Detailed questions on floor plan design renovation with extension

The idea is to rent out for a few years on a long-term basis and then switch to short-term rentals. We want to rent furnished because, due to two households and the things that were still in good condition from the house, we have at least duplicates of everything.

I don't think corner windows would be structurally feasible.

If we were to place the living areas downstairs after all, how would you plan the kitchen and living room? Because of the many load-bearing walls, we have never seen a sensible option. So far, it was said that underfloor heating in the basement isn’t possible due to the ceiling height. Are there any technical construction possibilities after all? How would you solve the problem with the wardrobe, the narrow hallway, and the staircase directly at the house entrance? Nothing can be left in the area in front of the stairs. For cold protection reasons, there are doors everywhere there—would you then remove them?

Everything for storage and the study would then have to go into the attic without a knee wall if we decide against raising the knee wall. How could that be usefully designed? Currently, wooden walls have been installed to create a sort of knee wall. Due to the elongated design, there are two narrow small rooms facing the garden, a large room at the end of the corridor, and only a widened hallway facing the street.

There still wouldn’t be direct access from the terrace to children's play equipment because the straight area in front of the basement is too narrow for permanent things. Moreover, it might be filled to avoid walking down steps around the house to then go up 3 steps into the basement entrance door. This would always be located further downhill in the next leveled area. We had previously considered a second terrace in this area because a built-in brick grill already stands there and it is shaded by existing trees.

The technical room should definitely be relocated; only this way do we preserve the long-term option to split the house. This is an important option for old age and, due to the staircase at the edge, it is appropriate. In many houses here, there is the constellation of parents or grandparents on one level and children or grandchildren on the other, with the attic expanded and two levels.

The idea is to rent it out on a long-term basis for a few years and then switch to short-term rentals.

Hui, this is getting worse and worse. So tenant No.1 is supposed to move out again after a few years. But what if they don’t make any moves and insist on their rental rights? What then? Short-term renting increases the effort and wear and tear. Do you think the demand is enough to make the hassle worthwhile? You lose all the advantages of a single-family house and have all the disadvantages of a landlord plus the disadvantages of a tenant. For what? You hardly earn any money from it, if at all. In any case, you can never even remotely recoup the effort for the entire extra work of the conversion. In my opinion, your architect is totally clueless. I would ask him for an alternative design. Otherwise, show us the entire plot. You always say it’s hard to use the basement. It seems to me the garden is laid out incorrectly or harbors other problems. Maybe then it would be easier for us to understand. Maybe you can take a screenshot with Google Maps?

And how about bedrooms in the basement? At least you won’t have the disadvantages of tenants by the garden and the costs of the extension. Neighbors of my parents had a floor heating milled into the existing floor. It did not add height. How good or bad that is, no idea.

I don't think corner windows would work structurally.

I don't mean corner windows. But you do have exterior walls on 2 sides for windows.

We have now discussed again the option of moving the living rooms or bedrooms to the basement. We want to use the weekend to gather ideas to see if it fits with our ideas about space requirements, layout, etc. We don’t want to start over again with the architect only to realize later that it was much ado about nothing.

During the brainstorming, we again stumbled over the many load-bearing walls. If we move the living rooms to the basement, we would like the option of a semi-open kitchen and living room facing the garden. The kitchen should have a dining nook for everyday use, and the living room with a dining table, fireplace, piano, and sofa area. Connection of the fireplace to the existing fireplace is possible; the floor should not matter in that case. Whether there is space downstairs next to the bathroom and possibly a storage room for an additional room is currently irrelevant for our decision. Do you have any ideas on your end, or do we need a structural engineer for these considerations anyway?

In principle, the plan from the upper floor could be used for the ground floor, with the problem that we would then have no cloakroom area. We definitely need space for a cloakroom on the ground floor. It doesn’t make sense to walk into the basement with dirty shoes, jackets, etc. Are there any reasonable ideas? The bathroom currently drawn on the ground floor seems a bit too small for a family bathroom.

At least the study room would then need to be in the attic, possibly also a guest room and possibly the option of a third bathroom, in case there are three children and four rooms on the ground floor do not work out and we would eventually have to move the bedroom upstairs.

My husband is also interested in knowing what costs could be saved by renouncing the extension. The roof would probably still need to be renovated anyway because the roof beams are too thin for solar panels. In addition, two dormers would be added in this process to create three useful rooms in the attic without an extension.

We would appreciate any input as we are quickly back to the old plans. Since a sensible conversion of the basement always seemed impossible to us. The main living level was always on the ground floor.

@Katja is the screenshot enough for you? I think the slope hardly comes across there. The garden is certainly no longer optimally laid out.

In principle, the planning from the upper floor could be used for the ground floor

I see a very simple floor plan where the walls of the basement are taken over on the ground floor.
In this respect, I see four rooms on the ground floor plus a bathroom and a kitchen, which could be combined as a family bathroom. The wardrobe I already suggested before can then also be opened with the new staircase to the entrance area on the ground floor. The partition wall to the private rooms would be right behind the toilet, so the bathroom remains private with the bedrooms. The only exception would be the 16 sqm room, which would then be connected to the staircase, which is in turn not supposed to come across as a staircase anymore, but rather integrated and homely for all users.
Here are some scribbles: arrows mean sight lines, otherwise a lot of doodling – I hope it can be understood