Thank you WildThink for the comments. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done about the orientation. It is simply a north-facing plot. Although the children's rooms are very similar to those of friends of ours and, due to the large windows and the dormer, it is not dark at all. Our office in the apartment now is also northwest-facing and has two large floor-to-ceiling windows and it is not dark at all. We don’t really have proper south-facing rooms, since the ridge orientation is south-north. Well, having the living room facing south just doesn’t make sense. What would we do looking at the street all the time, with the beautiful garden. :)
The partial basement is significantly cheaper for us. It is a sloping plot and hardly anything has to be excavated in the front for the basement. And actually, we didn’t want a basement at all. This way it is a sufficient compromise.
The entrance door is directly next to the garage. You can’t enter through the garage because of the thermal bridge. There is also double insulation between the garage and the house. We didn’t want to have cold and moisture from the garage directly in the house.
