Renovation of a two-family house from 1936 experiences?

A nice project! Moving the bathrooms is understandable, but is there also a sewage pipe nearby? I have some doubts about the static stability in the kitchen. Removing the thick wall – I’m curious about the structural engineer’s statement. I also see the problem with the wardrobe and wouldn’t underestimate it, especially since child 2 is on the way now.

Sewage pipe: I think it will be newly routed through the basement to the current one. I will ask again. The structural engineer has already unofficially given the go-ahead on site – we will divide the sliding door on the exterior wall into three parts and install a steel support in one section; he said that should work. I’m also curious to see if that will still fit into his calculations. I quite like the idea with the wardrobe. A 30cm deep Pax from Ikea definitely fits by the chimney – we currently have that as a shoe cabinet in our apartment.

It breaks my heart; in the Borstei in Munich, something like this is lovingly maintained. It's actually a pretty clever idea and can definitely be carried over into modern standards.
The thing was built exactly like that, as 11ant already said, as a non-electric refrigerator, and it works very well! Today, it is insulated towards the living space and provides a brilliant storage for food that should be kept cool but not too cold (potatoes, carrots, fruit...).

But that's history now... unfortunately.

I also briefly thought about integrating that. But we still have a large basement for something like that, and the kitchen isn't very big, so I prefer kitchen cabinets with storage for other things.

Just a question: We currently have the double chimney (about 100x50cm), which comes down at the end in the kitchen island. We still need to decide whether to keep the chimney or tear it down. We don't actually need it – the fireplace runs through the other single chimney near the bathrooms in the new design.

Pros of keeping it:
- costs nothing :)
- cables, e.g. for photovoltaics, can be routed through it

Pros of demolition:
- more space in the kitchen and in the wardrobe area of the master bedroom
- no more thermal bridge at that spot

Basically, I think it would only really bother us downstairs on the ground floor, and the thermal bridge is unpleasant on all floors. Do you have any idea whether:
1) what the whole thing would roughly cost – 5,000, 10,000?
2) it might be cheaper to just knock down the chimney downstairs on the ground floor (or ground floor and first floor) and somehow support it upwards?

Leave it standing or knock it down. But partially knocking it down and catching the rest is no fun and unnecessarily expensive.

Yesterday we were at the architect's office for more detailed planning; we now have scale-accurate plans of the new floor plan and the option to convert the floor plan into a 3D PDF at any time, in which you can even turn the lights on and off, etc. I didn’t know this existed before :eek:

Unfortunately, it turned out that the window reveals are not insulated, but only have an 8cm stop. These are now to be removed and replaced with insulation; that probably won’t be cheap. Also, we are now doing insulation between the rafters in the attic where the attic space is not insulated, which will cost another ~10-15k€.

On the other hand, we received an offer for the installation of cables and so on that is below the cost estimate; an electrician was also here and will send an offer in 2 weeks.

The architect resolved the wardrobe situation like this - between the chimney and the guest WC there is now about 120x40 cm, which fits our current narrow PAX (100x37x236 cm) quite perfectly. This way, the window lintel for the window in the study can also remain. She also suggested moving the shower and toilet to the study side, since you prefer to have noise there rather than in the living room in the evening. We agreed to that (noise doesn’t bother me much while working; I’m used to open-plan offices and mostly have headphones on anyway).



There is not much new on the upper floor:



We have now received the order for creating the thermal insulation certificate to consider over the weekend how deep we want the window sills in the living room, study, and the two children’s rooms.

The idea is to make the living room and study on the ground floor floor-to-ceiling windows, but then I find it difficult to position the desk properly. In addition to folders (max 10), we want to have storage space for the vacuum cleaner and such in this room, hence two large PAX wardrobes. I have sketched how it could look:







I actually like the 3rd option best – but the desk then partly stands in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. Do you have any experience with that or suggestions for improvement?

In the living room, the (yet to be purchased) sofa would also protrude about 40 cm (depending on what we buy in the end) into the window – but I wouldn’t find that a problem since it is quite deep. Alternatively, you could also make a seating window here. The living room is quite small, and when guests come it can get tight with seating options – and in general, that could be a nice spot. What do you think?

In the children’s rooms that would certainly also be an option:



This is now drawn with a 160x80 cm desk, a 140x200 cm bed, and a 100x60 cm wardrobe.
An alternative here would be to leave the sill as it is (about 85 cm) and put the desk in front of the window. What do you think about that?

She had also suggested placing the shower and toilet on the study side, as you prefer to have the noises there rather than in the living room in the evening. We adopted this as well (noise doesn't bother me much while working, I'm used to open-plan offices and usually have headphones on anyway).

What are the exact dimensions of the shower? The entrance and size look a bit tiny on the plan. I wouldn't go below 66 cm for entrances and not below 90x90 cm for showers. I would also inquire about the dimensions of the shower and tub in the main bathroom.