Thank you for your message, however I cannot quite categorize this or the content for myself.
No problem, I am happy to try again in DaF:
Laypeople, as prospective owners of their own home, are impatient; they want to see an ultrasound image of their dream house as soon as possible. Inexperienced architects can hardly cope with this pressure of expectation and start drawing too early. However, it would lead to better results if the planner proceeded as academically and systematically as is actually taught in studies – even if that would test the patience of the builders for longer. The fact that the phases of architectural planning are called 1, 2, 3, ... 8 has a good reason: namely, that you start with the one numbered 1, do not skip any number, complete every phase, and do not loop back. The terrain profile belongs to phase 1, where it must be recorded, understood, and considered when implementing the spatial program into a building form (phase 2), before phase 3 is put on top of phase 2, and so on. More precisely, a pause is even recommended between phases 2 and 3, which I call “dough rest,” because it corresponds to a proven practice from the baking trade. Your planner now only incorporates basics from phase 1 in phase 3, which would have decisively influenced in phase 2 whether a bread or a cake should be baked. So you are already pushing the dough into the oven before it has even been kneaded. A failed cake does not necessarily have to taste bad, but baked in the proven order, it simply will not crumble before it lands on the plate.
I understand that you say we should have started with a sketch and defined the spatial program as well as paid attention to the heights.
You should not have made a sketch at all, but only the list of rooms at the beginning, and then “qualify” it (= assign approximate sizes to the rooms and positions as upstairs/downstairs/doesn’t matter). Thinking in levels and realizing where which height points then lie below/in/above these levels is professional work. The professional then presents you, for example, with two or three possible consequences of these facts, and you don’t have to contribute anything but one opinion. First, a clump of cells becomes a child at all, then a girl or a boy, hair color still has time here.
But as the floor plan is now – what is so absolutely terrible bungling that I should sue someone for it?
[…], but is it really all so bad that I should start over from the beginning??
Sue, no, that would be completely misguided. But do say openly: “what we have paid for has not been performed professionally, please start again in order.” Bungling yes, terrible no. Cristobal Colon was a lousy sailor. He “discovered” America – but he wanted to get to India and in his view, he ended up there as well. So no, it is not that bad – but yes, you should have it started over from the beginning instead of accepting this misstarted work or tinkering with it until it somehow still “looks successful.”
Because what you now have is a plan for a wrongly conceived house. No basement is so cheap that it should be built just for face-saving, if the house would be better arranged on one less level. One should clearly say to a professional that you have paid for a professional without the “l” and expect proper performance – as a layperson, even more so. Using expensively borrowed money to support the less gifted is, of course, my non-binding private opinion for you, not your task.
What we can say about Keitel-Haus: Medium-sized, family-run business. So far we had contact with maybe 8-10 people, all of whom were on the ball. Contact with management is possible and negotiation works well. Still, check the offer carefully. Don’t expect too much from the standard!
I would have saved my remark about Keitel-Haus if this impression had not been so ingrained in me. After all, they are not disreputable, and I look forward to someone in your person who I can roughly estimate being able to report from their experience about them soon. Maybe they are really good and just know as much about marketing as Columbus did about India. In the stone construction sector, I know such a company that is a difficult patient from a consulting perspective: satisfied customers but with a considerable majority of type models in the program and completely lacking competitor observation.