Assessment & assistance semi-detached house, approx. 180 sqm in DIY floor plan

I drew something last week, but stopped because I don't believe you can be convinced with arguments :rolleyes: what came out was this or here is an impression of the DG

Appointment at ELK: "What is important to you? What do I have to deliver as a consultant for you?" Me: "Transparency: I don't want to experience surprises and want to keep costs in view"... then the offer came on a DIN A4 sheet... ok, and already calculated without a base plate.

They possibly never offer this at all. It's like being disappointed by your car dealer that they don't build your street when you buy a new BMW. One builds houses from wood in their factory, the other digs in the ground and pours base plates. Most companies already have common partners so they can carve out a complete offer for you, but not necessarily all. For me, however, that would not be a reason to exclude someone.

Regarding the dormer: what does the development plan say about it? Did I overlook that somewhere?

yeah… that could be! In many relationships.

Thank you, very kind. Where exactly did we meet in person again?

So what? At least it’s bright. You’re planning a barrier “all the way to the right” anyway, so you have to walk zigzag.
Be aware that with your south orientation, your house doesn’t necessarily become bright. I would use every possibility there. And as already said: you need a shaft, which would go across your kitchen, including the toilet waste pipe.

Okay, then I understand correctly that it is better if the air heat pump is placed at the bottom left in front of the house (viewed from the front) and the cables are routed zigzag upwards instead of straight up?

Which barrier are you talking about? The wall of the semi-detached house far to the right? The stairwell?

As far as I know, there is a mathematical formula to calculate how many sqm of window area you need for a certain room. According to my information, we are well above that. 5m lift-and-slide window + 2m fixed glazing in the dining/living area, kitchen has a 1.60m floor-to-ceiling window on the side. The hallway also has an additional floor-to-ceiling window, glass door between hallway and kitchen. How many more windows should I put in? There is barely any space left for a cabinet as it is.

The shaft is a good tip. So far, in the drawings, it usually ran in the pantry. Toilet waste pipe at the exterior wall in the pantry. But I will gladly include that in the discussions again.

At which point could an open sight axis be installed?

What are you expecting? You don’t even have a contract yet and still have time-consuming expectations?!
Besides, we read it ourselves, partly unrealistic expectations. I wouldn’t lift a finger, at least not
if there’s other work on the desk.

Yes, I expect some investment if I’m supposed to sign something that costs 500k and will be the biggest investment of my life. And I don’t think it’s too much to ask to know BEFORE signing a) what the fun costs and b) to show exactly what you get for that price. It’s clear that it’s not about shifting something up or down, right or left. But I don’t commit in advance just so that someone even thinks about working on it. I’m in sales myself and when I think about how many offers and contracts, how many rounds of discussions, hours of driving etc. I invested to sell someone 2 IBM servers? Or what often happened, someone else got the deal… But next time I might also try to get the customer to sign an order first before I start writing configurations. Maybe it will work.

Please deal with your attic cross-section before you throw something like that out there. I would refuse to crawl on all fours into a bed. Even if it’s only once a year. That’s not good for the back...

I don’t know if you’re all just 1.30m tall and thus sit on futons… but if I sit on a 45cm sofa with my “woman’s height,” I need about 1.50m in height. I’m not saying an upstairs bed is fundamentally impossible, but not like that. Heating: up there at that low height would probably scrape the roof… Toilet under the 2-meter line is not professional. And the toilet’s wastewater is also tricky like that in the kitchen, possibly next to the stove ;)

There IS NO generous attic basement.

That would all relax things somewhat, however there must also be a distance to the neighboring wall, 1.25m probably needs to be maintained.

That is really a point I need to reconsider. The roof will be as the development plan says. How to use the room upstairs I have to rethink. What is the alternative? Maybe the bathroom can be moved further into the middle of the room and the WC placed against the outer wall because of the waste pipe.

They possibly never offer these. It's like being disappointed with your car dealer because they don’t build your street when you buy a new BMW. One builds wooden houses in their factory, the other digs in the ground and pours foundations. Most companies already have common partners so they can carve out a complete offer for you, but not necessarily all. For me, that would not be a reason to exclude someone.

About the dormer: what does the development plan say about it? Did I miss that somewhere?

Hello Katja, basically you are right, it could be. However, the entire offer including 3 different expansion versions fit on one DIN A4 page. And our neighbors, who also requested an offer from ELK (but a different salesman) including foundation and structured completely differently. Admittedly, I found the gentleman very unsympathetic in the first conversation and somehow he had already lost before he started... well, and then the offer. If everything else had fit, we would have talked further, but you have to choose somewhere. Besides, we decided against a timber frame house anyway.

Regarding the dormer, it is stated in the development plan: we have such an asterisk:

Yes, I expect some investment when someone wants to demand a signature from me that costs 500k and will be the biggest investment of my life.

Regarding the architectural services that you can expect as a client, I already said that these are aimed at the building permit and not at optimizing designs. As a prospective client – so still in the acquisition phase – you have to lower your expectations further. Here it is only about demonstrating to you the cost-effectiveness of the company compared to competitors. I can gladly email you what I commented just a few days ago on a LinkedIn post. If it went by the unfortunately widespread notions among potential customers considered as contemporary standards about how funny the puppets would have to dance in inquiries, every builder could have spent the entire profit of the previous month on acquisition costs by noon on the fifth.

50% for the dormer, that would make a difference. Do you have the money and desire to invest in it?