… or not?
Hello everyone,
my wife and I are looking for a stylish home that can meet our space requirements in a single full-story design. Unfortunately, it’s proving to be much more difficult than we expected.
Our needs:
In addition to the basic rooms—kitchen, living/dining, bedroom, bathroom—we would like:
2 children’s bedrooms
2 home offices
1 guest room
1 extra shower toilet for the children in the attic
1 guest toilet
1 utility room
We are fully aware that this number of rooms is quite unusual. However, we need the offices for work, and since our closest relatives live 140m (87 miles) away, a guest room is also necessary.
We currently have a plot reserved (1052m² (11,323 sq ft)). The budget is €400,000, minus the land (€40,000), leaving €350,000 for the house and garden. We would like to keep €10,000 as a reserve.
Because of the expected high space requirements, we favor a basement where supplies, storage, technical equipment, and my office can be housed. A prefabricated home company (solid construction) quoted us about €63,000 for the basement (+ €4,000 for two additional rooms in the floor plan).
We knew that basements no longer cost just €30,000, as they now have to meet KfW-55 energy efficiency standards (in our case). But that the price would be more than double, we did not expect.
Overall, we are quite shocked. We are currently waiting for the full offer, but we can already estimate that the cost probably starts with a 4, so it far exceeds our budget.
Included alongside the basement are some premium features: a walk-in shower (plus a shower screen €1,500 and the cost of waterproofing under the tiles), a sauna connection (sauna itself not included), and two additional Velux windows in the attic.
We realize now that we were probably too naive when approaching pricing, but it still can’t be true that you can’t find a suitable home for €350,000. We have already looked at around 100 floor plans, but without a basement and/or very extensive modifications, we never managed. From what we know, these get very, very expensive even with prefabricated homes.
Do you have any ideas, nice floor plans we might have overlooked, or practical suggestions? We currently have a general inquiry with a prefabricated home provider but have little hope…
Best regards,
Jake
Hello everyone,
my wife and I are looking for a stylish home that can meet our space requirements in a single full-story design. Unfortunately, it’s proving to be much more difficult than we expected.
Our needs:
In addition to the basic rooms—kitchen, living/dining, bedroom, bathroom—we would like:
2 children’s bedrooms
2 home offices
1 guest room
1 extra shower toilet for the children in the attic
1 guest toilet
1 utility room
We are fully aware that this number of rooms is quite unusual. However, we need the offices for work, and since our closest relatives live 140m (87 miles) away, a guest room is also necessary.
We currently have a plot reserved (1052m² (11,323 sq ft)). The budget is €400,000, minus the land (€40,000), leaving €350,000 for the house and garden. We would like to keep €10,000 as a reserve.
Because of the expected high space requirements, we favor a basement where supplies, storage, technical equipment, and my office can be housed. A prefabricated home company (solid construction) quoted us about €63,000 for the basement (+ €4,000 for two additional rooms in the floor plan).
We knew that basements no longer cost just €30,000, as they now have to meet KfW-55 energy efficiency standards (in our case). But that the price would be more than double, we did not expect.
Overall, we are quite shocked. We are currently waiting for the full offer, but we can already estimate that the cost probably starts with a 4, so it far exceeds our budget.
Included alongside the basement are some premium features: a walk-in shower (plus a shower screen €1,500 and the cost of waterproofing under the tiles), a sauna connection (sauna itself not included), and two additional Velux windows in the attic.
We realize now that we were probably too naive when approaching pricing, but it still can’t be true that you can’t find a suitable home for €350,000. We have already looked at around 100 floor plans, but without a basement and/or very extensive modifications, we never managed. From what we know, these get very, very expensive even with prefabricated homes.
Do you have any ideas, nice floor plans we might have overlooked, or practical suggestions? We currently have a general inquiry with a prefabricated home provider but have little hope…
Best regards,
Jake
That’s the point. If a basement is used solely as a utility basement, it is the most expensive way to create floor space.It is definitely the option where you pay the most for floor space without actually using it.
Nowadays, I wouldn’t even consider designing a basement purely for technical equipment or storage.
However, there are often rooms that you want or need which could just as well be located in the basement. In this case, a basement is practically ideal. If the original poster plans two large offices down there, plus the utility room and a storage room, then the basement is fully utilized with actual living spaces. The offices stay out of the way when not in use and remain pleasantly cool in summer. If the offices are arranged side by side, a large light well can be created along that side of the basement, which also looks nice visually.
I would prefer that to having the offices in the attic (and in my house currently under construction, they are exactly there).
We also have a basement, and half of it is used as living space.
Similar topics