Building cheaply - this is how it can be done too!

Building cheaply is not easy, because each of us also wants it to look nice. And cheap often also looks cheap. Cheap also means developing imagination. If I can't reach the top shelf, then I have to look... a urinal could also be made from a cut-up aluminum beer keg, with a drain where the intake pipe goes in. That would be an eye-catcher. And cheap. Or a table, why not four small black lacquered legs, with an old shipbuilding steel plate on top, cut into an oval shape, stabilized on the surface with Owatrol oil? What other ideas do you have?

Building cheaply is easy, see Post #1. Go to Town & Country, pick a house from the catalog and provide the company with an unproblematic, build-ready plot of land without additional measures. Choose standard specifications everywhere and that’s it. Pretty simple, in my opinion. You don’t need to imagine here that building cheaply is not easy. Building cheaply simply means always saying no. Yes once at the beginning and then always just no.

Is the radiator still really included in the standard at Town & Country? Or was that a special request?

Oh, so: 138 sqm were built for 2 people. That’s already luxury [emoji4]

What costs were added on top of the 182,000?
For example, roller shutters, not even electric ones. Then more exclusive plaster, I think mineral plaster. Then a few sqm of wood cladding on the front of the house.
You can do without the latter, but we didn’t have to.
You shouldn’t do without basics like controlled residential ventilation, better plaster, etc., if you can afford it.

I think, in the end, I came to about 1600/sqm in calculations. Built in 2014.

You certainly won’t end up there if you consider surface-mounted fittings as a no-go or a basement, double garage, and at least 160 sqm, of course with parquet and 2.70 m ceiling height as the standard, which is often the case here in the forum.

By the way, we felt like we spent several hundred every week on things that later got forgotten:
Refrigerator (kitchen planning without fridge) as a display model from MM, the second outdoor faucet for a large house ordered during the lunch break on site, filling of an open roof surface in the living room, doubling drywall panels upstairs, casing of the bathtub, platforms for washing machine and dryer, and so on...

And that’s exactly what I warn against: tight budgeting without a buffer for what will definitely come but you don’t think about now.


Large tiles are mainstream. Even though groutlessness is positively rated, in 10 years these tiles will be considered unfashionable. Flush-mounted fittings can cause real trouble, so you say to yourself when building the next house: only surface-mounted.
Beech was also a no-go for us, now we have beech, but in chocolate brown (the wood didn’t matter much to us, but the color did).

The more frills are installed, the more vulnerable the house.

It's always a tricky thing...

When I say:

"Hey, the Fiat Uno is a great vehicle. I wish you that. You paid a really great price for a really great car. I'm happy for you.
...ME? I have a 180k Bentley. Nothing else would ever cross MY mind or come onto the driveway. But for you, that's totally fine.
But your Fiat is really great for you."

Of course, only good things were said. No one can hold anything bad against you.
But some still attack anyway. Everyone involved knows that. This impression is always meant to be conveyed here in the forum.

Everything is doable. Everything is legitimate. Everyone finds everything great. But themselves would never even remotely consider laying a 20EURO tile in the utility room.

The sad thing is that there are so many people who seriously let such statements ruin their day. Or even worse... They then buy something more expensive just to have a supposedly good feeling while talking to the neighbor.

Such people who care too much about the "opinion" of others never really become happy anyway.

I told you, everyone builds THEIR OWN house. You don't have to build cheaply just because a certain Karsten thinks it's good. We chose everything ourselves—from tiles, sanitary fixtures, fittings, electrical work, ceiling heights, building materials, etc.—exactly how we wanted it. Almost no compromises. And then it won't cost 1,300 euros per square meter.

But the original post was that you can also build a house for 1,300 euros per square meter. And there I can only agree. Just as honestly, I can say that I wouldn't like such a catalog house from Town & Country with standard equipment, right?

And most end up somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000. That is the average here. Good Steffen is above that, others below. But many fall within that range.

And where is the problem with built-in fittings? If something breaks, you just have to open it, repair it, re-tile. It costs money, but no more than that. Most of our built-in fittings are reversible anyway through the drywall from the other side. Open, repair, close, fill, paint. Then a company does it in one day.

And whether our tiles are outdated sometime also doesn't matter to us. We want a stylish look, few, thin grout lines, and not modern/outdated/anything else.