Floor plan Bungalow 172 m2 in Brandenburg south of Berlin

Cinema or not...

...before it is even realistic, I play the spoilsport :(

That is intentional and helps us move forward. We are still at the beginning of the process and, for example, do not have your experience. Thank you for gladly sharing it. First of all, I think one should try to get the maximum and then make compromises.

That is also counterproductive, since a toilet should get some natural daylight through a window. Looking at a wall/door is also not nice.

The T-wall will remain. We want it that way and also find it very nice with friends who have built similarly. The bathroom has now been placed on the northeast wall for now because the bedroom also faces northeast (at least the view outside towards the sunrise). We would like the bedroom facing east. That’s what you often hear. Are there other arguments for different planning options? We are of course still trying to find alternatives with only one door, where the toilet faces the window. Shower or toilet will remain darker.

Or just move away from the gable roof and choose a rectangular body for the house. That way some light reaches every corner.

A pitched roof then. With a rectangular body, I still find a proper room layout difficult. Switching to a pitched roof wouldn’t be a problem if it brings advantages and if the roof construction also becomes cheaper and we can arrange the rooms properly. Gladly.

172sqm and then being stingy, that doesn’t fit. The villa will be almost unsellable if someone notices that ;)

I don’t even have mobile working, but privately I have tons of folders, not only due to house construction. I personally always advise planning 3 running meters of wardrobe space (60cm deep) in every bedroom if possible. Exceptions are the rule. But that mostly concerns the width. 50cm can work, we have that too. But we don’t have 172sqm... if I had 10sqm more available, the walk-in would also have been bigger.

Thanks, we will probably take your advice about the 60 cm depth.

Oh, without controlled residential ventilation?! :eek:

Yes. Friends built a city villa monolithically with unfilled T10 Poroton bricks. Ground area about 80-90 m². They decided against ventilation. They have a great indoor climate. Many neighbors in the new development complain about dry air with decentralized ventilation and would never have it installed again. That would be a no-go for us. Decentralized is out anyway. Central ventilation is better, but we have also heard of dry air and poor installation in the cavity walls there. I would rather not have a ventilation system installed. I would like to see a well-founded and very convincing argument that convinces me of ventilation (whether central or decentralized), how to properly install it, and what to watch out for. Then manual is better, as we live now. We have always had our room climate under control.

What about the fireplace? With or without glass? Wood or gas?

It is open and wood-burning. Please google "Gyrofocus" and "fireplace" together. It doesn’t have to appeal ;) We like it.

Okay, I’m always happy when someone manages to create something with a foolproof program and has concrete ideas. But somewhere you have to put things into perspective. You know exactly what you want, list all pipapo, chi-chi and nice-to-haves here, but can’t pay. With your desired features you get 133sqm for €400,000! Maybe just under 140sqm. Somewhere around there it will settle. Without own work, without landscaping, without terrace and paving/carport. And without incidental building costs. You want your 170sqm, then calculate about €500,000. Or €550,000. But then also without own work, without landscaping, without terrace and paving/carport. And without incidental building costs. It may of course be that because you don’t demand renewable energy or you are building in Brandenburg, you can afford 150sqm or pay only €460,000 for 170sqm. Anyway: a bit of reality never hurt anyone before designing.

I’m not denying that either. I appreciate the exchange of opinions. We are already considering where we can save. Bedroom, walk-in and WC have already become smaller.

About the house itself: I see 7 window widths: front 70cm and 120cm, southwest 90cm, in the open space 270cm, in the northeast 230 and 140. Now that’s aesthetics ;) How about settling on one window size for the “small” ones? The look will thank you.

Sorry. The windows weren’t finished yet. I initially set the usual minimum widths per room here. They should be designed more uniformly. Are there recommendations regarding sill height for bathroom, HTR (technical room), utility room and walk-in? We are still considering 90 cm and neighbors/privacy issues. What’s important to us are floor-to-ceiling windows in the living area and all windows up to 35 cm below the ceiling.

Then even a bungalow needs a load-bearing wall. With almost 15 meters, two load-bearing walls would make the statics somewhat cheaper.

So far my information was that especially with bungalows it is an advantage not to need load-bearing walls. Does that depend on our total area? Please explain again why this is stated online. Also feel free to say why it is cheaper. I lack experience there.

But basically: the house is mega dark. Where there is daylight are small windows, where there are big ones, there is no daylight. But: the big ones don’t illuminate the center. The kitchen is the darkest place in the whole house. The brightest place is the computer workstation in the office (but there you don’t need light).

Do yourselves a favor and build with this orientation: the cinema in the northeast, the kitchen in the light with at least 2 sqm window area. If you have to waive 20 sqm for cost reasons, move the cinema to the attic. With a pitched roof much is possible.

A one-and-a-half story is our exit strategy if the bungalow just doesn’t work, even with compromises. But then it would be a half-baked house. Our number one requirement was that we want a bungalow. We want one level. If that’s not possible, we would build something we actually don’t want.

Now back to the floor plan and lighting conditions. Do I understand you correctly? You would (assuming you wanted it) move the cinema room to the northeast side. More towards the lower corner by the HTR or upper corner by the bedroom or centrally near bathroom/kitchen? Then I don’t understand where you would plan bedroom/bathroom/walk-in/technical room. Towards the southeast below or on the northwest wall? Then you would probably plan dining area, fireplace and kitchen as an open living area at the complete southwest corner with a sufficient window front. Doesn’t that produce a long corridor that feels very cramped? Study and utility room would also be questionable then. Isn’t it advantageous to build these close to kitchen and bathroom and HWTR as close as possible to the front?

You would make the house narrower but longer and give it a pitched roof?

One more thing about the neighboring plots. They don’t appear here yet. Our neighbor to the left is building with 3 meters distance to the border. His house starts at 4 m and goes about 9 m deep. That means I already have the neighbor’s house front or the fence in front of me on the southwest corner. I don’t find it very nice either if I now place the carport on the right side and build only 3 m from the neighbor on the left and then look at the house, fence or hedge directly while eating, sitting at the fireplace, and cooking. Then I have no lawn in front of the terrace because it already goes to the garden fence. It’s also not important to me that the south sun is shining on my terrace. It’s too hot for us in summer anyway. Our plot is almost 33 m long. There is a place on the lawn to escape the not-so-big shadow of the bungalow. I prefer to enjoy the west sun at the upper left and look in that direction while eating.

Switching cinema room and kitchen, rectangular layout, I’m happy to be convinced, especially since the cinema currently blocks valuable light coming into the living area. But downstairs by the study, even if it’s the brightest corner, I either have the neighbor’s boundary towards southwest or the road towards southeast in front of me. I could imagine nicer corners for my view. I would rather take the brightness in the study/hobby room, since the view of the neighbor’s house doesn’t bother me as much there.

??? - the answer to the price question is meant to inform the participants in the discussion, not to provoke.

I agree with you, but I just wanted to calculate narrowly here. 450,000 € is still feasible. For more, we need to consult the bank again.

Also for the street elements in PVC, yes. In other areas conditionally, i.e. depending on the shading.

What is the second, not cinema-optimized living room actually needed for?

I'm at a loss. Which area do you mean?

You don’t have to be sick to appreciate a second toilet. Showering or bathing is simply more pleasant when no one is sitting on the toilet right next to you. You come home together, leave the house at the same time – both have to go (quickly). Phew, I can think of quite a few situations where indeed in our 5-person household all 4 toilets were occupied. But sure, you have to decide that for yourselves. Maybe not really necessary for guests, but for yourselves?

Not for us. We have been living together for almost six years and are married. So far no problems. The toilet is supposed to disappear right in the T-junction. Actually not really visible from any place. In an emergency it would be bearable. That we sometimes have to use the toilet at the same time after a long drive happens, but as a gentleman I have had no problem waiting 2 minutes longer. That may have happened maybe once a year or less.

I'm at a loss. Which area do you mean?

Well, the living room called the "Kamin".

450,000 € is still possible. For more, we have to consult the bank again.

That means one of the two living rooms (or equivalent other spaces) is dead. But then at least about ten percent must be cut down instead of more than fifteen before.

but I just wanted to calculate tightly here.

You stop doing that the moment you spend all the money on space, meaning you calculate with zero reserve. Builders who calculate without a buffer regularly build one garage, a covered terrace, or similar less than planned. Of course, you can watch gardening shows in the home cinema and still leave the bumpy construction site outside with a pallet entrance platform. You're not building for the guests anyway ;-)

Wouldn't it make sense to plan the house with a basement, then move the cinema to the basement, and design the house a bit smaller, which might save costs!?

I would at least have the connections for a potential toilet installed in the utility room. If only for the sake of the resale value.