What makes a new building expensive?

Hello Anja,

to get a feel for floor plans, I can only recommend that you look at as many houses as possible.

Model home exhibitions are ideal for this. You can also register as prospective builders with many house providers, then you will be regularly invited to customer home viewings.

In this way, we got many ideas that are now being implemented in our house (construction start in about 8 weeks).

The opportunity to talk to the builders about their experiences also gives these customer home viewings a special appeal.

This year you probably really won’t be able to start building anymore, but you should gather as much information and as many reports of experience as possible.

The construction diaries here in the forum are also a good source of information.

If you are interested, I can also gladly send you the link to our construction blog, in which we have so far described the selection process of the construction company and the complete planning process.

Greetings,

Dirk

What I really still lack is a sense for floor plans.
For most, I can’t even imagine them visually.
I don’t think our current one on the ground floor is bad at all, you’ll think it’s terrible.
But when the time comes, I will bravely D) post the floor plan here.

Best regards
Anja

If floor plans don’t tell you anything, if you have trouble with two dimensions and turning them into three (or vice versa), then do as Dirk (Doc S.) recommends you - look at show houses, model homes, and other friends’ houses.
See if your needs can be met in these houses.
Take a look at the floor plan discussions here in this forum; you will find many tips in the texts that you yourself might not think of or that a model home cannot offer, e.g. the second utility room upstairs for washing laundry or the question whether a shower on the ground floor makes sense.

But don’t make the mistake of trying to create a plan yourself: if you have problems with the shift in thinking (2D to 3D), these “drafts” usually end up as nothing.

If you take a standard house from a big builder because you shy away from an architect, then try to assert your needs by making changes to the floor plan. Often you can move rooms to the other side, mirror the floor plan, or find a corner for a storage room.
With joyless (employed) architects, the forum members then have to tackle this task.

It seems to me that you will have to plan garage-to-garage on your plot. But that’s just a hunch; I don’t know the development plan.

Hello Neuland,

the building envelope of 10x13 (or 13x13 with garage construction) is not small, but in my opinion quite comfortable. That is 130m² gross floor area per floor, and if you use the plot in compliance with building regulations normally, you can easily get over 200m² GFA without a basement – that is manageable.

Depending on the stipulations in the [Bebauungsplan], the plot or the building envelope can possibly be squeezed further, but I don’t think you will need that, especially since it is associated with considerable additional costs.

Best regards
Dirk Grafe