Floor plan single-family house with gable roof

Are you planning the roof pitch according to the requirements of the photovoltaic system? Have you calculated how many % of solar gain are lost as a result and briefly considered how long you want/have to live in the attic?

Where is there storage space??? Seasonal wardrobe, cleaning supplies, ironing board, mop, provisions, play equipment, etc... Probably not in the kitchen by the slanted wall, which probably has no added value.

oleda222 raises a point that has been on my mind all along. You say your budget is limited (which is the case for most people), but plan a huge photovoltaic system, passive house, and fireplace. All of this then leads to a smaller house with additional restrictions.

I would have set the priorities differently. But if you consciously decide on it (e.g. ecological living), that's something else...

Hello,

personally, I like the slanted wall on the ground floor - it definitely loosens up the otherwise very right-angled planned house.

However, if structurally possible, I would consider replacing the planned 90 cm door from the hallway into the living and dining area with a wider, maybe even open (so without a door) passage, which would also partially replace the slanted wall - this would give the entire ground floor more openness and light.

On the other hand, I see the staircase starting directly next to the door as problematic - this will probably cause a lot of dirt brought in from outside to find its way into the attic.

How will your crawl space be designed? Can you easily store sports equipment, out-of-season (children's) clothing, etc. there?

You should definitely still consider a small storage room on the ground floor - due to the shape and the door opening direction, you won’t be able to store much in the utility room.

Regards,

Dirk

Passive house? I overlooked that. So, the house is definitely also about cost savings. You have to juggle the size of the house, knee wall, execution, and other costly details and see where something can be saved. The first thing that comes to mind is energy efficiency. It doesn't have to be the most expensive variant, but something in the middle, so that you achieve more living comfort through other details. Also, not everyone who thinks and acts ecologically has to build a passive house. I don't see a passive house in the house; don't the locations of the windows need to be taken into account accordingly? (South: large windows, North: narrow slits) Then I wonder whether the crawl space costs nothing or whether a garden house combined with a proper utility room would be better suited. What you get for free is usually the location of the house on the plot, as well as the location of the terrace. I would invest more thought into that. In this size range, there is usually no better place for a staircase because every square meter counts. So accept the deficiency with the front door and make a nice storage room or wardrobe under the stairs. I find this reading room completely unnecessary: You build yourself a kitchen-living room (cool), but then have to conjure up such a "neither fish nor fowl" room. To the detriment of a proper guest room or a reasonable utility room. Instead, later everything you cannot accommodate will probably be stored here, and a curtain will be hung in between. I miss some concept in the whole planning. Have you ever posted a draft?

Hello,

Thank you for your answers. Yes, a lot of thought has gone into this reading and work corner. Normally, that is the pantry. But since the south is there and, as ypg correctly said, we needed more window area on the south side, a floor-to-ceiling window was installed. If we were to build a wall to the kitchen there now, the solar gains through the large window would be less direct, and also the much light, especially in winter from the south, could not reach our living kitchen. Those were our thoughts on this. We couldn’t come up with anything better than this solution; we are very open to ideas in this regard. The somewhat larger windows on the north side were hard fought for because, of course, we want to be able to see our beautiful garden from inside the house.

We will also build a shed with about 30m² next to the house as a storage replacement in the house (the plot is large enough). In addition, we will convert the attic as storage space.

The crawl cellar is at most usable for bulky waste, garden tools, or garden furniture. It is about 1m high and is primarily intended as insulation. Below it is a strip foundation. The cellar ceiling is a wooden beam ceiling with 40cm of insulation between the rafters. This way, we avoid 40cm or a similar amount of Styrofoam under the house. This wooden beam ceiling then has a U-value of 0.10 W(m²K).
Cost of the crawl cellar including earthworks: €15,000