Hello everyone,
After following this forum for what feels like forever, I finally have to “lay all my cards on the table.” Some time ago, we bought a plot of land in rural Lower Saxony right next to our current apartment, and now we want to slowly but surely start the house building process.
I’ve filled out the questionnaire as much as possible. For roof style, number of floors, building setback lines, etc., I only have information from an old preliminary building inquiry made by the previous owner of the land. However, a lot has changed since then (several houses with two full floors, etc.), so I can well imagine that two full floors won’t be a problem.
I’ve attached the floor plans for the ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF), as well as a relevant excerpt from Google Maps. The two floor plans are not oriented to north, so I added a north arrow there. The Google Maps image is oriented north. The red frame roughly marks the property. The small red box on the street marks the lowered curb for the driveway access. The larger red box roughly indicates the area where the house including the carport is planned to be located. I hope this is enough for now?
Zoning Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 1978 sqm (about 0.49 acres)
Slope: No
Building setback lines and building boundaries: 6.0 and 19.0 m (about 20 and 62 feet) from the street-side property boundary (still being clarified, a lot has changed recently)
Number of floors: 1.5 or 2 (still being clarified, a lot has changed recently)
Roof style: Gable roof
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Gable roof
Basement, floors: No basement, 1.5 or 2 floors
Number of residents, ages: 4 people (33, 32, 5, 2 years old)
Room requirements on GF, UF:
GF: Kitchen with dining area, living room (can be separated), office, guest bathroom with shower, utility room, small storage space
UF: 2 children’s bedrooms, bathroom, storage room, master bedroom
Office: Family use or home office? Home office
Number of overnight guests per year: Negligible
Open or closed architecture: rather closed
Conservative or modern style: a “middle ground”
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island, living room can be separated
Number of dining seats: 6 permanently
Fireplace: No
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Carport for one car and possibly a simple parking space in front of the house (cars are for us purely practical items)
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: Unclear
Other: The kitchen island is intentionally only 1 meter (39 inches) deep. This seems like a comfortable depth for us since both of us can easily reach the far end (we’re both not very tall, about 170 cm (5’7”), and we tested by placing a 1-meter-wide wooden board on our current countertop). A nice side effect is that this frees up more space for the dining table. Overall, we still plan to discuss the kitchen layout further in the other forum.
House Design
Who designed the plan: Do-it-yourself with the probably usual approach (we looked at many floor plans from friends and prefab house providers)
What do you like most and why? We’re quite happy with the design. We really like the sliding door in the dining area and the large window in the living room because of the direct connection between garden and indoors. The sliding door between living and dining rooms allows retreat to the living room when guests are over (it’s not a big deal that you still have to walk through the dining area). The staircase should be separated from the living space but not located in a direct dirt/splash zone. The children’s rooms are sufficiently large and have south-facing windows overlooking the garden.
What do you dislike and why? We’re still tinkering with the exterior and window positions. Especially upstairs, the window layout is far from finalized. For the stairs, I grabbed a floor plan from a stair builder that fits (concrete stairs); I hope the dimensions are also realistic in real life?
Personal budget for the house including fittings: 300k, the average price per square meter given by our banking contact pretty much matches the costs of several friends currently building (rural Lower Saxony, about 1650 - 1850 €/sqm)
Preferred heating system: Heat pump with horizontal loop collector
If you had to give up anything, which details / features could you do without?
- Could do without: Honestly, not much
- Cannot do without: Office, sliding door, kitchen island
Why does the design look like it does now?
We looked at many floor plans from friends and prefab house suppliers. Changing existing plans mostly didn’t help, so in the end we spent nights drawing our own plans (which is fun, anyway).
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
We managed to fit our entire room program into our limit of about 150 sqm (about 1,615 sq ft). When mentally going through our typical day, the floor plan works quite well and all rooms seem sufficiently sized.
What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan summed up in 130 characters?
Since we are still happy with it after letting it “sit for a while and reviewing it again,” the question naturally arises whether we have overlooked something fundamental. Does anything stand out as a problem that wouldn’t work? Something we would regret for the next 30 years? More specifically: is the kitchen with the dining area too narrow or too long and narrow?
I look forward to hopefully plenty of feedback.
Thanks in advance!
After following this forum for what feels like forever, I finally have to “lay all my cards on the table.” Some time ago, we bought a plot of land in rural Lower Saxony right next to our current apartment, and now we want to slowly but surely start the house building process.
I’ve filled out the questionnaire as much as possible. For roof style, number of floors, building setback lines, etc., I only have information from an old preliminary building inquiry made by the previous owner of the land. However, a lot has changed since then (several houses with two full floors, etc.), so I can well imagine that two full floors won’t be a problem.
I’ve attached the floor plans for the ground floor (GF) and upper floor (UF), as well as a relevant excerpt from Google Maps. The two floor plans are not oriented to north, so I added a north arrow there. The Google Maps image is oriented north. The red frame roughly marks the property. The small red box on the street marks the lowered curb for the driveway access. The larger red box roughly indicates the area where the house including the carport is planned to be located. I hope this is enough for now?
Zoning Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 1978 sqm (about 0.49 acres)
Slope: No
Building setback lines and building boundaries: 6.0 and 19.0 m (about 20 and 62 feet) from the street-side property boundary (still being clarified, a lot has changed recently)
Number of floors: 1.5 or 2 (still being clarified, a lot has changed recently)
Roof style: Gable roof
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Gable roof
Basement, floors: No basement, 1.5 or 2 floors
Number of residents, ages: 4 people (33, 32, 5, 2 years old)
Room requirements on GF, UF:
GF: Kitchen with dining area, living room (can be separated), office, guest bathroom with shower, utility room, small storage space
UF: 2 children’s bedrooms, bathroom, storage room, master bedroom
Office: Family use or home office? Home office
Number of overnight guests per year: Negligible
Open or closed architecture: rather closed
Conservative or modern style: a “middle ground”
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with island, living room can be separated
Number of dining seats: 6 permanently
Fireplace: No
Music/stereo wall: No
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Carport for one car and possibly a simple parking space in front of the house (cars are for us purely practical items)
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: Unclear
Other: The kitchen island is intentionally only 1 meter (39 inches) deep. This seems like a comfortable depth for us since both of us can easily reach the far end (we’re both not very tall, about 170 cm (5’7”), and we tested by placing a 1-meter-wide wooden board on our current countertop). A nice side effect is that this frees up more space for the dining table. Overall, we still plan to discuss the kitchen layout further in the other forum.
House Design
Who designed the plan: Do-it-yourself with the probably usual approach (we looked at many floor plans from friends and prefab house providers)
What do you like most and why? We’re quite happy with the design. We really like the sliding door in the dining area and the large window in the living room because of the direct connection between garden and indoors. The sliding door between living and dining rooms allows retreat to the living room when guests are over (it’s not a big deal that you still have to walk through the dining area). The staircase should be separated from the living space but not located in a direct dirt/splash zone. The children’s rooms are sufficiently large and have south-facing windows overlooking the garden.
What do you dislike and why? We’re still tinkering with the exterior and window positions. Especially upstairs, the window layout is far from finalized. For the stairs, I grabbed a floor plan from a stair builder that fits (concrete stairs); I hope the dimensions are also realistic in real life?
Personal budget for the house including fittings: 300k, the average price per square meter given by our banking contact pretty much matches the costs of several friends currently building (rural Lower Saxony, about 1650 - 1850 €/sqm)
Preferred heating system: Heat pump with horizontal loop collector
If you had to give up anything, which details / features could you do without?
- Could do without: Honestly, not much
- Cannot do without: Office, sliding door, kitchen island
Why does the design look like it does now?
We looked at many floor plans from friends and prefab house suppliers. Changing existing plans mostly didn’t help, so in the end we spent nights drawing our own plans (which is fun, anyway).
What do you think makes it particularly good or bad?
We managed to fit our entire room program into our limit of about 150 sqm (about 1,615 sq ft). When mentally going through our typical day, the floor plan works quite well and all rooms seem sufficiently sized.
What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan summed up in 130 characters?
Since we are still happy with it after letting it “sit for a while and reviewing it again,” the question naturally arises whether we have overlooked something fundamental. Does anything stand out as a problem that wouldn’t work? Something we would regret for the next 30 years? More specifically: is the kitchen with the dining area too narrow or too long and narrow?
I look forward to hopefully plenty of feedback.
Thanks in advance!
kaho674 schrieb:
A cramped house:
- Distance between sofa and TV too tight – okay, that’s debatable – the standard is around 4m (13 feet). 3.78m (12.4 feet) in small houses is acceptable.
That is not quite accurate.
The optimal distance for a currently common 55" HD TV is between 2.20m and 3.60m (7.2 to 11.8 feet). For 4K TVs, it is even shorter, between 1m and 2.20m (3.3 to 7.2 feet).
Only with the old SD format would your distances apply, but hardly anyone will build a new home with that in mind...
Therefore, the sofa-to-TV distance for the original poster is still too large.
Georgie schrieb:
That is not quite correct.
The optimal distance for a now common 55" HD TV is between 2.20 m - 3.60 m (7.2 ft - 11.8 ft). For 4K, it’s even shorter, only 1 m - 2.20 m (3.3 ft - 7.2 ft).
Only with the old SD format do your distances apply. But hardly anyone would build like that today...
Therefore, the sofa-to-TV distance in the original poster’s case is actually still too large. Yes, maybe I’m just old-fashioned. Who would want to watch 4K TV from just 1 m (3.3 ft) away? Wouldn’t everyone end up with a zoomed-in corner of their own program?
Aside from that, it’s also about the overall size of a shared living space. For four people, an area of 4 m x 4 m (13.1 ft x 13.1 ft) works quite well. Smaller than that is tight, larger is better.
Mycraft schrieb:
[...] and place the TV in the lower corner.I always find it terrible when the TV is opposite the garden window and the sofa is facing the TV. You don’t always want to watch TV while sitting on the sofa. Sometimes you just want to sit and have a conversation, and looking out at the garden is much nicer than staring at a dark wall with a dark TV.So I think the idea with the wall is not bad, even though I would personally prefer the "classic" separation between the kitchen and the dining/living room.
P.S.: The villa opposite is already impressive just by its dimensions!
RomeoZwo schrieb:
I always find it terrible when the TV is opposite the garden window and the sofa is facing the TV. You don’t always want to watch TV while sitting on the sofa. Sometimes you just want to sit and have a conversation, and a view of the garden is much nicer than looking at a dark wall with a dark TV. That’s exactly what I had in mind and also suggested. Put the TV in the corner on the south wall. This way, you can always look out at the garden and watch TV as well.
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