Floor plan changes for end-terrace house from the developer

When I newly landscaped my small end-terrace garden, I borrowed books from the library: "Small Gardens," "Terrace Garden," etc. for inspiration. Nowadays, people probably look at Pinterest?! I would leave a strip on one side for some herbs. Possibly also for a raised bed, that would fit. But I would only do the detailed planning once you are sitting there and can take it all in directly. Isn't a carport the better choice to make better use of the width?

I meant the door directly in the hedge, at least that was how it was with us. I have marked it. On the area between the gate and the set-back hedge, we had stepping stones in decorative gravel as a base. I don’t want to post a photo since the house has now been sold. Whether it works similarly with the slope at your place, no idea.
We installed the gate afterwards, initially had a continuous hedge including a fence, and later regretted the effort to change it. It also takes time until the plants grow back to provide privacy. If you already know you want that, then plan it accordingly.
At the time we made the terrace as large as possible (and again now), it is the area we use most in the garden. However, we had an edge strip of flagstones around it.

A quick update:
Outside wasn't really a priority at first, so we haven't pursued it much further yet. When we were recently talking with the developer anyway, I basically asked again how the access from the garden to the street works, and their response was basically, they don't do that with the development plan (or something like that – I need to dig deeper), so if anything, we have to take care of it ourselves and it will probably just be a “we'll take a look when we're there.”

Otherwise, there was a lot to decide – the bathroom specification was somewhat split between tiles and sanitary ware, the sanitary ware is more or less done (just one thing left, which I will get to in a moment), we didn’t like the standard tile selection much, but they gave us the name of a tile studio where we will take another look. The electrical planning was already underway :) The standard equipment was really good, but we (the nerd came through there) added some networking and a few extra sockets here and there. Ideally, I would have liked a few more empty conduits up to the roof; basically, cables will be laid from the technical room up to the roof for the photovoltaic preparation anyway. But the electrician didn’t want to install additional empty conduits because he said he couldn’t guarantee it would be possible to pull cables through later :( (due to bends and also the risk that nothing else could be added during the later construction process or something). I think I would have discussed alternatives or possibilities in a direct conversation, but with the game of telephone through the developer, we just left it at “then not” even though I was a bit grumpy.

Overall, things are really progressing well now! The topping-out ceremony was over the weekend, but that was for the semi-detached houses in front of us, and our townhouse was already quite a bit past the topping-out stage ;) I don’t mind though, because basically just in time for the weather change to rainy, the roof and windows were finished <3



Regarding the bathroom, I mentioned that I still had a question. Actually, we had chosen an alternative bathroom radiator, but there was a bit of confusion at the bathroom studio (our developer was also pretty annoyed; for us it was just this one point, but with some of the co-purchasers we learned that changes got mixed up between different houses or what was communicated as feasible didn’t fit, etc.). In any case, we suddenly had different versions in the offer and are trying to figure out which is which. The bathroom studio should theoretically answer this at some point, but I don’t fully trust them anyway...
So anyway, we were offered the following three alternatives:

The first one (number 8) I think was simply a mistake; it has nothing to do with what we looked at. But even with the other two, I’m a bit confused because they are two different models (BEMM BHK ChaCha E and one called Eigenkapital). I think this is because the Eigenkapital is only available in white and the bathroom lady wanted to offer us both (once white, once color)... but they differ in technology, right? When I google it, the Eigenkapital is described as “Mode of operation: fully electric, pure electric operation” and the “E” model as “Mode of operation: bivalent operation, central heating” (with optional electric set, which clearly is included here). The standard was a purely electric bathroom radiator and presumably the alternative would also be purely electric. So the “9”, which is the bivalent model, is actually nonsense, right? It’s almost twice as expensive (and I think we have no problem with white anyway). But I thought the forum definitely knows about this stuff ;)

Brief update.

The radiator issue has been clarified :) (Yes, No. 1 was a mistake and is the standard radiator, No. 2 is the one we wanted and No. 3 the alternative in case someone wanted something colorful, because the second model is not available in color)

The garden and the hedge are in the area where the developer says he won’t change anything (the hedge is set like that in the urban development contract, I think), so the topic is postponed until after the house handover.

Otherwise, things are progressing here and there and everywhere! We were just able to sample floor coverings. There was a funny mix-up because I wrote "Allraum" (for the kitchen/dining/living area) and we then received an offer for the "Abstellraum" in the upper floor—it’s being corrected now. Sampling prices always seem quite steep. Otherwise, we had a really hard time with the bathrooms. Basically, choosing sanitary fixtures (toilet/bathtub/faucets, etc.) and tiles separately. It’s already difficult to get an overall picture. There was a visualization of the standard proposal, but even though I agreed with the basic layout (if it were up to my husband we would have completely left out the bathtub), the standard tile selection was not at all to our taste. That wasn’t a fundamental problem though, since we could choose alternative tiles, but basically that was at a building materials yard that also has a tile showroom and we were a bit overwhelmed… We wanted to incorporate some decorative tiles but it was much more a “yes, you can do this and that and the other” thing, and as laypeople it was extremely difficult for us to judge what might actually look good in our bathroom o_O

And there we lacked some support. For example, we look at some tiles, find them nice, then eventually realize “wait a minute, I don’t think this will work in our bathroom” (because of the room size awkwardness or because in the standard there is only a 120 cm tile backsplash at least) and well, these thoughts always had to come from us... Especially with the many different built-in heights that are already standard in our bathroom, I’m unsure whether what we have come up with now makes it better or worse o_O

Our draft currently looks roughly like this (there is a towel radiator on the partition wall, the sink is probably not the right one either, and the tile selection here is only exemplary, based on what the planner had available. But yes, the decorative tiles we have just requested are bluish)


other side (the block there is actually the bathtub)

I would make the front panel of the washbasin entirely with decorative tiles and then pull a board from wall to wall where the sink will be placed or built in. That way, the washbasin is concealed and not inviting. I would also use the decorative tiles just above the bathtub and on the sides so that it is visually framed.

Thanks for the suggestions :) The sink here is more of a placeholder, we actually only have a sink without a base cabinet for now (wasn't available in the program here), which would need to be a bit bigger than drawn here. A base cabinet/vanity through the developer was initially too expensive for us. But we had already considered what you described, potentially extending the countertop to the wall for framing. Going to the left might not work, though, because of the towel radiator, so we'll have to see. But it's noted in the back of our minds that we'll generally have to look for solutions there again :) but this will probably only happen after moving in.

I'll discuss the tile proposal with my husband. We had discussed something like that before, but had a bit of the feeling that it might then be too much of the decorative tiles. But of course, it also depends on how much it stands out from the rest (contrast rather high or not so much). I'll check later if I can find our selection. Basically at the sink, if you run the countertop through, the visual difference is probably not that big whether you only do the top row or the whole area. (Where one decision then depends on another, yay), at the bathtub the difference is definitely bigger. I'll definitely keep that in mind :)