Floor plan: New construction on existing bungalow basement, 1.5-story

Thank you for the numerous feedback. The tenor is quite clear: "renovate instead of ruin."

A friend who is a master carpenter advised us against "upgrading" a bungalow to a one-and-a-half-story house (especially regarding the statics of the ground floor exterior walls and the floor slab). We even had to convince the prefab house provider to keep the existing basement. Both parties are certainly biased in their own way. Added to this is the emotional aspect, the desire to build something new and "low-compromise." But we are trying to cautiously take off the blinkers regarding building in (instead of just on) existing buildings.

We will obtain an assessment from a local carpentry company as well as an architect (who, fortunately, is also an energy consultant) to compare renovation in terms of costs and compromises with new construction. Let's see what can still be done before Christmas.

I also find it interesting that Weberhaus and Danwood, two prefab builders, are at opposite ends of the price scale on the list. The plan doesn’t seem fully thought through yet.

Yes, we are still quite early in the planning. The idea was to get a feeling for the current price range for our project. It is indeed significant, but the price-performance ratio feels almost constant across providers. After all, two pairs of builder friends are both (so far) satisfied with both companies. Tendentially, we would probably lean more towards Weberhaus, if new construction and if prefab house.

Your comment regarding construction time is absolutely correct, although we do not plan to move in before the end of 2024, which hopefully gives us some breathing room.

You will find Dacia drivers who are satisfied with their car, you will find satisfied Porsche drivers. But the Porsche enthusiast will never be satisfied with a Dacia. Conversely, someone with the attitude "as long as there are 4 wheels that get me from A to B" will never be willing to pay so much money for a Porsche.

The old floor plan already has the potential to move in immediately. You will later miss the coziness of the original construction very much.

Are there already 2-story buildings in the neighborhood?

Show us some pictures of the house.

Wow. You’re planning a new build, also because of the kids, and then the children's rooms are 17, 14, and 11.5m²? Do you want to provoke a ten-year war over the biggest children’s room? Especially since 11.5m² is really borderline for a children's room.

But you have a gallery with 9m² and a huge bathroom with 16m², which in the end just means a lot of empty, expensively tiled space. The prices for tiles have gone up so much in the last two years, it’s dizzying.

Also, at least one child will occasionally wonder whether the freestanding bathtub in the luxury bathroom was ultimately more important than a reasonably sized room of 14-15m².

You will find Dacia drivers who are satisfied with their car, you will find satisfied Porsche drivers. But the Porsche enthusiast will never be satisfied with a Dacia. Conversely, someone with the attitude "As long as there are 4 wheels that get me from A to B" will never be willing to pay so much money for a Porsche.

However, this question does not even arise for most people, as they cannot afford the Porsche.
So should the Dacia driver be miserable for their entire life?

This question doesn’t arise for most people at all, because they can’t afford the Porsche. So should the Dacia driver be miserable for life?

It wasn’t about social status, but because the OP has two very opposite home builders to choose from. Sort of like Dacia and Porsche.