Avoid mistakes in the second house: Home construction company or architect?

- Choosing the right architect/contractor - Reading a lot about EVERYTHING related to house building to be able to join the conversation and also to know what options you have

Point 1 sounds so easy in theory. The contractors are professionals and know exactly who has no idea and who is at a disadvantage in disputes. And I would also argue that as a layperson, selecting a good contractor is only possible if you have lived at the construction site for a while, are well connected there, and can rely on word of mouth. And even then, you are not safe from botched work. Point 2 is a fallacy. You can never read up well enough in a few months after work to seriously keep up with someone who has studied construction, regularly continues their education, and brings several years of professional experience. That is why most builders then hire an expensive expert who takes care of it. If you pay the site manager directly from the start, you can already offset the costs.

I don't quite get it yet... The second house won't just be "better" simply because you're starting over.

What exactly is the problem with the current new build? That the roof can't be converted? So space? Anything else? How many children live with you? 3-4 or 2?
I would also consider optimizing New Build No. 1 as an option with the architect...
GD

The second house doesn’t just become "better" simply because you’re starting over again.

That’s why the OP wants to know how radically different one would have to approach it to achieve a noticeably more satisfying result.

What exactly is the problem with the current new build? That the roof can’t be converted? So space? Anything else? How many children live with you? 3-4 or 2?

It starts with the fact that what feels like the main wish (a panoramic view from the living-cooking area) was implemented as a flat failure (small-section display window front = topic missed). There’s more than enough space, sufficient for five children (even though there are probably only two). A roof conversion wouldn’t be needed but apparently sits as a missed opportunity in the back of the mind.

I’d also consider optimizing new build No.1 as an option with the architect...

To examine this otherwise obvious possibility, I reviewed the thread from back then (after three and a quarter years even an 11antenna brain no longer has a discussion cached), and I immediately aborted the approach. Conclusion: first the architect turned a deaf ear, then the OP here with the timely hints. End result: a pathologically swollen pseudo-villa, yet somehow without even a hint of grandeur. Probably due to atypical spans crammed full of load-bearing structure. For the few people who think it’s great, you can sell it expensively enough to build something nicer from it (or at least something that interprets the wish list more faithfully). Sad and not worth a single penny of conversion investment.

And in the end you will realize that this way of building doesn't actually cost you more.

That certainly depends a lot on the architect. My architect took some numbers from some tool. No idea if they were adjusted with factors to the current years or calculated otherwise. I don't think she really understood it either. From experience with a general contractor house and square meter prices from residential new construction, I added 15% on top from the architect. That was too little, overall it will probably be 25% more.
So I think very few architects deal in detail with cost planning - after all, it is more of a creative study and business administration is often less familiar to people studying in that field. I think a general contractor already has a significantly better cost calculation because he has to bear the costs if necessary.
Especially for special wishes and creative solutions, the architect is certainly the better choice.

Good morning,
nice that so many are participating here. Thank you very much for that already.
We now have 3 children and there should be a fourth one. At the time of planning the house, we had only one child and it was uncertain then whether we could have more. Unfortunately, back then it didn’t look like it. Therefore, we simply planned with two large children's rooms.

: I still remember the criticism of the floor plan from 2019 very well - respect for digging up the thread again. My problem back then was implementing this correctly with the house-building company. The architect somehow fixated on this urban villa - without that term ever coming from us. All we wanted were two full floors. And it was always said that the construction costs for such an urban villa (let's forget the word villa, which suggests something more upscale) would be lower than for, for example, staggered building structures, bay windows, or other frills. So we simply took this (almost) square as the floor plan. Of course, that restricts you stylistically and in terms of planning. We especially notice that when living inside. But the decision was made that way. The architect wouldn’t have made us a completely different design. And it’s also hard for you to mentally detach yourself from it. I spent a long time trying to draw myself. As a layperson, I couldn’t succeed.

We consciously didn’t implement the criticism to make the master bedroom smaller and are glad about it today. That is, of course, very individual. I often read here that the bedroom should be nice and small because it’s just for sleeping. That’s not the case for us: a lot of other things happen here, like diaper changing (albeit temporarily), my study was separated, two long rows of closets (we don’t have a separate dressing room), and a small area with an armchair; the bed stands in the middle as a room divider. We like it. So if there is something in our house that I am satisfied with, it’s our bedroom. This is not meant to be a retrospective excuse for why criticism wasn’t accepted. But it serves as an explanation for why there can be individual needs that don’t always have to be changed with the same good advice. I understand today that our mistake was taking or being given an urban villa floor plan and trying to enlarge it. That leads to nothing.

Today, instead of two children’s rooms, there are supposed to be four, plus two studies plus a guest room. That is—more and more I realize—naturally no longer a catalog house.