Single-family house with pre-planned extension

Hello everyone,

we have been collecting ideas for our future home for some time now, but we are slowly going around in circles with our thoughts, so I would like to put them here up for discussion:

A plot of land is already available. A detached single-family house of decent quality (so no cheap materials but also no luxury) is to be built on it. We do not care about bay windows, dormers, a conservatory, balconies, or any other “frills.”

Our budget is about 250,000 EUR, which we would not have to go into debt for (which we also do not want to).

Our original idea was as follows: 150 sqm with a basement, 6 rooms (living, bedroom, 2 children’s, 2 workrooms), garage. But that does not seem feasible in our price range except in cheap quality. So we thought about where we could save and reconsidered our requirements more precisely. It became clear to us that 6 rooms are rather the maximum we might need one day. We currently have no children yet; maybe there will only be one. Maybe later we would only need one workroom. So possibly we could also manage with 4 rooms. And we would need 6 rooms earliest in maybe 8-10 years, when the children we might have by then have reached a certain age.

That is why we have now come up with the following idea: We build a house with 4 rooms and about 120 sqm but already plan a future extension so that it could be carried out in a few years with capital saved up by then. Our idea is that heating pipes, electrical cables, etc. could already be laid right up to the corresponding wall and room-height windows placed at the points where the doors to the new rooms will later be. Then in a few years, when the need is clear, either a room with a balcony on top or two rooms stacked could be added.

Currently, we are also considering omitting the basement and instead building more space upstairs again for a hobby room and a heating and storage room. That means our current idea is a house with about 150 sqm again, but without a basement, with a planned extension and a garage. From what I have read so far here, that should be possible with 250,000 EUR.

What do you think of this idea? We like it better than a later expandable 2nd floor. Do you see any major disadvantages?

Thanks in advance for your answers and best regards,
Michael

So including additional costs, even the 150 m² can become difficult - depending on the circumstances of course. You should now carefully consider incorporating an extension into the planning - the catalog builder won't manage that (they already partly flap their ears if the staircase should have one step more). Why don't you take out a "small" loan - that is certainly cheaper and less stressful than realizing an extension in a second phase...