ᐅ Single-Family Home Planning: Requests for Help, Tips, Suggestions, and Feedback Welcome

Since we are just slowly starting to plan our single-family home, I would like to share it here for feedback. I’m sure many people will have tips, suggestions, and even criticism that could help us. I’m trying not to write a long novel to avoid overwhelming readers and to keep it readable.

Plot details:

• 540 m² (approximately 5800 sq ft)
• 19 m (62 ft) wide
• Garden facing south
• Flat terrain
• Currently undeveloped
• New residential area (30 plots) in Rhein-Pfalz district
• High groundwater expected (requires waterproof basement construction, “white” or “black” tank)

Key zoning plan specifications:

• Floor area ratio (FAR) 0.3
• Total floor area ratio 0.6
• 2 full stories permitted
• Maximum wall height 4.5 m (15 ft)
• Maximum ridge height 9.5 m (31 ft)
• Gable or hip roof with pitch between 30° and 45°
• Dormers may cover up to half of each building side’s width; each individual dormer may cover up to one third of the building width, maximum 4 m (13 ft)
• Garage must be at least 5 m (16 ft) behind the street building line
• Garage allowed on only one side of the building

Are there any other important details missing?

Our basic wishes:

• Usable basement (waterproof construction, “white” or “black” tank)
• Ground floor
• Shower bathroom
• Office
• Open kitchen-living-dining area
• Fireplace in living-dining area
• Pantry
• Entrance vestibule (?)
• Straight staircase to the upper floor
• Upper floor
• Main bathroom
• Master bedroom
• Walk-in closet
• 2 children’s rooms
• Gallery (?)
• Double garage
• With access to pantry (not sure if allowed in Rhein-Pfalz)
• Construction style
• Simple, modern, clean lines
• High ceilings
• Unfortunately, due to zoning, no upper floor without sloped ceilings possible
• Budget
• I estimate we’ll end up around 350,000 € (house only, without land), probably about 10% higher

About us:

• She: born 1982, teacher (civil servant)
• He: born 1981, executive at a large German mid-sized company (approx. 6,000 employees worldwide)
• Child 1: born late 2015, mostly just kicking, drooling, sleeping, and eating at the moment
• Child 2: still swimming like a tadpole in the Rhine

We are still undecided about how to build. Therefore, I said I want to look into companies from the following categories:

• Prefabricated houses (timber frame construction)
• Property developer (solid masonry construction)
• Architect

Prefabricated house (timber frame construction):
We visited the prefab house center in Mannheim several times. Based on online research and recommendations from acquaintances who have built with this company, we had an appointment with Fertighaus Weiss GmbH. The consultant took a lot of time for an initial meeting (5 hours) and planned a first draft house with us. It’s basically a first idea based on what we have expressed as our wishes. As a first draft to see what is roughly possible on the plot, I think it’s okay. But it’s not yet something that convinces us. Here are just the ground floor and upper floor:

Comments:

• The width of 10 m (33 ft) results from 19 m (62 ft) plot width minus 6 m (20 ft) double garage (boundary building) and 3 m (10 ft) clearance to neighbor
• Negative ground floor aspects:
• No entrance vestibule
• Passage from hallway to living area too narrow
• Lower right area of living space (right next to staircase / above “office”) is too narrow (we have a large sofa)

My idea to improve:

• Ground floor
• Arrange shower bathroom and pantry vertically
• Access to pantry from kitchen side upstairs
• Position office horizontally instead of vertically
• This allows moving the staircase to the left wall of the pantry, creating more space for passage and living area
• Upper floor
• Moving the stairs causes a problem upstairs that I have not yet solved
• I generally like the upper floor layout, but because the stairs access is on the left side, I cannot reach the walk-in closet anymore
• I do not want the walk-in closet to be a pass-through room (!)

I’ll try to take a photo of my hand-drawn revision and upload it.

Other appointments:

• Appointment with property developer (Missivbau) scheduled for early March
• Appointment with architect scheduled for early March

I don’t want to show the draft above at the other meetings because I would prefer to hear the providers’ own ideas and concepts.

What do you think of our current approach and draft?

Mr. K.’s design from the prefabricated house park Mannheim by Weiss looked exactly like this. Same staircase, same ground floor layout, same upstairs corridor. These are just standard designs.

I would advise you not to stick too rigidly to this and to consider going to an architect to explain what you want. Alternatively, dedicate a lot of time to studying floor plans and show homes yourself and try drawing your own designs.

As I mentioned, I wasn’t very happy with the first draft, and after searching extensively for a program that allows you to easily design a floor plan, I gave it a try myself. It’s causing me bigger problems than I expected. But this is where I am currently:

We somehow moved away from the straight staircase. We can’t manage to design a floor plan where a straight staircase fits well. Especially not without having an unattractive view into the basement...

Room labels, north arrow, roof with 1 and 2 meter (3 and 6 foot) lines, and a few dimensions would be helpful

Having the entrance in front of the garage is inconvenient because people often park the car in front of the garage.
Otherwise: Dimensions – many things look like they won't fit.

Forget the small open space — the idea might seem nice, but in reality it mainly means drafts, cooking smells spreading throughout the house, and noise traveling from room to room. Such a gallery is only effective once it reaches a certain size—otherwise, it’s just a black hole.

If you don’t want to have a view down the basement stairs, then just put a door there—that’s been the standard solution for centuries and it works well. It’s better to separate the hallway end with doors and have additional storage space (cleaning supplies, bedding, suitcases).

I would also prefer to have the washing machine, dryer, and ironing board on the sleeping floor—this way, you don’t have to carry laundry all over the house, and during the early childhood years you can iron upstairs while the children play, do homework, or sleep. For that purpose, I would place the machines at the end of the hallway next to the bathroom and create a play/work corridor between the children’s rooms. The children’s rooms would then be reduced to a standard size.

Later, a computer area for the children can be set up there as well—this helps prevent children from sitting alone and unsupervised in front of their computers.