Single-family house with gable roof, without basement - Feedback desired

I also consider it unnecessary,

More than that: the passage creates a rigid connection between the house and the garage and thus prevents shifting of the building parts against each other. But somehow the dynamic potential has to be derived if the building envelope is already clamped like a vise.

Oh Thies, where were you back then when I needed you.

Now, for the old box or its property development, I am just in time.

I am sure that we can save the . My husband is willing to cooperate, even if he is not enthusiastic about all your ideas

An antithesis either is not under any pressure of expectation of similarity with plan A at any point or it is none.

- Floor area ratio – Did you remember that the smaller garage is counted fully because of the overbuild and not just half? Did you include the terrace, the driveway, and the entrance area? According to my calculations, the base building volume including the overbuilt half of the garage must not exceed 122m². That is also the reason why I decided against a bay window that was included in the previous version.

Dimensions are given. Floor area ratio is fully used (154). I didn’t even know that half of the garage is counted only half. So we would be at 141. That leaves about 14m² for the rest. I'd be in favor of a terrace. Paths are overrated. Joking aside. How do you solve that problem, because your design has the same issue, right?
A good reason to keep tweaking. Maybe I can still get something out if I squeeze tightly.

- Which of the walls you drew on the ground floor and upper floor are load-bearing / bracing? Remember, there are two concrete ceilings and a clear span of >6m is, to my knowledge, rather suboptimal.

All interior walls are planned to be load-bearing at 20cm thickness. But the structural engineer will have to figure that out. If necessary, beams will be inserted. I don’t think that will be necessary.

- Could you please add the m² dimensions or at least the interior dimensions of the rooms?

Too much to ask. My program can’t do that. I have to calculate each one. Just tell me which ones interest you most.

- Where should jackets / coats / shoes / bags be stored? I only see a single 3m wardrobe in the hallway here.

That is a 2.50m wide wardrobe with 65cm depth. So basically what a normal person would have in the dressing room with 5 doors about 2.20m high. With five people, each person would have their own door with compartments above and below. That should be enough for the current wardrobe, I think.

- The windows on the west front are unfortunately not really sensible. The southwest corner of the house is 2.2m away from the 2m high gabion. West windows in the dining room on this plot have the charm of a terraced house or a prison yard (This also applies to ’s suggestion to open the room in that direction). That is also why I planned the two windows in the kitchen only as light sources without a view.

I leave the entire window planning to you. None of us knows your plot. Not to mention it is quite small.

- The route from the kitchen to the two possible terraces goes completely through the house. Generally, I assume we will spend the summer on the shaded west side of the house between the garage and the gabion because a south-facing terrace develops the charm of a frying pan from 25 degrees outside temperature. But my better half is strictly against that. Time will tell.

The kitchen is exactly in the same place as yours? Would you prefer it differently? I initially also thought of the south side. But then the space under the stairs as a pantry is lost.

- What natural light sources do the hallway, the stairs, and the two corridors on the upper / attic floors have?

The hallway downstairs has the front door with side windows. Otherwise, there is no natural light in the stairwell. Upstairs corridor I like to work with skylights in doors – sometimes even in walls.

- I find the 2m wide window facing east in the living room suboptimal due to noise and view disturbance from the street / sidewalk.
- Exactly at the windows you placed in the living room I get an itchy rash because the back of my head is stared at by a saber-toothed tiger from the street while I can only look into my own living cave. What can I do, I’m a man? I don’t want to re-train myself here; it’s not like smoking or drinking.

Yes, as I said. I had this discussion with my husband 4 years ago. Whether it’s a male thing, I don’t know. Actually, masculinity is usually happy to present and show itself. But in his cave, he closes all the shutters. In that respect, you should like the windowless staircase.

- I don’t find the shower on the ground floor sensible. I don’t know anyone who voluntarily changes levels to do their business or brush their teeth, much less to shower. For that reason, I only plan bathrooms on the floors where there are bedrooms. Since the expansion is rather likely than unlikely...

That is just a mindset thing. We regularly walk naked through the whole house.
The key point here is not to expand the roof and thus save all the insulation + finishing there for the time being. But you can’t get by with only one shower for five people. So the cheapest solution is to plan another one downstairs. If you have the money for the roof, I would put the kids up there with a mini-bath. But I guess you don’t have the money, right? Just like 80% of house builders here. That’s why I planned the cheap option.

- When you have washed the laundry for 5 people in the laundry room you designed, where will you hang it up?

First outside. But I thought with 5 people, a dryer is really an alternative you don’t want to do without anymore. And voilà, 2 appliances drawn in. You could even stack them and have a drying rack next to it. There is enough space.

- The open kitchen is a blessing and a curse. We have that currently too. The spatial feeling is great because of it. But when cooking, the whole house is affected. Especially the steak on the cast-iron pan is a killer here. That’s why I set up a small backup kitchen on the terrace, which we now use more often than the main kitchen. Therefore, I wanted to try a closed (sliding door) kitchen this time. After all, it will be at least 20 years until we don’t have to make burgers and fries for the kids anymore.

A dilemma, also with your design. Closing the kitchen takes away freedom in this mini ground floor. If the giant table didn’t have to be there, maybe something could still work. But I would rather build a mega exhaust system. This has been discussed here quite often.
The kitchen experts might have tips for that.

So, before I start sacrificing my evening (or rather my husband’s evening), let’s get straight to the point:

How many children are already there, what ages? Girls or boys?

Development plan / restrictions:

Size of the plot: 445 sqm Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 0.35
Gross floor area ratio: 0.7
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2 full floors plus later attic conversion

The development plan certainly does not state: attic conversion later. So what exactly is the development plan? Also regarding the state building code and the garage?

- Floor area ratio – Did you consider that the smaller garage is counted completely, not half, because of the encroachment? Did you include the terrace, the driveway, and the entrance area? According to my calculations, the building footprint including the encroached half of the garage must not exceed 122 sqm.

According to my calculation, it will be a boundary development with one! garage. The second disappears in the floor area ratio of 0.35, so it is included in the living area.
This means an overbuilding without an external garage of 155 sqm... for you, this means an overbuilding with this internal garage including the residential ground floor. So it may also be built over.

Only then does it make sense according to the state building code.
However, I then doubt the connection of the two garages. I think these are not allowed to be combined. If someone tells me/us that there is definitely an exception here, then I will believe it too.

- The windows on the west front are unfortunately not really sensible. The southwest corner of the house is 2.2 m from the 2 m high gabion.

Of course, they are sensible: they give the room a different perception and also light.

West windows in the dining room have the charm of a terraced middle house or a prison yard on this plot

Nope, currently, as you have it, it has the charm of a terraced house (I don’t really mind terraced houses, but you are definitely wrong about this).

- The path from the kitchen to the two possible terraces goes completely through the house. In general, I assume that in summer we will stay on the shaded west side of the house between the garage and gabion, because a south terrace develops the charm of a frying pan at outdoor temperatures above 25 degrees.

But that is due to your planning! It can be done better! How south terraces are generally perceived is known to a very large community of users here and they certainly do not want to miss them. I always advocate for several terraces. You don’t even have to mention them immediately in the building application.

- What natural light source do the hallway, the staircase, and the two corridors on the upper floor / attic have?

Don’t get hung up on side issues. Compromises always have to be made. You have to weigh it up.

I don’t want to get used to this change either, it’s not like smoking or drinking.

But you do want to move, right??? So get used to it. A person is not made for rigid conditions.

- I don’t find the shower on the ground floor sensible. I don’t know anyone who voluntarily changes floors to do their business or brush their teeth, much less to shower. For this reason, I only plan bathrooms on the floors that also have bedrooms. Since the conversion is more likely than unlikely...

If you are not willing or have no space to plan a children’s bathroom for 3-4 kids, then accept this shower and see it as sensible. Your children will become teenagers and need space.
So you only plan bathrooms... how many bathrooms have you planned so far? You should listen more to the collective knowledge of a forum (you don’t have to implement anything), but still change sometimes, because here some have been dealing with habits, improvements, and basic planning longer than you.

- When you have washed the laundry of 5 people in the laundry room you drew, where will you hang it?[ /QUOTE]

Dryer. The days of drying attics are over.

[QUOTE="derpikniker, post: 290782, member: 47169"]- The open kitchen is both a curse and a blessing. We have that currently too. The spatial feeling is great because of it. But when cooking, the whole house suffers. Especially the steak on the iron pan is a killer here. For that reason, I built a small backup kitchen on the terrace which we now use more often than the main kitchen.

You created an alternative. That’s good. You have to make these compromises even in a house... weigh up how much this great atmosphere should be given up... just because of a steak.

: whether I have two 1m wide windows or one 2m wide window in the living room facing south doesn’t really matter. The narrow windows have the advantage of stretching the façade and can be more easily replicated on the upper floors.

No, it does matter. Sightlines, spatial feeling, light, view, harmony between interior and garden, interior layout... hello???
And what do you want to stretch on a two-story plus pitched roof? That is stretched enough!

Besides, these are always more stable than double windows / sliding windows and also better for the statics.

Oh... we’re not talking about 4-meter panoramic windows, but 2 or 3 meters... that is nothing unstable.

Therefore, I like to plan with floor-to-ceiling 1m wide windows, which are only made narrower if there is no space (see stairs).

Even narrower?????

I am glad that I tried here and that you are so interested and committed to the matter.
I am sure we can save the floor plan. My husband is willing to cooperate, even if he is not enthusiastic about all your ideas

Thank you for your trust. Your husband just needs to become a little softer and let go of old and wrong ideas. Life will be long enough ,)

Door again because of smells
Are you planning to install a ventilation system?

Old apartment closed kitchen, simple recirculation, it smelled. In the apartment, in the stairwell, just everywhere.
New house open floor plan, powerful extractor fan, controlled residential ventilation rarely smells like food.

Large windows look better than two slits. Include your outdoor area in your planning. Gabion disappears behind bamboo or a perennial.
Google it or browse Pinterest.
In the UK, I have seen beautiful basement gardens that pull the view outside, you forget that it is only a mini garden that lies below ground level.
Incorporate the outdoor area. Open the rooms, then everything seems more open and spacious.

Plant a hedge by the street and no monster stares from the darkness.

According to my calculation, it will be a border development with one! garage. The second disappears into the floor space index of 0.35, so it is included in the living area calculation.
This means a development without an external garage of 155 sqm... in your case, a development with this internal garage including the residential ground floor. Therefore, it may also be built over.

Only then does it make sense according to the state building code.

Can you explain that again as if I were 5 years old? How much garage counts towards the floor space index in the proposed development and how much does not?

What about paths? One reads here and there that an exceedance of the floor space index with paths up to 50% is tolerated. Is that nonsense or does that really exist?

So after further adjustments, I come to 120.7 for the house including the built-over garage. That leaves 35 for the border garage and the rest. Oh dear.
Here you go:

I always advocate for multiple terraces. You don’t have to mention them right away in the building application.

Yes. Think about it again. You actually didn’t want a terrace, but a lawn for the children to play on, right? (What will happen in 3 years and is not higher than half a meter, no one checks – if they do, you are the unluckiest people on earth.)