Log cabin with a clipped gable roof by the forest - improve planning?

Hello everyone,

we have been planning and reading diligently for over a year. Now that our plans are becoming more concrete, we would also like to present our draft and get your criticism.
In advance: Yes, the house is big. It is our dream, we are doing a lot ourselves and also know that we can’t build any further – the circumstances here are a bit strange, strictly speaking it is only building land for a short time window.

A short word about us: I am 36 years old and co-owner of an IT company. My partner is 31 years old and works as a lecturer. We found our dream plot about 2 years ago – a little over 2800sqm, with direct forest access and in the third row. All neighboring plots are already developed with former weekend houses or residential houses, as far as possible.

First, the list of questions:

Development plan/restrictions?
No, no development plan, so according to usual building customs. The neighboring house has 2 full floors, we are orienting ourselves to that.

Size of the plot
2800 sqm

Slope
slight slope, we are on an outcrop of the Ore Mountains on the ridge. The building site has a height difference of max 60cm (from northeast to southwest), the entire plot slopes about 1.80m to the south at the west boundary. Rocky soil from 2.5m depth

Floor area ratio/plot ratio
nothing exact known, according to the lawyer of the building approval office we are well within limits

Building window, building line and boundary
none

Edge development
Does that mean setback distances and boundary development? If yes: 3m all around, boundary development for sheds and garages theoretically allowed

Number of parking spaces
1-2 under the porch + double garage

Number of storeys
2

Roof shape
half-hipped roof

Style
hmm.. no idea?

Orientation
south-southwest

Maximum heights/limits
none

Further requirements

Requirements of the builders
We want our house to welcome us. Warm wood, natural building materials, lots of light and air – high ceilings, large beams.. It should blend well into the surroundings, be warm and cozy.

Style, roof shape, building type
Log house made of glued laminated timber (probably Finnlog)

Basement, floors
Fully basemented with 2 full floors

Number of people, age
Currently: 2 people. Children could still come, parents too.

Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor
Currently: around 300 sqm. That seems quite a lot to me, but when I look at individual rooms (living/dining area) I don’t know where I should place a music system. Somehow it seems wrong in planning, or we set wrong standards, since we don’t have a TV, the central element is the fireplace.

Office: family use or home office?
An office is planned, but only as a last resort. I don’t want to work from home and only need space for private files and a desk.

Overnight guests per year
Changing, currently very few, hopefully many more with the house – then we can accommodate them

Open or closed architecture
Partly partly. I prefer it open, but a void over the living area is not feasible if you don’t want all cooking smells directly in the bedroom.

Conservative or modern construction
hmm.. solid wooden house? Conservative.

Open kitchen, cooking island
An open, large kitchen with a large island where more than 2 people can comfortably cook. No seating in the kitchen, but a huge work surface.

Number of dining seats
10

Fireplace
Yes, a large soapstone stove

Music/stereo wall
I am considering installing Sonos in the house and putting a music room in the basement.

Balcony, roof terrace
no, we have a garden for that.

Garage, carport
Both, at least the roofed entrance area is big enough for at least one car

Utility garden, greenhouse
We want a greenhouse, a swimming pond, and a fire pit.

Further wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be

House design
Who is the planning by:
The planning was done with an architect, but is based on our drafts

What do you particularly like? Why?
High ceilings and visible ceiling beams on the upper floor, a separate area upstairs for us, the fireplace room as a second retreat, the single-storey “extension” for the dining room, the large kitchen, the fireplaces.. and of course especially all the wood.

What do you not like? Why?
The windows in the gables should still get an attached triangle to use the light. The current division seems a bit old-fashioned to me. Actually, we wanted a void but this cannot be integrated sensibly. The heating issue is a persistent topic and has never been conclusively addressed..
Really bad: The bathroom fixtures in the master bath. Desired is a large bathtub and a double shower. Either the bathroom is too small or we have no imagination. But it doesn’t look cozy…

Preferred heating technology: currently unfortunately natural gas. Solid fuels are ruled out for various reasons: a wood gasifier is too expensive and labor-intensive, pellet or wood chip stoves are not really economical to run, and we won’t get resupply in winter if our road is snowed in. Natural gas is about 100m away, we are still waiting for a price for the connection. Heat pumps only convince me financially if it is geothermal – but then the installation and technology cost more than a current Golf. We do not want oil heating or a liquid gas tank.

If you have to do without, on which details/extensions
- can you do without:
- cannot you do without:

Why is the draft like it is now? E.g.
The architect received a draft from us, each room was discussed in advance (use, size, content..) and then the draft was revised multiple times. We like that it implements practically everything we wished for and that the whole house does not appear too bulky – at least on the plans we do not perceive it that way because of the half-hipped roof and the gables.

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters summarized?
Apart from plastering effort: Is the floor plan practical? E.g.: washing machine on 1st upper floor where the laundry is generated, bathroom for the children..

Now the free text, so our notes:

Some things are already different than shown in the plan:

[*]All windows can be opened
[*]Sliding doors open outwards and not inwards
[*]In all dormers the windows will not be rectangular but executed with an attached triangle.
[*]Between the hallway and the living area there is no post in the middle, instead a large double door is planned
[*]The basement has a technical room next to the stairs, designed as a passage room. In my opinion a bad solution, plus we probably have to plan a heating room
[*]Where the embankment is drawn, doors will be installed. The large rooms will get a lot of daylight and are usable as living space.
[*]The stair step projecting into the hallway is rubbish and definitely won’t come

We also thought about other things:

[*]The corridor area on the 1st floor is to be used as a “library”. To get light in there, we plan to use 2 light wells with a diameter of 30-35cm. The advantage: even at night it is never completely dark, should one need to go to the bathroom.
[*]The fireplace will be executed as a soapstone stove, but currently there is no planning yet.. strictly speaking there is no wall it stands on, it should be the wall itself. A second connection is planned in the fireplace room – we originally wanted a tunnel fireplace but were convinced that is not a good idea for a room divider.
[*]The children’s rooms are not ideal – one faces north, the other south. We could make 2 narrow, elongated rooms and a corridor so that both face south, but consider that clearly suboptimal.
[*]All doors on the ground floor will be one meter wide so that you can at least get through reasonably well with a wheelchair.

I think that’s it. Thanks for your opinions!

Of course, the question about the budget comes first. At this size, discussions only continue from 650k Euros onward.

With huge spaces, an architect can hardly go wrong. On the other hand, no coziness is desired in front of the fireplace. At this point, one would actually expect the dining table – to keep the distances from the kitchen short. But in this house, the distances will probably be long everywhere. It will be an endless run-around. Over 30m² hallway on the upper floor – seriously? Did you already plan for the cleaning lady?

There are castles where you immediately say, yes, the 300m² are pure luxury but fit the house and the floor plan. Here, everything is just big. And still, you stumble over the first step of the stairs when you come around the corner on the ground floor.

My conclusion: you can build like this. For me, it’s far too unc cozily big – like in a longhouse of the Indians. To have a conversation, you have to make arrangements in advance. Who wants that?

Respect: A huge house with a lot of living space, extremely generous ... I like it. I really like the ground floor. I would swap the study and guest room. The hallway on the upper floor is too dark, you need more light there. What are you doing with the basement? So many rooms. Turn it into living space, definitely add a bathroom (for a sauna?) and an outside entrance if possible.

Thank you already for the answers. Some points of criticism are already answered in the post itself, I believe:


30 sqm hallway on the upper floor is used as a library. I have more than 1000 books and always wanted to have a place for them. In case of doubt, you can even partition off a room here, although I wouldn’t know what for.

The light is brought in through large light chimneys (available, among others, from Velux), which has great advantages for us (at least we think so): Due to the diffuser and the round dome, dirt is not visible, it’s just brighter. We don’t want to clean roof windows. Also, moonlight comes in, so you don’t have complete darkness at night. LEDs are also integrated, so you can illuminate artificially instead of the sun.

The staircase is still from an old plan; no step will protrude into the hallway—how that could have been planned is also a mystery to me.

The living/dining area might really need to be rearranged. Instinctively, we thought the dining area is well accommodated where it is. You can look at the pond or into the forest, and it gets a lot of light. But that might also be a misconception. Thanks for the hint.

Cleaning: Yes, the cleaning lady is planned. We know that we can’t keep it clean and enjoy it by ourselves.


As Kaho mentioned, light comes through the light chimneys; it will be nicely bright. I would rather not swap the study and guest room because I don’t need much space in the study, and the guest room can later definitely become our bedroom if our life is only taking place on the ground floor. In case of doubt, it is also planned that we can bring our parents to live with us, who would then have a large bedroom on the ground floor. A granny flat can be integrated at most in the basement, which is difficult in terms of lighting and would no longer be wheelchair accessible; that is already borderline on the ground floor.

The bathroom in the basement will be placed next to the staircase, in the room that is still a passage room. This will be remodeled as a bathroom, maybe a bit bigger. I wanted to put a sauna outside by the pond. Surely a bar and a pool table will go into a room. Occasionally I brew beer, which also needs to be served again.

If a library is to be created on the upper floor, then I would suggest sketching in the cabinets. Often, the inclined cabinet builder is surprised that there is suddenly a window there, which would be covered, or sloping roofs and chimneys...

Your enthusiasm for light wells is a mystery to me. You build such things when you can’t get light into the house any other way. But a simple window is much better and more effective. The trick: you can open it.

What does this light thing look like on the half-hipped roof wooden house? With modern flat-roof houses in the Bauhaus style, you know the light domes, which are quite appropriate. But with such a wooden hut with a half-hipped roof, I can’t imagine it at all right now. The architect should sketch them in so you can imagine the impending culture shock.

Since the budget question was once again elegantly omitted, the discussion will presumably remain thin due to a lack of credibility.

Since the budget question was once again elegantly omitted, the discussion will likely remain thin due to a lack of credibility.

He does not want to talk about money here, I assume that will not be the problem.

In general, floor plans of very large houses receive little approval and little constructive discussion here.

I would definitely plan a granny flat in the basement; not all people end up in a wheelchair when they get older. And I would convert a room in the basement into a home theater, even if you currently don't have a TV, that can change with children. If you, as parents, move your bedroom to the ground floor and the kids get the upper floor, you will possibly want a larger bathroom on the ground floor. The sauna outside is great... I would make sure that you can then walk, sweaty, into the wellness area in the basement, so you don't have to go through the living room to the shower on the ground floor.