ᐅ Our Floor Plan Design for an Affordable Home

Dear forum members,

We bought a plot of land last autumn and are currently deep into the floor plan design. We would like to share our current draft with you and welcome any comments and opinions.

[F]irst some preliminary information about the plot and its buildability:[/F]

• 1000 m² (10,764 sq ft) rear plot, southwest facing (so southwest is on the left side of the site plan)
• Building boundary up to approx. 16 m (52 ft) behind the property line (up to the dashed line on the site plan)
• No zoning plan (construction according to § 34 of the Building Code)
• Groundwater at surface level and peaty soil (exact geotechnical report pending), so piled foundation required and no basement

Our requirements were and still are:

• Affordable! (Our maximum budget for the house including foundation slab is €230,000)
• Country house style
• Bright, large windows facing south/garden
• Open living/dining/kitchen area
• Family of four, 1 bedroom and 2 children’s rooms
• Not oversized, max 150 m² (1,615 sq ft), preferably less

House design:

• Solid construction using Ytong blocks (for us the most cost-effective option, although we would have liked to build with wood as well).
• Developed ourselves after studying various floor plans (including from the book "Affordable Building with a Small Budget" by Achim Linhardt) with support from architect friends and our planner (an independent civil engineer).
• Dimensions 12.50 x 7.50 m (41 x 25 ft) (the measurements shown on the site plan are from an earlier draft).
• What we like: open living area, all main rooms have large windows facing the garden, efficient size, although the children’s and bedroom could be smaller, sewing/work nook behind the stairs upstairs, plenty of wall space for large wardrobes in the upstairs bedroom and hallway on the ground floor, light shaft in the stairwell, staircase (we originally wanted a straight run staircase but it would have taken too much space; the one with three quarter turns is also fine with us).
• What we don’t like 100% yet: the height of the house from the outside. It is currently planned as a two-story house with an eaves height of 6.2 m (20 ft), with the ground floor 2.84 m (9 ft 4 in) high and the upper floor 2.60 m (8 ft 6 in) high. The gable roof will be an uninsulated, unfinished cold roof, mainly because of the economical prefabricated truss construction method. This is a bit disappointing because I really like sloped ceilings and did not want the character of a townhouse. Lowering the roof with a knee wall of about 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) and an insulated roof with open sloped ceilings would probably be more expensive due to the rafter/beam construction. We would also lose the garden view through the floor-to-ceiling bedroom windows.

Now for our questions:

• Simple: What do you think about the floor plan?
• Can you still imagine the relatively tall two-story house having a country house character? Maybe it depends on the facade design and choice of materials? Do you think it looks too “blocky,” especially from the front entrance side? Or would a lower eaves height with an attic conversion including a knee wall be preferable?
• We are still unsure how to arrange the windows on the garden side. The drawing with the elevations shows two possible versions. We actually prefer it when the upper floor window is centered over the lower window front. However, this does not align the interior line of sight from the entrance door to the garden/patio door (see ground floor plan). This represents version two; for version one, the window front would have to be shifted about one window width to the right, so that the patio door is behind the dining table. With the window front shifted left, the interior looks better to us, but from the outside it looks strange if it is offset from the upper floor window, right? What do you think?

That’s it for now regarding our project. We really look forward to all your opinions!

Best regards