ᐅ New Single-Family Home Construction – Join Us on Our Journey!

For projects of this scale, it is quite common for the architect to first gauge how far the building authority will cooperate. Since the architect is not from the region, they are unfamiliar with the local building department and cannot rely on experience to assess how flexible they might be. While negative decisions are frustrating, they are not unusual when attempting to fully exploit the development plan.

Ysop*** schrieb:

At least the children's rooms still have this extra hallway

As far as I remember, there was no extra hallway. One of my designs included an extra hallway, but the original poster was rather hesitant about it (an extra hallway doesn't look very stylish 😉)

gregman22 schrieb:

I took a few screenshots from the rendering:

In our opinion, the gallery and this interior space turned out well – we like it.

Phew...
The first image, in my opinion, already looks quite like a conference center.
I have nothing against galleries, but simply removing the ceiling doesn’t create a dream home atmosphere.

Regardless of the gallery: best of luck and success with the further planning and implementation.

Hi everyone,

a new milestone has been reached and a lot has happened:

• There have been several discussions between the architects, the building authority, and us
• We have preliminarily discussed the desired deviations with the building authority and have already received an informal "ok" from the official in the current version
• There were several feedback loops between us and the architect -> the plans for approval are ready (see attachment)
• We will submit the approval plans before January 20, so we can be included on the agenda for the meeting on February 6 (already arranged)
• After several talks, we decided on an interior architect & interior consultant, with whom we have not yet started working. She will help us with the interior design and also provide ideas for the floor plan -> changes that do not affect essential features (building volume, ceiling heights, etc.) can still be incorporated later
• You will see the new ceiling heights in the floor plan (ground floor 3m (10 ft), upper floor 2.5m (8 ft 2 in)), which means there are no full living rooms in the attic as initially hoped
• The existing building has been demolished; soil surveys and surveying plans will follow in January
• We had to go through difficult rounds regarding flood protection. Ultimately, we do not have to raise the ground floor on a 50-60cm (20-24 in) platform, but the version of the plan is considered acceptable by experts.

The following changes, partly or mainly suggested by you (thank you), may not yet be incorporated in the final floor plan. We want to collect all adjustments first before finalizing:

• Guest apartment
• Shower in the bathroom of course, plus a normal door leading to the bedroom
• We accept the comfort issues you pointed out (e.g., kitchenette) in the guest apartment, as we don’t want to shift anything into our “main house” – we like it the way it is now
• The interior architect has already indicated she will address this
• Ground floor
• There will be a second door to the outside from the kitchen
• The glass wall from the living room to the cloakroom will be closed off
• No additional door or wall in the guest WC
• Upper floor
• Main bathroom: swap WC and shower
• Children’s bathroom: we may want to mirror the T-shaped layout of the main bathroom in the children’s bathroom because we like the long shower combined with the hidden WC. Everything, of course, a bit smaller
• Increase size of Child 1’s room at the expense of Child 2’s room -> very reasonable -> to be discussed further with interior architect & architect
• Walk-in closet: as you can see, we took your suggestion seriously and swapped bedroom and closet again. Now you enter the closet in the middle -> we like it; we will see if maybe a chest of drawers can be placed in the center of the closet for additional storage

One topic currently occupying us: How can we make the best use of the attic?
It is clear we won’t create full living rooms there anymore. However, we want to make the most of the space and play with the room.

Ideas:
a) We partially lower the ceilings and have rooms (e.g., parents’ area) where you can see into the roof peak -> we are not convinced by this
b) We keep the ceilings as they are and create access from the gallery into the attic for storage
c) We actively integrate the space into the living area, especially in the middle where the standing height is greatest. Accordingly, above the walk-in closet and above Child 1’s room. These two “galleries” would be accessible from the adjacent rooms.

c1) Reading gallery above the walk-in closet, accessible from the bedroom
c2a) Gallery accessible from the office
c2b) Gallery accessible from Child 2’s room
c2c) Gallery “publicly accessible” and open towards the central area / main gallery; access via stairs from the main gallery

There is still the challenge of the stairways. Because of the roof slopes, it is likely not possible to walk upright up the stairs into the galleries. We still need to find solutions for this – possibly spiral staircases, which unfortunately take up space.

I am very curious to hear your opinions on the overall status (above) and on the gallery ideas.

Thank you – as always!

I would recommend painting the attic and taking advantage of the higher ceiling height. Since you only have 2.5m (8 feet) upstairs, the gallery area on the upper floor would probably feel too cramped given the size of the space. In my opinion, there are plenty of storage options available in the basement. With a maximum height of only 1.95m (6 feet 5 inches) at the highest point, spending time there on a beautiful large house with much better rooms probably isn’t very appealing. You would always have to walk hunched over with only 1.8m (6 feet) of headroom at the sides because of the roof beams. That’s why it’s better to use the full ceiling height so you don’t end up with a 2.5m (8 feet) apartment-like feel but really experience the spaciousness of the house.

What I don’t understand is why the toilet on the ground floor isn’t integrated somehow near the staircase, and instead a usable kitchenette is provided for the separate apartment. If someone is going to live there for a longer time and needs some independence, this almost 3m (10 ft) combination of wardrobe/kitchenette is not really practical.