Small house on large towel plot

We would like to build on a plot of land in Brandenburg, south of Potsdam.
Information about the property
The property is currently mostly covered with pine trees (some around 100 years old), a few yews, oaks, and bushes. The area has been unmanaged for at least 50 years. At least the rear third (NE area) should remain forest as part of the adjoining larger forest area.
The property orientation is approximately NE – SW.
Street access is on the SW side (bottom of the plan). At this end of the property, there are a few very large pines and among them a few yews and an oak. The latter is not particularly old but an interesting multi-stemmed tree. I want to preserve this green wall, which will probably be a problem since construction vehicles have a certain size and height.
On the SE side (right side of the plan), there is an excessively long and largely unattractive boundary development (garage and shed). Not a sight for sore eyes.
The properties on the NW side (left side of the plan) have just as much boundary development together, but not quite as bad and further up the plan. Overall, the NW side is greener because the neighboring buildings are further from the property boundary.

Development plan / restrictions
There is no development plan, but the local statute sets some general specifications such as ridge height, boundary distances, and garage roof shape. If these are specified anywhere, floor area ratio and plot ratio likely only play a theoretical role in this construction project and with the property size.
Plot size >2000m²
Slope: no
Floor area ratio unknown
Plot ratio unknown
Building window, building line and boundary >3m distance
Boundary construction of ancillary buildings allowed
Number of parking spaces not specified
Number of stories not specified
Roof shape house: roof pitch 25°-50°, except roof extensions
Garage: gable roof facing street side
Style direction no specifications
Orientation gable- or eaves-facing to the street
Maximum heights / limits ridge height max. 9.0m
Additional specifications EG OFF max. 80cm

Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type gable roof
Orientation photovoltaic on south roof side, gable side to the street
Basement, floors basement + ground floor + upper floor
Number of persons, age 3+1, 17-55+
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor GF: living room, kitchen, dining area, guest bathroom
UF: bedroom, bathroom
GF or UF: two additional rooms
Office: family use or home office? 1 home office
Guests per year 1 (~20 extended weekends)
Open or closed architecture opaque bathroom and bedroom doors
Conservative or modern construction conservative
Preferred construction method aerated concrete solid (Ytong or similar)
Open kitchen, cooking island semi-open, preferably with (semi-) island
Number of dining seats 4 (8)
Fireplace yes
Music / stereo wall / TV rather simple / stereo yes, wall no / large
Balcony / roof terrace yes / no
Garage, carport garage
Utility garden, greenhouse garden yes, greenhouse later

Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be:
The property is too narrow at about 20m width for my desired house with a partially integrated side double garage and a large sunny southwest terrace, so the best compromise must be found.
Due to the tall trees on the SW side, west sun can only be expected in summer. Also, from the south, two pine trees from the neighbor shade the probable building site.
When we are not sleeping, we mainly live on the ground floor; therefore, this floor has priority for us during planning. The kitchen is an important room for us, so we prefer a (semi-) open connection to the living room. At least one of us regularly works from home; a corresponding workspace is necessary, but not necessarily a home office room.
Light is important to us in the living area (kitchen and living room), so we want the upper edges of the windows as high as possible with shutters.
The fireplace is a 95% must-have as a supplementary heat source (and hopefully a feel-good source). A good position takes precedence, but if possible, we want to install a water-bearing fireplace connected to a buffer storage and/or with an additional hot water heating circuit for the bathrooms (e.g., in the form of large “towel dryers”). For the basic heating load, an air-to-water heat pump is planned for underfloor heating. In the bedroom and child’s room 1, there will also be air conditioning.
A central ventilation system is probably too expensive.
The bedroom should be sufficient for a double bed and a row of closets.
Child’s room 1 will be a youth room for a few more years, later a second bedroom (due to claimed nighttime noises of disputed cause).
The multi-purpose room has no final purpose yet, either home office or housework room with space for washer and dryer or storage room.
Room orientation preferences (due to morning sun): kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom facing the garden.
The gable alignment to the street seems sensible as photovoltaic panels are planned on the roof, and the south side (+/- 30°) is expected to have the least shading.
The balcony off the bedroom is my wife’s wish “because it looks better.”
If realized, I would like access to the balcony from the bedroom and the bathroom.
The basement is a 95% must-have because several space- and tool-intensive hobbies can hardly be feasibly operated otherwise. Also, the technology should be located in the basement.
The garage is indeed a must-have (as large as possible for 1-2 cars + bicycles + garden tools), but priority is the house. If necessary, it can be built later and/or an additional carport on the street side. Or underground garage (a small dream).
A door between the house and garage is now considered not sensibly realizable. With the entrance on the gable side, there is already a conveniently short route.
A selection of aerated concrete as preferred wall material resulted from the combination of easy processing during shell construction (the cursed botchers rarely cause thermal bridges), very good sound insulation, pleasant indoor climate, smaller advantages in interior finishing, and earlier DIY experiences with the material. Besides, it is non-combustible, avoids the use of cubic meters of hazardous waste, and structurally the walls are not a potential insect or small rodent hotel.

House design
Who made the planning: me
- planner from a construction company not yet
- architect is being sought
- Do-it-Yourself yes (read, try, think, read, try, ...)
What do you like particularly? Why? Entrance on street side (front view better than with entrance on the side)
Location of kitchen, bathroom, bedroom
Kitchen with a lot of work and storage space
Sauna in bright bathroom
Bright living room with fireplace
Hallway on ground and upper floor as well as staircase with daylight
Wardrobe next to the entrance (although small)
Small but fully functional guest WC on ground floor
What do you not like? Why? Costs probably at the budget limit
Easy access to the attic unclear
Attic use unclear
Little distance to the right side property boundary
Relatively large hallway area
Living area (according to CAD program) 135m² (GF 71m², UF 64m²)
Price estimate according to architect/planner: I would also like to know
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: 550k EUR
Personally favored heating technology: oil/gas (more independent of “situations”) and fireplace
Most likely heating technology realistically air-to-water heat pump (for ... reasons) + fireplace
Possibly additional split air conditioners in bedroom and child’s room 1

If you have to give up, on which details / expansions
- can you do without: balcony, double garage, finished attic
- cannot do without: light

Why did the design turn out as it is now?
The design is one of the results of now two years of reading, viewing, own experience, thinking, and trying. There are now many design variants. Of these, four or five are fundamentally acceptable to us, each with different pros and cons.
This is one of them, with the smallest living area. I transferred it into a mediocre (very stubborn) CAD system because it gave me automatic dimensioning. Also, the system helps my 3D imagination (e.g., stairs under roof slope, walls on top of each other, upper floor windows inside the building volume, roof in general).
Many details are still not finalized (e.g., stairs to the attic, windows, ...) because I lack knowledge and experience. Also, some window and door types simply do not exist in the CAD program, others are stubbornly displayed incorrectly.
The drawn-in furniture is the best idea at the moment, but there are surely better ones (e.g., for the bathrooms).

Thank you in advance for your suggestions and help.

The plot is currently mostly overgrown with pines (partly 100 years old), a few yews, oaks, and bushes. The area has been unmanaged for at least 50 years. At least the rear third (NE area) is supposed to remain forest, as part of the adjacent larger forest patch.

Check out these reading tips: and waldumwandlung-im-beelitz.41247/

A preselection of aerated concrete as the preferred wall material resulted from the combination of easy processing in the shell construction (the botch bags cursed with a holy ban are rather rarely thermal bridges), very good sound insulation, pleasant indoor climate, minor advantages in interior finishing, and earlier DIY experience with the material. Additionally, it is non-combustible, avoids the use of cubic meters of hazardous waste, and the walls structurally are not a potential insect and small rodent hotel.

If the botch bags have already become noticeable to you while reading, you should also have found how to avoid them: by refraining from octameter ignorance. Besides, their thermal bridge problem in aerated concrete is no less than in red brick. You are very generous with 24 cm walls.

A garage is indeed a must (as large as possible for 1-2 cars + bicycles + garden tools), but the house has priority. If necessary, later and/or an additional carport on the street side. Or an underground garage (small dream).
We now consider a door between house and garage as not sensibly feasible. With the entrance on the gable side, one already has a conveniently short path anyway.

A commendable attitude. By the way, underground garages only pay off from about eight spaces.

The design is one of the results of now two years of reading, viewing, own experience, consideration, and trying. There are now plenty of design variants. Of these, four or five are basically acceptable to us, each with different pros and cons.
This is one of them, with the smallest living area. I transferred it into a mediocre (very cantankerous) CAD system, as I thus got automatic dimensioning. Moreover, the system helps my 3D imagination (e.g. stairs under the roof slope, walls over each other, upper floor windows inside the building volume, roof in general).
Many details are not yet finalized (e.g. stairs to the attic, windows, …) because I lack knowledge and experience. Also, some window and door types simply do not exist in the CAD program, others are stubbornly displayed incorrectly.

Finalizations have as little place in a design as CAD does in a preliminary design. You should find enough hints here on the way to my house-building roadmap.

With an aerial photograph, one can better imagine the forest. A site plan with dimensions of the property is also helpful. Is there a design statute of the municipality?

The plot is indeed covered with forest, but it is building land. Felling trees in the designated construction site area is not a big problem.

If you have already become aware of the botch jobs while reading, you should also have found out how to avoid them: by refraining from octameter ignorance. By the way, their thermal bridge problem in aerated concrete is no less than in red brick masonry. You are very generous with 24 cm walls.

Personal experience has shown that an octameter grid is quite irrelevant with a stone size of 42x60 cm. If cutting is necessary, it does not matter whether at 12.5 cm or 48.2 cm. But these are also details that hopefully will be considered by the architect in the final floor plan, if necessary. I will certainly not start a dispute about whether a wall stands two or three centimeters further to the left or right.
Making an unnecessarily thick interior wall thinner should also be manageable for an architect.

Finalizations have as little to do in a draft as CAD in a preliminary draft. You should find enough hints here on the way to my house construction plan.

This is no longer a preliminary draft. The preliminary drafts exist as hundreds of Paint files in a 12GB directory tree.
I have explained why I transferred this floor plan into a CAD system.

With an aerial photo, you can better imagine the forest. A site plan with dimensions of the plot is also helpful. Is there a design statute of the municipality?

The tree population is sparse; an aerial photo only shows green because the ground is also covered.
The plot is about 20 meters wide and more than 100 meters long.
There is a general design statute, but it does not impose any further requirements than those already mentioned in the opening post.

With the basement and the double garage as well as the huge kitchen and also the bathroom with sauna, you have to do a lot yourself. Otherwise, the money will be tight in the end.

Underground garages are only worth it starting from about eight spaces.

Car, bicycles, e-scooters, trailer, lawn mower, shredder, mulcher, visitor's stroller - are about eight.