Newly built single-family house, approx. 180 m², for 4 people, without basement, RLP, KfW 55

Hello everyone,

I have been following this forum with great interest for quite some time. Now the time has come for us to take on the project "single-family house" ourselves. We have decided on a plot of approximately 610 m² in a new development area of a small town in RLP, which is still being developed. We will build with a general contractor (without a freelance architect).

After several meetings with the planner, a floor plan that suits us very well has now been created, which I would like to put up for discussion regarding optimization potential.

The plan is for a modern gable roof house with a 2.0 m knee wall and 20° roof pitch (due to the elevation of the plot and the max ridge height) and clear architecture. We deliberately waived bay windows/annexes, etc., as these are said to be relatively expensive in relation to the area (but we are happy to be proven wrong).

All windows/patio doors will have electric shutters. The knee wall windows are explicitly requested by my wife. The position and width of the windows still need to be harmonized, which will take place after finalizing the floor plan. A large built-in wardrobe from a carpenter will be installed under the stairs.

Basically, we like the plan very much. Our biggest concerns are the limited storage space and the shared room for technology/utility room.

Our questions for you:
- What do you generally think of this floor plan in relation to our requirements?
- Is the room for technology/utility room sufficient? Do you see a possibility to possibly place the utility room separately on the ground floor or upper floor, or to split the current utility room/technology room?
- Would another staircase design be advisable?

Basically, we are also open to completely new floor plan suggestions, although we really like the current plan.

Thanks in advance for your feedback

Best regards
Manuel


Attached is the questionnaire:

Development plan/restrictions

[*]Size of the plot: 609 m²
[*]Slope: slight slope (see location plan)
[*]Site occupancy index: 0.3
[*]Floor area ratio: 0.8
[*]Building window: 18 x 14 meters (see location plan)
[*]Edge development: according to State Building Code RLP
[*]Number of parking spaces: >100 m² min. 2.5 parking spaces
[*]Number of floors: II
[*]Roof shape: gable roof with 20° roof pitch
[*]Style: modern
[*]Orientation: see location plan
[*]Maximum heights/limits: 8.50 m ridge height from the nearest traffic area (=street)

Requirements of the builders

[*]Style, roof shape, building type: modern, gable roof, clear floor plan
[*]Basement, floors: 1.5 floors with 2.0 m knee wall (?)
[*]Number of persons, age: 3 persons (33 yrs, 30 yrs, 3 yrs), another child planned
[*]Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor: 2 children's rooms, bedroom + dressing room (optional), bathroom, storage room, possibly utility room (currently in the technology room on the ground floor)
[*]Office: home office and guests
[*]Overnight guests per year: mother-in-law every 2 months for 2 nights
[*]Open architecture
[*]Modern construction method
[*]Open kitchen with small peninsula
[*]6 dining seats
[*]No fireplace
[*]Double garage
[*]No kitchen garden, only recreational area

House design

[*]Designer: planner of a construction company
[*]What do you particularly like? Large living area, large bedrooms
[*]What do you not like? Why? Possibly too little storage space? Possibly too small technology room/utility room?
[*]Price estimate according to architect/planner: €325,000 turnkey plus garage
[*]Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: €360,000 plus garage (mostly furnished, already living in a 140 m² house)
[*]Preferred heating technology: air-water heat pump (Wolf Monoblock as home technology center with controlled home ventilation)

If you have to give up, on which details/extensions

[*]Can give up: straight staircase, large children’s rooms (but: at least 15 m²), dressing room (but: wardrobe space >= 4.0 m)
[*]Cannot give up: office, large living area, storage space (attic estimated to have only 1.50 m in the middle), access garage/house

Why did the design turn out as it is now? For example

[*]The basis was a model house from Weiss-Fertighaus (Mannheim 186 m²), as this design was very much liked from the beginning and fits our requirements very closely.

You probably don't need this room size for technology. I find the garage-to-house access completely inappropriate, as you enter the house like in a labyrinth. In general, I think this type of access is overrated. On the ground floor, I would have a shower/toilet; I find the hallway (a lot of space lost) absolutely too long, and I think you will read different opinions about this here; also about the somewhat cramped-looking kitchen. I don't like the bathroom design on the upper floor; the toilet shouldn't be so much in the corner but rather closer to the window; the "T" might not be the suitable option here. I wouldn't want a corner bathtub either. With further information here, it will be a nice house if you approach the matter openly.

Garage access wouldn't be my thing at all. But that's a matter of taste. The hallway will be quite dark and is unfortunately awkward in shape. Such a narrow hallway (same upstairs) feels very oppressive. Whether you will enjoy such a small kitchen without a reachable storage pantry is debatable. For the bathroom, I would swap the shower and toilet. For the big business, I personally prefer looking into the open space rather than facing a wall. Besides, I would ALWAYS build my house so that my bedroom is closest to the bathroom. After all, you will be living there for the next decades, the children will move out faster than you can blink.

Thank you for your feedback,

Garage access is definitely desired - not necessarily through the utility room, but it would definitely be practical for us (keyword: dirt trap, access to the garden area, etc.).

For our standards, the nearly 10sqm kitchen is not that small/cramped. Please disregard the drawn-in furniture; we are planning an L-shape along the walls with a small island by the window. Storage space will be roughly twice as much as in our current kitchen. We do not store supplies on a large scale; a floor-to-ceiling cabinet will be enough for everything here (grocery stores are a 5-minute walk away).

The bathroom is still completely open, thank you for the tips!

The hallway is actually worrying us as well. We deliberately did not want to add a door to the living area and left a small window upstairs for natural light. In the show homes, the hallways looked quite nice. But whether it will look as good here in the end, of course, we cannot say. How could the hallway be better designed? Different stairs? Different room layout?

We would also like to place the bedroom opposite the bathroom. We have not implemented it in the draft yet because two equally sized children's rooms are also nice.

Do you have concrete suggestions regarding a possibly better room distribution and hallway utilization?

Thanks in advance.

A modern gable roof house with a 2.0m knee wall and a 20° roof pitch is planned [...] We have deliberately avoided bay windows/extensions etc. as these are supposed to be relatively expensive in relation to the area [...] The knee wall windows are explicitly requested by my wife.

I have already seen significantly worse "translations" by GU sign slaves. The Weiss-Musterhaus Mannheim at least has a different ridge direction in the original. The knee wall windows basically make sense in terms of heights - however, I do not know if this will work regarding fall protection with the window height (it might be necessary that the windows can only be fully tilted open for cleaning). In general, a single-flight straight staircase is a diva, but here it seems manageable to me.

I always think about when the children are older and there is sometimes a visit late in the evening or at night, and you have to "sneak past" two children's bedroom doors to get to the bathroom. For this reason, among others, we also planned a private master bathroom, so you can go to the bathroom and back to the bedroom at any time, no matter what outfit you’re wearing, without being disturbed. With the open hallway/living area, you might want to consider whether you might have a pet later that perhaps shouldn't always be in the living area.

Best regards Sabine