House with roof terrace in Passau

I consider the kitchen to be more than impractical. The bench seat offers absolutely no communication with those working in the kitchen.

And 10 cm next to a SbS is usually not enough. Take a look at the drawings of a few SbS. Generally, you need about 30 cm to open the doors far enough to remove the drawers.

As soon as you have children, the constant trip from the garden to the kitchen (quickly getting a drink, etc.) always through the living room isn’t great. Also, barbecue evenings with friends are a nice pleasure with the kitchen next to the terrace.

And I don’t understand the “disturbance” from the granny flat in the living area. If it’s built properly, you shouldn’t notice anything when the granny flat is under the living room.

Especially with your planned use of the roof terrace, a rather private room in the attic would actually be better. The whirlpool needs to be properly planned (weight), water drainage, etc.

30cm already deters me a lot. Our current freestanding fridge stands 1-2cm from a wall (which the open door also reaches) and I can still open the door completely and take out the drawers. I need to look more closely at which models are suitable for us and what their installation situations are like.

The issue with disturbing the granny flat is more because we lived/living for 3 years in a rental apartment where we heard every step of the neighbor above us. We are a bit traumatized by that and therefore afraid that it could be like that again. When my parents had the screed done back then, it was botched as well and the house is extremely noisy.

I need to clarify this with our architect; of course, we would prefer the kitchen to be on the left, as it is then closer to the terrace.

Attached, I tried to dimension the plans; for simplicity, after a short time I only wrote the dimensions on the relevant walls.

I am still interested in your opinion on the cost estimate. I do trust the architect since I know from references that his calculations have always been very accurate in the past, but I would still like to get some opinions on it!

Thank you!

First of all, I wish you all the best for your construction project. Is the basement already included in the cost estimate of the project? My experience with construction companies is that they currently like to charge 10-15% more because they can. The bathroom in the basement would be a bit too small for me. Of course, it’s fine as a student flat, but if you ever want to get a young doctor or a trainee, it should be a bit nicer. The living room would be a bit too long for me, and I find a projector too impractical for watching TV.

The basement is included in the calculation, why?

Thanks to you, we are currently in the process of really questioning everything critically.
I think I sparked a little light in my wife yesterday regarding the roof terrace, about placing the parents' area there instead of the office upstairs. The main argument was privacy, which you could also enjoy up there in a bathroom with floor-to-ceiling windows. Hopefully, that little light will turn into a fire.

Additionally, there is the consideration to place the living area on OG1.

This would result in the following layout:

EG: Cooking, eating, utility room, office
OG1: Living, children
OG2: Parents

If it is arranged so that the children’s area is accessed from the living area through a small airlock, the staircase could be located in the living area without having a soundproofing problem. Also, you save circulation space in the staircase, because that would then also be part of the living area (at least partially). A gallery from OG1 living to EG cooking/eating would then also be back in play, which we had originally excluded because of the soundproofing of the children’s rooms.

I find this room concept very exciting and have already seen it like this at acquaintances. (By the way, the architect’s initial draft already looked similar to this, but at that point, we thought we would get a basemented house all-inclusive for 300,000€, which made everything quite small and cramped.)

However, my wife cannot really imagine it that way and would only very reluctantly give up the large living/cooking/eating area on the EG.

Then it would probably be more like:

EG: Cooking, eating, living, utility room
OG1: Children, office
OG2: Parents

Ultimately, we are back at the beginning; all this has to be digested first, and it will be discussed with the architect at the beginning of December.

Thanks anyway for the critical words, especially the topic of running through the daily routine made us look at the matter more critically.

Hi,

what I notice: the hallway on the ground floor is very small. It’s enough for two people, but not with children. Somewhere you then still have a stroller and maybe a jogger/bike trailer, etc. Or you have to put it in the actual hallway.

What is the utility room for? You still have a basement, why do you want to put annoyances like heating/washing machine and dryer on the ground floor? I would completely remove that room and use the space for the kitchen and a larger guest bathroom.

I think the idea of the roof terrace (why is it only 11 sqm on the plans??) is stylish, especially the idea with a whirlpool and sauna can be very nice if the roof terrace really cannot be overlooked. But that is more the use in the phase _before_ children and _for_ children.

Where are guests supposed to stay? Currently you only have the office available for that. Keep in mind that, strictly speaking, you have to always put away all documents when there are guests upstairs. And they then have a very long way to the guest WC. I would at least install a WC up there.

Children’s bathrooms are currently very fashionable. To be honest, I wonder why. I would rather equip the guest WC on the ground floor with a shower, so later you can also distribute between two bathrooms. I would use the space and money differently. But that is really a matter of taste. I would definitely build in a shower, maybe throw out the second sink or the bathtub for that. You don’t yet know whether the bathroom will later be used by girls or boys. For boys, the bathtub is probably just a dust collector.

In the basement bathroom, I would try to squeeze in a small window; a WC without a window that can be opened is not acceptable…and it is very cramped. Even with an 80 cm shower tray, you only have 80 cm left for the WC niche. That’s not nice... On the other hand, the hallway for such a granny flat is already quite wide at 1.5 m. Possibly I would completely do without the hallway and move the entrance door 20 cm to the south to enlarge the bathroom a bit. With a proper front door, there is no draft.

Best regards,

Andreas

I find this room concept very exciting and have already seen it like this at friends.

Our neighbors have a utility room, kitchen, and dining area, as well as the two children's rooms on the ground floor.
Upstairs then the parents' area including the living room (but it should primarily be for the parents only in the evenings).