Single-family house 150 sqm in Lower Saxony

If the chairs are always neatly pushed in when no one is sitting on them, then it’s fine again

But you won’t be living in this house alone. Wasn’t there something about children?

Gable roof house and the big house opposite (they expanded it last year) with 2 full floors can be found

I can show you 1-story houses here (2 are not allowed with us), but they look like 2-story houses...

I wouldn’t see it that radically. What I know is that here a 164 sqm house with a height of 8.50 meters was approved as okay in the building inquiry of the previous owner.

... that isn’t very much you know about the property, and I won’t ask for the info again.

The thing with the chairs was a joke, that's why the smiley. I'm always the one who doesn't push his chair in properly. I did say that I will call tomorrow and post the info as soon as I have it. I'm still optimistic about it. If it turns out we can't do it, we'll have to come up with something new.

Too bad: There is no development plan, and we should initially assume 1.5 stories. For anything else, he would have to look at the area again in due time, but he considers it rather unlikely. So, here we go again. If it is still supposed to be "virtually" a full story, the upper floor would have to be quite a bit smaller than the ground floor or have a clear height of 2.20 meters over less than 2/3, if I have understood that correctly. Let’s see what can be done.

If it is still supposed to be "quasi" a full storey, the upper floor would have to be a whole corner smaller than the ground floor or have a clear height of 2.20 in less than 2/3, if I understood that correctly.

In the 34 area, that is in the inner area without a development plan, it is not about the exact full storey definition of the state building code, but generally about the extent of structural use, that is rather about eaves and ridge heights. Whether the attic floor complies with the 2/3 rule or not is immaterial, the main thing is that it is an attic floor whose eaves height is oriented to the surroundings. If there are already "city villas" with 6m eaves height in the immediate vicinity, and I also count the house after next to that, it cannot be denied to you, unless these neighboring buildings were built illegally.

Nevertheless, I - even at the risk that it was a futile effort - just kept moving things around in the kitchen on the ground floor. We like it - even better than what we had before. Whether the island remains solely a work island or if a sink will be added, no idea. But I would want to remove the cooktop given the seating position.

I quite like the kitchen-dining area as it is. We won’t put both the cooktop and the sink on an island in our build. We’re probably too uncivilized in handling that, but for us cooking and washing up tends to splash around, and it’s nicer when it only splashes against the tiled backsplash on the wall rather than across the whole room.

Is the living room just a TV room? Otherwise, I would really place the couch facing the garden as suggested here, put the TV in the southwest corner, and plan a window in the west. There’s nothing nicer than the evening sun after work, and if it’s still too chilly outside to enjoy it, I like to do that on the couch indoors. And when you actually want to turn on the TV in sunshine, the shutters help. If you expect this to happen often, best to get electric ones that execute the TV shading command with a click.

I would move the front door a bit more towards the guest WC to get more space for a wardrobe in the hallway. Or steal a bit from the office for that. With four people, jackets and shoes for various weather conditions need to be stored.

If you’re not planning a children’s bathroom, maybe enlarge the guest WC to allow for a second shower option. There are teenagers of both genders who like to hog the bathroom for a long time to meet their beauty ideals. It can especially save your nerves before important appointments if you can avoid each other when doing personal hygiene.