Indecisive about expanding an old hillside house with a central staircase

Hello!

I hope I am in the right place with this forum. It is about the possible renovation of my parents' house from the 1970s. The connection to the nearest big city is good, rents and purchase prices are very expensive, and my parents plan to live there for at least another 15 years. That is why we keep considering renovation ideas. Given the prices here, that is the usual procedure; the house is the only one on the street that has not yet been converted into a two-family home. Otherwise, I would soon move out and look for an apartment with my partner. We previously lived together in 67 sqm.

Specifically, it is about the following problems/requirements:
-My parents live on the upper floor and want to continue living there.
-I live at the moment in the basement, which is a huge problem due to the lack of separation from the living room (only one door) and cannot remain that way permanently. Or I just move out.
-The roof could be raised, but due to construction measures (ceiling insulation, new photovoltaic system), conditions have been created that from our point of view could make an extension upstairs uneconomical.

What we would like:
A separate apartment for 1-2 persons, so that paths don’t always cross and people can have privacy. This would also be the prerequisite for me to live here with my boyfriend. At the same time, the house should not be completely disfigured. The whole project should be clearly cheaper than a 2-3 room apartment. Upper limit 80,000-150,000 euros; small 2-room apartments here start at 230,000 euros, 3 rooms at 450,000. If I ever move out, my parents do not intend to rent out. In the event of their death, the house will probably be sold because I would have to completely renovate it to my taste and would use the proceeds to move to the city.

Floor plans with notes (as mentioned, it is a hillside house):
Roof
[ATTACH alt="Dachg.jpg" type="full"]68895[/ATTACH]

Upper floor
[ATTACH alt="Og.jpg" type="full"]68896[/ATTACH]

Ground floor/Basement
[ATTACH alt="Eg bzw. Keller.jpg" type="full"]68897[/ATTACH]

Our ideas and their drawbacks:
1. Roof extension with external stairs.
Disadvantage: everything has to be moved up and newly created, but it is only one apartment without any view and without a balcony. External stairs may possibly not be approved by the municipality. Would have to be specifically planned and inquired.

2. Roof extension with internal stairs: the entrance on the north side already exists, also an opening in the floor slab above. I like it.
Disadvantage: Again, everything has to be newly created, at the same time my parents lose parts of the hallway and the 2nd bedroom (= only possible children’s room near the parents, possibly later unattractive for buyers). Advantage: a 3-room apartment is created with an additional study, good for 2 people.

3. Connection ground floor "living, sleeping, working" with hobby room as kitchen/sleeping and laundry room as bathroom. I also like that.
[ATTACH alt="Favorit.jpg" type="full"]68898[/ATTACH]
Disadvantages: According to a structural engineer, this is possible, but a pump would be needed for wastewater upwards and part of the hill at the back would have to be excavated for light wells. In addition, the control of the fuse box is located in the hobby room, open piping would have to be boxed everywhere and it is unclear whether this expansion would even be permitted. At least my current living space would already be expanded and no pipes would have to be run through the whole house. Small for 2 people.

4. Connection the other way around: hobby, bathroom, kitchen/storage. Entrance to the right next to the stairs.
[ATTACH alt="Eg bzw. Keller hässlich.jpg" type="full"]68899[/ATTACH]
Disadvantage: I do not like it. 13 sqm are clearly too small for living and cooking/eating and the hobby room would never get direct light due to the neighboring house. My apartment would consist of the worst rooms of the house and would still have to be crossed through from time to time for washing. Advantage: very cheap since no functional rooms would have to be changed. For me, shoddy work and not a real solution, a money pit.

5. ???
Some kind of connection of the two living spaces downstairs. Possibly cheap since kitchen and bathroom already exist, but no one can tell us how that would be possible.

I would be very grateful for suggestions, including clear statements such as "just leave it and buy/rent something for the money."
Best regards
The BasementKid90

Hello,

somehow it all looks more like a makeshift solution. A really nice, bright, and functional apartment is hard to achieve. If you want to sell the house later anyway, it is questionable whether this renovation really adds value when selling. Depending on your life plan, as soon as children arrive, the apartment will be too small again. I rather think you won’t live there for years.

Therefore, a rental apartment or the purchase of a condominium might be more sensible.

I am not quite able to imagine this in detail, but that is my fault! I definitely would not implement a lazy compromise, and that probably rules out quite a few things. What would be important to me: It is rather the case that you will expand in the future (family or otherwise), so an appropriate number of square meters of nicely livable space should result. As long as the parents do not wish for any changes, which is their understandable right, I would do nothing there, because any renovation brings changes and also some problems. So if they do not absolutely want that, my advice would be: stay away. Without complete separation of both apartments, I would also not consider it, but that always applies to both sides, and no one should feel worse than before. If that cannot be achieved: stay away. Another prerequisite would be a clear separation also in financial terms so that after a renovation each party can freely dispose of the respective property. That must be clear to both beforehand. I lived with my parents in the house for almost 30 years and would do so again. They had a really nice apartment, we had the rest of the house, also nice, both clearly separated. Just that alone can bring problems because people/circumstances change... you just as much as the parents. From what I have read so far, I would rather tend to say that you should currently look for exactly the apartment you want and then, when there is real need/clarity, implement what suits you. Besides the idea of renovation, is there also the option of an extension?

Thank you first of all for the opinions.

The space in the created living unit would probably be sufficient because I am not planning to have children. Of course, that could change if I have a different partner who brings children of their own. But currently, it does not look that way. However, it must be admitted that when searching for rental apartments, we chose based on different criteria and specifically looked for 85-100 sqm.
The only way to generate this size would be the most expensive solution with raising the roof, and that really is out of the question because of the costs.
An extension is unfortunately not possible at all because we would then violate distance regulations, and the buildable area in relation to the property is already fully utilized.
Financially, the whole thing is not so simple either, because I cannot manage the conversion on my own and my boyfriend could contribute a lot of capital, but what happens then in the event of a breakup? Should he then move in with his new girlfriend in my parents’ house? So it would remain a solution that my parents and I finance through equity, and my boyfriend would then pay rent afterwards. I do not pay rent for tax reasons.

Are there still people without camera phones today - why are you only showing self-drawn floor plans here?

What am I supposed to photograph? The floor plans correspond to the current condition. The house was built in 1972 and has been remodeled several times inside. There are no plans available for this because no building permit was required.