ᐅ Hillside House in the Southwest Palatinate – Our Home Construction 2.0
Created on: 9 Sep 2022 18:13
K
kati1337
Good evening everyone
I’m starting a small collection thread here for photos and progress updates on our second building project.
We’ve already moved to the Palatinate region to be closer to the construction site. Now we’re watching eagerly and happily as our (hopefully final) dream home takes shape near family.
One big challenge still ahead of us is the facade design. I really love the Nordic style with brickwork and mullioned windows. That won’t be possible here for two reasons: firstly, no one here can do bricklaying, and secondly, it would stand out too much. We will be going with a rendered facade. How to design the colors of the facade and windows to still create some country house / cottage charm is currently still a work in progress mentally.
Otherwise, I’m sharing our plans here and how it will eventually be built.
The support pillar marked near the kitchen island could be removed for a small extra cost, so that will be gone.
The room for “garden equipment” under the garage will get a partition wall for structural reasons.
It won’t be fully finished living space like in the house, but underfloor heating will be installed, along with a lockable door and a window. It’s meant to store garden tools but also some of the building services equipment, since the utility room (HAR) is quite small, and maybe be used as a party room.
We had three construction companies in the final selection. In the end, we chose the “doer” – a builder recommended to us here by friends and family. No website, no smartphone, but he is on site every day himself working in overalls. He has a very good reputation in this area and now rarely builds single-family homes. We were a bit lucky through personal connections and a very friendly initial phone call to get our foot in the door. So far we are very satisfied with this choice.
I’m starting a small collection thread here for photos and progress updates on our second building project.
We’ve already moved to the Palatinate region to be closer to the construction site. Now we’re watching eagerly and happily as our (hopefully final) dream home takes shape near family.
One big challenge still ahead of us is the facade design. I really love the Nordic style with brickwork and mullioned windows. That won’t be possible here for two reasons: firstly, no one here can do bricklaying, and secondly, it would stand out too much. We will be going with a rendered facade. How to design the colors of the facade and windows to still create some country house / cottage charm is currently still a work in progress mentally.
Otherwise, I’m sharing our plans here and how it will eventually be built.
The support pillar marked near the kitchen island could be removed for a small extra cost, so that will be gone.
The room for “garden equipment” under the garage will get a partition wall for structural reasons.
It won’t be fully finished living space like in the house, but underfloor heating will be installed, along with a lockable door and a window. It’s meant to store garden tools but also some of the building services equipment, since the utility room (HAR) is quite small, and maybe be used as a party room.
We had three construction companies in the final selection. In the end, we chose the “doer” – a builder recommended to us here by friends and family. No website, no smartphone, but he is on site every day himself working in overalls. He has a very good reputation in this area and now rarely builds single-family homes. We were a bit lucky through personal connections and a very friendly initial phone call to get our foot in the door. So far we are very satisfied with this choice.
S
Schorsch_baut16 Apr 2023 13:24Pitiglianio schrieb:
We also have a slope and definitely won’t be planning a second terrace. Why would we?
We will do some backfilling, using as much as we currently have leftover from the excavation. That’s still quite a bit...
Towards the property line, we’ll secure it with 1m (3.3 ft) L-shaped retaining stones. Above that, the slope will be graded and densely planted with low-maintenance shrubs. In the lower, deeper area, taller shrubs or trees will be planted. This alone will make the slope appear smaller. In any case, we will plant the slope so it becomes fully overgrown and hopefully requires little to no maintenance later on. This can be done mostly by ourselves (except for the retaining wall) and isn’t too expensive. In our neighboring village, some people did something similar along the main road at the village entrance. The result is a completely overgrown slope that can no longer be walked on or maintained. And on top of that, the houses are perched there. One person even added a double wire mesh fence along the slope, presumably so children don’t try to retrieve their balls that rolled into the thicket. In another town, recent heavy rain caused the piled-up soil to slide off and run onto the farmer’s field. As a result, the land use plan (or building permit / planning permission) for the next housing development now limits how much can be filled in, due to an increasing number of cases where people started filling but ran out of money and left it unfinished. 😀
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xMisterDx17 Apr 2023 16:57A fully vegetated slope cannot slip and absorbs water better than a lawn area secured with retaining walls.
And if someone installs a fence to prevent children from entering their property, just wait until a child gets hurt. The first question will then be, "Why wasn’t there a fence?"
And if someone installs a fence to prevent children from entering their property, just wait until a child gets hurt. The first question will then be, "Why wasn’t there a fence?"
M
Marvinius17 Apr 2023 17:53xMisterDx schrieb:
A fully densely vegetated slope cannot slip and absorbs water better than a lawn secured with retaining walls.
And if someone puts up a fence to prevent children from crawling onto their property, and a child still gets hurt, the first question will be "Why wasn’t there a fence?"You can also lay artificial turf over a slope that’s too steep. It looks quite poor, but then nothing grows wild 🙂S
Schorsch_baut17 Apr 2023 20:16xMisterDx schrieb:
A fully vegetated slope cannot slip and absorbs water better than a lawn area secured with retaining walls.
And if someone puts up a fence to prevent children from crawling onto their property, and a child still gets hurt there, the first question will be, "Why wasn’t there a fence?" The filled slope was still fresh and not planted yet. However, even a vegetated slope can slide during heavy rain if it wasn’t constructed properly. This even happens in the mountains, and there the soil is truly natural ground. What I wanted to say is that a fill slope shouldn’t be shaped randomly or without proper planning.
"Too steep" is always a matter of definition. Our slope is obviously too steep to comfortably play soccer on. But it is probably not too steep that we would slide onto the neighbor’s lawn. After all, our builder designed it this way for us. He has been constructing houses for over 20 years and has an excellent reputation. I strongly believe that he knows what he is doing.
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Marvinius17 Apr 2023 21:06kati1337 schrieb:
"Too steep" is always a matter of definition.
Our slope is naturally too steep to comfortably play soccer on. But it’s probably not too steep to prevent slipping onto the neighbor’s lawn. After all, our builder designed it that way for us. He has been building houses for over 20 years and has an excellent reputation. I strongly believe he knows what he’s doing. At least I would stabilize the slope with erosion control mats, for example made of jute. That also creates a neat appearance.
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