Floor plan currently 220m² - where could savings be made?

Hello everyone,

The construction of our single-family house is supposed to begin early next year.
Basically, we are building with solid construction, the house will have a basement, and as heating we will use gas + solar thermal energy.

The submission plan is basically finished. However, it is now gradually becoming clear that the construction will be significantly more expensive than originally estimated by the planner. We had calculated about €450,000, but now that we have received offers from most of the major trades, we are rather at €550,000.
We do not have an incredibly expensive finish; for the kitchen and the electrical system (smart home), one might save about €20,000, but even then we are still well above the estimated price.
We can manage €550,000 as well, but it will be tighter financially.

Therefore, the question arises whether we can still cut costs somewhere.
Wishes and requirements for the construction are:

- Kitchen/dining area not in a "narrow corridor" with the living room but connected
- Master bedroom facing east
- Living room facing south
- Visual separation between living room and kitchen/dining through one or two steps
- On the upper floor a "parent area" and a "children area"
- Office in the basement

Attached you will find the floors + exterior views.

It would be great if one or the other could share their experience.

Thanks and regards
the gnome

Thank you for the not working price estimate for the impetus to shrink the house healthily. Slimming down can only do it good at all ends, and maybe a double garage will even come out of it, where it doesn't matter on which side the first car is parked. A little legend for the colors and hatching does no harm. I would probably wish for a bit more hugging of the hillside.

It feels like you could cut out 2 meters in the middle.

You could touch the basement if you plan an office in the seemingly too many 2 meters of width and still plan a utility room behind the wardrobe. But that is probably not worth mentioning. However, I question the roof terrace and come back to my first sentence: a large house also wants to be walked through several times a day. What bothers me most about the whole floor plan is the projected pantry: far too massive protruding into the house and thus separating the entrance area from the kitchen. It feels like a very long way. Reducing the pantry to one third shows the unnecessary 2 meters :)

- optical separation between living room and kitchen/dining area by one or two steps

I actually don't think that's necessary ... it will certainly also be a cost factor. If I have read it correctly, then 265 cm clear room height is planned as standard and 295 cm clear room height for the living area - right? For the upper floor, I don't see it and I also don't see the planned knee wall height, which I would rather set as VG so that you can avoid those awful shallow window bands in the main rooms and install proper windows.

YPG wrote it ... huge pantry next to big kitchen and large basement, there is quite a bit that is superfluous.

On the upper floor a full 51 sqm for the parents with a dance hall bathroom, max. 6 m wardrobe and yet tight space around the bed, instead spaciousness where it is not needed. And again the window above the bed ;)

And child 2 only has this 76 cm high window and the roof window. I would urgently work on this again so that both children's rooms at least have a proper window from which you can look out standing and sitting.

2x corner windows are also costly and for the kitchen one should first seriously tackle the kitchen planning.

Door garage/house, cheaper would be a door from the garage under the canopy or leave it out completely, because depending on which car with which size you come, it is easier to leave the garage through the gate than to get around the other car and get to the connecting door.

Normally I don't write anything about this, but I really don't like the window views of the house, so many different formats, layouts etc.

Sorry ..

As "ypg" has already written, the house could be shortened. Why do you need such a large pantry when you have a basement and also a storage room on the upper floor? The area in front of the pantry is also somehow unused space. The space between the wardrobes in the dressing room is about 110 cm. Do you need such a large bathroom? The bidet is too close to the toilet; with long hair, you might be worried it will end up in the bidet, and it's not a nice sight either. The children's rooms could also be made a bit smaller.

Best regards
Sabine

Hi,

thanks for the input.
I will see what can be done.

Regards
the gnome