Floor plan multigenerational house conversion old barn

Hello dear forum members,

I have been quietly reading along for some time now and am now curious to post the first drafts of our house construction project – to see what happens. I can hardly imagine that anyone external can even get into this project, but I will do my best to make the entry as simple and meaningful as possible.

Background:

About two years ago, I moved with my family (wife, 3 children, 7+5+3 years old), my sister-in-law and my parents-in-law to an estate near Oldenburg. The estate covers about 3.5 ha, including pasture for my sister-in-law’s horses. Over the past years, we have been busy almost daily restoring the estate and maintaining the surroundings and large areas.

Current status GROUND FLOOR

Now, together with a friend (carpenter and trade fair builder), I have tackled the plan to convert the barn belonging to the estate to provide an apartment for my family. Most of the work, however, comes from my own hand or my friend only gave me a starting hand and is no longer involved in the project. The possible floor area is predetermined because part of the barn still needs to be used as storage for equipment, etc. We have already made some drafts and I would like to post what I consider the best ones here. Overall, we are quite satisfied with the approach on the ground floor, but the lighting situation is particularly challenging for us (since window areas can only be generated from one side, because only the south side of the barn can be converted). We want to accommodate here a living-dining kitchen with fireplace, staircase, utility room, master bedroom with walk-in closet and a full bathroom; preferably with a bathtub.

It is important to note here: two pillars (30x30 cm) run from the floor up into the roof. These cannot be changed for structural reasons and also influence the upper floor including room layout and staircase arrangement. We have fixed the south side to 14-15 m width, a maximum of 16 m is conceivable, but under no circumstances more.

Current status UPPER FLOOR

So far, I have only worked roughly here, as I am still not satisfied with the layout on the ground floor. I have attached a very rough draft for the three children’s bedrooms and the bathroom.

It is important here: from the mentioned pillars, a support runs diagonally from the floor to the ceiling of the upper floor towards the north, which also cannot be removed. In my opinion, these should be built into the walls. A door could be installed at the outer edge of such a wall. But we are not that far yet...

Information on FLOOR PLAN PLANNING:
As far as I can judge, not all specifications (floor area ratio, floor space index, etc.) are relevant for this building in stock. I will name these as far as possible and do my best to answer questions from the community.

From my side in GENERAL:
I welcome all constructive feedback and am also not disappointed if it shakes my view (how everything should look). At the current time, all facets and walls can still be adjusted. I am happy about that.

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Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot: 3.5 ha (including 2 ha pasture)
Slope: no
Number of floors: 2
Roof shape: gable roof with 50-degree pitch, barn approx. 12 m high
Style direction: estate
Orientation: conversion of the south side
Maximum heights/limits: n/a
Other specifications: according to the building authority, drafts can be realized without problems.

Requirements of the builders
Style direction, roof shape, building type: single-family house in estate (building in stock)
Floors: ground + upper floor (2 full floors) + option to convert the attic
Number of persons, age: five persons: 46, 37, 7, 5, 3
Space requirements on ground and upper floor: 200 sqm +
Office: family use or home office?: office currently not planned, if possible with one workstation
Guest bedrooms per year: 10
Open or closed architecture: open, but the living/dining area should not be too open
Conservative or modern construction: rather modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: open kitchen, cooking island
Number of dining seats: at least 6
Fireplace: yes, should be in the living-dining room, preferably on the outer wall
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no, only terrace to the garden – preferably with terrace door
Garage, carport: no, parking spaces available
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Preferred heating technology: connection to the heating of the main house, so this is not relevant

House design
Planning by: own design
What do you like especially? Why?:
- We think the ground floor is great with the large window areas facing south, which is also necessary to get light into the interior of the barn or into the rear corners of the living room
- The access to the parents’ area does not go directly from the hallway. Even though this costs space, I like it.

What do you not like? Why?:
- I am very undecided on the ground floor how to fit a bathroom.
- The big question is also whether the living room goes all the way to the back wall. I believe light still comes in there, but I don’t quite know how to use the space. Or if a staircase should be placed behind it.
- Access to the living room is not clear to me. On the one hand, we like it closed, on the other hand the option to keep it open is also exciting – possibly with a sliding door.
- We find it nice if you can see the staircase from the entrance (instead of banishing the staircase to a dark corner).

If you have to do without, on which details/extensions
-can you do without: bathtub in the bathroom next to the master bedroom, shower is enough
-cannot do without: study (could also be in the attic or currently there are alternatives in the main house)

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ESTATE – the barn is shown in the picture, total dimensions 30 m long, 20 m wide – thus only the southwest side can be converted.

I would like to add this (as it is not always directly clear in the preliminary drafts):

The length of the south side varies in the drafts between 14.18m and 16.18m. The south side can be set somewhere in between. All other walls that enclose the ground floor to the west, north, and east are not changeable; they belong to the existing structure. The knee wall in the upper floor currently measures 80 cm.

Attached are screenshots of the walls I have to "work" with (in thick black).

EG - fixed walls (24.5cm thick, pillars 30x30cm)



DG - fixed walls (24.5cm thick, pillars 30x30cm)

Thank you for your entertaining contribution.
Can you measure the 21B draft?
And the roof is at 50 degrees?
The photo from the inside: what does it show?
And: do you have enough money, e.g. for dormers? Are they allowed?

For our understanding, it would probably be helpful if you placed the project in context, i.e. you do not let the drawings end at the boundaries of the residential expansion, but also depict the untouched barn parts. For clarity, it is also helpful to make representations of current/target combinations multicolored – the usual convention is gray for remains, red for new, and yellow for demolition. I do not assign 24.5 cm to any general brick format; it must be a regional one, presumably still traditional from the pre-metric era.

I can't make any sense of the last two pictures at all. Where is North?

Good day,

so we have two quite similar projects here and also in relative geographic proximity :). However, we are only two households on a total of around 420 m² of living and usable space, and our upper floor was already developed but has been/will be partially modernized by us. On the ground floor, we are currently working on the new floor slab, unfortunately, work is at a standstill due to the weather. At least only two sections are left - about 1.5 weeks of work and then this part will finally be finished.

I definitely wish you a lot of success and perseverance. And no nasty surprises ;)

To be able to say more precisely, measurements and a north arrow would be helpful. The south is not on the gable side? For us, the lintels of the windows facing south and north are relatively low due to the steep roof. That means you can only look out comfortably while sitting—or you are a child. We could also renew all window lintels and have them set a bit higher, which would reduce the problem somewhat. However, we will probably decide against this because we were able to place the dining area, kitchen, and living room on the gable side to the west. There are two large barn doors there that we will glaze, and the other windows have a reasonable lintel height. In the area of the low windows are the storage room, entrance area, part of the dining area, and part of the living room. I only mention this because it could potentially mess up the lighting concept, or then perhaps a different room layout might make sense.

What budget are you planning for your renovation, if I may ask?