Realistic cost estimate: Single-family house with unfavorable development location

Oh yes, I still have to explain that, I don't even remember which development I reported here, because so much is happening in the planning process. Upstairs it is now like this: there are two children's rooms, but only one child. So one room for sleeping, one room for playing. Currently, we do not want a second child, but only about 80-90% not, and who knows what will happen in two or three years. Planning two large children's rooms now for the 10-20% didn't feel right to us. If it does happen, they each have a small bedroom and a shared playroom, the office can then be integrated into the guest room as you proposed, . Originally, we planned without a dressing room and with one large children's room, but the two captain's gables make it impossible/senseless to move walls "arbitrarily" upstairs.


Not annoying at all. We also don't want our child to have to be in a chicken coop of a room :)

Stupid situation, yes. But you can forget about the 2 bedrooms and a playroom. That only works as long as the kids are small, but they will grow up, and it’s rare for kids to be out of the house by 18.

I also question the guest room. It’s empty 98% of the year. You can manage a 6-week broken leg on the couch in the living room... and in case of a disability or worse, you’ll find a solution. Then you just separate part of the living room with drywall. There are options.

I wouldn’t plan my house around the possibility of becoming seriously ill and then not being able to get upstairs. That is by far the smallest problem.

Planning is very difficult if you do not clearly define your requirements. At the moment, I see a rather bloated house with lots of small rooms that may not even be needed. This leads to building too large and still living quite cramped. I don’t know how much time you have left, but this should be decided by the meeting with the architect.

Opinions can be so different. I rather think that a playroom and a bedroom will be unnecessary at the beginning because very small children only want to play where the parents are anyway. Later, it is quite nice to leave distracting toys and school things behind in the evening and have a room just for relaxing. And for the teenage years, I see the advantage of separating the gaming den from the sleeping area so that the night is not spent uncontrollably in front of the screen. It is always mentioned by space psychologists that the sleeping area should be designed to be as low-stimulus as possible. Removing the room downstairs would not help us; we actually lack space upstairs, and that would be even less then. And I am currently in favor of considering physical limitations now that we are fit, and not postponing it until we are old and perhaps significantly poorer. It doesn't have to be a fatal ailment. With knee or hip osteoarthritis (which is common!!), you are already glad not to have stairs, even though you are by no means a care case. I've seen too often that people move to the fourth floor, 30 years rush by, and suddenly you can't leave the house anymore because "I'll think about old age later" and you can no longer afford the current rent.

The need is unfortunately exactly that: that you don't have to commit now but can keep your options open. Especially the decision for or against a second child is not something we should necessarily make in the first year of the first child’s life. How many of our friends first wanted only one, then two, then one again, and ended up with three And with few large rooms, I think you are less flexible than with several smaller ones. What would you do in our place?

Those who want to keep all options open end up implementing nothing properly. In the best case, you have 200 expensive square meters that feel like 120 sqm. In the worst case, not even those work.

Honestly, when you’re old, you won’t live on this ground floor if things get tough. You can’t move around with a walker in the 5sqm narrow bathroom, and you can forget about the 10sqm guest room. A double bed is 2x2m plus one meter of space around it on each side. That fills the room, no space left for wardrobes. If you want to plan for old age, you have to go big in the rooms instead of small. Two meters between the bed and the wall so you can turn with the walker. Doors in extra width. The bathroom has to be significantly more spacious.

Have the courage to leave things out. Guests usually come on weekends, they can also sleep on a sofa bed in the study. That way you save a room. The central staircase and the two captain’s gables make it incredibly hard for you to move rooms. Accordingly, I would rethink that and perhaps leave it out.

My grandma was still crawling up to the upstairs to shower at 94. You can also make a big deal out of nothing...

But those were just tips. If you don’t want to listen to a father of two who had a shared playroom with his brother during childhood, fine ;)

Be clear about what you want or plan upstairs with drywall in certain areas right away. Then you can change the room layout if necessary.

Planning a house for 2 children like you are doing will end up with 2 teenagers living in hamster cages.
Because usually teenagers have their own circle of friends and don’t want to have a shared "playroom" anymore.
This applies especially when they become boys and girls. Then you can forget about it completely from age 6 or 7.

And if I got 5 EUR every time I heard parents in their mid-30s with their first baby say "One child is enough, we don’t want a second"...

Then I would be living on my own island in the South Sea ;)