slope! It remains exciting.

That’s true. We are doing that — like most of the neighbors — step by step. At some point, the budget ran out even for us. But the slope is at least currently in a condition where runoff from heavy rain doesn’t end up at the neighbor’s property. In the long term, it’s something to consider. My sister also has a steep slope around her house. They built over 20 years ago, and you can see on the terrace now that the whole outdoor area has settled about 10cm (4 inches) over the course of those 20 years.
What else you can do besides compacting, I don’t really know. They have slope areas reinforced with retaining stones (which have unfortunately also become expensive in the quantity we would need) and slope areas simply landscaped with plants. She showed us how it has eroded over the years. Nothing serious, especially since it happened over two decades, but it’s something to keep in mind.

If you have two dishwashers, you might consider using the upper cabinets usually reserved for dishes for other purposes. You simply take a clean plate when needed directly from the dishwasher instead of the cabinet.

That said, I also find it hard to understand the necessity. We are a family of four, the dishwasher is full in the evening and emptied in the morning, and both adults mainly work from home with daily cooking. I haven’t missed anything so far.

Regarding raising things higher… as someone who mostly works at a desk, I do sometimes get back pain or lack fitness. By now, I’m no longer a fan of making everything as comfortable as possible. Whether it’s having robots roam around the house or spending 10 minutes putting away dishes — if that tires you out, it’s more a sign you should be putting away more dishes, not fewer. In the end, we all end up looking like characters from the movie Wall-E.

@guckuck2 Personally, I don’t mind having my dishwasher under the countertop and have planned it that way again for the new kitchen, because crumbs or cocoa residue in a cup often get overlooked and mostly end up on the floor rather than all over the cabinet. However, I would never go without a raised oven again. Handling a heavy roasting pan down low and risking burning your hands when letting go—no thanks. A raised oven with a full extension drawer, retractable door, and pyrolytic cleaning is my kitchen luxury 🙂

guckuck2 schrieb:

There are four of us, and the dishwasher is full in the evening and done in the morning

Well... with solar panels on the roof, it’s better to run the dishwasher during the day, even when it’s full in the evening. Still, more dishes accumulate. I’ve been doing this since I installed a balcony solar system, and even in my single-person household, there are often quite a few items waiting in my kitchen corner—though out of sight from the living area—until the dishwasher is available again.

And whenever I have 3 or 4 guests, cook well, and end up with lots of dishes, this becomes even more noticeable, since EVERYTHING except the good knives goes in the dishwasher. On those days, that corner tends to fill up more.

I wouldn’t want to miss my elevated dishwasher anymore, but I would also like to have the oven installed at a higher level. Although I use the oven much less often than the dishwasher, I prefer it elevated—especially when looking at the control concepts of newer ovens. My appliance series is now 17 years old 😎

kbt09 schrieb:

With photovoltaic panels on the roof, it’s better to run the dishwashers during the day, even if they’re fully loaded in the evening. Still, more dishes will accumulate.

Well, then it’s just full at midday and done by early afternoon. That doesn’t really matter. In the meantime, you can do something else.