Floor plan design single-family house solid wood construction 140 sqm in Lower Saxony

Hello dear house building forum!

Below are some details – to the best of our knowledge and belief – about our house building project...

Development Plan/Restrictions

Size of the plot 576 sqm – parcel 17/28 (see cadastral map)
Slope no – plot has only a few cm height difference
Floor area ratio 0.3 = 172.8
Floor space index not defined
Building window, building line and boundary 24x24 meter plot = N-E-S-W 16x18x16x18 building window
Edge development no, exceptions possibly see Lower Saxony building regulations
Number of parking spaces not required
Number of storeys single storey
Roof shape gable/hip/half-hip 35-50 degree roof pitch
Style classic single-family house
Orientation ridge direction specified = ridge line in west-east direction
Maximum heights/limits TH 4.0 FH 8.5 meters
Further specifications no oil heating, 50% of the south roof surface with solar obligation, no development allowed between house and street (= no parking or similar in front garden)

The plot has been purchased and the development work in the new building area is already completed (we are even on the pre-asphalted street).

Requirements of the builders

Style, roof shape, building type wood house made of massive block logs inside, blown insulation and external cladding
Basement, floors no basement – only ground floor + upper floor
Number of people, age three aged 36, 29 and five and a half years
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor standard single-family house with 3 bedrooms + bathroom upstairs, downstairs open living area, guest WC and large utility/housekeeping room
Office: family use or home office? one room currently usable as office/guest room (backup for possible children), we currently both have no jobs with home office option
Open or closed architecture living/dining/kitchen preferably open
Conservative or modern building style conservative
Open kitchen, kitchen island open kitchen yes, kitchen island currently not planned
Number of dining seats in everyday use 3, but should be enough in the dining area for enough people
Fireplace a masonry heater is planned
Music/stereo wall no
Balcony, roof terrace no
Garage, carport carport with workshop
Utility garden, greenhouse no
Further wishes/special features/routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be

House design

Who created the plan: plan based on principles from us, then optimized with the employed architect of the manufacturer
What particularly pleases? Why? the extended dining corner with surrounding bench pleases us very much, in general our ideas of room sizes are well implemented – whether all is as sensible as we imagine and visualize here, we would like to ask about here.
What do you not like? Why? the position of the chimney might be disturbing in the children’s room? Or is that negligible in everyday life? We are not yet satisfied with the kitchen and bathroom upstairs and are currently looking for a good solution for furnishing or arrangement there
Price estimate according to architect/planner: since we are not working with a general contractor but assign after the "shell construction" ourselves and do a lot ourselves, we do not have all numbers yet. The finishing trades are currently being calculated.
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: 400,000 to move-in ready, everything else "outside" excluded, plot is paid for
Preferred heating technology: heat pump with underfloor heating and photovoltaic with possibly storage

If you have to do without something, which details/expansions

– can you do without: we have tried to already largely adjust our demands to the budget – does anyone see further saving potential?
– can you not do without: as last resort, if it otherwise won’t work out, we would remove the dining corner and redesign the ground floor – furthermore, the masonry heater is a must for us (we simply love that coziness a lot)

Why is the design like it is now?

Standard design from planner? the manufacturer does not offer standard houses; everything is individually planned
Which wishes were implemented by the architect? the current plan is already quite well implemented according to our wishes. Now only fine tuning is missing, for which we hope for your assessments, ideas and experiences.
A mix of many examples from various magazines... of course we got inspirations from all possible sources (good and bad...) :D
What makes it in your eyes particularly good or bad? for us it feels good so far – all our furniture fits in and the things that annoy us in our current rental house are all fixed in the design

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?

- Does the floor plan work like this, or are there certain arrangements that are crap?
- Is the position and number of windows sufficient?
- Do we need two roof windows in the children’s rooms upstairs or is one enough each?
- Have we forgotten/overlooked/not considered anything important?
- Can we basically (without detailed planning) sensibly plan a kitchen (surrounding U-shape) in the existing room, or do we have to redesign the walls downstairs beforehand?
- Are the doors placed so that width/wall distance/hinge side fit?
- Is the utility room (not furnished room behind the housekeeping room on the north/east side of the ground floor) sufficiently dimensioned?
- Which knee wall is normally sensible upstairs? Currently it is 40 cm, we would definitely increase it since otherwise we will have big problems in the bathroom upstairs at the latest (however, we don’t want to dance tango in our bathroom either, it can be "as big as needed" – we would probably prefer to place the bathtub in the northeast corner of the room – would that fit?)
- We would like to plan a chute from the bathroom upstairs to the housekeeping room – does anyone have an idea for a good place?

One more note on our overall concept:
We would buy the house from the manufacturer including insulation, cladding, and roof structure. The assembly then proceeds according to the foreman installation principle (the company provides two experienced people, plus 4-5 helpers from us – full warranty and savings in the range of 15,000-20,000 euros, about three to four weeks of hard work). Additionally, windows and front door are included in the manufacturer’s "basic package," as these must be specially installed due to the house settling.
We would like to subcontract the foundations, roofing, and sanitary work. Electrical (in coordination with the local master electrician), interior finishing (room doors, screed, underfloor heating, floor coverings) and small jobs can be done by my husband (trained electrician, very interested in almost everything, skilled with woodworking and experienced). I work professionally in the office of a building materials trade, so I can draw on good conditions, interim storage capacities, and established contacts in the industry. We also have great friends and a large family all excited about our project and happy to support us. We know it will be a lot of work for us – time, nerves and budget will be heavily strained – but we still want to take the plunge.

And now we look forward to suggestions, critical remarks and everything that can help us to make as few mistakes as possible in the process.

Many thanks in advance!

The bay window construction, which appears "unused" from the children's rooms' perspective, does not seem to me to be "the ultimate solution" – if this ridge direction is chosen, I would have at least used a "captain's gable" at the top (and not symmetrical, but only assigned to the children's room, while the spare children's room would get two skylights). Honestly, I find it too bold overall to also build a custom design. If the provider has no model houses, one can, if necessary, orient oneself to an external model house design (which has proven itself, so works without issues), e.g. the famous Flair 113. Water – especially "disposal" – and electrical installations must be planned very meticulously here; the "standard" cable pullers and boiler fixers are used to chasing grooves and dancing with the Hilti pogo, which, in this so-called "blockhouse," both seem to be excluded. Regarding the knee wall height, I read little leeway in the development plan. The aforementioned Flair has, to my knowledge, an average (90 cm / 100 cm / 110 cm?) knee wall; if that would be a "too large" model in terms of budget, perhaps a Raumwunder 90 could also be used. I find the bay window idea especially likeable here, but I would put a question mark on the "blockhouse" and rather aim for a "classic" wood frame panel expansion house (or a aerated concrete kit house).

maybe our sketch helps, eaves at 4.5, ridge at 9m. So each 50cm higher than your really uncomfortable values. Subtracting 50cm from our knee wall height would therefore result in 67cm

I have already actively helped with the log cabin construction, there are 2 of them in the family. The mentioned required utmost meticulousness of the electrical planning I would have addressed anyway. Special installation rules (with sliding strips) then apply not only to windows and doors.

I also see the planning as bold, but it can work at the specified height with a good planner who is probably well-disposed to the clients. But the huge flat roof carport as well as the masonry heater could fall victim to the budget, because photovoltaics with battery do not come for free

Thank you very much, , for your contribution! :)

The "unused" bay window construction from the kids' room perspective does not seem to me like "the ultimate wisdom" - if already this ridge direction, I would have at least used a "captain's gable" at the top (and not symmetrical, but only allocated to the kids' room, the spare kids' room would then get two roof windows).

This is how I understood you: So you mean to completely forget the symmetry of the house, to move the dining corner further west (= centered in the kids' room?) instead of just as a single-story "extension" in order to plan a gable running over both floors "emerging" in the main kids' room? How could the terrace situation be solved then? Between kitchen and dining room, and then run around the gable? Otherwise, I would have a southeast terrace facing the street. I do like symmetry – but if the floor plan works better, I would be open to that. Unfortunately, the ridge direction cannot be changed. The floor plans are oriented to the north, since the driveway must run at the northern property boundary according to the development plan for our specific lot (I hadn't thought of that in the initial post). So the house will lie as far northeast as possible within the building envelope – or do you see it differently?

At the beginning, we planned the dining corner as a captain's gable opening into both rooms, but that looked totally awful (hardly usable in the kids' rooms due to the construction and extremely disproportionate... and of course also expensive). I find addressing only one room here really interesting. Have you ever seen something like that so that one can better imagine the exterior?

Maybe better to take the eastern kids' room for this in order to connect the dining corner to a more open kitchen design, and give the extension more of an "L-character"? Then you would have a better orientation for a terrace.

Or would that devalue the main kids' room too much?

Honestly, I find it too daring in the overall constellation to build an individual design. If the provider does not have type houses, one can orient oneself to a foreign type house design (which has proven itself, i.e. has worked without bottlenecks), for example the famous Flair 113.

I looked at the Flair 113 – we would already have to rearrange quite a bit for it to fit us (e.g. large HAR/utility room, orientation and room layout would have to be shifted), so the proven functionality would become relatively moot again – right? Do you perhaps have another standard design in your rich portfolio?

Do you see structural problems with our floor plan itself? Aside from our dining corner? (Which, by the way, works super well "live." Sitting on the corner bench, seeing the roof construction above, having light from east, south, and west – almost like a "winter garden – dining corner – extension")

Water – especially "dis-"posal, and electricity must be planned here extremely meticulously; the "standard" cable pullers and boiler fixers are used to chasing grooves and dancing with the Hilti Pogo, which in the so-called "log house" fails on both counts, I’d say. Regarding the knee wall height, I read in the development plan

Yes, we have to plan everything precisely in advance. The electrical conduit "channels" will be milled directly in the manufacturing process so that reserve cable channels can also be planned. The same applies to the piping. We planned to coordinate all sketches accordingly in advance with the electrical master and the heating/plumbing master before we release our final plans.

Maybe has a tip here? You have built like this too, right? At least the heating/plumbing guy is totally excited to plan this with us. It’s a cool project for him, where he would also give us a lot of freedom, e.g. in the area of underfloor heating installation and material ordering. The electrical planning is mostly done by the guy himself; fine-tuning would then be done with the master. Besides electrical training, he also completed an electrical engineering degree and is currently very versed in "wiring." As a hobby, he would like to provide and install KNX everywhere by himself.

Regarding the knee wall: I am at a loss regarding which parameters we have to change concerning roof pitch and discrepancy with the area calculation due to "one-and-a-half floors" – the roof pitch is by no means fixed. Currently, it is 45 degrees; everything from 35 to 50 is possible.

I find the dining bay window idea quite sympathetic here, but I would put a question mark on the "log house" and rather aim for a "classic" timber frame panel expansion house (or a aerated concrete kit house).

Okay, thank you very much for your feedback on that point! We initially planned a massive stone house in summer – with totally exorbitant costs and the uncertainty that we have no idea whatsoever about this construction method. Therefore, the wooden house (although it must be meticulously planned) really appears to us to be a safe option because our house is completely sealed within four weeks, and we could well estimate the subsequent work... Besides, in our opinion, the spatial feeling is absolutely unbeatable. Honestly, we fell in love with this construction method. Especially because our manufacturer works diffusion-open without foil technology and the kit complies with KfW40.

Here perhaps the wall structure is still relevant: Inside 100mm block timber, 200mm blown-in cellulose insulation, 55mm block timber as external cladding. Visually more like a Swedish house, so not whole tree trunks.

I have attached below again the current section and an exterior view!

For that size, the Flair 134 would be more suitable, which costs from 275,000 EUR in a mid-priced region like Hannover. So it could work if you do a lot yourself and find reasonably priced craftsmen.

There he is already, I only read your answer after I had finished the reply to 11ant. :)

maybe our sketch helps, eaves at 4.5, ridge at 9m. Also each 50cm higher than your really uncomfortable values.
So subtracting 50cm from our knee wall height would give 67cm

Thank you very much for your sketch... 67cm is of course really little as well. Currently 40cm are in the plan, which is of course out of the question. Can you play more with the roof pitch there, or does it destroy the sense of space? Could you also manage with 80cm? What is your experience with this type of construction?

I have already actively helped with log house construction, there are 2 in the family. Otherwise, I would have also mentioned the required highest meticulousness of the electrical planning you spoke of. Not only windows and doors then have special installation rules (with sliding rails).

Yes, that's true, the sanitary installations have to be placed in front of a construction – we have to look at that again in detail. The example houses gave a very good impression of what needs to be done differently here than usual.

I also see the planning as bold, in my opinion it can also work at the specified height with a good planner who is well disposed towards the client(s). But the huge flat roof carport as well as the masonry heater might fall victim to the budget because photovoltaic with battery is not free.

The carport is already mentally canceled; we will not take it from the manufacturer. Maybe later with a deliberate contrast from the hardware store – but we still had it planned and costed once. As a placeholder, it's nice :D

A battery storage would be cool. Whether we retrofit one at the end, we'll see – both are "buffer positions".

The masonry heater is planned as a self-build kit. The uncle has already built one himself and is a master bricklayer and civil engineer. The chimney sweep thinks the idea is cool and does not throw any obstacles our way – even despite it being DIY!