A first draft of our architect... Your opinion please

Ground floor:

Here I would still advise you to always close off the area from the hallway, as well as from the kitchen to the lower living/dining room, each with a sliding door; glass would be my choice. *I* am neither a fan of drafts nor odors throughout the entire floor

I think that's what it will come down to...besides the mentioned functionality, it would look stylish.

I wonder what the upper floor is supposed to represent? Is your planner a simple "yes-man" or are you resistant to learning and he gave up? Planning a storage room on the upper floor is definitely a smart decision; designing it more or less as a trapped room is simply naive. Apart from the fact that the space behind the stairs—boldly called a hallway—makes no sense; a hallway serves as a distributor, not to end in a dead end. Or is communication via the railing (stairs) the topic? Also, I don't have to understand that the master bathroom has to drain over a living space again.

The storage room behind the railing (formerly a small bathroom) is still supposed to be enlarged somewhat towards the open hallway area and also provided with a door towards the hallway. This was missing because our planner suggested a small bathroom here. I don't want to comment on our personality or that of the planner, but we are definitely not resistant to advice nor do we insist on implementing certain topics. Our common goal is to create a floor plan that appeals to us with the given conditions. The drainage of the bathroom over the living space (office) is certainly not the best solution, but we can live with it since the bathroom is to remain in this location. I definitely find the proposal/design from interesting, but I have concerns that the bathroom will be too narrow on one hand and that the upper floor including the stairs will become a dark room on the other. The only window would then be on the south side...

Since the lady of the house now also waives direct access to the bathroom (as I understand it, due to waiving the children's bathroom, which I can also well understand), there might be the possibility that she will become reasonable in the next few weeks and admit that there are more functional uses of living space than gallery rooms and open areas. But if there is room anyway, then of course I am gladly a supportive lady

The lady of the house can often be persuaded and changed her mind. She has given up the bedroom-dressing-bathroom dogma. As mentioned above, I find the bathroom on the north side quite narrow... (we had already discussed exactly this design with our planner once). The problem is especially the area where you have planned the shower. Here it is only 1.10 m wide (structural dimension).

Nonetheless, I would like to sincerely thank you for your helpfulness, ideas, and suggestions. It helps us develop a feel for the entire planning and also creates new ideas and thoughts.

Regarding location, size, and arrangement of the windows, I agree with you...so far I have only presented the floor plan. I will correct this in my next post and also include views.

Hello,

I definitely find the proposal/draft from interesting, but I have concerns that the bathroom will on the one hand become too narrow and on the other hand the upper floor including the stairs will turn into a dark room. The only window would then be on the south side...

Yvonne picked up on my thoughts - expanded by a gallery - from post #12. This makes *her* upper floor significantly more coherent; the bathroom is by no means narrow; the space behind the stairs is optimally used with a walk-in shower; the connections are aligned vertically.

Regarding your concern about lighting, I consider it negligible. On the one hand, enough light comes through the gallery to the front, on the other hand, you can - if the roof construction allows it - additionally install a daylight spotlight.

Rhenish greetings

I deliberately set the 3D graphics so that you can still see the satisfying width of the bathroom. The bathroom looks elegant and has a more spacious traffic area than many other bathrooms. Maybe you can still pick up some ideas, for example, just swapping storage with the bathroom. Convey walls to the children's rooms (chimney) and uncover the window at the stairs again for the front part of the hallway. Overall, you have more than enough space available on the upper floor, which doesn't exactly make the planning easier.

Thanks again to all of you for your feedback and tips.

After a few days’ break, I am now getting back to you with a new draft, which we really like by now.

Differences compared to previous versions:

- The staircase in the basement turns 180 degrees, solving the problem of the narrow guest bathroom.

- On the upper floor, the hallway was shortened, and children's room 1 enlarged. However, the door is still not optimally placed.

- Light well instead of narrow passage behind the stairs to the upper floor.

Please do not mind the information regarding the windows. These have not yet been finalized and the sill heights are still not correct.

I now have one more request for the experts:

Do you have any ideas on how we could furnish the living/dining room? Where could the TV be mounted? We are imagining a pellet stove on the wall at the bottom near the hallway stairs. Would it be possible to design this as a room divider from the bottom wall upwards and then mount the TV on the east side of it? Or does something like that only exist with regular wood-burning stoves?

I am very much looking forward to your ideas and feedback.