ᐅ New Single-Family Home Construction – Join Us on Our Journey!
Created on: 4 Aug 2022 16:13
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gregman22
Dear community,
We are finally getting a step closer to realizing our dream of building a single-family home.
The plot has been purchased, building plans have been reviewed, construction method decided, and so on. We have now commissioned the architect of the general contractor (GC) of our choice with the planning task and are currently fine-tuning the house design. I would love to take you along on this journey and incorporate your valuable feedback.
At this stage, the focus is on the house design.
Basic data:
Plot: 1062m2 (11,433 sq ft); approx. 25.5m x 41.64m (84 ft x 137 ft)
Orientation: Northwest -> The arrow in the screenshot of the 3D view points south
Desired room layout:
Ground floor:
First floor:
Attic:
Note: I am still discussing this with the architect. Due to the hipped roof shape, the actual living area has shrunk too much. Therefore, further discussion is needed to accommodate the other rooms. I had underestimated the ratio of gross floor area to usable living space.
Basement:
Additional plans:
Now to my first questions for you:
My biggest construction challenge at the moment is the layout of the attic. There are two alternatives:
- Change the roof type, which would increase costs but provide more usable living space in the attic
- Give up the playroom on the first floor, convert it into a guest room, and build only the two offices in the attic (no guest room or bathroom)
Thank you in advance for your comments.
We are finally getting a step closer to realizing our dream of building a single-family home.
The plot has been purchased, building plans have been reviewed, construction method decided, and so on. We have now commissioned the architect of the general contractor (GC) of our choice with the planning task and are currently fine-tuning the house design. I would love to take you along on this journey and incorporate your valuable feedback.
At this stage, the focus is on the house design.
Basic data:
Plot: 1062m2 (11,433 sq ft); approx. 25.5m x 41.64m (84 ft x 137 ft)
Orientation: Northwest -> The arrow in the screenshot of the 3D view points south
Desired room layout:
Ground floor:
- Large living/dining area with adjacent (but separable) kitchen at the bottom left, plus a gallery overlooking the first floor
- Utility room
- Guest toilet
- Garage
- Separate apartment at the top right with its own entrance for parents-in-law
First floor:
- Gallery overlooking the ground floor
- 2 children’s bedrooms with a shared bathroom
- 1 playroom (initially a home cinema room, later to be repurposed) above the garage
- Master wing with main bedroom, dressing room, and bathroom
Attic:
Note: I am still discussing this with the architect. Due to the hipped roof shape, the actual living area has shrunk too much. Therefore, further discussion is needed to accommodate the other rooms. I had underestimated the ratio of gross floor area to usable living space.
- 2 separate offices
- 1 guest bedroom
- 1 small guest bathroom
Basement:
- 1 technical room
- 1 laundry room
- 1 storage room
- Large fitness room
- Wellness room with sauna
Additional plans:
- Air-to-air heat pump or air-to-water heat pump
- Photovoltaic system with/without battery storage
- Possible pool (3.5/4m x 8m or 3.5/4m x 12m) with heat pump (and countercurrent system)
- Sauna in the basement room
- Air conditioning for various rooms
- Smart home system – most likely via KNX
- Garden: Currently planning 2 terraces – one to the left, slightly more to the south, and one facing the main part of the plot further north
Now to my first questions for you:
- How do the floor plans strike you? Do they make sense in terms of the dynamics of family life?
- The location of the separate apartment was chosen based on our wish. We wanted a strict, clearly defined spatial separation with a separate entrance. Do you have any comments on this?
- Do you consider the utility rooms in the basement to be adequately sized (considering KNX, heat pump, etc.)?
My biggest construction challenge at the moment is the layout of the attic. There are two alternatives:
- Change the roof type, which would increase costs but provide more usable living space in the attic
- Give up the playroom on the first floor, convert it into a guest room, and build only the two offices in the attic (no guest room or bathroom)
Thank you in advance for your comments.
G
gregman225 Aug 2022 18:11ypg schrieb:
Man, he was already told that this doesn’t quite add up, yet he’s listing premises again that one should actually try to move away from. That is absolutely my fault. I admit that I described the room layouts poorly. They seem very rigid – but they’re not supposed to be. I just wanted to summarize our current ideas again. The floor assignments referred to the structure. But the purpose of this questionnaire was the “fresh start,” and my wish was/is for this to become a new starting point, ideally with a completely new layout… For now, I just wanted to consider the rooms themselves as requests.
Can we continue working like this?
ypg schrieb:
Then I recognize the plot again and can recall that when nobody could accommodate your requests at the time, the plot was also shown in another forum. I believe there was a setback there as well. Then you find a general contractor who initially cooperates, since of course they want to make money on a lucrative project, knowing full well that many things won’t work. Maybe it was communicated from the start that there’d be issues with the roof?! You seem very persistent, which is not necessarily beneficial when you disregard warnings about problems. Hmm. I have to partially disagree with you there. Yes, I discussed the plot in one thread and also opened 1-2 other plot-related threads at the same time. However, I did not start any discussion in other forums, only here.
Roof problems were not communicated at that time.
gregman22 schrieb:
That’s why the idea is to go through the building permit/planning permission process.I would rather start with a preliminary building inquiry.How do you know about the >255 sqm (2,740 sq ft)? Or are you including the garages and auxiliary structures on the neighboring property?
In my naive view, I would have thought that you reduce your own square meters by including the garage in the building footprint, where you usually have the option to increase the building coverage by 50% for garages and auxiliary structures (floor space index II).
https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/Grundstück-nord-west-ausrichtung-tipps.43659/
Do you really need
- a master area
- 3 rooms for 2 planned children plus a playroom and/or guest room
- an additional guest room
- 2 offices (which I actually consider necessary if both work from home)
- another separate apartment or guest area that isn’t occupied all the time but about 50-70%... couldn’t this be designed as a general guest area?
I agree with @ypg... before further planning, I would first clarify whether and how the building envelope can be exceeded, what roof shapes are possible under which conditions, etc. I assume you are planning a width of 15m (49 feet), but you currently have 16.73m (55 feet) planned.
I would also plan the garage as a boundary development, although it should also be clarified whether it really needs to be in the southwest, as that is how I interpret the site plan.
- a master area
- 3 rooms for 2 planned children plus a playroom and/or guest room
- an additional guest room
- 2 offices (which I actually consider necessary if both work from home)
- another separate apartment or guest area that isn’t occupied all the time but about 50-70%... couldn’t this be designed as a general guest area?
I agree with @ypg... before further planning, I would first clarify whether and how the building envelope can be exceeded, what roof shapes are possible under which conditions, etc. I assume you are planning a width of 15m (49 feet), but you currently have 16.73m (55 feet) planned.
I would also plan the garage as a boundary development, although it should also be clarified whether it really needs to be in the southwest, as that is how I interpret the site plan.
G
gregman225 Aug 2022 18:21ypg schrieb:
I would suggest starting with a preliminary building inquiry. Yes, exactly. That’s the plan. Depending on the feedback, we wanted to adjust the planning accordingly.
ypg schrieb:
Naively, I would have thought you would reduce your available floor area by including the garage in the footprint, whereas usually there is an option to increase the footprint by 50% for garages and ancillary buildings (floor space index II). It’s quite possible that we are currently making that mistake. It states: “The maximum allowable floor area specified by plan symbols applies only to the main buildings. Structures according to §19 paragraph 4 sentence 1 of the Federal Land Utilization Ordinance may reach up to 50% of the floor area set for the main building.
b) Exceeding the maximum allowable floor areas specified by plan symbols for the structures referred to in §19 paragraph 4 sentence 1 is permitted, provided that in individual cases this is necessary for the location of garages according to the plan drawing, including their access driveway.”
G
gregman225 Aug 2022 18:25kbt09 schrieb:
Do you really need
- a parents’ area
- 3 rooms for 2 planned children plus a playroom and/or guest room
- an additional guest room
- 2 offices (which I actually consider necessary for two people working from home) So – the playroom/guest room can be removed – there’s flexibility there! That still leaves 2 children’s bedrooms nicely available.
2 offices – mandatory
kbt09 schrieb:
- an additional granny flat guest area that is not occupied continuously, but estimated at 50–70% … can’t this just be designed as a general guest area? We have considered that many times. It is very important to us that there is an age-appropriate granny flat with strict separation (separate entrance, etc.). I have seen examples of houses where the granny flat is on the ground floor of the main house – I didn’t like the results because the main floor layout became ruined (too small) as a result.
gregman22 schrieb:
It is quite possible that we are currently making the mistake. It states: "The maximum permissible floor area (GF) set by the plan symbols applies only to the main buildings. Structures according to §19 paragraph 4 sentence 1 of the Land Use Ordinance may reach 50% of the footprint set for the main building.
b) Exceedances of the maximum permissible floor areas of the structures designated in §19 paragraph 4 sentence 1 by plan symbols are permitted insofar as this is required in the individual case by the garage location possible according to the plan drawing, including its access driveway." But that’s exactly the point: by including the garage within the building envelope, you are using up the extra allowable floor area. Your garage takes away the 34 sqm (366 sq ft).
A quick note about the site plan: is the red line the garage boundary?
What about the "extension area" as a boundary structure outside the red line? What was allowed with that then and what is allowed today?
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