Wow, so many answers, thank you very much :) I’m going to work my way through them :)
If you call the floor-to-ceiling window a highlight, it probably doesn’t make sense to list the disadvantages ;) but I am no longer a fan of pleated blinds because they get dirty so quickly and can’t be cleaned. If you always want to make the window opaque anyway, why not just a normal window then?
I don’t necessarily want it completely opaque; being able to look out in the upper area would offer a nice view.
You can’t really see the view well in this photo, but you can see the level compared to the neighboring houses. Since we will also be planting in the garden, it’s safe to assume that apart from our own garden, the window can’t really be seen into.
And the idea of the door is good, but in practice rather annoying, because then you also need a proper lock there and you have to look for the house key with a dirty child? And then have dirt and sand in the bathroom?
A lock was not planned for this. We don’t have one on the other veranda doors either.
If the need arises, another adult would open it from inside. Or it’s also conceivable to leave it open while being in the garden.
I definitely prefer dirt and sand in the tiled bathroom rather than in the rest of the living area where there is mostly parquet. :D
And with your choice of windows, I would skip the mullions. The formats are simply too modern and varied. On a plastered facade, the eye focuses on the grid.
What do you mean by “the eye focuses on the grid”?
That’s actually the purpose of the mullions, isn’t it?
I think you have to free yourself a bit from the fixed image in your head. A compromise can result in you ending up with a mediocre country house that looks like the 80s villas in southern Germany. With a bungalow of this shape and window shapes, I definitely wouldn’t use mullions. It wouldn’t be a good stylistic contrast. Coziness in modern country house style can also be fully achieved inside with furniture, decor, and textiles.
Although, if I imagine the glass door in the middle as a normal window, then dividing the two windows on the left and right would make it easier to achieve a country house look than with the glass door.
The windows on the front will be two-part anyway. The windows are each 2m wide and will be double-leaf.
I just googled “bungalow with mullioned windows” (from the front we do look a bit like a bungalow), and I don’t think it looks that bad.
I just really struggle with such simple/modern exteriors. I find modern houses downright ugly.
I think there’s hardly a way around the mullions for me. However, my husband just said that he would prefer no mullions for the panorama window at the back. He thinks it’s a highlight and the mullions would break that, which he’s probably right about. Since he rarely expresses concrete wishes about the appearance, he should of course get this one.
So now the discussion is whether to make all other windows mullioned except the panorama window.
If you want a country style, I don’t find anthracite very fitting anyway and would take white.
We’re currently tending that way as well. I simply don’t know any house with dark window frames outside that appeals to me.
I can’t really imagine panorama windows with mullions, personally that would bother me.
My husband thinks so too.
If it’s within the budget, I would always take a lift-and-slide door.
We had a lift-and-slide door in the first house and are getting it again now; we had no problems for over 10 years. And the kids were running in and out from the sandbox, nothing happened at all. Our neighbors even threw out their normal sliding door and replaced it with lift-and-slide because they found it much more comfortable with us.
Wow, okay – I don’t even know if that would be that important to me. We will listen to concrete numbers next week on how much more it would cost.
That’s a matter of taste. I don’t like satinato; I feel cut off from the outside world there. I would probably take a pleated blind that you can push aside as needed. Alternatively, you can also equip the lower window door part with privacy film.
Do you really need the window to be floor-to-ceiling? I would consider making the lower part fixed and only open the top. Bottom frosted and top clear.
We also tend to clear glass currently. I don’t want to visually divide the window; that wouldn’t fit the rest (from the outside you can still see other floor-to-ceiling windows/doors next door, which also don’t have divisions).
I think we will start with a pleated blind or something under the aspect that the garden level is not that visible. And if it bothers us, we could use a film. Those are removable after all. Also, you could apply the film only partially; otherwise, I can only get the window completely frosted.
Have you already chosen the door color?
Not yet, I also don’t know exactly what we will be able to get. Drutex will be the system. I had looked at them once – they used to have doors in a classic/country style direction, but those were promotional doors and don’t seem to be available anymore. I’ll ask the window manufacturer during the sampling appointment next week.
I’m leaning towards white there as well if we take white windows. Most doors offered have this modern look that fits these modern houses, which I really don’t like at all. :/
I didn’t find a single door in the entire Drutex catalog that I find beautiful.
A delicate gray-green really looks great.
I would avoid red; I know enough houses where this otherwise very beautiful facade color looks spotted and faded after a few years.
I could also imagine such a subtle shade of green. Generally, I’m afraid that plaster facades, especially colored ones, don’t look good for long. That was another reason why I liked clinker so much. In Lower Saxony, you find 120-year-old farmsteads with clinker that looks weathered but still nice. I don’t know any plaster house that still looks good after 120 years. :D
We have many small towns around here with weathered, old houses where the plaster is discolored and crumbling. I find it all quite awful. I need to get some advice or maybe you have ideas what plaster facades are at least somewhat durable? I don’t want to stand there after 5 years with a dirty/discolored facade already.
I also wished for floor-to-ceiling windows on the street side (for the kitchen and shower bathroom) but couldn’t push it through internally. I still miss them almost every day. But I managed to have clear glass in the shower bathroom and no frosted or similar glass, which I would always do again.
As soon as we start the exterior design on the street side (in the next 2-3 months), I will plant an evergreen tree or something in front of the clear glass window of the shower bathroom. Would that be an option for you too? I can’t estimate how much space there is in front of your window.
I am also leaning towards clear glass. And we will certainly plant something there prospectively. The plot is sloping and behind the guest bathroom, it goes terraced downwards to the neighboring houses. At our height level, there’s no one anymore. If we plant there, no one from the nearby area can look in unless they stay in our garden.
And it depends on whether you get colored plaster or if it will be painted afterward. With certain plasters, colored plaster can’t be made in all colors. All darker shades aren’t possible there.
I don’t know that yet. I have to ask the builder what kind of plaster it will be. In any case, “color as desired” was included in the service description.