I do have disability insurance as well, but orienting our house around the possibility that we might get cancer or other chronic illnesses someday doesn’t help me.
Hmm... You’re not supposed to orient your whole house around that, that sounds like a rather rigid viewpoint.
A one-and-a-half-story house is our exit strategy if the bungalow doesn’t work at all, even with compromises. But then it would be a half-baked house.
Ouch, it seems you haven’t built and lived in many houses yet, from what I read so far it sounds pretty fixed-minded to me especially when I see how "someone first has to convince me of that..." – Nope, nobody has to. Fortunately, everyone does what they want. But why a x-storied house should be an “exit strategy” (what did we call that back then without these “cool” words?) and then it would be a “half-baked house”... ufffff.
I am generally skeptical of so-called recommendations... "Friends have theirs like that, too." Firstly, among builders, there is just as much lying and exaggerating as when fishing, sex, or hunting, plus it’s a fundamental difference whether I visit sometimes or live there forever and with whom and under what behaviours etc. Today I have a controlled residential ventilation system, before I did not, and both times I felt fine, still I like the thing (so far). There is no right/wrong there.
I generally refuse to accept “this is good” or “this is bad” about such topics without considering all aspects. Additionally, us older people are once again experiencing that we sometimes behave completely differently than we thought before. We now have different favourite spots, drink coffee elsewhere etc., new rooms – new life; you can’t plan all that, at least I can’t, but I can create possibilities for it beforehand.
I find it inappropriate to insist so insistently on a second toilet when the OP clearly says they don’t want one. What is your problem with that? People also get different amounts of visitors. The OP will surely know how it is with them.
Anyway, I often find it amusing how some here portray themselves as the perfect hosts for the upper society. ..........
.....I think it’s great that the OP firmly sticks to their needs and doesn’t let themselves be talked into it just because "people" do it that way better.
Stay strong!
I see it differently. If as a reader I think that an OP might be stuck in their view, you should say it clearly. It’s not about mocking this, but clear criticism is indispensable in such a forum, though as I already mentioned, always only before the build; afterwards I rather find it malicious.
Especially from the experience of what others have gone through I can learn, no matter the age, without having to give up my important priorities. In my house you will find many such hints from the forum that I initially saw completely differently, yet it became a house we like that way (with all its quirks, just like the builders themselves).
Not having a “need” to avoid a second toilet, rather it can become one to have a second one. That the OP is currently a gentleman as he says sounds gallant, but there are also some gentlemen who at an advanced age wet their pants while waiting (gentlemen over 50 should better wear dark pants or diapers :eek:).
Persistence and stubbornness are often very close, and everyone should check that for their own interest. In the end nobody here cares whether OP builds 1 or 5 WCs; malice should not be attributed to the critics in this.
But we don’t want to sell the house, we want to spend our whole life there.
Most people “don’t want” to sell their house, I wouldn’t want to sell mine either :(, but people have to because of divorce, illness or other unplanned changes. I also wouldn’t build to sell it better one day, I absolutely agree with you on that, but foreseeable changes in one’s own sphere I want to be able to cushion appropriately. A really great TV room, I would build that in your place!
I just imagine someone watching in their home cinema all the movies their content has someone building a house for the humorous idea of how their funeral party lines up in front of the only toilet. At least Finnish directing professors I trust to seriously establish this as an independent genre at their art academy *LOL*
Watch “Sterben für Anfänger” (“Death for Beginners”), that’s at least partly thematized with the grandpa......
The previous generations before us lived with one toilet. Rumor has it they apparently survived.
And lived in caves and allegedly pulled their wives to work by the hair. In that respect a garden toilet would also drastically reduce costs; by the way, I myself used to have no running water, a shared children’s room without heating in the attic and a thousand other things...... the pastor fortunately only beat us. So if I, over 60, referred to these great old times, maybe okay but you are about 30... If so, be consistent and build without all the modern stuff, because back then we didn’t even have TV (we lucky ones), you want a TV arena, which I think is super cool if implemented individually. Then the comparison with earlier times doesn’t quite fit anymore.
Showering more than once a week is overrated anyway, using the washing machine as well, and they didn’t brush their teeth so unnecessarily meticulously back then either.
We are satisfied.
Look, that’s great. Not because you changed something for others, but because you thought outcome-open. Don’t unnecessarily fix yourself on roof shape and other things, make sure you find exactly your floor plan that also includes the sensible things mentioned here. Then there’s still enough room for stylish individuality, which I really like, given all the mass-produced nowadays.
There is now even a guest bathroom. But it is very, very small.
That’s enough.
The entrance area is not separated. Some might not like that. We actually find it quite nice to enter directly into the large room.
We have it the same, the entrance belongs to the living space, we like that.
If I see it correctly, you have about 70 sqm with the kitchen for the so-called open space; I would prefer an open or semi-open kitchen so you are really right in the middle of the beautiful, large room.
I believe a planner or someone here can still loosen up the boxing-in of bathroom/WC/bedrooms a bit. Somehow I would also prefer the utility room much more at the front and perhaps, I would even take the much-discussed extra WC en-suite with the guest room, to have one less door/WC access from the dining room.